Autopilot Digital and bubbles

[Richard_S]

Hi all,

can anyone tell me if this is normal?

I have an Autopilot Digital providing Chlorine for the pool. For some time now, I have been getting bubbles coming out of one of the return nozzles in the pool. i thought at first that there must be an air leak somewhere in the piping, but various amounts of silicone sealant, smoke sticks and various other efforts to find the leak have come to nothing. What I eventually narrowed it down to was the pool pilot cell horse shoe....But still to no avail to stop the air coming in to the pool.

Finally I decided to disconnect the cell electrics and run the water through without producing chlorine....and voila, no bubbles anymore.

My question (after all this rambling); is it normal for the cell to produce "gases" along with Chlorine? Has anyone else experienced this?

any help would be much appreciated.

cheers,

R.

 

[ping]

Perfectly normal to have bubbles come out of the returns in SWG pools. The slower the pump speed the larger the bubbles will be. That is one sign that the SWG is working.

 

[Richard320]

Worry if you stop seeing bubbles.

What happens inside the SWG is H₂0 + NaCl = H₂ + NaOCl

Salt water plus electricity yields Hydrogen gas and Sodium Hypochlorite. If that sounds familiar, it's because that's bleach. Yep, you've got your own micro Clorox factory.

 

[Richard_S]

ahaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

Wish more of my chemistry lessons had stuck, but makes perfect sense and if i'd have thought about it harder, I might well have come to the same conclusion....It's just rather foggy in the empty space that is my mind. The winners on this occasion are the silicone manufacturers who would have laughed if they could only have seen my efforts... Anyway, thanks for the help and relieved that I don't have a leak somewhere in the system!!

 

[Sparkle]

Worry if you stop seeing bubbles.

I'd expect to see no bubbles most of the time, unless the pump is running around the clock and the cell is running at more than 50%.

 

[Richard_S]

At the mo the pump is running at 2100rpm for approx 18hrs per day (8 at night and 10 during the day) at 75% to maintain 3ppm, as we have lots of sunlight here. I have tested the CYA which was at zero, so have upped this and am slowly working up the level in the hopes that the Chlorine will stick at around 4ppm and I can lower the SWG, although understand that the more CYA the less effective the Chlorine's ability to sanitize.

 

[ping]

If you follow this Water Balance for SWCGs you will double to triple the life span of your SWG. Your pool will be balanced and much easier on your body and swim suits.

Our Chlorine CYA Chart is ideal to keep your pool sanitized and algae free.

 

[Poolsean]

You can also adjust the return fitting orifice size to a smaller one at the closest return, and larger ones further away. It will spread out the bubbles more so it's less noticeable.