- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
I started a survey regarding liquid chlorine dosing, and hopefully something will come out from it. If there's anyone watching this thread who also has liquid dosing, please help kick it off, thanks. SURVEY - Liquid FC Dosing
I don't mean to be argumentative for the sake of it, Matt, but I do lean strongly toward evidence. I was looking for prior threads on chlorine dosing and bumped into a survey regarding SWC run times and percentage settings. There were 17 responses and none of them were running their SWCs at 100%, so it seems illogical to me that SWCs are driving pump run time. There was a wide range of pool volumes covered.
For these 17 respondents, the average SWG run time was 40% with 2/3 of them running at 20% to 60%. So all 17 could easily reduce pump run time by turning up their chlorinators. Clearly they are determining pump run time for other needs, or at least some of them would increase the SWG % and run the pump for fewer hours. Longer run time might be partly due to a desire to dose chlorine across daytime bather load and UV extinction, or it could be to keep the water features, slides or solar heating running. I think as often as not, it's to keep the pool well-skimmed and looking great. As I mentioned previously, I've certainly seen cases here involving over-sized single-speed pumps and under-sized SWCs where pump run time has been increased for the SWG. But that seems to be the exception, not the rule. We almost never hear of people running their SWG at 100%, so it appears that the vast majority of pool owners are extending pump run time well beyond any need defined by the SWC. Most competent pool owners here at TFP talk about 25% to 60% SWG settings, so I think this relatively small set of data is pretty darn close to representing the norm.
In my case, for days without swimming, I've played with it a bit and 5 or 6 hours of filtration on low speed keeps the pool sparkly. That's also enough to add 3 to 4 ppm FC if I needed to. But I choose to run the pump for 10 or 11 hours so it covers the full time there is sun on the pool, higher likelihood of bather load to be absorbed, and bugs landing in the pool along with leaves that need to be skimmed. Day time operation, I think, allows for quickest removal of bugs and leaves, along with slow and steady chlorination at the time it's needed the most, be it for bather load or UV extinction. For me, skimming seems to be the dominating factor.
I don't mean to be argumentative for the sake of it, Matt, but I do lean strongly toward evidence. I was looking for prior threads on chlorine dosing and bumped into a survey regarding SWC run times and percentage settings. There were 17 responses and none of them were running their SWCs at 100%, so it seems illogical to me that SWCs are driving pump run time. There was a wide range of pool volumes covered.
For these 17 respondents, the average SWG run time was 40% with 2/3 of them running at 20% to 60%. So all 17 could easily reduce pump run time by turning up their chlorinators. Clearly they are determining pump run time for other needs, or at least some of them would increase the SWG % and run the pump for fewer hours. Longer run time might be partly due to a desire to dose chlorine across daytime bather load and UV extinction, or it could be to keep the water features, slides or solar heating running. I think as often as not, it's to keep the pool well-skimmed and looking great. As I mentioned previously, I've certainly seen cases here involving over-sized single-speed pumps and under-sized SWCs where pump run time has been increased for the SWG. But that seems to be the exception, not the rule. We almost never hear of people running their SWG at 100%, so it appears that the vast majority of pool owners are extending pump run time well beyond any need defined by the SWC. Most competent pool owners here at TFP talk about 25% to 60% SWG settings, so I think this relatively small set of data is pretty darn close to representing the norm.
In my case, for days without swimming, I've played with it a bit and 5 or 6 hours of filtration on low speed keeps the pool sparkly. That's also enough to add 3 to 4 ppm FC if I needed to. But I choose to run the pump for 10 or 11 hours so it covers the full time there is sun on the pool, higher likelihood of bather load to be absorbed, and bugs landing in the pool along with leaves that need to be skimmed. Day time operation, I think, allows for quickest removal of bugs and leaves, along with slow and steady chlorination at the time it's needed the most, be it for bather load or UV extinction. For me, skimming seems to be the dominating factor.
