Done with ecosmarte! Advice for converting to chlorine?

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B

barneye

0
May 28, 2012
15
Oklahoma City, Okla
I have had the ecosmarte system for two years now and I am DONE! Mine just has the tube w/copper and Titanium, I have to control the ph with acid. Living in the middle of the US, I am always testing, adding Phos Free, acid, algaecide 40, etc.
Woke up Labor day morning and green again! Yesterday it was perfect and we had people in it most of the day.
My question is, what do I add first? I know I will remove the ecosmarte tube, and I was told to remove the metal/copper. I have a new bottle of Metal Free. Other than this, is there a special sequence to be followed? We have a 20,000 gallon inground with a vinyl
liner and a Sta-Rite 37sq ft DE filter. We have the in-line automatic chlorine feeder that was removed when we put the eco system in. Thank you
 
The first thing to do is to get a complete set of test results, especially the copper level. If copper is above 0.3 you will either need to lower it or use sequestrant before you start adding chlorine to normal levels.

Metal Free is not one of the sequestrants that we recommend using, though it is certainly better than nothing.
 
I just converted to chlorine from EcoSmarte (EcoDumb if you ask me!).....

I used a metal remover to get the copper level down. It took about 8 bottles to get it below .4....I removed the fuse in the EcoSmarte box and removed the copper plates. I am waiting for my chlorine feeder to be installed which will go where the tube with the copper and titanium plates were.

I have a 25,000 gallon in ground pool.

The water has never looked so good.
 
sdaiutolo said:
I just converted to chlorine from EcoSmarte (EcoDumb if you ask me!).....

I used a metal remover to get the copper level down. It took about 8 bottles to get it below .4....I removed the fuse in the EcoSmarte box and removed the copper plates. I am waiting for my chlorine feeder to be installed which will go where the tube with the copper and titanium plates were.

I have a 25,000 gallon in ground pool.

The water has never looked so good.
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I used one bottle of Metal Free and my water is green. The pool store says there is no copper in my water, yet my copper test says there is between 0.5-0.7 just where I thought it would work with the ecosmarte. Going to take another sample to a different store tomorrow and see. Getting ready to go on vacation for a week and getting verry nervous.
 
My pool is approx. 20,000 gallons.
I took the water sample to a different pool store and they say it has .3 copper
I used one bottle of Metal Free. It was between .5 and .7 by my test kit, closer to .7 I'd say.
Pool is still green and clear. No clouds or anything but I do have an issue with the spider gasket which
came in today. Going on vacation for a week so when I get back it may be ???
 
Came back from vacation and still looked clear but green. Used two bottles of pool magnet and four scoops of sparkle up and two days later the pool is better than is has ever been! We had to add stabilizer and back wash several more times because of the sparkle up but we are very happy with the results!
 

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I have been trying for over a year to get the Ecosmarte system to work, but the water clouds up if I let chlorine drop to zero in my 5000 gallon indoor pool.
All efforts to try things suggested by Mike Dewar and others at Ecosmarte have failed to produce a clear pool using Ecosmarte system alone.
I added a Stenner chemical pump and am maintaining a steady 0.3 ppm of chlorine using a bleach and water solution. I'm still running the Ecosmarte system along with the chlorine pump. The pool is crystal clear. If I turn off the chlorine pump, the pool clouds up one day after the chlorine level drops to zero.

My recommendation is to avoid Ecosmarte, the system does not live up to the claims on Ecosmarte's website, and it is significantly overpriced. You will have to add sanitizers. The best that can be expected is to reduce the total amount of chlorine needed. If you want to add copper, you can find much less expensive systems on the market.

Paul
 
Copper may allow lower levels of chlorine. I am using 0.3ppm chlorine at the moment, but have not had issues until the level drops to zero. Copper is .7 ppm. Theory is unproven unless I let copper drop to zero.
 
Paul2012 said:
Copper may allow lower levels of chlorine. I am using 0.3ppm chlorine at the moment, but have not had issues until the level drops to zero. Copper is .7 ppm. Theory is unproven unless I let copper drop to zero.
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Unless you are running real low CYA levels, I would not consider pool water with 0.2ppm FC sanitary...it may be clear, but that's not enough protection from nasties IMO.

Copper is not an EPA approved sanitizer for pools.
 
I am using 0.3ppm chlorine at the moment
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How are you maintaining and testing for chlorine levels in tenths? The most accurate test on the market that I know of is in .2 increments.

How would you be able to let copper drop to zero. Once it is in your water, it's in your water unless you drain.
 
I have a LaMotte ColorQ Pro 9 kit that measures free chlorine in .01 ppm increments.
It also measures copper, and copper drops a small amount each time we backflush the filter and refill. I have the copper turned off on the Ecosmarte system for now.
 
I see what you are saying about the copper....that'll take a good while to get it below levels where staining is of no concern but doable nevertheless.

The Color Q may report in .01 increments but, for most all users, it is not nearly that accurate. In fact, most users have not been as satisfied with the precision of the color Q as they have been with drops based tests.

Are you able to calculate a dose of .1ppm of FC and then get the color Q to report that increase accurately?
 
I do not expect accuracy of .01 ppm, but resolution is .01 ppm, and that is good for looking at trends, whereby I can adjust the dosing pump to maintain a desired chlorine level that is working, accurate or not. The good news is our pool has been crystal clear ever since we purchased the digital meter and installed the chlorine pump.

My next experiment is to turn off the ionization cycle on the Ecosmarte, just to see if that has any effect. I think we will have to increase chlorine slightly to keep the pool clear, because the ionization seems to have a slight positive effect on pool clarity, but by no means can it be made to work without chlorine. These experiments are easy to do, but it sucks to let the pool cloud up in order to learn what works and what doesn't.
 
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