After Many Delays...The Stenner is up....

[robaz]

Nice install. Why is the metal pan on top of your filter?

I knew someone would notice that...LOL.I had some potting soil in it and rinsed it out put it on the filter to dry and forgot to remove it before i snapped the picture.....You win the whats wrong with this picture contest....you'll be receiving your free gallon of bleach any day now....

 

[robaz]

I wonder if we can retrofit our 25 PSI system with the 100 PSI duck bill check valve just for added safety? Great idea about running it dry to see if pool water would back flow into tank. I should have done it. I've been a few days with the Stenner and so far it has been spot on with .89 ounces dispensed per minute. I am able to "dial in" the amount of chlorine I need each day. Now with my speedstir the daily FC check only takes minutes since I don't need to do a manual daily addition. I plan on filling the tank every third week.

I did a dry run with water into a measuring vessel on the first run to see what it put out....In 60 minutes it put out 64 oz...???

 

[robaz]

Here is my Stenner install, completed in beginning of September.

View attachment 43256

Stenner 45MPHP10 fixed rate 100 PSI 10 GPD. Pump is interfaced to my Easy Touch 8 and is run about 1 hr per day. I originally installed this to take care of my chlorine need while on vacation, but found that it is so nice not to have to manually add bleach each day that now I use it all the time.

Nice install...I was going to go with the Stenner tank as well..but didn't have the room as far as the diameter goes...I hear you on the manual add...I love it check everything once a week...and good to go...

 

[espejo]

I will try that this weekend to see what mine puts out. I used spec sheet of .89 ounces a minute and based on time and this flow rate it hit the target exactly. I jested before dosing and then 20 min right after dosing period expired.

 

[Jaimslaw]

Here is my Stenner install, completed in beginning of September. Stenner 45MPHP10 fixed rate 100 PSI 10 GPD. Pump is interfaced to my Easy Touch 8 and is run about 1 hr per day. I originally installed this to take care of my chlorine need while on vacation, but found that it is so nice not to have to manually add bleach each day that now I use it all the time.

View attachment 43262

Nice clean install.

I see you've hooked up the overflow line that runs back into the tank from the pump. My tank's instructions refer to how to install this line but there was no grommet or hole to run the line down into the tank from the face plate of the pump. Did yours come with the hole pre drilled and/ or a grommet? Instructions also refer to drilling the hole in the face plate of the pump for inserting the 1/4" line into the face plate. After drilling the hole (or I believe there is a knock out / punch plug), is it just a matter of inserting the 1/4" tube in far enough to barely stick up inside the pumps face plate?

Not a big deal to drill both holes and run the line, but was just curious.

 

[gary300]

Nice clean install.

I see you've hooked up the overflow line that runs back into the tank from the pump. My tank's instructions refer to how to install this line but there was no grommet or hole to run the line down into the tank from the face plate of the pump. Did yours come with the hole pre drilled and/ or a grommet? Instructions also refer to drilling the hole in the face plate of the pump for inserting the 1/4" line into the face plate. After drilling the hole (or I believe there is a knock out / punch plug), is it just a matter of inserting the 1/4" tube in far enough to barely stick up inside the pumps face plate?

Not a big deal to drill both holes and run the line, but was just curious.

There was no hole in the tank for the overflow tube, so I just drilled a 1/4" hole. I also used some silicone sealant to keep water out and secure the tube somewhat. I also drilled out the 1/4" hole in the face plate since I did not want to crack the plate trying to punch out the hole. The tube is just held in by friction and be careful not to insert the tube to far so that it would interfere with the rollers.

 

[Jaimslaw]

Thanks. Maybe Stenner will get around to modifying their Tank instructions so the instructions for placing the spill recovery line does not refer to a grommet they do not provide (and to mention drilling the hole in the tank as the instructions make it sound as though it's already there).

When My pump arrived, I saw the tube inside the pump was out of alignment. Stenner's pump Manuel is nicely written and gave clear instructions on centering the tube. Looking forward next year to doing the annual maintenance tube replacement, which Stenner does a good job illustrating.

 

[gary300]

One other thing I had to do was to deburr the four holes that the screws were in for transportation, to lock down the pump from the slide down bracket. I used a small file and finally got the pump to slide up and down smoothly from the bracket. Would hate to find out down the road that I could not just slide the pump upwords to release it.

 

[Jaimslaw]

One other thing I had to do was to deburr the four holes that the screws were in for transportation, to lock down the pump from the slide down bracket. I used a small file and finally got the pump to slide up and down smoothly from the bracket. Would hate to find out down the road that I could not just slide the pump upwords to release it.

Similar experience for me. After removing those 4 screws, it still was very tightly wedged into the slot, almost like the two plastic surfaces were heat welded. Used a small hammer to jar it so it would slide out. Got a little nervous when doing that.

