What did you do to your pool today?

[Dirk]

Shouldn’t there be a camera to monitor the Dosabacus?

Oh Grasshopper, have you learned nothing?

 

[Dirk]

@Newdude's post almost killed me, "Noooooo, too soon!" I would have had the perfect reply to that, but the nuts from Amazon didn't get here until Thursday!

 

[Ahultin]

I replaced my intelliph stenner tube today - ~2yrs 2mo of usage and it looks totally fine but I replaced it anyhow. The 2 pack of stenner ec30 pump tubes is up to $37 which seemed excessive for what it is but oh so worth the convenience. I did discover while I had it apart that the injection assembly is not fully sealing as with the pool pump running some pool water was pushing thru the check valve.
I'm looking at Amazon and there is a pentair part with ~1 week shipping or a stenner part that looks oddly similar with next day and 1/3 the price. I may roll the dice and order both.

 

[dereksanders]

Protip: when gathering the supplies and filling the vial, just keep repeating 'to 10 ml' over and over. Long story but you'll thank me one day.

I did myself twice this year. Repeating 10ml is essential.

 

[dereksanders]

I added some bracing to the cheap ladder that came with the pool. I had to modify the ladder to fit and work with the deck when it was added. Been meaning to do it for a while and had the time to do it today. The best part was the ladder was algae-free inside and out.

 

[Homebrewale]

This was a wild year by me and you probably saw similar. The first 2 years at the new place was rock solid getting 12 weeks on the summer adjustment. This year was 3 days at 60%, 2 days at 40%, 4 days at 60%, 3 days ar 40%......

Dunno if the clouds were denser or what but within a weeks in I was adjusting the cell by looking at my weather forcast from the equipment pad and looking up to confirm.

For 8.5 years at the old place the adjustments were like clockwork. 20/40/60/40/20. the only question was did any setting last 4 or 6 weeks.

I can't really say if it was a different year or not. I just installed the IC40 in August so I got one month of experience with it. I was trying to baby the iChlor 30 to the end of swim season but it just didn't make it.

 

[Homebrewale]

Ah, my bad. I misread your SWG experience.

The IC40 is capable of 1% adjustments, but only through their other automation interfaces, like the EasyTouch and IntelliTouch, etc. But little known: also via the IntellipH. So if a full automation system isn't in your future, but maybe automating acid dosing is, you can run the IntelliChlor/IntellipH combo without full automation. When the IntellipH is in the mix, the IC output is set with the IntellipH, not its front panel. And the IntellipH offers the 1% increments you're after. And 1% acid dosing increments as well. The IpH is a simple DIY install, and just plugs into the IC's power supply, and then the IC plugs into the IpH. No other wiring. Then it's just drilling a hole in you pad's PVC plumbing for the injector installation.

If that's any sort of consideration, check back in for the IpH's known bug, and the simple DIY workaround for it, just so you have the full story.

I love my combo, and only have to handle chlorine and acid a few times a year.

Probably not in my future. I went all last summer without adding muriatic acid. This year, I've had to add it twice.

 

[Dirk]

Wow, exponential sales. You obviously don't need a promotion team for your company. I wonder how you even have the time to hang out here. How is your Ferrari doing?

I went all last summer without adding muriatic acid. This year, I've had to add it twice.

Yep, the difference locale can make. My city's water plays havoc with my pool's pH. I have to add acid every day. Pentair designed the IC with their automation preducts in mind. It's not particularly user-friendly without them. Hopefully, you'll find an alternate solution. Modifying runtime in some way is the only other one I can think of.

 

[Homebrewale]

Yep, the difference locale can make. My city's water plays havoc with my pool's pH. I have to add acid every day. Pentair designed the IC with their automation preducts in mind. It's not particularly user-friendly without them. Hopefully, you'll find an alternate solution. Modifying runtime in some way is the only other one I can think of.

My problem with runtime is that I'm limited to three changes in pump speed per day. My Hayward pump on my last pool had 8 programmed settings which allowed me more flexibility with changing speeds during the day. When this pump dies, I'll replace it with either a Pentair Intelliflo or Hayward pump where I will again have 8 programmed settings. If I stick with Pentair, maybe I'll get automation. I try to stay simple because more complicated (automation) can mean more problems. I read the numerous threads on issues people are having with their automation.

 

[Dirk]

I try to stay simple

There's a lot to be said for that. And I hear ya on the scheduling. Very frustrating. My EasyTouch Lite would only do four schedules. I upgraded it to get a "luxurious" twelve schedules. And of course I could use more. Frustrating because 100 schedules is probably just a matter of an additional $5 chip!

I still say an outdoor timer dedicated to your SWG would solve the problem. There are digital and analog types. Some as low as $40. 120V or 240V. You'd want to set it up such that it cannot run unless the pump is on, but there are solutions for that. Anywho, I'm just repeating myself. Good luck.

This may or may not be the right brand/model. Just an example to get you in the ballpark:

Amazon.com

 

[Homebrewale]

There's a lot to be said for that. And I hear ya on the scheduling. Very frustrating. My EasyTouch Lite would only do four schedules. I upgraded it to get a "luxurious" twelve schedules. And of course I could use more. Frustrating because 100 schedules is probably just a matter of an additional $5 chip!

