how much does it cost to refill the pool

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Diver

Diver

0
May 5, 2011
480
South of Boston
well, while i'm embracing 2 Bs out of BBB, i'm still going to use the trichlor for regular sanitation. different reasons - lack of time, first time pool owner, possibly going SWG in a season or two and so on.

so i decided to figure out what would it cost me to get rid of some CYA if i need to. i calculated that to refill the entire pool would cost me about $150-$170. that figure surprised me since i was expecting something close to a 1k or even more.

here are my calculations:

27k pool: 27,000 x 0.133680556 = 3609 cubic feet.

1000 cubic feet of water = $43 or if i get bumped into next tier due to irrigation water usage - $46.5

total cost = $155 - $167.

while i don't want to refill water in my pool much, i still want to know what would the consequences of using trichlor cost me.

i thought someone might find this info useful.
 
If your CYA gets to high by using pucks and you get a algae bloom there go any savings in time or money. It’s really not that hard once you get your pool balanced to just kick to puck habit. The key is to get a good test kit to know when it is balanced.
 
mikespoolfl said:
If your CYA gets to high by using pucks and you get a algae bloom there go any savings in time or money. It’s really not that hard once you get your pool balanced to just kick to puck habit. The key is to get a good test kit to know when it is balanced.
Click to expand...

i don't want to make too many changes just yet, i want to operate my pool "conventional" way (at least to some extend) first year, do really see what is involved. i don't think i can add bleach every day or every other day (new family and other time constraints). i was thinking about the liquidator, but if i were to go that way, i would go SWG. just not this year.

the good kit is on the way.
 
wrecked_again said:
Where I live it's the same fee per gallon, that includes a % for garbage pu and other city fees! I tank mine in and costs about a third of filling from the hose, but not everyone has a water tank and/or the space to pull one to the pool.
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i get charge water fee and sewer fee on my drinking line and just the water fee on the irrigation line. the sewer fee is higher then the water one!
 
Are you saying that you are going to do frequent dilution every month or so to keep the CYA level in check? If you were thinking of only doing a drain/refill once for the entire season, then realize that the CYA level will climb over time and that you will be much more likely to get algae growing towards the latter part of the summer season unless you proportionately raise the FC level or use a supplemental algaecide at extra cost.

For every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it also increases Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm.

So if you had 2 ppm FC per day chlorine usage, then with Trichlor tabs the CYA would increase by over 35 ppm per month unless you had significant water dilution from backwashing and summer rain overflow.

When I first got my pool 8 years ago, I started out using Trichlor pucks/tabs in a floating chlorinator. I started out with 30 ppm CYA, but 1-1/2 seasons later I had about 150 ppm and that was using a mostly opaque pool cover and a (then) very low daily FC usage of only 0.7 ppm per day. 30 + 11*30*0.7*0.61 = 171 ppm CYA and I only had dilution from splash-out and carry-out since at that time I pumped the winter rains from my cover to a drain and not into the pool. I also have an oversized cartridge filter so I only cleaned it once per season so little water loss there. When the CYA got to 150 ppm I couldn't easily keep the chlorine level up (i.e. had to use more pucks) and the water started to turn dull and then cloudy due to algae growth. The only reason I lasted as long as I did was that I was using a PolyQuat algaecide, but only every other week. Had I not used any algaecide, I wouldn't have made it through even one summer season!
 
Chemgeek,

I just noticed your post on my thread … It’s funny how my way of thinking changed since my original post due to mostly reading more and more on this forum.

My original thinking was to use trichlor and keep an eye on CYA levels. I got a 35lbs pail of tabs and install an inline chlorinator. I thought that I don’t want to be bothered with daily routine of adding bleach and I might be away from home now and then. Come to think about it – I have a baby at home, I rarely go on any business trips and we never take any vacations during summer time.

So I figured I could probably keep an eye on my pool daily. So I decided to go with the next convenient and less evil thing – cal hypo. I calculate that per ppm it’s pretty much the same price as bleach. But more convenient. So I got a 90lbs pail of 48% cal-hypo 

Soon I realized that the biggest plus for trichlor was lack of need to add chemicals daily. And cal-hypo is pretty much the same as bleach – you have to add it with the same intervals. So I came to realization that if I’m ok with cal-hypo, bleach is not that far away when it comes to convenience.

Now I’m thinking to myself – cr*p, I spent all this money on chlorinator, trichlor, cal-hypo and now all I want to do is simply use bleach  I was thinking about returning the chlorinator but with shipping and restocking fee it was close to a wash, so I decide to install it since I wanted to redo return piping anyway.

I almost managed to sell the chemicals, but then I did some math and decided to keep them. I could use trichlor to maintain CYA when needed. Right now it’s at 40 and I might need to bump it back to 40 close to the end of the season. I calculated that spreading 35lbs of trichlor over 4-5 years should be safe if I keep an eye on it.

Then I looked at cal-hypo. My CA is 150 right now. Without any dilution if I use cal-hypo exclusively it would result in my CA being 270 by the end of the season. Not too bad. Of course it accumulates over time. Then I check my tap water. And it has 40ppm of CA! So I could use all my cal-hypo this season without any problem. In my xls spreadsheet I added some formulas that would add calcium up every time I put how many oz of cal-hypo I use so I could keep track of it.

So next year I would check the prices for cal-hypo and my levels and depending on how this season goes I would make an inform decision. I’m pretty happy with my plan now and I think it will work out just fine.
 

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Yes, your plan sounds good. The key is understanding what is going on so that you can manage your pool the way you want and not get surprised. Just note that the rise in CYA happens faster in percentage terms so is something you'd need to watch more carefully while the rise in CH with Cal-Hypo is slower in percentage terms and you may have more leeway there, as you've figured out.
 
I am in the process of building my pool, and a call to the water co ended up with me getting an irrigation meter put in. It just seemed simpler and cheaper in the long run, our sewer fees are higher than water fees too! In our area they want pool pump outs to go into the sewer system, but even the water co said to install the extra meter and avoid the hit on sewer fees.

Back on topic, look into getting 5gal containers of higher concentration bleach. Some pool stores sell 12% and you will just be adding what you need and not having to deal with the consequences of the extras.
 
You may also want to keep in mind that your cya numbers are "in the rears". That is, it takes a while for cya to dilute and show up in a test, so if you're currently using pucks for chlor, then the amount your test shows today is actually what it was up to a week ago. It doesn't take into consideration what hasn't diluted since then. Just a thought.
 
When you figured the cost to refill, did you also add in calcium increaser and/or TA adjustments that may be needed.

My tap water is very low in CH and very high in TA so a refill means a LOT of acid additions to push TA down from 340. Calcium can be pricey as well if you need many tens of pounds of it.
 
These numbers are amazing to me. To refill my pool having it trucked in because I am on a well it is about $1200. What I wouldnt give to just be able to stick a hose in it for a few hundred bucks!!!!!
 
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