I've worked towards achieving as maintenance free of a pool as possible. Yes it's impossible to have one maintenance free. And I realize ORP and other points I have below are not very well received on TFP and have read quite a bit here but wanted to post my findings and get feedback from those that have direct, detailed experience with ORP and SWG. My pool is very automated, works great with the intellichem and my FC is usually between 1.5 and 4ppm, with pool cover open or closed. But I'd like to get a better understanding of what's going on and tighten the FC range (and I'm an engineer who really wants to optimize and learn).
One of the biggest concerns is the SWG impacting ORP readings. Yes I keep my CYA around 25. I also have a waterlink spintouch meter so i'm able to see in detail what's going on with the pool. I have 14k gallon pool with Pentair intellichem, IC40 SWG, Ph and ORP sensors, ClearComfort (which I know isn't popular on TFP but I love it!), and a pool cover which has it's advantages and disadvantages.
I'll start with SWG, ORP and pool cover. These interact quite a bit. ORP is fantastic, but when SWG turns on non-stop it drives orp lower for a while if it's on pretty much non stop for 30+ minutes. There are many theories about this such as ORP suppression, lock, hydrogen bubbles, etc. Some suggest that SWG may be somehow affecting the readings electrically however if that were to occur i would think it would happen much faster such as within a minute. I ran an experiment with a sample from the pool of water i took manually and dropped the ORP probe in there and it was similar to the flow cell measurement. However i see some posting saying they swirled it for 20 minutes to get the gas out and i haven't tried that yet. Others have posted about ORP gold vs platinum probes. Apparently the platinum probes are easier and cheaper to manufacture so pentair uses platinum and those from what i've read aren't as good for salt water pools. Some say gold probes solve this problem with ORP and SWG but i haven't bought one yet to try it out. Would love any comments here on experiences that worked for you. The pool cover may be holding in the hydrogen gas 7perhaps. I also have a cover over my spa and a valve to regulate how much water is returned to the pool vs spa, and there is a small area where the spillway could allow hydrogen to escape if i had enough going through the spa first. I haven't tried running controlled experiments for a week to see if no covers helps or not. Pentair said some customers with their pool equipment below pool water level (which is my scenario too) has these problems. My clearcomfort also has a venturi and this puts back pressure -- a lot more than just below water level which may also be magnifying some effect, i don't know. My flow cell tubes are pretty close to the SWG across the heater, and i thought perhaps the pressure differential wasn't enough to have adequate water flow through the flow cell, but the flow sensor senses the flow and my other tests suggest this isn't a problem with flow rate in flow cell. But perhaps somehow hydrogen or electrical currents on SWG are affecting back to the ORP sensor. So i did an experiment with the cup of pool water manually with the probe out of the flow cell, but i didn't remove the Ph sensor also unfortunately (in case somehow current is going through the Ph sensor affecting orp readings)? DEL makes a canister that gets rid of ozone bubbles or something, was thinking about having something to do that, but haven't found something that may work or anyone that solved it.
Clearcomfort seems to work great. And the pool cover seems to work great as well. SWG and clearcomfort and ORP - my pool first week with similar water temp and weather and pool chemistry was around 5% SWG usage for the whole week (when we didn't swim). When we did turn off clearcomfort for the following week, the SWG was on about 30% of the time. My SWG on average runs 5% of the time, and it's been 4 years and the SWG works great and likely will last a very long time since it almost never is turned on. Even the plates when i went to clean them looked new. I do plan on running more experiments with Clearcomfort to have more quantitative comparisons. Many people don't like these hydroxyl radicals or ozone type systems when they haven't used them much. I see a huge benefit in the reduced chlorine uses, reduced SWG use, in 4 years i've never had to shock my pool, my combined chlorines are always very low. I don't use it as a chlorine substitute or a way to get to almost 0 chlorine, i use it in addition to my system and it works great. Less SWG means less acid in my tank. If you can keep from adding any chemicals to your pool and keep it balanced then you have a lower maintenance pool that requires less to be added -- it's a win win situation. Even with SWG. Yes I know some say these devices it's hard to know if they are working. Well mine has a light that lights up based on the UV bulb so you know the UV bulb is working, and i have my waterlink spintouch and i can see the water chemistry a lot more than just FC and can accurately measure what happens to the pool with it on and off. I welcome others inputs on this if you have direct experience and not religious pool beliefs.
In conclusion i love my system and am looking for others that have any helpful info to add, or if you message me i can provide you more info as i collect it. My goal is to have as low of maintenance of pool as possible. Right now I add CYA to the pool about once a year to get it to 25, add once a year some baking soda to get alkalinity in balance, and buy about 1 gallon of acid every 2 months which is then auto fed with intellichem. My vacuum for the pool is Polaris MAXX which i love but it requires about 25gpm flow to climb and scrub the walls, so i can't run it with the skimmer but i've automated that too. it's under my pool cover scrubbing away without having to plug in any power wires etc. If anyone else has a lower maintenance pool or suggestions I'd love to hear it. I still have to scrub my stairs and my spa, and I still test water with spintouch weekly but it's usually pretty uneventful as the automation works very well, except as I've said above i'd like to control the FC to a tighter range and this ORP suppression seems to occur and then at some point it goes away after about 4ppm and then the SWG shuts off, but i'd prefer less overshoot. (FYI I did set up dose 5 minutes and mix 10 minutes and that does help too for SWG).
