Sharing our personal experience

[imjay]

Can't argue with "pros" but I can share our personal experience which spans over 20 yrs and has always worked for us.

First, see if you can find a contractor/installer that will dig out extra depth and use an expanded depth liner. IMO - one of the worst things about AGPs is inadequate swimming depth. Our installer dug a gently sloping floor for our 27ft round AGP to a center depth of just over 6 1/2 feet. Our walls are 52 inch and since water depth is usually about 4 inches below that our edge depth is about 4 feet to about 18 inches out at which point the slope begins.

The second biggest weakness of most AGPs is the filtration and pump system. Find an installer that will install a second return to the pool from the filter - I would also HIGHLY recommend having a center drain installed. Trying to depend on a single return (the skimmer) is terrible.

We would not buy a AGP "package". We recommend you show for a pool and liner separately. We recommend you buy a more powerful pump than usually comes with a AGP and then have a contractor that will hook it all up and add second drain and second outlet.

We paid a little extra and the end result was the depth and filtration power of an in-ground pool type system over which we put up the AGPool for a small fraction of the cost of a traditional concrete in-ground pool. You can not believe how much better and easier pool management is for an AGP with a decent and power filtration system.

Now Back to Topic - yes, he also installed a Hayward in-line chlorinator - We are not arguing with others here - our personal experience is we have used tri-chlor 3 inch tabs for all 20 plus years with never a problem and we have never felt the need to test for CYA - if our free chlorine is blocked we just adequately shock with liquid chlorine which solves the problem and frees up our chlorine. We highly recommend use of an in-line chlorinator and tabs with stabilizer 'built in".

Guess there are cases to be made for keeping it simple or making it more complicated and at the end I believe there are no "right" answers to the best way to maintain your pool water - what works for you and results in crystal clear and clean pool water is the "right" answer for you - and that answer for us has been in-line chlorinator, Hayward C-900 in-line filter.

Good Luck developing the "right" answers that work best for you.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Re: Question on in-line chlorine feeder

Now Back to Topic - yes, he also installed a Hayward in-line chlorinator - We are not arguing with others here - our personal experience is we have used tri-chlor 3 inch tabs for all 20 plus years with never a problem and we have never felt the need to test for CYA - if our free chlorine is blocked we just adequately shock with liquid chlorine which solves the problem and frees up our chlorine. We highly recommend use of an in-line chlorinator and tabs with stabilizer 'built in".

In order to properly chlorinate a pool, Free chlorine must be kept at the recommended levels according to your CYA levels. If you have never tested it for it then you are just guessing, which leads to problems that could require shocking your pool. If you maintained proper FC levels, shocking is not required and is downright rare, as evidenced by many members on here who never shock their pool at all. The only way to lower CYA is thru water replacement. Shocking at CYA levels over 100 (not uncommon with trichlor/dichlor-shock users) is not only impractical but a losing battle at best. Chlorine lock /blocked is pool store lingo cooked up to sell chemicals.

 

[Guest]

Re: Question on in-line chlorine feeder

Now Back to Topic - yes, he also installed a Hayward in-line chlorinator - We are not arguing with others here - our personal experience is we have used tri-chlor 3 inch tabs for all 20 plus years with never a problem and we have never felt the need to test for CYA - if our free chlorine is blocked we just adequately shock with liquid chlorine which solves the problem and frees up our chlorine.
This is a fallacy and is not what is happening. What you are doing is raising the FC high enough temporarily for the CYA level. There is no such thing as 'chlorine lock'. YOu also said in another thread that that you need to use algaecide on a regular basis.
This is not needed in a well maintained pool. The methods we teach are the same methods used by commercial pool operators (who rarely need algaecide, btw.)
I have to comment on your comment that you have never felt the need to test for CYA yet some of the problems you described could have been prevented if you HAD tested the CYA. Then again, they say that ignorance is bliss.
You also need to take into account the type of filter. With a cartridge filter or a bump DE filtera pool will overstabilize quickly since these filters are not backwashed. With a sand filter you have more leeway since you are diluting the water with each backwash. Also your geographical location plays an important part. If you are in a part of the country that winterizes pools then you are dilutiing the water every season. You also have a short enough swim season that you can make it through ti without any major problems much of the time./ If you are in a part of the country like mine that does not winterize and pools are kept open year round then you will end up with major problems from overstabilzation.

We highly recommend use of an in-line chlorinator and tabs with stabilizer 'built in".
And your experience is based on one pool, yours. Our collective experience is based on literally thouands of pools.
Guess there are cases to be made for keeping it simple or making it more complicated and at the end I believe there are no "right" answers to the best way to maintain your pool water - what works for you and results in crystal clear and clean pool water is the "right" answer for you - and that answer for us has been in-line chlorinator, Hayward C-900 in-line filter.

Good Luck developing the "right" answers that work best for you.

The methods we teach work all of the time and are proven to be the most cost effective. It's great that you are satisfied with your pool but you do need to add algaecide on a regular basis and you do encounter problems with the chlorine no longer working so I would have to say that you do not have a trouble free pool.

Oh, in case you are wondering, my experience is more than just my own pool. I have worked in the retail end of the pool/spa business and also have done commercial pool maintenance so I do know a bit about what I speak. I also know firsthand how the main agenda of a pool store is to sell as many chemicals as it can and NOT to help it's customers have a balanced pool.

I am wondering why you joined this site if your pool has been no problem for 20 years. If that is the case you certainly don't need us.

 

[chem geek]

Re: Question on in-line chlorine feeder

I describe more details about this person's pool in this post. Also, on the other forum they described that indeed they do sometimes have problems (3-4 times in 20 years) as described in this post where the chlorine became "bound up" so they had to shock with a LOT of chlorine before getting a good FC reading.

Of course, we all know what could have happened here. The CYA got high, the chlorine became ineffective against algae growth (in spite of the copper algaecide), the algae consumed chlorine and it took a lot of chlorine to get the pool to a high enough FC where the chlorine could kill the algae faster than it could grow. This happened in my own pool years ago when I was using Trichlor pucks when the chlorine demand mysteriously (to me at that time) went way up. My CYA level had increased from 30 ppm to 150 ppm in a year and a half of Trichlor use -- and this problem happened in spite of using PolyQuat 60 algaecide, but I only used it every other week. It was this incident and the lack of clear help from the pool store that got me started in learning pool water chemistry.

Richard