- Nov 12, 2017
- 12,662
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Inline... me in black...
Ok, I'm assuming you're referring to the PL4 and/or PLS4. In that case, I'm good. I've got the standard EasyTouch 8 (#520540) panel.
Yes, I hate my PLS4. You've got the 8. Yay!
As for the water metering, that has been on my mind for many weeks now. At first I was considering buying one of the expensive in-line meters,
You can get a very good one for about $60.
lately I've been leaning towards the $15 variety at the hardware store and doing a few bucket tests to see how (in)accurate it is.
Still probably better than just trying to calculate the volume from dimensions.
The house water meter thing is probably an option (need to go look in the box out front to make sure) but I was concerned with household water usage skewing the numbers during the fill.
A typical street meter has a margin of error of about 1%. Some 1.5%. That number's going to be worse with your $15 solution. And about the same for the $60 solution. So you're never going to know exactly how much water you have. I wouldn't think filling a bucket a few times is going to get you anywhere. These meters probably vary the margin in other ways throughout the fill. So a random sample wouldn't account for much. I don't know, maybe it would. Doesn't matter: The margin of error on most of the tests (TF100 or Taylor) is about 10%, some are worse than that, so you only need to be so accurate anyway. You could use a lot of water in your house and still be OK. Or you can count showers and toilet flushes and subtract those from the meter reads and get a little closer. Avoiding laundry and dishwasher and landscape watering are easy enough to do for a day. Alternately, you can calculate your average daily use from a water bill, and just use house water normally and subtract the average number from your meter math. Or about 80 gallons per person per day (according to google). It's all same-same, and accurate enough to do your testing and dosing. The meter trick is only meant to combat dimension calc's, or guesses, which can be wildly off, up to 5K or more sometimes. My pool guys were watching me meter my pool and taking guesses: 10K to 18K was their "professional" estimate range!!
I know for certain though that I'm going to do something to measure it as I'd like to get as accurate a figure as I can for the chemical calculations. That kind of stuff is right up my alley.
Mine too, which is why I used a dedicated meter at the end of a hose. But, like I said, that only got me within 1% of my volume, which works out to ±123 gallons. Which is more water than I use in a day in my house! So should I have bothered?
In one of the posts you had mentioned the main water meter as a good solution because it allowed the use of multiple hoses. I was just reading through the fill/brushing instructions from my contractor and they sate that multiple hoses are OK if you have Pebble or white plaster, but to only use one hose if it is colored plaster.
First I heard of such a thing. If I had to guess... How long the water sits in any one place can affect the color relative to somewhere else. Which is why you don't want it dripping down your walls, or splashing or pooling anywhere longer than anywhere else. Maybe that's why. That by filling from two different locations might make one location a different color? I would think binding two or three hose ends together, and stuffing them all together into a sock would solve for that, if that's the reason.
I'm using colored Wet Edge Altima, so I'm guessing I fall into the colored plaster category. Not sure why they say this. Seems to me if both hose ends were kept under water, it shouldn't be a problem. I was however thinking of replacing my hose bib with a "Garden Valve" so I could increase my fill rate. Much bigger orifice inside the garden valve which should equate to a higher fill rate.
Yes and no. If I understand my plumbing physics, it's more about the run than about any pinch point. So behind that valve, is likely a 1/2" pipe. Maybe a 3/4" pipe. But likely less than than the water main pipe. So the water will "pinch" at the valve, but actually speed up there, too, so the volume isn't a whole lot less. It's the long run of pipe behind it, and the long run of hose in front of it, that affect the flow more than the valve (friction, I believe, is the bigger issue). So by using more than one hose, you're accessing more than one pipe, which will get you more volume. I'm still learning this stuff, but it's what I've come up with so far. (I was researching how crimp fittings vs push fittings affect flow through PEX plumbing. The consensus was the length of the PEX had more to do with the flow than the diameter of the fittings.)
Seems to me the faster the fill, the less likely you would be to get rings?
That seems perfectly logical to me. There are differing schools of thought about when to start the fill after the plaster is installed, but once the fill starts, the faster the better, I would think. And not just about rings. Pool plaster does not do well exposed to the air. So the less the better I say.
And don't worry Kim, I'll be getting back to the equipment pad, but at the moment my presence is being requested for a game of laser tag with my daughter who is home "sick" from school today...
Well, we all find ways to play hookie now and then. For some it's laser tag, others hang out on internet forums. Or so I've heard...
