my Stenner gave out on vacation

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M

miwitte

0
Sep 4, 2015
110
Charlotte,NC
I had gotten a Stenner pump, and tank setup and injection back in beginning of July and everything was running fine for 2 weeks. I had it completely setup, my pool was using 4PPM a day would measure in morning at 3PPM and at night at 7PPM. All good for weeks. Chlorine loss was less than 1 ppm overnight. The pump works but nothing coming out, looks like it used maybe 2 gallons hard to see with flashlight what happened i suspect something with the tube.

Went on a 10 day trip and luckily had someone there and to look, and about the 4th day she took a chlorine reading and it was zero. Uh oh figure something happened i had her add enough to get it to about 16(shock level for my CYA of 40) as she couldnt come by too much. Someone came by in a couple more days and it was getting green on walls had her add enough to get it up to shock level again.

Just got home last night, not a swamp but walls were green and bottom too in spots. Swept everything down, cleaned filter and brought up to 16+PPM( hard to know exactly where its going to land. I measured again this morning and was at 17PPM at 6 am. I had to fly out for work and my daughter measured a little while ago and it was at 7PPM! Yikes is it possible to use 10 PPM in 14 hours? I guess i still have something going on that's using up all the chlorine correct? added more to bring it to 16+ shock level.

No visible algae but a little cloudy looks much better than yesterday.

Pool is over 90 its really hot in Charlotte right now. Daughter is supposed to have a bunch of kids over on thursday and I'm not around. So just keep the level at 16 + correct and keep sweeping right?

:(
 
The SLAM sounds like the plan... have your daughter check the pool a couple of times a day, and adjust accordingly.

As for the Stenner, is it still turning? Is there any chlorine in the bottom of it?
 
yeah pump is turning fine, its just not pumping no suction. I assume its a tube cracked or something. We got home pretty late I had enough daylight to sweep it good, clean filter and add chlorine. Unfortunately had to fly out early and gone until friday so need to do this remote. So I am correct that the reason i am losing so much chlorine is because its killing the algae right? Continue sweeping and keep at 16 right?

Luckily i bought a refill for my DPD kit so i can test a lot.
 
I believe you are right on your course of action.

SLAM that pool until it passes all the slam criteria.

in the meanwhile, as soon as you get home, check out the stenner set-up, and see what went wrong.
 
yeah i was bummed. I was so excited i had it perfect 32 oz in 30 minutes. The timer was 30 minute increments so it was easy setup. I was very confident in it, thank god i asked someone to come by for a look at the pool. Quick look under flashlight showed pump and rollers going smooth all connectors were tight not sure what happened looks fine.

One thing i did notice before i left was a Crystal like substance on the chlorine container i suspect it was dried up chlorine could the lines or something in the path get blocked? I know the liquidnator has issues.
 
Did you inspect the weighted strainer in the bottom of the bleach drum? I had one come off once and the tubing floated to the top.

How old is the pump tube?

It doesn't take much of a leak on the suction side of the pump tube to stop it from pumping.
 
So you don't know how old the pump tube is?

I change mine every year. One thing that will happen is that over time the tubes will flatten out where the rollers contact them and they just won't pump anymore. So you may not have a leak.
 
Those "crystals" in the bleach tank are likely salt. All bleach has excess sodium chloride (and lye) in it. As the bleach level goes up and down in the tank, the excess liquid can evaporate and leave behind salt. Also, due to the high pH of bleach, you can get calcium scale build up at the injection point where the concentrated bleach contacts the water. That can cause blockage or failure of the check valve. Just stuff to keep an eye on.
 

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So good news is that it only used 6PPM in the same 14 hour period so things are getting better. Still trying to keep at 16PPM (40 CYA) no more green on walls just stuff on bottom which i assume is the dead algae. Daughter is sweeping stuff towards main drain. Looking much better. If i was home i would take cartridge filter out and clean but wont be home until friday.
 
well looks like it may have passed the overnight test only lost 1-2 PPM from last night. Pool is nice and clear my daughter did a great job in my absence. Now just have to let the FC level come down and figure out the Stenner issue. Hoping to get a flight home tonight but American wants $600 to change my flight from tomorrow morning to tonight. They are such a rip off.
 
so just got back yesterday going to look at pump today. I let the FC come down some so I could get good PH readings

FC 4.0PPM
CC 0.5 PPM
PH 7.6
TA 60
CYA 0(I could still see the black dot all the way to top of tube.

Plan is to add some hardness slowly to get it back to the 40-50 range. Pool is spotless, but since the CC is .05 I assume there is still something, could be bather load we had 20 kids in it on Thursday. It passed the overnight test as well last night less than 1PPM loss. There was some complaints last night about chlorine smell and it did burn my eyes a little is that the CC?
 
haha I was the plastic tee I used melted from the chlorine. Holy cow I can believe that happened! It did last 2+ weeks, but it was actually melted didn't notice until I touched it and it crumbled in half! I need a metal one but for now its working fine just using a single line to the Stenner. If you look at my setup its two 5 gallon Lowe's buckets, with a line going to each and a tee to pull from both, it actually works very well and pulls from each bucket pretty evenly. I had to throw it together really quick, I was going to Vegas for work for a week, then come back for a day then family vacation for 10 days so couldn't get it real nice just functional. It holds about 11 gallon, enough for more than 12 days. Still looking for a cheap 15 gallon jug locally, I just cant justify $85 for one shipped. Pool looks great added hardener today as CYA was at zero(it kills me to add it after all the trouble to bring it down from 200+ last year) ill see how that looks tomorrow.


IMG_7383.jpg
 
I ended up calling a chemical supply house here, they had 55gal barrels of 12.5% bleach for $125 (including the barrel) ... so that's the way I went.
I also picked up a hand pump that is rated for chemicals, and told the wife that if she needs bleach for ANYTHING, to let me know, and I'll pump her out as much as she wants, and put it into some of the old store bought bleach bottles for her.
 
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