After asking poseidon about his home-made aerator, I made this one over the weekend-



I used an adapter threaded into my 1.5" return, then a short section of 1.5" PVC, a 45* elbow, a longer section of 1.5", a 90* elbow, another short section of 1.5" and a 1.5" cap. I drilled four 7/16" holes in the cap, spaced evenly apart. All pieces are held together by friction, I didn't even have to use glue. This will let me change the direction of the flow later out into the pool if I want to use it as an evaporator, perhaps with a different cap with lot's of smaller holes to enhance temperature exchange.

It really churns up the water-



I have a short video clip of it in action, but can't seem to get it off my phone right now. I'll add it later if I'm able to.

Not much money involved, and seems to do a good job.

That's pretty slick!

Great work! How about a how-to?

Thanks.

It's pretty simple, assuming you have a way to cut PVC. If you don't, ask them to cut it for you at the store.

My return is 1.5" female pipe thread. I bought a male thread adapter that screws into it and the other end is female glue fit 1.5". Also buy a 1.5" 45* glue fit and 90* glue fit elbows, a 1.5" cap and roughly 3' of 1.5" PVC pipe. If your having it cut at the store, have them cut you a 10" piece and a 5" piece from the 3', giving you 3 pieces total (the 3rd is the 21" piece that's left from the original 3').

Next drill four 7/16" holes in the 1.5" cap. Put this on one end of the 5" piece, then one end of the 90* elbow onto the other end of the 5" piece. Then the long piece of 1.5" PVC into the other end of the 90* elbow, then one end of the 45* elbow on the other end of the long piece. Then one end of the 10" piece on the remaining end of the 45* elbow, lining everything up so that the water will squirt wear you want it, then turn your pump off, stick the open end of the 10" piece into the adapter you screwed into your return, pump back on. No glue necessary.

Piece of cake

Screw in the adapter, press fit the 10" into

Super!

PS... we have the same liner.. doesn't it just make the water sparkle!!

We love it. And at 3 years old with BBB it's entire life, it still looks like brand new

Good to know. We just had ours installed this year.

Great improv! Don't you just love PVC pipe?

What is the purpose of the aerator?
Does it lower your ph or Alk?

Inquiring minds would like to know....

Aeration raises PH without raising TA. Combined with acid you can use it to lower TA.

I tested my alk last night, it was 100, so I dropped the PH to 7 and ran the aerator, hoping to be able to report how well it worked. We had rain overnight, which is a great aerator, so it wouldn't be a fair test. I tested TA this noon and it was 90, so I again dropped PH to 7 and continued running the aerator, hoping to report how it worked. We just got a huge downpour

So I won't be able to claim victory with the aerator, but at least my TA should be down to 80 when I get home

Rangeball,
Has your alkalinity dropped any more since you have been using your new aerator?

Iggy

This process works great and it was fairly easy too.

My starting TA was 180 now it is at 80 and it took me about 3-4 days to get it there. I just followed the steps (1) drop PH to 7.0-7.2 (with MA) then (2) raise the PH to 7.6 by aeration (it took me about 8 hours) then repeat until you get it where you want it.

I was battling high TA all summer long then I read the stuff on TFP, thanks a million.

Very cool & thanks for sharing.
I need something like this. I’m a bit new to pool care so I don’t know all the proper terms for my existing PVC fittings but I can do anything with PVC or can find someone who can.
My returns: two, kind of small, half inch maybe, just sawed off- no threads, about 6-8” below water line

My pool cleaner- a Polaris screws into it, about 6” below water line

My jets- 2, seem to have eyeballs (is that the proper term?), used to rotate but unsure if they still do, about 3” below water line.

How should I proceed?

Also, it seems guys aerate for days (I had to with a pump on the stairs). If I use the cleaner as my PVC aerator (seems the best place since its threaded but I’ll wait to hear from you guys) & must aerate for days, no worries about the water not going through the DE filter like it normally does when the cleaner is Off? The pressure in the DE filter goes way down when I use the cleaner so I assume far less filtering is going on?

Thanks

I may still be unclear about the hijacking a thread concept. If the above is a hijack, how would I ask my questions- post THIS thread’s address/ link, then ask all of this & make everyone click on the link? Seems silly, but rules should be followed.

bump

would an aerator like this put undue stress on the return jet threads?

I have to raise my pH so I can add more acid (TA is very high). I was going to put in sodium carbonate to raise the pH, but I just read on here that it will raise TA along with pH, True? Guess I wasted that money. So I guess I need to build an aerator (since it is end of the season and none are available at the pool stores. Anyone have any suggestions and instructions on quality aerators to build?

See my response in bold

This is my first TFP post.

Brilliant idea for an aerator. I was wondering how I was gonna get air into the water. For $22 in fittings from the local big box DIY store and some 1.5" pipe I had lying around, I built a variation of this design using three heads instead of one and each cap has five 3/16" holes: 1 in the center and 4 around it. My pump has enough push to power this along with the CareTaker in-floor system. I started with a pH of 7.2 and TA of 150 at about 10AM yesterday morning and the pH was 7.8 and TA was 130 12 hours later. This was with about 3 quarts of muriatic acid. I added another gallon of muriatic acid in 5 different spots in the deep end at 10PM. Waited a bit and cranked the aerator back up. I didn't want to wait on the aeration and get another initial pH reading. I'll check the chemistry in the morning. My target is a TA of about 100. This is a 34,000 gal gunite pool with River Rok finish and an autocover. It is just about a year old now. I will add a couple of photos of the device once I can take them during the day and report back on the change in pH and TA.

domogala,

Welcome to the forum Nice work on your aerator.

Dear Sophisticated Friend,

I have read this new topic about that brilliant aerator ,and it seems very beneficial for pools .However, one thing which is very important is to increase the Ph of the pool by aerating ;on other word,the air which mixes with the water could increase the pH ;in this case, dry acid should be added regularly.I have learned this one from Omni company which is one of the well known pools company in the U.S .But, apart from that ,I was wondering if you could mind clarifying it ?

Thanks for all your time and help ,

Yours Faithfully,

Roohollah