I still say an outdoor timer dedicated to your SWG would solve the problem. There are digital and analog types. Some as low as $40. 120V or 240V. You'd want to set it up such that it cannot run unless the pump is on, but there are solutions for that. Anywho, I'm just repeating myself. Good luck.

This may or may not be the right brand/model. Just an example to get you in the ballpark:

Amazon.com

Thanks for the suggestion. I may look into that during the offseason. I'll have to hire it out since I don't mess with electrical. I assume you are setting it up to turn the SWG on and off. I don't want to turn the pump on and off. I'll get a new pump first since I want to be able to run at lower RPMs with the SWG on. Right now the current pump needs to run at 2000 RPM to keep the SWG on.

 

[Dirk]

I assume you are setting it up to turn the SWG on and off. I don't want to turn the pump on and off.

Correct. The pump needs 24/7 power. Only the SWG would be on the timer. That way, you could dial up or down the SWG output just by adjusting it's runtime (or a combination of SWG output % and runtime). You just need to be aware that an SWG can't be able to run when there is no flow. So you use two safeguards:
1. Make sure the SWG schedule is bracketed within the pump schedule. As long as you run the pump 24/7, this won't be an issue.
2. Make sure the SWG won't produce chlorine when there is no flow through it. Pentair IntelliChlor's have a flow sensor built in, so that's covered, too.

The only potential risk is if you run your pump for less than 24 hours a day. Even if you schedule the SWG runtime to occur during the pump runtime, there is the possibility that the SWG timer would get out of sync with the pump's timer (like a fault in either's timer mechanism, or a power failure, etc).

Mechanical timers are very prone to the power failure problem. If you find a digital timer with a battery backup, then that's better. But even in the event of this out-of-sync senario, the IC's flow switch will come to the rescue.

Again, as long as your pump is running 24 hours a day, you'll be fine. On the off chance you have a pump failure, the flow switch in the IntelliChlor will be the safety backup in that scenario, too.

 

[Dirk]

I don't wanna jinx it, but I think I fixed my SWG today. It was coming on for a few minutes, and then going dark. Same for the IntellipH it was plugged into. Thanks to what I learned here at TFP, about Pentair's surge boards and measuring their various voltages, I got it narrowed down to the card. Popped in the new card after it arrived from Amazon and today both the IntellipH and IntelliChlor ran all day. Fingers crossed.

But it took me a few weeks to get this resolved, between the troubleshooting and my bandwidth and the shipping, etc. Like most SWG owners here, I evangelize SWGs, citing cost and convenience, etc. A few days into doing without one, I really got a sense of what I've been preaching! Yikes. I lose my SWG in the winter, to water temp, but that's only testing and dosing once a week, or about 12 times a year. But no SWG in midsummer meant dosing every day, testing almost as much, and lugging chlorine from the local Leslie's. I realized, because I went straight from firing pool guy to SWG, I never had to do that before. And boy oh boy does that suck! Wasn't particularly cheap, either. The board was a couple bills, but the chlorine was almost as much!!

SWG for me, for life!

 

[Newdude]

I never had to do that before. And boy oh boy does that suck!

Can confirm. Had SWG only pool and then moved. I was all excited to be a jug lugger for a bit before the SWG was running on the new pool. Went to HD and they had last years supply. Went across the street to Lowes and they had the same. But. I saw a new pallet up high. I waited 20 mins for the forklift kid to be free, then drop the pallet. That was last years too. Then onto Walmart and it took an hour and a half to get 6 gallons of bleach.

'I'm already at the store" they say.
'It's not that bad' they say.

 

[Dirk]

Can confirm. Had SWG only pool and then moved. I was all excited to be a jug lugger for a bit before the SWG was running on the new pool. Went to HD and they had last years supply. Went across the street to Lowes and they had the same. But. I saw a new pallet up high. I waited 20 mins for the forklift kid to be free, then drop the pallet. That was last years too. Then onto Walmart and it took an hour and a half to get 6 gallons of bleach.

'I'm already at the store" they say.
'It's not that bad' they say.

Yikes. But can you imagine the poor folks that don't even know enough to check the chlorine dates? They're spending all that money for jugs of water and ending up with green pools, scratching their heads and hating their pools.

 

[PoolStored]

But can you imagine the poor folks that don't even know enough to check the chlorine dates?

Can you imagine all the poor folks chlorinating with pucks that don't know enough to check CYA levels? My guess is they dwarf the LC users.

 

[Homebrewale]

I will be draining water out of the pool today. Yesterday I received 3.52" of rain. Over the last 5 days, I received 4.71" of rain. The water level is above the skimmers.

 

[Homebrewale]

Too add to previous post, I wish this pool would have come with an overflow pipe. My previous pool had one. More times than not, I'm draining, not adding more water to the pool. I didn't realize just how many times that happens during the summer since I never had to worry about rain before.

 

[Mdragger88]

Too add to previous pool, I wish this pool would have come with an overflow pipe. My previous pool had one. More times than not, I'm draining, not adding more water to the pool. I didn't realize just how many times that happens during the summer since I never had to worry about rain before.

Here our rainiest time is in the fall it seems - i have no data to back that up lol
Every fall I think about adding an overflow but never do it. Hopefully today is the day!
Off to the hardware store!!

 

[Homebrewale]

How do you add an overflow after the fact?