Second Opinion Regarding Quote I Got for UV + Filter

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nullspace

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Apr 21, 2021
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Indoor pool
I have a 30,000 gallon indoor pool that I maintain myself. It's a chlorine pool, and I generally follow the recommendations of TFP in terms of Cl levels, CYA, etc. We bought the house 3 years ago and there is quite a bit of deferred maintenance that we have been addressing.

I should note that I live in a part of the country where pools are very uncommon, so any maintenance costs are much higher than you'd see elsewhere. Even getting someone to give a quote has taken months - I trust the person we found; they have a good reputation and have made it clear I don't need to do anything right this second.

That said, I got a quote for addressing anything in the filtration system. The quote came back at $12K and includes some items that are not required - I wanted to get the forum's opinion of these items.

The pool person recommended a UV filter, a new sand filter, and some other various plumbing updates/changes. The most expensive item by far is the UV filter.

I typically keep the pool at 5ppm free Cl, and I have to add Cl every week. I shock only once a year as the pool doesn't get much use other than the occasional family swim. My understanding is that the UV filter would reduce the level of Cl I'd need and maybe even eliminate the need to shock every year. That sounds nice but I'm not sure it's worth nearly $4,000 installed.

What advice would you give? I'm not trying to do the cheapest option possible, but I also don't want to spend money unnecessarily. Would UV be a big improvement?
 
Let's take a step back - what problems are you trying to fix?

A UV system may be appropriate in an indoor pool. The UV system will help burn off any CC's which is what you try to do when you "shock" the pool. A UV system will not change the FC level you should maintain in the pool and the UV will consume some chlorine.

One issue with a UV system is there is no way to confirm if it is operating so it is hard to rely on something you cannot test.
 
There isn't a problem with the current system, per se. I do minimal maintenance on the pool and it works just fine. Some parts are nearing the end of their life though, so while I'm replacing them I figured I'd look at other improvements to save on labor cost.

Interesting point about UV being untestable. I'm leaning toward skipping it; that's a lot of money just to avoid a yearly shock.
 
As a new user of TFP I can understand not wanting to fill out all the user info right off the bat (we might be evil and try to sell all of your personal info to various advertising firms and government agencies .... oh wait, no, that's Facebook). If you could do us a favor and fill out your signature with all of your pool details and add your ACTUAL location in the world to your profile, that would help. We promise, we won't send two nicely dressed young men with name-tags from TFP to your front door holding Taylor Water Testing Manuals in their hands .... (more than likely they'd be two shabby looking dudes with scruffy beards and a beer bellies wanting to check out your pool equipment room ... they may have showered in the last week or so but no promises).
 
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As you can see from the article that @Newdude recommended our experts are a little more on the fence about an indoor pool. If it were me I'd still go with a salt pool and I see noting that persuades me that there's a strong benefit to a UV system. For a large indoor pool like yours I would expect the cell would last a lot longer since it would not be fighting the UV burn off every day... plus my wife will never let me go with anything other than a salt pool in the future. Last argument I'd have is the price. Wow! That would be the knock out blow for me. You could get a fantastic automation system plus a VS motor plus an swg and still have a lot left over!

Chris
 
JoyfulNoise said:
As a new user of TFP I can understand not wanting to fill out all the user info right off the bat (we might be evil and try to sell all of your personal info to various advertising firms and government agencies .... oh wait, no, that's Facebook). If you could do us a favor and fill out your signature with all of your pool details and add your ACTUAL location in the world to your profile, that would help. We promise, we won't send two nicely dressed young men with name-tags from TFP to your front door holding Taylor Water Testing Manuals in their hands .... (more than likely they'd be two shabby looking dudes with scruffy beards and a beer bellies wanting to check out your pool equipment room ... they may have showered in the last week or so but no promises).
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I did err on the side of privacy. :)

Since the pool is indoors in a finished, climate controlled room I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that location didn't really matter. It's between 80 and 100 in the pool room 24/7/365. There's a built-in hot tub that I don't use, and several water features including a waterfall, a little stream like thing, and the pool has the ability to overflow. If any scruffy dudes want to come check out the equipment room they'll find a bundle-of-snakes set of pipes and ten pumps feeding everything.
 
setsailsoon said:
As you can see from the article that @Newdude recommended our experts are a little more on the fence about an indoor pool. If it were me I'd still go with a salt pool and I see noting that persuades me that there's a strong benefit to a UV system. For a large indoor pool like yours I would expect the cell would last a lot longer since it would not be fighting the UV burn off every day... plus my wife will never let me go with anything other than a salt pool in the future. Last argument I'd have is the price. Wow! That would be the knock out blow for me. You could get a fantastic automation system plus a VS motor plus an swg and still have a lot left over!

Chris
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Thanks for the feedback. I also considered salt but the pool person thought UV would be better. I don't know if adding Cl every week is normal, but the pool has a sliding vinyl cover that's closed so the water gets zero sun. I add the equivalent of one gallon of regular strength bleach each week.
 
nullspace said:
I have an indoor pool, although I'm not sure if that changes anything.
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Ha. I missed that nugget of info. Apologies. :)

I still don’t like the residential units, even for indoors as they equate to little more than an overpriced lightbulb.

If they are quoting you a commercial unit, then I’d like to change my thoughts from not useful to possibly of use.
 

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With one gallon per week you certainly have only mild jug lugging to do so I get that but you could even do a salt pool and still be a jug lugger. It's all personal preference at this point but I'd go salt and jug-lug or swg and not UV. Does the pool person have reason? Would be interesting to know.

Anyway, good luck whichever way you go!

Chris
 
What is extremely important is how you test your pool water. What test kit do you use?

What filtration do you currently have? Is it a sand filter? So, are you replacing like for like?

You mention indoor pool and a pool cover. Are you experiencing pool water issues? Are you replacing equipment components because of pool water issues? Or is just the age of the components?
 
an1vrsy said:
What is extremely important is how you test your pool water. What test kit do you use?

What filtration do you currently have? Is it a sand filter? So, are you replacing like for like?

You mention indoor pool and a pool cover. Are you experiencing pool water issues? Are you replacing equipment components because of pool water issues? Or is just the age of the components?
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I use Taylor liquid reagent tests, replaced every year. The current filter is indeed a sand filter, so this would just be replacing for a similar one. The pool person was open that we could just replace the sand/filter material instead, but the pressure vessel is about 15 years old, the pressure gauge doesn't work, and it wasn't a ton more money to just replace the whole thing.

I don't have any water issues that I know of. There is some copper staining of the pool that happened before we moved in - presumably from previous issues. I am replacing the cover simply because it's old and starting to crack. I don't think that's due to any issue with the water though - it's just getting old.
 
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