So most of the summer I have been fighting with keeping my chlorine levels in check. I was always having low numbers so I added additional time to my Stenner pump. It got to the point where I was running the pump 8 hours a day. (I have the 3 gallon per day model). So yes a gallon of bleach a day. Much more than I needed last year.
I even went as far as to shut the Stenner pump off and SLAM the pool as I thought I was fighting an algae bloom. I only had to slam it for 3 days which I thought was odd. I was traveling quite a bit during the summer so I just kept making sure the tank was full before I would leave but each time I would return to little or no chlorine in the pool. It was very frustrating.
I was going to be out of town for 12 days so I asked a neighbor to refill my 15 gallon tank after I was gone for a week. I had a full tank and 9 jugs of bleach next to my tank for him to use to refill it, which he did. I also cranked up the time on the pump to 12 hours a day (1.5 gallons a day). I got home and had no chlorine in the pool!!! I then noticed something. All of my gravel around my equipment pad was white. it was very odd. I unscrewed the line from the Stenner pump where it enters the pool plumbing and nothing was coming out, now i had tested this earlier in the summer and some was flowing (but probably not enough...). I then unscrewed it on the pump side and there was a steady flow of bleach. I checked the line and it looks like a rabbit or something had chewed it in a couple places, or maybe it just cracked for some reason. I fixed the line and am happy to report by the next morning my pool was back up to proper chlorine level using just the pump.
I would guess over the summer I have dumped between 30-45 gallons of bleach on the side of my house.... Don't be an idiot like me, keep your lines off the ground and check them often. I was going crazy and was about to just go back to pucks....
Pics or it never happened...
I even went as far as to shut the Stenner pump off and SLAM the pool as I thought I was fighting an algae bloom. I only had to slam it for 3 days which I thought was odd. I was traveling quite a bit during the summer so I just kept making sure the tank was full before I would leave but each time I would return to little or no chlorine in the pool. It was very frustrating.
I was going to be out of town for 12 days so I asked a neighbor to refill my 15 gallon tank after I was gone for a week. I had a full tank and 9 jugs of bleach next to my tank for him to use to refill it, which he did. I also cranked up the time on the pump to 12 hours a day (1.5 gallons a day). I got home and had no chlorine in the pool!!! I then noticed something. All of my gravel around my equipment pad was white. it was very odd. I unscrewed the line from the Stenner pump where it enters the pool plumbing and nothing was coming out, now i had tested this earlier in the summer and some was flowing (but probably not enough...). I then unscrewed it on the pump side and there was a steady flow of bleach. I checked the line and it looks like a rabbit or something had chewed it in a couple places, or maybe it just cracked for some reason. I fixed the line and am happy to report by the next morning my pool was back up to proper chlorine level using just the pump.
I would guess over the summer I have dumped between 30-45 gallons of bleach on the side of my house.... Don't be an idiot like me, keep your lines off the ground and check them often. I was going crazy and was about to just go back to pucks....
Pics or it never happened...
