Water aeration mechanism

[ArchaeoChick]

Hi there! I live in central Texas, and it’s crazy hot. The water temp on my 7k-gallon pool is currently 96 degrees, and I’d like to utilize aeration overnight to cool the water.

I bought a PVC waterfall/aeration setup on Amazon: Amazon.com

I hooked it up to my return jet per instructions, and expected the spray to reach several feet into the air like product review photos showed for other pool owners. Womp womp, the spray is more of a sprinkle that barely extends one foot.

I don’t understand what is different about my pool/install vs. the success other people seem to have with this product. The PVC valve window is closed, so I’d think that the max amount of water is flowing through the setup, and I turned my equipment setting to high in order to increase water pressure. Does anyone have a similar aeration setup or have any ideas? It feels like I’m just not going to be able to use my pool during the summer because of the uncomfortable water temp.

 

[woodyp]

You have a variable speed pump? Other returns or other water features?

 

[ArchaeoChick]

Yes, I do have a variable speed pump. I have 6 return jets in total split between 3 return lines. All the jets have to be manually closed/opened. I’m guessing that the PVC aerator isn’t getting enough water pressure when it has to share with the other return jets? But it also seems like a huge hassle to manually close them all to aerate overnight and then open them all in the morning.

 

[woodyp]

Yep... you gonna have to shut some of it down or at least tun a higher speed over night. Experiment! Maybe a little of both.

 

[rhawke]

I suggest reading this article. That little aerator most likely won't make a huge difference. I have 4 built in sprinklers and running those for 12 hours at night reduces temp by about 3-4F from 89F to 85F. Here in Houston the nights are incredibly humid and hot (low of 80F and 90 % humidity) so you might be better of in central texas.

What made the biggest difference for us is shading the pool. Even without any aerators the umbrellas keep the pool below 89F during the day, at night the pool naturally cools back down to 87F. When I came back from vacation last week (Umbrellas were down for a while) the pool temp was 95F. So that's the difference the umbrellas can make.

Here are the links showing pictures of the umbrellas:

Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Effective Pool Cooling for Hot Climates

Living in Houston where my pool in August usually was 93-94F, I had tried all the aerating ideas from this pool cooling page and none yielded more than maybe 1F reduction. Cooling A Pool - Further Reading This year, because we wanted to reduce sun exposure for our baby in the pool, I bought 3...

www.troublefreepool.com