Switching from EcoSmarte to SWG and have some questions

[KendallJ]

I've just taken over pool duty at my work. We currently have an EcoSmarte unit that is 8 months old. To make a long story short we are dis-satisfied with the EcoSmarte system and looking for something less finicky. Our pool is 37,000 gallons and based off of what I've read here we should over size the salt cell. We have a Pentair Intelliflow VS pump so we are going to purchase the Pentair Intellichlor IC-60 system. Hopefully down the road we can add the Easy Touch automation system but for now just going to purchase the transformer plus IC-60 cell. My question is about the size of the cell vs the size of the pool. I've heard that the adjustment for chlorine is in 20% increments in the intellichlor and was wondering if that would be enough adjust ability to maintain proper chlorine levels in the pool or will the easy touch really be needed for the fine tuning ability?

Our pool budget is already hurting after setting up the EcoSmarte system less than a year ago and hopefully we can get some money back by selling it. Do you think we can get by without the Easy Touch panel? One other note is that this pool is shared by 20 people but on average only have 8-10 people swimming per week. Occasionally we have a camp running and will have up to 40 swimmers in the pool for 45 minutes per day for a week straight. I'm open to any and all suggestions but we hope to make a purchase in the next few days. Thanks

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You should check the health code rules in your area. Some areas have very specific requirements for SWGs on commercial pools, though most don't.

The 20% steps thing is very annoying, but it won't stop you from producing enough chlorine, assuming the unit is large enough to begin with. What happens is: say you would run at 71% if you could adjust it by 1s. Instead you have to run it at 80%, and are just wasting that extra slice of cell lifetime.

Keep in mind, the cells are sized for residential use, but your pool usage is much higher than that. So even a IC-60 isn't really appropriately oversized for what you describe. It should work, but it won't really meet our oversize recommendation.

 

[KendallJ]

Thanks for the feedback. We aren't considered a commercial pool here in the Virgin Islands so should be fine code wise. Our camps only run about 4 weeks out of the year. Other than that we have a pretty low swimmer load in a typical week. For most of us we use the pool to cool off at the end of the day. If we want to swim for a long period of time we just go to the beach.

With our location, we do use the pool year round so I'm really wondering how long we can expect a cell to last. Luckily, our outside temp is very stable year round and only varies by 10 degrees or so with the water temp even more stable. Worse case is that we have to add another cell to the system if we can't keep up with chlorine demand.

I'm looking forward to beginning the TFP method and hopefully spend more time enjoying our pool than maintaining it