I see there are a number of posts regarding SWCG and winter temperatures, though I haven't quite found one that answers my situation.
This is my first winter with my pool. Being in Houston, I keep it "open" as we like to make use of the hot tub on occasion.
Here during the last month, the water temperature dropped down to around 50F during the weeks of cold we had in late Dec/early January. I understand the SWCG won't function at those temperatures and I've been hitting it with bleach (found 8.25% in a three pack at Sams) to keep chlorine levels up.
What I'm curious about is the salt level reading. Once I got my salt levels up after the fill, it had been pretty steady around 3600 through the fall. During this cold snap, which was accompanied by several heavy rains, my reading dropped to 1300.
Now, the water temperature is up to 65F, but the salt reading is only 1700. I know it took time for the reading to respond when I was adding bags of salt, so I'm wondering if that is what I'm going through now. I'm sure I didn't have enough overflow from the rains to dilute my salt levels that low (other tests like CYA have been holding pretty steady).
I've gone and ordered the Taylor salination test kit (which, surprisingly, the guys at the local pool supply stores hadn't even heard of, much less carried locally). - TFtestkits.com does have it, thankfully.
I guess my general question is what does water temperature impact the salinity reading? Is 65F still cold enough to give me a bad reading even though the generator itself would still be working? Or, should I just expect it to take a few more days for the reading to come back up to the 3000+ level I expect it should be?
This is my first winter with my pool. Being in Houston, I keep it "open" as we like to make use of the hot tub on occasion.
Here during the last month, the water temperature dropped down to around 50F during the weeks of cold we had in late Dec/early January. I understand the SWCG won't function at those temperatures and I've been hitting it with bleach (found 8.25% in a three pack at Sams) to keep chlorine levels up.
What I'm curious about is the salt level reading. Once I got my salt levels up after the fill, it had been pretty steady around 3600 through the fall. During this cold snap, which was accompanied by several heavy rains, my reading dropped to 1300.
Now, the water temperature is up to 65F, but the salt reading is only 1700. I know it took time for the reading to respond when I was adding bags of salt, so I'm wondering if that is what I'm going through now. I'm sure I didn't have enough overflow from the rains to dilute my salt levels that low (other tests like CYA have been holding pretty steady).
I've gone and ordered the Taylor salination test kit (which, surprisingly, the guys at the local pool supply stores hadn't even heard of, much less carried locally). - TFtestkits.com does have it, thankfully.
I guess my general question is what does water temperature impact the salinity reading? Is 65F still cold enough to give me a bad reading even though the generator itself would still be working? Or, should I just expect it to take a few more days for the reading to come back up to the 3000+ level I expect it should be?
