I am looking to convert my pool to salt water this upcoming summer. My pool is 50,000 gallons and I was wondering if it would be ok to use two separate generators i.e. Two 30k gallon as opposed to one 50k or 60k. My line splits after the current chlorinator and have two returns to the pool. I was thinking about putting on before one return and one on the other. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Using salt water generators
- Thread starter Medic870
- Start date
Welcome to TFP!!
Does your pool get a lot of direct sunlight? Does the water get pretty warm (i.e. upper 80s into 90s)? Chlorine use increases with direct sunlight and as water temperature increases. You can help with this somewhat with the stabilizer (cyanuric acid). So many recommend oversizing the salt water chlorine generator (SWG) - i.e. getting one rated for at least 1.5x your pool size. Mine is rated for 52,000 gallons for my 19,000 gallon pool as my original 20,000 gallon rated unit could not keep up in the peak of summer. So with your pool size, it probably would be difficult to find a single cell that would be large enough - autopilot has one for 67,000 gallons.
To your point specifically, yes you can add multiple SWG, and in fact for commercial pools that is how it would be done. You can put on separate returns or essentially "stack" them like shown below (from AutoPilot Professional).
If you have automation, or plan to add, would want to make sure that it can handle multiple cells.
Welcome again!
Does your pool get a lot of direct sunlight? Does the water get pretty warm (i.e. upper 80s into 90s)? Chlorine use increases with direct sunlight and as water temperature increases. You can help with this somewhat with the stabilizer (cyanuric acid). So many recommend oversizing the salt water chlorine generator (SWG) - i.e. getting one rated for at least 1.5x your pool size. Mine is rated for 52,000 gallons for my 19,000 gallon pool as my original 20,000 gallon rated unit could not keep up in the peak of summer. So with your pool size, it probably would be difficult to find a single cell that would be large enough - autopilot has one for 67,000 gallons.
To your point specifically, yes you can add multiple SWG, and in fact for commercial pools that is how it would be done. You can put on separate returns or essentially "stack" them like shown below (from AutoPilot Professional).
If you have automation, or plan to add, would want to make sure that it can handle multiple cells.
Welcome again!
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,288
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
Welcome to TFP! Good to have you here 
It's a good plan to put multiple SWCs in series and not in parallel. That's because there is a minimum flow requirement for an SWC to work, and if you want to take advantage of a low flow rate to save electricity, that same low flow rate will meet the needs of both chlorinators if they're in series (one after the other on the same pipe). If they were parallel then your pump will need to deliver double that minimum flow, or very likely a bit more because one return probably flows a bit more water than the other.
A Circupool RJ60 might be worth considering. It delivers up to 3 lbs FC per day, so in your case for 50,000 gals, could deliver 2.5 ppm per day with 8 hrs of daily run time.
It's a good plan to put multiple SWCs in series and not in parallel. That's because there is a minimum flow requirement for an SWC to work, and if you want to take advantage of a low flow rate to save electricity, that same low flow rate will meet the needs of both chlorinators if they're in series (one after the other on the same pipe). If they were parallel then your pump will need to deliver double that minimum flow, or very likely a bit more because one return probably flows a bit more water than the other.
A Circupool RJ60 might be worth considering. It delivers up to 3 lbs FC per day, so in your case for 50,000 gals, could deliver 2.5 ppm per day with 8 hrs of daily run time.