Pool levels all good, do I need to run pump if FC OK?

[juzzie]

I am happy with all my chemistry levels in the pool - they all within the recommended ranges.

FC is just dropping very slightly due to sunlight, I have a light blue pool cover and I think that stops a lot of Cl loss due to sunlight.

Swimming season is still at least 4 weeks away - nobody is swimming in the pool.

The water looks fabulous.

In the interests of saving electricity, can I run the pump for just 1 hour after topping up with liquid chlorine?

Until the weather warms up I want to just test my water about 7:00pm (ie after dark), work out the chlorine I need to add, add it and then run the pump for an hour to mix it up.

If it works out I have enough free chlorine and I don't need to add, why would I want to run the pump at all that night? This happened the other night, tested after a cloudy day and the chlorine levels hadn't dropped below reccomended.

Not much debris gets in the pool due to pool cover...

 

[Shane1]

They recomend one full water turn over per day, I would think you should try to acheive that for water clarity reasons. Do you have a solar cover? That pushed our swim date up by about a month and its being extended as we speak, we still have 90* water in the pool.

 

[BoDarville]

juzzie:

One water turnover/ day is a good guideline and, over the course of the year, I'm averaging about that amount. Now that we are heading into fall in the northern hemisphere and the water temp is cooling off, I do give the pump the day off on those days when no chlorine addition is necessary. This assumes fair weather, no wind to speak of, and no debris in the water. This is working well for me. Part of this may be that I'm still using my pool, so the water is getting some churn even though it is not running through the filter on those days I do not run the pump. However, if it were summer, I would run the pump regardless of whether I needed to add anything.

Although I have a timer, I tend to run the pump based on need as opposed to "set it & forget it". For example, after a heavy rain or pool party, I may run the pump to get a water turnover of 2-3. Otherwise, I generally aim for the 1 turnover a day target (a little less during the tranquil period of autumn & a little more during the height of the summer).

 

[juzzie]

They recomend one full water turn over per day, I would think you should try to acheive that for water clarity reasons. Do you have a solar cover? That pushed our swim date up by about a month and its being extended as we speak, we still have 90* water in the pool.

Hi Shane1

Um, I am not sure if it is a solar cover or not? It is the light blue bubble type cover and I regarded it more as a thermal cover. That is because I have solar heating and it helps keep the heat in...

Another reason to run the filter is to get the water passing through the solar heating!

Don't get me wrong, the water is pretty warm, it's just not the temperature outside the water to warrant jumping in!!!

Soooooo....

Like you say, "for water clarity reasons"....

I have a pool with OK chemistry, nobody is swimming in it, the cover is on therefore clarity is no big issue, why bother running the pump when not adding chlorine?

 

[juzzie]

juzzie:

One water turnover/ day is a good guideline and, over the course of the year, I'm averaging about that amount. Now that we are heading into fall in the northern hemisphere and the water temp is cooling off, I do give the pump the day off on those days when no chlorine addition is necessary. This assumes fair weather, no wind to speak of, and no debris in the water. This is working well for me. Part of this may be that I'm still using my pool, so the water is getting some churn even though it is not running through the filter on those days I do not run the pump. However, if it were summer, I would run the pump regardless of whether I needed to add anything.

Although I have a timer, I tend to run the pump based on need as opposed to "set it & forget it". For example, after a heavy rain or pool party, I may run the pump to get a water turnover of 2-3. Otherwise, I generally aim for the 1 turnover a day target (a little less during the tranquil period of autumn & a little more during the height of the summer).

I think I like the idea of giving the pump the day off when not adding chlorine during the "tranquil period".

I have been setting and forgetting the timer but I am going to pull back on the run time for now until the pool is getting used.

 

[BoDarville]

juzzie:

BTW, here is a Pool School article on determining pump run time: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/pump_run_time. This is the method I followed once I converted to BBB. It was amazing how much less I could run the pump and still have outstanding water clarity once I had proper sanitation and balanced water chemistry compared to before I started BBB. Of course, I still adjust for seasonal & situational circumstances (high bather load, heavy rain, warmer vs. cooler water temp, etc.). But this method will give you a good all-around baseline.