I've defected to the dark side! New peristaltic pump

[roadking00]

You should actually catch a sample about an hour after the pump starts in the morning. That way it hasn't had time to inject enough chlorine to affect the test but has had time to circulate the pool water.

Yep, sounds like a plan..for now last night after injection (dial is set at 2.5 right now) I let the pump circulate for another 90min then pulled a sample and had about 7.5 FC to get me through the night before the next filter run with injection...I'll do the same tonight to see what it is and hopefully have time in the morning to run another sample after its been sitting all night with no further filtration/injection....We'll see ...Trial and error I guess

Oh yeah , here is a couple more pics so far. Its still a temp set up for now until I most likely re-plumb and reconfigure my whole set up this fall...

 

[roadking00]

Well I ran the pump again last night for a while without injection pumping pulled a sample and had 8-8.5 FC and 0-.5 CC , shut the filter back off and it sat through the night till about 5am when I ran the pump only for about 20-30min and pulled another sample and had 8-8.5FC again and 0cc. So I set the dial back again to 1.75 from 2.5 to see how that will work with the same pump run time and injection time, looks like as per the pump calc excel sheet it will decrease my hypo amount by 15oz. for the day. I wanna try to maintain 5-6 FC with my CYA levels at 45-50, Should I be looking to have that level in the morning and evening at the testing intervals I've been doing to try to keep it consistent ?

 

[Bama Rambler]

That's not a bad idea, though really you only need to test it once a day once you have it dialed in.

 

[march2012]

You should actually catch a sample about an hour after the pump starts in the morning. That way it hasn't had time to inject enough chlorine to affect the test but has had time to circulate the pool water.

Yep, sounds like a plan..for now last night after injection (dial is set at 2.5 right now) I let the pump circulate for another 90min then pulled a sample and had about 7.5 FC to get me through the night before the next filter run with injection...I'll do the same tonight to see what it is and hopefully have time in the morning to run another sample after its been sitting all night with no further filtration/injection....We'll see ...Trial and error I guess

Oh yeah , here is a couple more pics so far. Its still a temp set up for now until I most likely re-plumb and reconfigure my whole set up this fall...

One thing to consider is that at the low speeds the pump wears out a little faster. It sounds like you have the stenner connected to the same timer as the main pump. If you add a $30 home depot timer you can unlink the bleach from the main filter pump so you can add the bleach at the highest rate. It also gives you a little more fine grained control because combination of units on the pump and time gives you smaller increments than just the units on the pump. I run my pump on 10 for 1 hour a day. Each hour gives about 1.5 ppm

 

[roadking00]

I actually was wanting to do that anyhow..I didn't realize the pump wears out on low speed more the max, thanks for the tip
Looks like I'll install an aux relay or something to split it up...cheaper then another 220v timeclock

 

[roadking00]

Hey Dave,
Any tips on purging the air in the suction/discharge line of the stenner pump ? I seem to be getting air in the lines somehow ,or is that common ? Suction line is completely submerged, maybe I should snoop the suction fitting at the pump to see if its pulling in air ?

 

[Bama Rambler]

That's where I would start. Make sure the tubing is inserted into the fittings all the way.

 

[gujjuman]

Hi All,

Another happy peristaltic pumper here :-D . I appreciate everyone's assistance during our remodel. In the process, I thought about O2 (PB recommendation) to pucks to Liquidator to Stenner. I splurged and got the pump/container combo and it's been great. I promised to post a picture so here it is. Thanks to everyone for your help...Never knew this pool thing could be so easy. Even my wife is amazed..and that says a lot!

I'm pretty much dialed in at 6.75 x 10 hours. Had to add a second timer (Right) for the hi-low on the Haward Stealth pump since I already had a freeze protection timer (left). I just tied into that for the Stenner as well.

 

[roadking00]

One thing to consider is that at the low speeds the pump wears out a little faster. It sounds like you have the stenner connected to the same timer as the main pump. If you add a $30 home depot timer you can unlink the bleach from the main filter pump so you can add the bleach at the highest rate. It also gives you a little more fine grained control because combination of units on the pump and time gives you smaller increments than just the units on the pump. I run my pump on 10 for 1 hour a day. Each hour gives about 1.5 ppm

If I decide to go ahead and add the second timer just for injection have you experimented when the best time to inject is ? IE:if I run my pool pump from 9am thru 6pm is it best to inject for an hour in the Morning ,afternoon or late afternoon time frame to ensure I would maintain the proper FC level throughout the rest of the 23hrs ? After typing this it kinda sounds like a real stupid question....now that I think about it it really shouldn't matter so long as I inject the right PPM per day that gets consumed...just haven't completely figured that out yet....

