I just made a rather abrupt / impulsive switch over from a traditional chlorine system to an SWG just when I was starting to feel like I knew everything about taking care of my pool. While I haven't yet taken the time to read the owners manual for my SWG, I feel a little overwhelemed b/c there's a whole new thing I have to learn about taking care of my pool. I'm not quite sure I understand what I'm supposed to be doing as far as testing for and adjusting chlorine. Anyone care to give me a nutshell version of what/how things will be different in monitoring my chlorine levels and anything else that will be different from the way I used to do things?
Just switched over to an SWG - now what?
- Thread starter niceguymr
- Start date
I would go ahead and read Water Balance for SWCGs for starters.
Having a SWCG doesn't change much as far as testing goes. The SWCG produces chlorine so you don't have to add it on your own to maintain routine levels of FC. You will need to monitor salt levels of course. You'll also need to keep an eye on pH as it will tend to climb a little more with the SWCG.
Having a SWCG doesn't change much as far as testing goes. The SWCG produces chlorine so you don't have to add it on your own to maintain routine levels of FC. You will need to monitor salt levels of course. You'll also need to keep an eye on pH as it will tend to climb a little more with the SWCG.
susa
0
Since we're both in S.Florida (...I may actually be a bit further down...), some general comments and background that may be useful.
My pool is new since october and I had the advantage of starting from a totally chemical free water status, new water from municipal supply is excellent quality but I added multiple particle/metal and chemical filters while doing the fillup to ensure the water was very clean at startup.
Since my surface is still curing, I did not turn on the system in that my pool has practically no salt (under 700 ppm) as the only source is liquid chlorine. Also since weather has been cold (ok, today it's almost 25 C and I am working in yard in shorts again...), the SWCG is switched off at the transformer.
I had originally planned on adding salt 30 to 60 days from startup of pool but now am considering keeping the system off as there will be more cold days ahead and I would prefer a nice steady 20 C+ temps for several months which we normally have from April forward. Otherwise I would be in start/stop mode with the cell turning off due to weather.
Had this been a normal switch from existing pool water, I would have balanced the water to manufacturer recommended levels, verified these with the TFP recommendations and then added the salt up to +400 ppm over the suggested level and then turned system on.
You don't say what system installed, so post some details or model or update your sig line as there are others who have your specific model. Hopefully you deliberately oversized the SWCG Cell for the pool size, in my case, while my pool is 15k the system is rated up to 40k gallons.
One item I learned was that having a SWCG will tend to raise the pH of the water so I installed a system that automatically monitors the pH and injects small amounts of muriatic acid into the line to compensate. I basically just dial the pH desired and the system takes care of the rest, occasionally I need to visit Home Depot and pickup a new supply of MA bottles. This is also useful with new pool surface as the curing process also tends to raise the pH.
The Cyanuric Acid level is also something I am still working on as I am well below the recommended levels and this appears to be very uniform as a requirement among all types of SWCG systems.
My pool is new since october and I had the advantage of starting from a totally chemical free water status, new water from municipal supply is excellent quality but I added multiple particle/metal and chemical filters while doing the fillup to ensure the water was very clean at startup.
Since my surface is still curing, I did not turn on the system in that my pool has practically no salt (under 700 ppm) as the only source is liquid chlorine. Also since weather has been cold (ok, today it's almost 25 C and I am working in yard in shorts again...), the SWCG is switched off at the transformer.
I had originally planned on adding salt 30 to 60 days from startup of pool but now am considering keeping the system off as there will be more cold days ahead and I would prefer a nice steady 20 C+ temps for several months which we normally have from April forward. Otherwise I would be in start/stop mode with the cell turning off due to weather.
Had this been a normal switch from existing pool water, I would have balanced the water to manufacturer recommended levels, verified these with the TFP recommendations and then added the salt up to +400 ppm over the suggested level and then turned system on.
You don't say what system installed, so post some details or model or update your sig line as there are others who have your specific model. Hopefully you deliberately oversized the SWCG Cell for the pool size, in my case, while my pool is 15k the system is rated up to 40k gallons.
One item I learned was that having a SWCG will tend to raise the pH of the water so I installed a system that automatically monitors the pH and injects small amounts of muriatic acid into the line to compensate. I basically just dial the pH desired and the system takes care of the rest, occasionally I need to visit Home Depot and pickup a new supply of MA bottles. This is also useful with new pool surface as the curing process also tends to raise the pH.
The Cyanuric Acid level is also something I am still working on as I am well below the recommended levels and this appears to be very uniform as a requirement among all types of SWCG systems.