Calcium Hylochlorite and ORP control systems

[Pcmaker]

We use trichlor on our commercial pool and we use an IPS ORP controller that opens the valve when the ORP goes below setpoint. It's a severely flawed system as ORP does not play well with CYA higher than 30.

The local pool supply is talking me into switching over to using cal hypo instead of trichlor. Is this a better system than using trichlor when it comes to having an ORP chemical feeder? I'm basically switching over from CYA to Calcium as a UV protectant.

As an added note, we replaster the pool and jacuzzi evert 5 years, the pumps run 24/7 and they are both heated. 38k gallon pool and 1.6k gallon spa.

The preferred disenfectant is liquid chlorine, but our pump room is too small to accomodate for it.

I'm also looking into salt water chlorine generators, but I hear that it's a slow feed and can't keep up with commercial pools with high bather loads.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Calcium does not protect against UV. You still need some CYA in the water unless your local health regulations forbid its use in a public pool.

If you use cal-hypo as your chlorine source then you’ll need to manage your CH to avoid scaling. Also note that cal-hypo can cause temporary water cloudiness so you’ll want to add it at an appropriate time to avoid having cloudiness show up when bathers are using the pool.

 

[PPOA]

We use trichlor on our commercial pool and we use an IPS ORP controller that opens the valve when the ORP goes below setpoint. It's a severely flawed system as ORP does not play well with CYA higher than 30.

The local pool supply is talking me into switching over to using cal hypo instead of trichlor. Is this a better system than using trichlor when it comes to having an ORP chemical feeder? I'm basically switching over from CYA to Calcium as a UV protectant.

As an added note, we replaster the pool and jacuzzi evert 5 years, the pumps run 24/7 and they are both heated. 38k gallon pool and 1.6k gallon spa.

The preferred disenfectant is liquid chlorine, but our pump room is too small to accomodate for it.

I'm also looking into salt water chlorine generators, but I hear that it's a slow feed and can't keep up with commercial pools with high bather loads.

I have used ORP to successfully control chlorine generators for residential pools. You are correct, in most situations chlorine generators are slow to respond. That is because their cells are undersized to save money. That is why I have always installed the largest available cell even with very small pools. For instance, I installed 60K gallon cells on 10K gallon pools. This makes the chlorinator quick to respond when sanitizer is needed. FYI, a larger cell does not cost much more than a small one but the larger cell will have a life much longer because it will operate less. In your situation, you might explore the possibility of installing two 60K gallon cells in parallel. If that can be done, then the system would NOT be slow to respond.

 

[ajw22]

Pentair has commercial SWG cells that can be ganged together in a master/slave control system for larger capacity requirements.