Is this normal for a SWG?

[taekwondodo]

Date 06/05
Time 12 noon
FC 8.0
CC 0.0
pH 7.6
CYA ~70ppm
Borates ~50ppm
NaCl ~3200ppm (according to the SWG)

Date 06/12
Time 12 noon
FC 4.0
CC 0.0
pH 7.6

I have the SWG up to 50% and on ~7 hours a day. I've used up 4ppm in a week. Why wouldn't the SWG keep the Cl steady over time???

I'm reading that others have their SWGs on in the 15-20% range and their happy with them that way... I have the Jandy Aquapure. Am I missing anything or is this normal for a pool my size?

 

[Brad S]

HHMMMM??

Well, off the bat i would say your not running the pump enough and the SWG cant keep up. You have a 45,000 gallon pool. Thats pretty big. At a 7 hr per day pupum run time, with the SWG set at 50%, thats about 3.5 hours out of every 24 that its making chlorine. I'm not sure how much that model should make per hour, but someone else might know. I would think running the pump longer would be the fix. I dont think you have enough "on" time to make sufficient chlorine, even with the CYA at 70 ppm.

 

[DBfan187]

^what he said and I don't believe your SWG is big enough for your pool. You may have to manually supplement it with liquid chlorine every once and a while.

 

[taekwondodo]

Well, this is the biggest one Jandy makes... the "1400C" (according to the manual, handles 40Kgal...).

I'm just wondering if I should crank it higher - I can't run the pumps that much longer, my ele bill was $650 last month, and I don't have a job anymore!!!

 

[Strannik]

40k gallons that's when running 24/7

 

[JasonLion]

I'm just wondering if I should crank it higher

Yes, of course you should turn it up higher. When the FC level is too low the first thing you should do is to turn up the percentage on the SWG. The only time to even consider increasing the pump run time would be when the percentage is already at 100%.

This time of year you can probably adjust the percentage to get enough chlorine, but at the hottest part of the summer you will probably have to either increase the pump run time or manually supplement the FC level with bleach.

 

[Brad S]

Personelly, i would increase the pump run time. 7 hours isnt enough for that size of pool. But it seems cost is an issue. If you increase the output, that will decrease the life of the unit. You could supplement with bleach or liquid chlorine. Trade off i guess.

 

[Strannik]

supplementing with chlorine kinda defies the point

i would decrease the pump run time and increase the unit output percentage


the way we like to size chlorinator is: look at the minimum time required for pump to provide adequate water turnover, and then pick a chlorinator which will produce enough chlorine for the pool in that time frame

 

[Brad S]

I look at it from the perspective that if you are not pumping water, you are not sanitizing or filtering. But..i'm not concerned with the extra electricity cost. But for some, thats a huge consideration though. The cost for power is probalby a consideration when one decides how big a pool you can install. Lot of peripherial cost associated with one for years after the build costs are paid for.

 

[Strannik]

well, you can make 10 turnovers a day, but it will be useless.

it's better to run the pump just enough to turn all of the water over through the filter, and size SWG appropriately so it will produce enough chlorine during this time frame. for residential pool 1 turnover in 24 hours is enough. i'd also split it into 2 periods 12 hours apart.

considering that pump is the most electricity consuming device, this approach will ensure that you minimize your costs while ensuring that your pool has adequate sanitation.

 

[Guest]

I look at it from the perspective that if you are not pumping water, you are not sanitizing or filtering. But..i'm not concerned with the extra electricity cost. But for some, thats a huge consideration though. The cost for power is probalby a consideration when one decides how big a pool you can install. Lot of peripherial cost associated with one for years after the build costs are paid for.

Faulty logic.
If you have proper sanitizer levels in your water you are sanitizing. Filtering is not sanitizing buy merely a mechanical cleaning. Remember, all the stuff you filter out stays in the filter and the water passes through it while the pump is running. In some cases this could actually add to your chlorine demand until you clean the filter. (which is why I do not like bump DE filters, but that is off topic.)

As far as operating costs go, it's really like with anything else. You can run the pool efficiently and minimize your costs or you can run it inefficiently.
You can do the same with your refrigerator or AC or any other major electricity user. Let's take an AC, for example. If you weatherstrip you house and insulate it, keep your windows and doors closed when you run it, and don't run it and then turn it off and open the house and then close it up and cool it off again you are running it efficiently.
But if you decide that you want to 'change the air' in your uninsulated house daily so you shut the AC off and open all the doors and windows every day for a few hours and then re-cool the house you are not using your AC efficiently.

Actually, I just thought of a good analogy. Having proper CYA levels in your pool is like properly insulating your house for an AC. While neither is necessary for proper operation of the unit involved, having them insures efficient operation and long life of the unit.

 

[taekwondodo]

I'm w/waterbear on this - filtration and sanitation are two different things. You filter to keep the water clean and suck things out of it. You sanitize to minimize/eliminate the reproduction of things that might get filtered out. A properly sanitized pool is going to need much less filtration than a pool that is poorly sanitized.

For the sole purpose of filtration, you don't need to turn over the pool if your water is clear and there is nothing to filter out. The 1-2 turn rule also follows this faulty logic as well. If you could turn over your pool in one hour would your run the pump just one hour a day? Of course not. Forget filtration, you want to ensure that the sanitizer is moving throughout the pool - and "dead spots" don't form and let algae get hold.

I found a much more efficient way of doing this to conserve power - I run the pump every hour for 10 minutes during the day to always make sure that the sanitizer is mixing/moving in the pool to eliminate dead spots. During the middle of the day, I run the filter for 6 hours - I don't need it for the filtration, I do it to push water through the solar panels and heat the pool. And I stopped running the Polaris every day too - he ("Wilson" (see: "Castaway" )) runs a couple of hours on Friday and picks up any leaves that might have fallen in...

Since I started BBB, this has worked very well for me. No more dusty algae in the pool let's me keep the electric bills down. So, other than keeping "dead-spots" away and heating the pool, I need to have the pump run to sanitize via my SWG - which I guess I need to kick up a few notches (%)...

Question - would raising the salt 200-300ppm increase the SWGs CL output with all other variables remaining the same?

 

[JasonLion]

Question - would raising the salt 200-300ppm increase the SWGs CL output with all other variables remaining the same?

That depends on the SWG. Most of the modern SWGs automatically adjust the output so that a constant amount of chlorine is generated. But some of them don't, and so produce more chlorine when the salt level is higher.