Pools been up and running for a few weeks now with no real issues. I decided I had better check the chlorine in the cartridge and notice it was just about gone. Used my test kit and saw I was at 2ppm FC 0 CC. Ran to the pool store for another cartridge of Trichlor (just finishing out the season). My CYA is still maintaining at 20ppm but I did use pool math to calculate a 8.25% bleach add to get my FC to 4ppm before adding the cartridge. It seems to do the job at maintaining the levels but the price is stupid. Like $28 for 2 cartridges that will get me about 4-5 weeks.
So far so good!
- Thread starter mrramsey
- Start date
Cartridge of trichlor? I might be wrong, but the only way I've seen them is pucks or bags- and I've not seen bags except for dichlor. Stick with the bleach or other liquid chlorine so you don't end up with a cya problem.
Sounds like a great plan, Mr. Ramsey. You're farther north than I and at most we have only a few more weeks of the season (unless you have some great heat source). With a current CYA of 20, you should be good with pucks. Great job on adding the liquid chlorine quickly! As you know, keep it above minimums to avoid problems.
Trichlor-
A great heat source lol. Been swimming in a balmy 72 degree water. Not so bad when the sun is out though. I have kicked around the idea of a heater but figure I will let it go one more full season before I make the determination to add one or not.
jccams
0
Think of a plastic housing full of small pucks, like 3/4" dia x 1/4" thick. I had one in my pool, I believe it was swimway?
Yep that sounds a lot like it. At any rate if my CYA was higher I would have used just the bleach but being that there are only 4-ish weeks left to our season and I decide to turn the chlorinator to its highest setting for some reason CYA will not be an issue.
Are those small pucks the only thing you can put in the place you put the cartdige in? Or can you put in say 3" pucks? Further, what weight are the pucks inside each cartridge?
The only advantage that I see to the cartridge is that I can adjust the flow rate through the cartridge so that there is some control of the amount that is released. If I had a source for the 1" tablets I could refill the cartridges. The downside to using bleach is the waste (meaning the plastic jugs). I keep it on the lowest setting running my pump on low speed at 3 intervals of 4 hours per day. At least so far this has kept the parameters in check. My pool is kept covered when not in use for the most part.
That's not really an answer to my questions. I'm trying to figure out if there is a less expensive way of using pucks. Or, how much those tiny pucks you're using weigh to see how much cya you're adding by using them.
I'm not sure the package would have anything on the label but net weight (since I don't have any experience with that kind of trichlor). Do you have some way to weigh the pucks themselves?
jccams
0
If this chlorinator is anything like mine you would have to cut the plastic cartridge open in order to remove a puck.
I didnt weigh the puck but the empty cartridge was about 3 oz leaving 21oz of pucks so maybe the equivalent of 3 - 3" pucks??
Also my cartridges just have a plastic plug that is removable. Wonder if I could just refil with 1" trichlor???
I've weighed my 3" pucks some are 7oz per and other 8. So, I'd guess that could be close. Now to do the math and find out what the cost diff would be. I'd say to put the cartridges away and use them for when you're going on vacation and use Liquid chlorine for day-to-day chlorination. Yes, you will end up putting the jugs in a trash collection Like I did for about a year till I installed my SWG this spring. I'll never go back to liquid except in an emergency! And certainly absolutely never back to solid!!!
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