For the wiring, I ended up gluing a GFCI receptacle to the inside wall of my pool panel, running the GFCI hot wire from my pump line out relay, and running the GFCI neutral and ground to the respective buss bars inside the panel. Plugged my digital timer into it, placed the timer just below my panel on the outside, and plugged the Stenner into the digital timer. Nice safety margin as Stenner will only get juice when the pool pump is running. Also hard wired in a longer 12 foot power cord to the Stenner. Saving the old cord, which I can re-wire flawlessly if I need to make a warranty claim.

Now starts the dosing effort. I guess there are several different methods to getting the right combination., be it acid (me) or chlorine. I'll experiment first with half filling the tank with 50-50 acid/water mix and running it for 15 minutes a day, and see what the 16 ounces a day does to my bothersome SWG ph creep that caused me to go the acid injection route. Be nice if I hit the mark this first go around. I hope to put the acid / ph exercise close to auto pilot for three months at a time with a fully filled tank. Also still playing around with the TA level, with the plan to try 50 or 60 ppm vs the current 70 to see if that might be a better balance.

Still have no check valve. Wondering where the check valve is located for the 100psi pumps that come with the check valve. Included. At the insertion point?

Cheers.

 

[gary300]

The current wiring for my Stenner is a 120 v tap off of my GFI pool light breaker fed to an Aux relay on my Easy Touch then to a dedicated weather proof receptacle that the Stenner plugs into. What I want to do now is to tap off of one the the 220 v hot leads on the load side of my pump relay and then use that source as my hot lead to the Stenner such that the Stenner cannot run without the pump relay energized. I would then change the receptacle the the Stenner is plugged into to a GFI receptacle since my pool pump is not currently on a GFI breaker. The main point of this change is that with the common neutral in place, either one of the 220 v power leads going to my pool pump will provide 120 v to the Stenner. BTW I know that I need to change the 220 v breaker in my main panel to GFI, but when this house was built GFI on the pool motor was not a requirement.

 

[Jaimslaw]

Saw a GFCI breaker at Home Depot for about $49. A highly recommended safety upgrade.

Running the Stenner power to or through the hot wire of the pump is a must IMO. Heck, Even if I didn't have a pump relay for this purpose, I'd splice in a wire directly to the pumps hot wire connection lug and use it as the power line for the Stenner pump, or the timer for the Stenner pump. Certainly a must with an acid injection set up.

I ordered a check valve for my insertion point connection, which I will have to move from the current Rainbow Chlorinator to a tap into a spot in my pvc line. Need to do this as I Do not have enough distance between the Chlorinator 1/2" threaded tap and the adjacent auto valve housing. The check valve / insertion assembly is quite a bit longer than just the current insertion tip that doesn't have a check valve, so it won't fit in that space. Also Not real happy that it's another point of possible failure (clogging) and maintenance and still am wondering if I can risk doing without it (risk being water pumping out thru a leak/hole either Via the Stenner tube or a 1/4" line breakage).

 

[espejo]

If anyone needs a rain cover for their Stenner pump let me know. The manufacturer sent me 2 and I don't need it.

 

[Jaimslaw]

How funny...I also had an extra sent to me along with the tank and pump.

 

[philboyj]

The whole setup seems quite complicated - for the non technical peeps like me and also those who dont have the necessary tools. Wont the PB help to install this option?

 

[Jaimslaw]

The whole setup seems quite complicated - for the non technical peeps like me and also those who dont have the necessary tools. Wont the PB help to install this option?

It can be a little daunting to deal with the electrical hook up and what timer method to employ; but for a competent PB who represents to you that he is familiar with these set ups (either personal experience OR being an avid reader of this site in general and this sub-forum in particular), it's a walk in the park for a PB to install it.

A lot of us installing these are going with the fixed rate Stenner pumps as opposed to the variable rate pumps (tho nothing at all wrong with the variable models). You can look up on Google, "Stenner Fixed Rate 45MPHP10" for pricing of this pump model; and this Stenner pumps comes with or without a 15 gal storage tank. Buying the combo package (15 gal tank + pump + 1/4" UV black tubing + rain cover) is nice in that its delivered to your door with the pump already hooked up to the storage tank. Just need to run the output tube to an insertion point created in your PVC plumbing. If you are going to use it to inject Chlorine, a popular tank color is the gray one as it resists sunlight breakdown of the stored chlorine.

Your PB should have no problem hooking it all up for you. I would ask that he read through these posts for the various suggested options and methods before staring the work. Also, factor in that your PB will also need to be compensated for the time he spends tweaking it so the pump ends up dispensing the ideal dosage each day (ie, setting the pump to turn on and off each day via whatever timer method he recommends).

