I am new to the SWG world and am trying to plan "winter" in California. The pool does get down into the high 50's during the winter, but if I don't chlorinate I will get mustard algae even at those temps. Since the SWG won't function at that temp I'm assuming all I can do is go back to manually pouring liquid chlorine every day between November and May? That's going to be a big damper on my joy at not having to cart 100+ lbs of chlorine every three weeks.
Preventing Algae with an SWG during winter?
- Thread starter sbcpool
- Start date
the_sphynx
Well-known member
- Feb 19, 2019
- 108
- Pool Size
- 25000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I live down in SD county (North SD county) and I have a SWG. I typically just got buy a 4 gallon of bleach pack from the pool store and that lasts me all winter.
With the low water temperatures we really don't get any growth in the pool. My SWG is only off for maybe 2-3 weeks total before the water gets up to ~60F or so and then it kicks back on. I would just pour a gallon in, test it the next day and see if it has actually burned off. In my case, I only have to add about a gallon a week or two during the winter months.
The one thing I didn't account for when it really started heating up here this year was that during the winter the CYA will also just naturally get lower due to the UV hitting it. So I had some low CYA numbers when I first started this year. So with my lower CYA I was burning chlorine faster than I could generate it for a bit there.
With the low water temperatures we really don't get any growth in the pool. My SWG is only off for maybe 2-3 weeks total before the water gets up to ~60F or so and then it kicks back on. I would just pour a gallon in, test it the next day and see if it has actually burned off. In my case, I only have to add about a gallon a week or two during the winter months.
The one thing I didn't account for when it really started heating up here this year was that during the winter the CYA will also just naturally get lower due to the UV hitting it. So I had some low CYA numbers when I first started this year. So with my lower CYA I was burning chlorine faster than I could generate it for a bit there.
Thanks. I'm already loving that I don't have to think about running to the pool store this week for another $65 worth of chlorine and breaking my back lugging it to and from the car. Hopefully what I need during the winter will be minimal. The year before last I didn't need any and never saw algae, but this winter I had to keep it going like summer.
My CYA disappears completely during the winter. I suspect it is consumed by bacteria when the FC reaches 0 and the temps are cold enough that there's no algae, or it's so slow that I don't notice it's time for more before the CYA is gone.
- Jul 3, 2013
- 9,028
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool SJ-40
When I close my pool I take mine to SLAM levels and check levels monthly during the winter.. when the level drops to normal I bring it back to SLAM level... That will protect your CYA and make the time between additions longer 