Overchlorinate or Use Tabs When Out of Town?

[MrLeadFoot]

What do you guys and gals without SWG do to keep FC up when you go out of town for a few days to a week? I got my CYA to 35 in preparation of an upcoming trip thinking I would use tabs while I am gone. I then discovered theit cost is way up to the tune of $6.50 for one lousy tab, and over $50 for the smallest bucket! If I started making them myself, I'd likely make more money faster than a drug dealer outside a rehab center!

Am I better off trying to guess how much chlorine to overchlorinate with based on my normal loss per day? For example, I like to maintain 4-6. Assuming a loss of 3 per day, would you just add enough chlorine to get it to something like 25 (little extra for cushion) and leave for 5 days? Or, is that bad to do too often?

 

[Mdragger88]

I do both- raise to slam level
FC/CYA Levels & put some tabs in a floater. I usually rig up the floater with a string so it can’t go get stuck somewhere.
Your initial raise will liquid chlorine will carry you through the 1st half of your vacay & the tabs will get you through the back end. Usually the tabs aren’t fully dissolved by the time I return in 5/6 days.

 

[Mdragger88]

The other thing is to anticipate how much water you’ll need so raise or lower the water level according to your expected evaporation/rainfall.
If you get alot of falling debris you may need someone to come by & dump the skimmers. If you don’t have anyone you can set the pool to use the main drains only to prevent a skimmer/dry pump issue.
I usually have my inlaws come & check the mail/water the garden/ & dump the skimmer about 1/2 way through my trip or if there’s a storm they’ll come afterwards.

 

[MrLeadFoot]

The other thing is to anticipate how much water you’ll need so raise or lower the water level according to your expected evaporation/rainfall.
If you get alot of falling debris you may need someone to come by & dump the skimmers. If you don’t have anyone you can set the pool to use the main drains only to prevent a skimmer/dry pump issue.

Fortunately, I have autofill, so maintaining water won't be an issue.

In all the years I've been in this house, I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to run the main drain. Is there a secret to finding out how to tell?

I have two skimmers, each of which has a jandy valve near it, on the other side of the pool deck from the skimmer. When I turn one of the valves, it seems to regulate how much suction the skimmer gets. The less I give one skimmer, the more the other draws, and vice versa. Now, there are actually two ports in each skimmer. One is obviously the suction port. The other, I have no clue what it does. It just goes into an abyss. There have been times, when I've removed a basket to clean it, that a leaf has fallen into the abyss port, and if I can't get the leaf in time, the leaf slowly sinks into the abyss, never to be seen again.

I have another valve at the pump. This valve appears to divide suction between the main line of the skimmers and my dedicated vacuum port.

Any ideas?

 

[an1vrsy]

there are actually two ports in each skimmer. One is obviously the suction port. The other, I have no clue what it does.

Do you have a main drain? Or should I ask, do you have 2 drains in the deep end? If so, the drains may be plumbed to one skimmer. the port closest to the pool could be the line from the drain(s). Do you have a float valve in the skimmer? The float valve would be used to adjust the flow from the drains when you cover or uncover the hole on the bottom of the skimmer float valve

 

[MrLeadFoot]

Do you have a main drain? Or should I ask, do you have 2 drains in the deep end? If so, the drains may be plumbed to one skimmer. the port closest to the pool could be the line from the drain(s). Do you have a float valve in the skimmer? The float valve would be used to adjust the flow from the drains when you cover or uncover the hole on the bottom of the skimmer float valve

I do not have two drains on the floor in the deep end, I only have one. But, I do have what looks like a drain on the wall below the shallow end skimmer. Neither skimmer has anything in it aside from baskets that sit right down over both holes in the skimmers.

Is it possible that the one port closest to the pool in the deep end skimmer goes to the main drain, and the one in the shallow end connects to the wall drain? If that's true then I can see how removing the baskets and adding u-pipes connecting both ports in each skimmer would cause the skimmers to then draw from the floor and wall drains into the skimmer lines. Can pool plumbing be designed like that? If so, do I have to make my own u-pipes? And, how does that even help, in that leaves clogging a basket in a skimmer or clogging the drains would yield the same result when on vacation, wouldn't it?

 

[Mdragger88]

Post up some equipment pad pics

 

[Mdragger88]

Skimmer guards are also an option

Skimmer Guards - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[MrLeadFoot]

Post up some equipment pad pics

Not sure if I am posting them correctly, but below are pics.

Set to the far left as shown in the pic, the valve at the pad directs suction only at the skimmers. Set to the far right, suction is only at the vacuum port on a pool wall. Set to the middle, I get suction at skimmers and vacuum port, with off-center directing more or less suction between skimmers and vacuum port.

Deep-end skimmer. The port to the right is vacuum, the left port seems to do nothing.


Valve in ground near deep-end skimmer. My back is to the pool. The valve can turn another 45 degrees counter clockwise, which provides more suction to that skimmer, but robs suction from the shallow-end skimmer.


Wall drain(?) directly below shallow-end skimmer

 

[an1vrsy]

Here is a forum thread that may be dealing with the same thing you are with your 2 hole skimmer. Check it out.

 

[MrLeadFoot]

Here is a forum thread that may be dealing with the same thing you are with your 2 hole skimmer. Check it out.

Right before you posted your reply, I was watching some Youtube videos regarding my two=port skimmers. I think the float valves are the piece(s) of the puzzle that I am missing. I will look closely at that thread. Thank you.

 

[MrLeadFoot]

If one of the ports on the deep-end skimmer goes to the main drain, and there's no way to draw from the main drain because I don't have a float valve installed, couldn't that be a problem since debris that does fall down into the plumbing just sits there and rots? Wouldn't any of that debris just sit there and eventually add to the phosphates in the water? What about the water itself trapped in that plumbing? Shouldn't that line be somehow purged once in a while? Should I try putting a cleaner hose into both ports, or something, just to circulate that water/clear that line of potential debris every so often?