Chlorine Tablet Alternative

[Box Jockey]

Howdy! Pool newbie so apologies for the ignorance.

I travel 1 week a month so I am curious if there are alternatives to the chlorine tablets. My problem with those is my CA is right where I want it so I don't want to keep adding more. I wasn't sure if there is an alternative for when I am not there to add daily. Any information would be great!

 

[techguy]

Do you have full numbers? Is CA Cyanuric Acid or stabilizer or conditioner? If so, we normally call that CYA.

If your CYA is close to your limits, then you need to use liquid bleach or a Salt Water Generator (SWG). If you want to use liquid bleach, a Liquidator or stenner pump are your main choices. Each have advantage and disadvantages.

 

[Box Jockey]

Apologies, you are correct. My cyanuric acid is right where I want it. My concern is I will be gone for one entire week every month so I wont be able to check levels and add bleach as necessary. Is SWG the only alternative to tablets?

 

[techguy]

The Liquidator adds liquid chlorine via a tank and some tubing using your pump.

A stenner pump is a dedicated electric pump that adds measured amount of liquid chlorine into your return line, based on how long the stenner pump runs for.

 

[Box Jockey]

Thank you for the info TFP Expert! And sorry, I totally misunderstood your previous post about the liquidator and stenner.

I guess what I was getting at is are there alternatives to tablets that do not require additional equipment? As in a tablet that does not have cynauric acid? I am guessing that is a negative but just wanted to ask as I leave for my next trip this Sunday.

On a side note, do stenners or liquidators have any advantages over SWG? I am guessing they don't need replacement like the SWG cells but then again I don't know anything about this stuff!!

 

[techguy]

Each will have different options and costs and some people like one over the other. It all depends on your needs and comfort. I have considered but not pulled the trigger yet.

 

[chem geek]

I guess what I was getting at is are there alternatives to tablets that do not require additional equipment? As in a tablet that does not have cynauric acid? I am guessing that is a negative but just wanted to ask as I leave for my next trip this Sunday.

The short answer is No. The most common slow-dissolving tablets are Trichlor. There are also Cal-Hypo tablets, but they require a special dispenser (you cannot use those in a Trichlor feeder -- not only will it dissolve too quickly, but mixing Cal-Hypo and Trichlor is an explosive fire hazard) or are used in the skimmer and probably won't last for a week.

If you have a somewhat opaque pool cover, you can just boost your chlorine level before you leave and also turn down your solar heater temperature if you have one. With a lower temperature and a pool cover, you should be able to get your daily chlorine loss to 10% or so per day in which case over 7 days you would only lose about half of your FC. Even with a 20% daily loss, you would end up with around 20% of the FC so could start with shock level and should end up still above the minimum a week later. There's no way, however, that you could do this without a cover over the pool (or some other means of keeping the UV from sunlight out of the pool) unless your CYA level were very high -- and a high CYA is not practical since it takes water dilution to lower it.

Another alternative would be to boost the FC level somewhat and to use Polyquat 60 algaecide. The chlorine will still likely become too low after a few days to mid-week, but the Polyquat 60 should inhibit algae growth until the day or two you get back. At that point, a blast of chlorine should kill off any algae that got started -- basically SLAM, but it shouldn't take very long.

 

[duraleigh]

Could you lower your CYA down about 10 below your ideal with drain/refill the preceeding three weeks. That's a cumbersome approach but water is cheaper than many people think.

 

[PridgNYC]

Could you lower your CYA down about 10 below your ideal with drain/refill the preceeding three weeks. That's a cumbersome approach but water is cheaper than many people think.

Out of curiosity, because I thought I was understanding the water chem/cya/bleach relationship fairly well, how would this help? I liked chemgeek's approach, but would having a lower CYA level make this easier or harder?

 

[chem geek]

I think he meant that you could use the Trichlor tabs for a week and then lower the resulting higher CYA after you return from vacation. That's a very reasonable approach. At 2 ppm FC per day, the CYA will only increase by 13 ppm. However, if you normally kept your CYA at 50 ppm, that would require a 20% dilution of water every month since you will be away one week every month.

 

[JamesW]

If you could determine your average loss per day, you could have someone add the correct amount of bleach per day.