The Liquidator scares everyone that sees it

[Nightmare]

My PB was very concerned about the install of the Liquidator. He tells me that the warranty on the heat exchanger will be voided because the chlorine is inserted before the heater. I tried to reassure him that the chlorine level is not going to exceed 3 ppm.

I had to clean out the pool filter the other day. The drain cap on the bottom got stuck (pebbles jammed up the threads). We called out the warranty company to check/replace the cap.

The warranty guy was equally freaked out with the Liquidator. He told me the same thing about the heater core. I explained how it works (water level/chlorine level) and told him that people have tested the water to be no more than 3 ppm. He was going to send me some information on a true venturi chlorine injection system that is installed after the heater. No info on that system yet. The warranty guy also tells me to never put chlorine tablets into the skimmer baskets for the same reason.

So... I guess the bottom line is;

If I never overfill the Liquidator I should not push enough chlorine through the heater to damage the copper core.

Does everyone else run into this with the Liquidator? It's manufactured by HASA, so you kind of assume they know what they are doing.

 

[bk406]

My understanding was it is supposed to put after the heater with a check valve in between. Is that not true?

 

[Nightmare]

No, it goes around the filter. Here is a diagram:

ph-adjuster-the-liquidator-t2833.html

 

[bk406]

Ok, I was thinking of a tab feeder. My bad.

I'm not sure I'd want it running thru my heat exchanger either. The tab feeders are plumbed after with a check valve. Presumably more of an issue with the low pH of the tabs than anything.
I suppose the amount of chlorine being pushed thru by the liquidator is lower than a dissolving tab? So maybe it would have the damaging effects of a tab feeder plumbed before the heater. Might be ok, i dunno.

 

[JasonLion]

When the Liquidator is used correctly there is no risk to the heater at all. You are not even close to a risky chlorine level.

The only time there could be a problem is if you fill it way too full of bleach, so there isn't a layer of water on top, or somehow mix it up so the layer of water mixes into the bleach. That mixing isn't at all easy to cause by accident and should be visually obvious so you can fix it. I've never heard of anyone having either of those problems, so you should be totally fine.

 

[bk406]

Jason is most likely right.

But, and there's always a but, the opinions of anybody on TFP or any other web site don't matter a hill of beans when it comes to a warrenty. All that matters is the opinion of the warrenty center and whether they want to honor a warrenty if they think a liquidator was the cause of an issue (valid or not).

 

[JohnT]

Ok, I was thinking of a tab feeder. My bad.

I'm not sure I'd want it running thru my heat exchanger either. The tab feeders are plumbed after with a check valve. Presumably more of an issue with the low pH of the tabs than anything.
I suppose the amount of chlorine being pushed thru by the liquidator is lower than a dissolving tab? So maybe it would have the damaging effects of a tab feeder plumbed before the heater. Might be ok, i dunno.

My pump inlet water FC is 2-3ppm higher than the pool water, and the pH is indistinguishable from the pool water with a pool test kit.

If you think about it, the pump is pulling in pool water from a 1.5" or 2" pipe and water from the Liquidator through a small tube that is throttled down with a valve in most cases, so the output of the Liquidator is very small compared to the volume of water entering from the pool.

 

[RobbieH]

If you have a heat exchanger issue, just take the liquidator off, plug the holes, then call for warranty work.

 

[chem geek]

My pump inlet water FC is 2-3ppm higher than the pool water, and the pH is indistinguishable from the pool water with a pool test kit.

So this effectively makes the chlorine level 2-3 ppm FC higher at the heater than it otherwise would be. With CYA in the water, the active chlorine level will still be low but perhaps would be equivalent to 0.14 ppm FC with no CYA instead of 0.08 ppm FC with no CYA. The reason Trichlor pucks in the skimmer are a problem is that when the pump is off they build up high chlorine AND low pH which then gets blasted to the heater on every pump cycle. Low pH is far more harmful to heaters than chlorine unless the FC level is very high and there is no CYA (i.e. a very high active chlorine level).

Now an SWCG cell may output only somewhat higher FC since it's on-time is probably not 100% (but 50% on-time would be double the FC compared to The Liquidator, all else equal), but the reason it is put after the heater isn't only because of this higher FC level but that part of the water from the cell is very acidic while other parts are very basic. So unless the water coming out of the cell was thoroughly mixed together, one part of the stream will be very acidic and at a high chlorine level which is a bad combo. By the time such water comes out of the returns, it gets mixed with the bulk water so is not a problem.