In sum, go ahead and order the above-mentioned Stenner pump/tank/1/4" tubing/rain cover and then find a knowledgeable PB hook it up and get the timer settings dialed in correctly.

 

[espejo]

It can seem a little difficult but alot of folks here will help you out. It is by far one of the best things I added to my pool for daily chlorine additions. Tying it into my Easy Touch 8 allows me to set up a schedule which I can then adjust with my remote or from the panel as I do my FC checks. There is a guy in Sugar Land who showed me and was kind of enough to send pictures. I am more than willing to do the same and even allow anyone interested to visit and I will open up the panel so you can see how fairly easy it is to install.

 

[nlindelldc]

forgive me for butting my head in this thread, but I was curious to know why you all chose a Stenner pump over a SWG? I priced the units you are talking about/using and they only seem to be about half as expensive as a SWG, so I was curious as to the choice?

Obviously trucking around bleach every day gets old, so I can see the Stenner choice over manually chlorinating.

Please enlighten me!

 

[bdrums]

forgive me for butting my head in this thread, but I was curious to know why you all chose a Stenner pump over a SWG?

I've been following this thread. My pool isn't complete yet, but close. We have a lot of Oklahoma Flagstone and our pool is very close to the house so anything metal is at risk of damage by the salt in the water. For me, it's a risk/reward measure. There is a risk going with SWCG, so for the time being I'm content to go with liquid chlorine. The decision then becomes best way to deploy it.

 

[Jaimslaw]

I use my Stenner pump set up to add acid. With a SWG system that has any spa spillways or water features, aeration is created and with that, PH tends to creep up a little faster than without that aeration. The pump injection has been a godsend in terms of convenience and keeping a better balance of my chemistry.

I have read other posts that have computed the long run cost of liquid chlorine to be about the same of the long run cost of a SWG system. But I factor in the cost of my time. I set the SWG and forget it - with liquid chlorine, there is a labor variable (adding it daily or close to). To me, any extra cost of the SWG is worth the reduction in time spent tending to the chlorine levels.

In sum, I believe it to be somewhat of a toss up between a pump injection (or chlorinator) and a SWG system. Should the cost of the SWG cell climb in the future, I believe this begins to favor the pump injection/chlorinator set up. But IMO, the deciding factor has nothing to do with what I believe to be a misplaced perception that with a SWG comes metal/stone deterioration. If that were the case, I wouldn't still have a SWG system 12 years running.

[Thread Hijack alert): IMO there is little to no risk of metal corrosion with SWG (12 years, no metal corrosion to metal ladders, light rings, hinges, or drain screws - compelling evidence, no?). As for flagstone, I seal mine once every 5 years and have cut down to almost zero, any flaking. A few of the softer Arizona coping pieces I have did flake quite a bit - however, not a bit more than a few of the same kind of softer Arizona flagstone pieces located elsewhere on my property where no salt interacts with those pieces (patio and walkways removed from the pool). It's important to understand that Arizona and Oklahoma flagstone both have varying degrees of hardness - and its somewhat a luck of the draw as to how much of the softer stones you end up with installing. Sealing the flagstone every so often is an easy maintenance step and really minimizes flagstone deterioration issues - with or without salt entering the picture.


Cheers.

 

[Jaimslaw]

Finally got around to posting pictures of my Acid Injection set up. So nice to get away from walking around the pool dropping acid in to keep ahead of the PH creep (my dual spa spillway and its consequent aeration causing more than the usual SWG PH creep).

So many possible plumbing/timing/wiring configurations. I decided to go with a fixed rate pump that is plugged into a Woods 50015 Outdoor Timer ($20), which timer is plugged into a GFCI outlet that I installed inside my pool panel. With the GFCI's hot wire connected to the pool pump relay's "Line/Load out", the Stenner pump can't run without the pool pump running.

I also ran the 1/4" UV tubing through some clear plastic hose I had lying around - extra precaution against canyon rats gnawing.

For the insertion, I practiced tapping a 1/2" threaded insertion point on some junk PVC pipe just to get the hang of it. Just have to be careful to not use a spade bit drill or you'll crack the pipe. I used three ever larger drill bits and then hand turned a 23/32"drill bit I bought off Ebay for $14 (Ebay: "22/32" 1/2" Shank, Silver & Deming But, S&D, HSS") to get to the final size hole before using the tap (Amazon: "Drillco 2700E Series Carbon Steel Tap, Uncoated (Bright finish) Round Shank with Square End, Chamfer 1/2").

Thanks to all of you who have weighed in on this subject and shared your recommendations and suggestions.

Now I need something else to do that has a geek factor to it to keep me busy on weekends. I guess my next project will be to deal with the El Nino hype here in SoCal. Time to work out a remote control of a valve that will kick on to drain my pool when those rains hit.