 

[Bama Rambler]

It doesn't really matter but if I had to pick a time I'd probably inject it in the morning. Though there are arguments that say inject it in the evening so that you'll have the greatest level of FC in the pool during the night when the sun isn't attacking it. That really didn't help did it? :?

Since I inject 4 times a day I don't have to make that decision!

 

[roadking00]

Since I inject 4 times a day I don't have to make that decision!

Dave, since you inject 4 times a day I assume your at a low setting on your pump as well , whats your thoughts on pump degradation on a low setting compared to running it on a higher setting once a day ?

 

[Bama Rambler]

I won't argue with the fact that it's probably wearing the index plate and dog out sooner than running it 100% would but I'm not convinced it will wear it out soon enough for it to be a problem for me. I plan to continue to run it along with the main pump and when and if it does wear out the index mechanism I will post that, and then make a decision whether to change to running it 100% in a much shorter time.

If it turns out that running it on a low setting does wear it out at an annoying rate I will start recommending fixed speed pumps and programmable timer combos.

I run my pump on about 4 right now for a total of 8 hours per day.

 

[gujjuman]

Couple of questions for you all...does your Stenner pump make a clicking noise every time it milks the tube in the pump?

Also, how often do you fill your barrell and with what? I have been using 6% bleach from Sams $835 for 3 182 oz bottles. With the 30k and sunlight I go thru about 182 oz / day and have been filling 2x per week as i'm nervous to have too much in the tank due to degradation possiblity. STenner is set at about 6.75 for 10 hours/day

thanks for your thoughts...

 

[roadking00]

Yep..that clicking is normal when your dial is below 10, as far as what your going through mine is set at 2.75 and injecting while the pump is on for 11hrs a day...but I have 12.5% hypo not 6%. Still sounds like alot compared to my rate but what's your CYA level and what FC are you maintaining? I'm at 45-50 CYA and maintain about 5-6 FC and im a bit smaller in gallons as well...I think I'm a bit more then the 21,600 in my signature though .... Have you used the excel sheet from this thread for pump run time and injection rate to verify what your injecting?

 

[gujjuman]

Okay...i won't worry about the clicking. Here are my numbers...seems reasonable since a 3 ppm FC loss for the pool size = ~180oz of 6% bleach.

Haven't looked at the excel spreadsheet yet, was just going by feel, adjusting 0.5 / 1 on the pump setting.

pH 7.5
FC 5.5
CC 0
Alk 90
Ca 290
CYA 40

 

[ChiknNutz]

Regarding Index Plates wearing out, I can vouch for the fact that running the Stenner at a low-ish rate like I am at 2.5 (@ 8-9 hrs/day) WILL wear out the plate faster. I have only had my setup for a year and I wore out my index plate in just a few months time! I had to take the pump apart and turn over the index plate. It's fine now, but won't be for long based on past experience. After calling them, Stenner suggests using a smaller tube #1 I think and then crank up the duration (to like 7 or 8 in this case) to avoid premature failure of the index plate.

 

[Isaac-1]

After two years of using a metering pump to inject bleach I have ran into a problem with my injection point fitting becoming completely clogged with salt? crystals. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Ike

 

[ram0115]

Wow. This is some good reading. I am about to move to the Stenner and from what I've read, the best set up for my 14K gallon pool (uses 1/3 gallon of 12% per day) would be to use the 3 GPD unit.....set to 10 to help with wear and run for about 2 1/2 hrs per night?

Another question....assume the injection fitting is male pipe thread. Can anyone give me the size? From what I've read, it sounds like I can just drill and tap through an elbow fitting and that should give me enough thickness to install the injection fitting? Appreciate it.

 

[Bama Rambler]

On a 14,000 gallon pool the 3gpd pump will be fine.

The fitting is 1/4" npt. I drilled and tapped the return pipe to put mine in.

 

[march2012]

Wow. This is some good reading. I am about to move to the Stenner and from what I've read, the best set up for my 14K gallon pool (uses 1/3 gallon of 12% per day) would be to use the 3 GPD unit.....set to 10 to help with wear and run for about 2 1/2 hrs per night?

Another question....assume the injection fitting is male pipe thread. Can anyone give me the size? From what I've read, it sounds like I can just drill and tap through an elbow fitting and that should give me enough thickness to install the injection fitting? Appreciate it.

I have a 17k gallon pool and run mine for 1.5 hours (6%) on 10 after sunset.