Worth the money?

[jquinn14]

Posts merged into one thread. Please do not double post.

Hi all. This is my first post on the forum. I have a small pool that was installed in Nov 2005. Have had trouble maintaining chlorine levels for quite some time, plus, the pump is VERY noisy in my small backyard and overkill from an energy standpoint. So, I am thinking of having the following done:

- Replace the 2hp pump with a .75hp multi-speed pump to combat the noise and save some money on electricity. The pool service is recommending the PESC-180L MAX-E-GLASS PUMP .75HP FREE 115/230V.

- For the chlorine issues, the pool service recommends replacing the cell (they can't figure out what's wrong and have spent lots of time with Jandy on the phone trying to troubleshoot, but it's been painful). Given the age of the system, they recommend swapping the Jandy cell and controller with the Pentair Intellichlor.

Given that the pool is pretty darn small, does all of this make sense? Is it worth spending $2000 to make these changes? Also, will the Aqualink still work given that the Jandy pump and Aquapure are going away?

:? Any help/input would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Buggsw]

What size and kind of filter do you have?

 

[Strannik]

Re: Replace AquaPure 700 with IntelliChlor?

the pump is definitely worth it, you will get your money back pretty quick
with SWG - unless you are happy with having to put bleach in manually i'd say it's worth it as well

what are the symptoms that your SWG is exhibiting?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I don't know alot about swgs but it seems like you should be able to replace the cell in the Jandy for a few hundred dollars, so you have to decide if you want that for the convenience side of it, otherwise you can just add bleach daily like us non-swg folks. You don't specify how much the new swg would be alone, how much of the $2k is the SWG? I would think just replacing the cell would be cheaper?

If you post a full set of test results, and give us a bit of history, we may see some clues as to why it's not effectively maintaining chlorine.

As for the pump, just make sure it's paired appropriately with the filter. variable speeds do offer great savings on utility bills, often they pay for themselves in just a year or two. 2 HP is def overkill, unless it was a 2 speed?

 

[jquinn14]

thanks for the responses/questions. couple of response:

1. replacing the cell for either jandy or the new intellichlor system runs around $700. pool service recommended switching from Jandy so that adds another $300 for the new controler. given my travel schedule, it's hard to maintain pool chemicals on my own (gets everything off kilter)

2. the filter is a huge one - the Jandy CJ250

2. Sorry, but I don't have test reslts unfortunately - the pool service manages the chemicals. Oh wait, they write them down each service - let me go get the paper...
- service on 7/23/09 says 0.5 cholrine and ph of 7.4. they added 1/2g of chlorine and 1 pH
- in looking back at weekly notes from 5/11/09 to the 7/23/09 service it looked like the cholorine was at 3.0 for the first three weeks and then took a dive and has been at 0 or 0.5 ever since. They've added bicarb, chlorine, 4 oz of orinda, and calsom chloride at different points in that 10 week period

3. The history - probably for over a year I've been seeing consistent 'add salt', "general fault', 'check aquapure' error messages on my jandy aqualink whenever I happen to look at it. according to the pda, the salt level hovers around 2600 ppm. I communicated these errors to the pool service and they either added salt or said it was at 3000 (or above) and that the PDA was off. Recently, they've been dealing with chlorine at 0 and trying to get it to come up and hold.

Thanks.

 

[dravenone]

I have the Hayward TriStar variable speed and that pump is very very quiet. I have a small yard also and I have to check every now and then to see if it's running because I had gotten use to hearing my old pump. At the low speeds you would need it to run you would not hear it running.

 

[jquinn14]

Hmmmm - haven't heard of that brand. I just noticed that the pool service changed the pump they priced out from a whisperflow to a sta rite brand. Are they comparable? Prices seem to be the same, but it's weird that it changed...