-Robert
One of the biggest concerns is the SWG impacting ORP readings. Yes I keep my CYA around 25. I also have a waterlink spintouch meter so i'm able to see in detail what's going on with the pool. I have 14k gallon pool with Pentair intellichem, IC40 SWG, Ph and ORP sensors, ClearComfort (which I know isn't popular on TFP but I love it!), and a pool cover which has it's advantages and disadvantages.
I'll start with SWG, ORP and pool cover. These interact quite a bit. ORP is fantastic, but when SWG turns on non-stop it drives orp lower for a while if it's on pretty much non stop for 30+ minutes. There are many theories about this such as ORP suppression, lock, hydrogen bubbles, etc. Some suggest that SWG may be somehow affecting the readings electrically however if that were to occur i would think it would happen much faster such as within a minute. I ran an experiment with a sample from the pool of water i took manually and dropped the ORP probe in there and it was similar to the flow cell measurement. However i see some posting saying they swirled it for 20 minutes to get the gas out and i haven't tried that yet. Others have posted about ORP gold vs platinum probes. Apparently the platinum probes are easier and cheaper to manufacture so pentair uses platinum and those from what i've read aren't as good for salt water pools. Some say gold probes solve this problem with ORP and SWG but i haven't bought one yet to try it out. Would love any comments here on experiences that worked for you. The pool cover may be holding in the hydrogen gas 7perhaps. I also have a cover over my spa and a valve to regulate how much water is returned to the pool vs spa, and there is a small area where the spillway could allow hydrogen to escape if i had enough going through the spa first. I haven't tried running controlled experiments for a week to see if no covers helps or not. Pentair said some customers with their pool equipment below pool water level (which is my scenario too) has these problems. My clearcomfort also has a venturi and this puts back pressure -- a lot more than just below water level which may also be magnifying some effect, i don't know. My flow cell tubes are pretty close to the SWG across the heater, and i thought perhaps the pressure differential wasn't enough to have adequate water flow through the flow cell, but the flow sensor senses the flow and my other tests suggest this isn't a problem with flow rate in flow cell. But perhaps somehow hydrogen or electrical currents on SWG are affecting back to the ORP sensor. So i did an experiment with the cup of pool water manually with the probe out of the flow cell, but i didn't remove the Ph sensor also unfortunately (in case somehow current is going through the Ph sensor affecting orp readings)? DEL makes a canister that gets rid of ozone bubbles or something, was thinking about having something to do that, but haven't found something that may work or anyone that solved it.
Clearcomfort seems to work great. And the pool cover seems to work great as well. SWG and clearcomfort and ORP - my pool first week with similar water temp and weather and pool chemistry was around 5% SWG usage for the whole week (when we didn't swim). When we did turn off clearcomfort for the following week, the SWG was on about 30% of the time. My SWG on average runs 5% of the time, and it's been 4 years and the SWG works great and likely will last a very long time since it almost never is turned on. Even the plates when i went to clean them looked new. I do plan on running more experiments with Clearcomfort to have more quantitative comparisons. Many people don't like these hydroxyl radicals or ozone type systems when they haven't used them much. I see a huge benefit in the reduced chlorine uses, reduced SWG use, in 4 years i've never had to shock my pool, my combined chlorines are always very low. I don't use it as a chlorine substitute or a way to get to almost 0 chlorine, i use it in addition to my system and it works great. Less SWG means less acid in my tank. If you can keep from adding any chemicals to your pool and keep it balanced then you have a lower maintenance pool that requires less to be added -- it's a win win situation. Even with SWG. Yes I know some say these devices it's hard to know if they are working. Well mine has a light that lights up based on the UV bulb so you know the UV bulb is working, and i have my waterlink spintouch and i can see the water chemistry a lot more than just FC and can accurately measure what happens to the pool with it on and off. I welcome others inputs on this if you have direct experience and not religious pool beliefs.
In conclusion i love my system and am looking for others that have any helpful info to add, or if you message me i can provide you more info as i collect it. My goal is to have as low of maintenance of pool as possible. Right now I add CYA to the pool about once a year to get it to 25, add once a year some baking soda to get alkalinity in balance, and buy about 1 gallon of acid every 2 months which is then auto fed with intellichem. My vacuum for the pool is Polaris MAXX which i love but it requires about 25gpm flow to climb and scrub the walls, so i can't run it with the skimmer but i've automated that too. it's under my pool cover scrubbing away without having to plug in any power wires etc. If anyone else has a lower maintenance pool or suggestions I'd love to hear it. I still have to scrub my stairs and my spa, and I still test water with spintouch weekly but it's usually pretty uneventful as the automation works very well, except as I've said above i'd like to control the FC to a tighter range and this ORP suppression seems to occur and then at some point it goes away after about 4ppm and then the SWG shuts off, but i'd prefer less overshoot. (FYI I did set up dose 5 minutes and mix 10 minutes and that does help too for SWG).
-Robert
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