Reverse osmosis or wait to drain?

[AZ-83]

Hello all,

I'm new to the forums and new to being a pool owner. Unfortunately, I was "pool-stored" for the two months or so of pool ownership before discovering this website. The two months I've owned the home the water has looked clear (once it became cloudy but cleared up with store product) but I've had unusually high levels of chlorine loss. Just got my Taylor 2006 kit and discovered my cya was not the 100 I was told, but actually 160! I just did an overnight chlorine loss test. At 10pm my fc was 4.5 (which I know now is low for my cya) with cc being .4. This morning, at 6am, the levels were 3.0 fc and .4cc. According to pool school, with an overnight loss over 1ppm, i have something lurking in the water and I need to shock.

1. With such high cya, is this even practical to shock (exceeding 50 ppm) then maintain chlorine levels in the teens or should I use reverse osmosis? I can't drain because we're in Phoenix. I was quoted about 325.

2. If I'm able to shock successfully, what kind of liquid chlorine costs am I looking to incur by maintaining chlorine levels in the teens until I can drain in cooler temperatures? Will I end up spending that 325 in additional chemical maintenance costs over the next five months?

I thank all of you in advance for your advice.

Ph 7.2
CH 700
Ta 120
Tds 2500
10,590 chlorine pool.

 

[Pool Tool]

That is the first price I have seen for RO. If the the $325 is accurate I would encourage that. If not to save the money, at least to make things easier. A couple of questions tho:
- Did you test your own CYA results? Oops just reread and saw the 2006 kit.
- Are you now or soon planning to run an SWG?
- Did the RO vendor quote you taking CYA down to 0. Maybe there is some cost savings to stop at 40 if that's possible.

 

[AZ-83]

Pricing includes all chemicals used to rebalance the pool at the end of the service. We test and balance the following and leave them in the ideal range as listed below:
-Chlorine 2 - 5 ppm
-Calcium 200 - 400 ppm
-TDS 400 - 1600 ppm – or – For a salt pool, amount needed for specific salt cell
-Total Alkalinity 80 - 120 ppm
-CYA (Stabilizer) 30 - 70 ppm
-pH 7.3 -7.6

That was in the email/quote. I don't don't know a whole lot about swg or how one could convert their pool.

 

[kimkats]

$325 for the RO? That is not bad.

No way to drain in parts? 5 inches at a time?

If your CYA is 160 it will take a LOT of bleach to clear it up AND to keep it clear.

Use pool math to see how much bleach you will have to add to just get to SLAM level. Now know that you will have to keep enough bleach in it for at least a week if not more to pass the OCLT. THEN you have to add bleach every day to maintain. Here are the links for you to use.

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

I will let you do the math so you can see which way is cheaper for you.

Let us know what you decide to you so we can help and support you.

Kim

 

[chyvan]

I don't know if Waddell is like Phoenix, but to drain, you really don't want to do it in 5 months. During the winter is when they calculate the sewer charge which is much more per 1000 gallons than the cost of the water.

My situation isn't quite like yours because I was getting mine replastered, but I drained at the tailend of October, let it sit empty, and timed the construction so that they'd be finishing up so that my refill would take place outside of the sewer charge calculation period. I know they tell you that they'll make adjustments for refills, but don't count on it or getting a fair calculation. I had a pipe burst while away and had 7K spill in my yard, and I ended up having to pay the disposal charge like I used that much water averaged over 3 months (so 2,000 gallons) in extra sewer charges for 12 months.

 

[AZ-83]

I'm not too concerned about the cost of the SLAM but rather daily chlorine costs after that. If my minimum fc with a high cya is going to be ~11, let's say I increase in the evening to 17, what will my daily losses be? Should I expect to lose 40% fc daily? I don't fully understand chlorine loss. Is it a percentage, say 40% daily? That being the case, I would go from 17 to 10.2. I would need to add 90 oz of 10% daily. That's about $2.50 a day.

 

[Pool Tool]

Yes, I don't know the exact number but you are correct it is a percentage of the total FC. Somewhere are 40-50% is probably accurate depending on sun, etc.

I can't say whether you would use an additional $325 in chemicals throughout the rest of the year. But even if you got by with less; you still have to SLAM now and you will still have high CYA at the end of the year. Someone will be around with a better answer, but I would lean towards the RO provided they can narrow the window on the CYA. I wouldn't want them to leave it any higher than 40-50 ppm at the most when they are done.

FWIW, my pool, at 30 cya (little sun), uses about 45 ozs (2 ppm) a day of 12.5% bleach.