Ok, I'm assuming you're referring to the PL4 and/or PLS4. In that case, I'm good. I've got the standard EasyTouch 8 (#520540) panel.
Yes, I hate my PLS4. You've got the 8. Yay!
As for the water metering, that has been on my mind for many weeks now. At first I was considering buying one of the expensive in-line meters,
You can get a very good one for about $60.
lately I've been leaning towards the $15 variety at the hardware store and doing a few bucket tests to see how (in)accurate it is.
Still probably better than just trying to calculate the volume from dimensions.
The house water meter thing is probably an option (need to go look in the box out front to make sure) but I was concerned with household water usage skewing the numbers during the fill.
A typical street meter has a margin of error of about 1%. Some 1.5%. That number's going to be worse with your $15 solution. And about the same for the $60 solution. So you're never going to know exactly how much water you have. I wouldn't think filling a bucket a few times is going to get you anywhere. These meters probably vary the margin in other ways throughout the fill. So a random sample wouldn't account for much. I don't know, maybe it would. Doesn't matter: The margin of error on most of the tests (TF100 or Taylor) is about 10%, some are worse than that, so you only need to be so accurate anyway. You could use a lot of water in your house and still be OK. Or you can count showers and toilet flushes and subtract those from the meter reads and get a little closer. Avoiding laundry and dishwasher and landscape watering are easy enough to do for a day. Alternately, you can calculate your average daily use from a water bill, and just use house water normally and subtract the average number from your meter math. Or about 80 gallons per person per day (according to google). It's all same-same, and accurate enough to do your testing and dosing. The meter trick is only meant to combat dimension calc's, or guesses, which can be wildly off, up to 5K or more sometimes. My pool guys were watching me meter my pool and taking guesses: 10K to 18K was their "professional" estimate range!!
I know for certain though that I'm going to do something to measure it as I'd like to get as accurate a figure as I can for the chemical calculations. That kind of stuff is right up my alley.
Mine too, which is why I used a dedicated meter at the end of a hose. But, like I said, that only got me within 1% of my volume, which works out to ±123 gallons. Which is more water than I use in a day in my house! So should I have bothered?
In one of the posts you had mentioned the main water meter as a good solution because it allowed the use of multiple hoses. I was just reading through the fill/brushing instructions from my contractor and they sate that multiple hoses are OK if you have Pebble or white plaster, but to only use one hose if it is colored plaster.
First I heard of such a thing. If I had to guess... How long the water sits in any one place can affect the color relative to somewhere else. Which is why you don't want it dripping down your walls, or splashing or pooling anywhere longer than anywhere else. Maybe that's why. That by filling from two different locations might make one location a different color? I would think binding two or three hose ends together, and stuffing them all together into a sock would solve for that, if that's the reason.
I'm using colored Wet Edge Altima, so I'm guessing I fall into the colored plaster category. Not sure why they say this. Seems to me if both hose ends were kept under water, it shouldn't be a problem. I was however thinking of replacing my hose bib with a "Garden Valve" so I could increase my fill rate. Much bigger orifice inside the garden valve which should equate to a higher fill rate.
Yes and no. If I understand my plumbing physics, it's more about the run than about any pinch point. So behind that valve, is likely a 1/2" pipe. Maybe a 3/4" pipe. But likely less than than the water main pipe. So the water will "pinch" at the valve, but actually speed up there, too, so the volume isn't a whole lot less. It's the long run of pipe behind it, and the long run of hose in front of it, that affect the flow more than the valve (friction, I believe, is the bigger issue). So by using more than one hose, you're accessing more than one pipe, which will get you more volume. I'm still learning this stuff, but it's what I've come up with so far. (I was researching how crimp fittings vs push fittings affect flow through PEX plumbing. The consensus was the length of the PEX had more to do with the flow than the diameter of the fittings.)
Seems to me the faster the fill, the less likely you would be to get rings?
That seems perfectly logical to me. There are differing schools of thought about when to start the fill after the plaster is installed, but once the fill starts, the faster the better, I would think. And not just about rings. Pool plaster does not do well exposed to the air. So the less the better I say.
And don't worry Kim, I'll be getting back to the equipment pad, but at the moment my presence is being requested for a game of laser tag with my daughter who is home "sick" from school today...
Well, we all find ways to play hookie now and then. For some it's laser tag, others hang out on internet forums. Or so I've heard...
gurrrrrrrrrr
NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 