SWG with a Timer

[crackers8199]

Moved from here.
another question about this: my SWCG is turned on/off by one of those yellow dial intermatic timers, but the pump is wired direct to the breaker because it has its own schedule built in. i always do my best to make sure the times match, but i guess occasionally they can be off by a few minutes (since it's impossible to get an exact time on that stupid yellow dial). sometimes, the SWCG will turn on before the pump does, i know because if i happen to be outside around this time i see that the lights on the SWCG are on (but the flow light is red). obviously the pump fires up a short time later and i haven't had an issue yet...but now i'm more than a little concerned.

is this ok? i've been thinking about upgrading the yellow dial timer to a digital one so i can make sure the time matches the pump exactly, but keep putting it off...if there's a risk my pool equipment is going to explode, that might be the kick in the Rear i need to just do the upgrade already.

 

[mknauss]

Your set up is fine. The process of getting enough hydrogen and chlorine gas accumulated to give the chance of an explosion takes some time. So doing your best to keep the timer and VS pump schedule in sync is fully acceptable.

 

[crackers8199]

Your set up is fine. The process of getting enough hydrogen and chlorine gas accumulated to give the chance of an explosion takes some time. So doing your best to keep the timer and VS pump schedule in sync is fully acceptable.

awesome, thanks!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I've read where folks let the pump run schedule go on/off 30-60 min outside of the SWG timer. Just a bit of extra caution there.

Maddie

 

[PullJunkie]

If you do look for a timer in the future, check out the Tork DTU40, it is digital and works with 120/240 and is not that expensive. That is what I use.

 

[sean.a.hyde]

Moved from here.
another question about this: my SWCG is turned on/off by one of those yellow dial intermatic timers, but the pump is wired direct to the breaker because it has its own schedule built in. i always do my best to make sure the times match, but i guess occasionally they can be off by a few minutes (since it's impossible to get an exact time on that stupid yellow dial). sometimes, the SWCG will turn on before the pump does, i know because if i happen to be outside around this time i see that the lights on the SWCG are on (but the flow light is red). obviously the pump fires up a short time later and i haven't had an issue yet...but now i'm more than a little concerned.

is this ok? i've been thinking about upgrading the yellow dial timer to a digital one so i can make sure the time matches the pump exactly, but keep putting it off...if there's a risk my pool equipment is going to explode, that might be the kick in the Rear i need to just do the upgrade already.

I just set my mechanical timer inside my pump runtime with a bigger margin (45-60 minutes). Since I have a VSP, it doesn't cost me much to run the pump slightly longer and I have an oversized SWCG, so it doesn't need to run very many hours anyway.

 

[crackers8199]

If you do look for a timer in the future, check out the Tork DTU40, it is digital and works with 120/240 and is not that expensive. That is what I use.

how difficult is it to retrofit that into the box where the intermatic sits? i was looking at the intermatic replacement digital timers solely based on the ease of just removing the old and putting the new in its place...

 

[PullJunkie]

how difficult is it to retrofit that into the box where the intermatic sits? i was looking at the intermatic replacement digital timers solely based on the ease of just removing the old and putting the new in its place...

I'm not sure, I have mine mounted on a wood panel next to my panel box which is inside my pool shed.

 

[crackers8199]

I just set my mechanical timer inside my pump runtime with a bigger margin (45-60 minutes). Since I have a VSP, it doesn't cost me much to run the pump slightly longer and I have an oversized SWCG, so it doesn't need to run very many hours anyway.

my only issue here is that i have the pump set to run while electricity is cheaper (i'm on a TOU plan)...in my case, MUCH cheaper. almost cut in half, actually...drops from 56c per kwh to 32c per kwh at 8pm. i have the pump set to come on at 8:05 to make sure i'm fully into the cheaper window...i try to do as little as possible from 2pm-8pm, which is the peak window. not only do i save by not using electricity, but i also have my solar generating during most of those hours which means i'm selling any excess back at the highest possible rate.

at 10pm it drops even further, to 15c per kwh. at some point i may push it back into that slot, but i hesitated (and still do) to do that because i didn't want to go 10 hours from noon to 10pm without the water circulating.

actually, that's a good question to ask here too: right now i have the pump running 5am-noon and 8pm-10pm. i could save a bit more even if i pushed that 8pm run back to 10pm...is there any harm in doing that? like i said, the only reason i haven't is because i didn't want that long of a period with the water just sitting there...but if that's not a big deal, the savings over a month could be decent.

 

[mknauss]

There are members that run their pumps as little as 2 hours per day. Water movement, once you have created/distributed the chlorine needed, is primarily for skimming the surface.