SWG for 3000 gallon pool/spa?

[jbrawlingsii]

We bought a house last fall which has an in-ground pool/spa (3000 gallons) and have been going through the pains of learning about pool chemistry. Over the last week or so, following the recommendations on this forum, I added borax and muriatic acid and the pool pH has stabilized and chlorine levels have settled down. I would like to add an SWG such as a CompuPool CPSC16. My local supplier of pool supplies said my pool/spa (8'x16') was too small for an SWG, basically because the SWG running for a smaller pool would make it difficult to maintain the appropriate levels of free chlorine. In other words the SWG would be "overpowered" for the size of the pool.

During the summer months we'll be keeping the pool at swimming pool temperatures and on infrequent occasions during the rest of the year raise it to Spa temperatures, otherwise letting it follow ambient/ground temp fluctuations (50 to 65 degrees).

I really would like feedback from the forum as to the feasibility of using an SWG for this pool. Does my local dealer just want to keep selling me chemicals or does his argument have validity?

 

[guamguy]

I think you would be able to use a small SWG on your pool. During the colder months of the year, you would need to manually add chlorine, because SWG's don't work with low water temperatures. The run time for the SWG would be very short with a 3Kgal pool.

 

[JasonLion]

If you get a very small SWG you can get this to work, perhaps a SWG designed for spas. Make sure that whatever you get can have it's percentage adjusted by 1s.

 

[bobodaclown]

How often/long are you running you pump? That would be a big consideration on my part. If you're running your pump 24/7 then you'd want to match it up more accurately to you're pool size. CPSC series does allow to vary output from 10-100%. I've got a 17K pool with the CPSC48. My pool run time is approx 5 hour and currently running 60% cell output. (I'm still working out the bugs but may go to 70%) or increase my run time.

 

[jbrawlingsii]

I'm running the pump 8 hours right now but the pool folks have recommended a minimum of 10 hours. In the winter I run it overnight to avoid freezing of pipes and switch over to daytime once the threat of below freezing temperatures is over. I've looked at options and think the CompuPool CPSC16 is my best buy but am wondering if it has too much capacity for the 3K capacity of the pool.

 

[JasonLion]

What happens with a very large SWG is that you need to run it at a very low percentage setting. That is really fine, it is just that you don't have as much control over the exact chlorine level you get. You will have to round the desired setting up to the next 1% step, which will be a little more chlorine that you really need. That isn't a big problem or anything, just inefficient.