Puck feeder

[brettc]

Hi folks,

I have a puck feeder installed on my pool along with a SWG. I'm considering the risk of salt water damage to my extensive rock work. An unknown risk that the salt water will damage my rock work and coping in short order is a pretty Dang big downside if you ask me, and I'm asking myself why not just use the puck feeder? What are the disadvantages of using the puck feeder for chlorination?

 

[Rob]

I use a puck feeder, and have no problems.

The "disadvantages" that you will hear here are that using trichlor pucks will decrease pH and gradually increase CYA.

Neither have been really a problem for me. I've had to increase the pH maybe once every 1-2 months. With CYA, people will insist that there isn't really any way it goes away so you will eventually have a problem, yet they haven't been able to explain to me how mine dropped to 0 while the pool was closed for the winter After 2 months of pool use with the pucks, the CYA hasn't really risen appreciably.

 

[mbar]

Once you learn about pool chemistry, having a puck feeder is a good idea. You can manage your cya, and ph by using trichor, and bleach together. I use both. I use my pucks until my cya is in the 30 - 40 range, and then mostly bleach using the feeder when I am away, or have a big swimmer day. If my ph starts to rise, I use the feeder. This way by the end of the summer my cya is usually around 70. Your cya can disappear over the winter by having a lot of organic stuff in the water, cya a will sometimes get eaten up by this, along with dilution of the water throughout the winter. Hope this helps explain. As long as you monitor your pool chemistry, you can expect no problems

 

[Guest]

IF you live in an area that has a short swim season (about 3 months) and you winterize pools and you have a sand filter or a DE filter that you backwash then using a feeder is not a major problem since you are draining water out of the pool on a regular basis and the CYA levels don't rise that much or that quickly. Also, CYA often is consumed by anerobic bacterial action in a closed pool over the winter and might be entirely gone when the pool is opened.
If you live in an area with an extended swim season, you have a cartridge filter or a non backwahsing DE filter, or you don't winterize your pool then you will have problems with CYA levels getting too high and you will need to drain and refill on a regular basis to keep the CYA from rising too high.
High CYA can damage plaster pools and will make your chlorine less effective at sanitizing and killing algae.


Why do you think most of the people on this forum use the BBB method? One answer, problems from exclusive use of trichlor. Trichlor can be useful if you understand how it works and it's drawbacks. For new plaster is is an excellent choice since it can help keep pH in line. It is good to use when you are on vacation since it will chlorinate when you are not there (as long as you remembe to load the feeder before you go).

The worst possible combination would be a trichlor feeder, cartridge filter, and a pool in an area with an extended swim season that does not get winterized. IMHO, this is NOT a workable combination unless you don't mind draining and refilling every few months (and I speak from experience on this from many of my customers. Once they have gone through it they usually switch to liquid chlorine or bleach and then save the trichlor for vacations.)

 

[brettc]

The worst possible combination would be a trichlor feeder, cartridge filter, and a pool in an area with an extended swim season that does not get winterized. IMHO, this is NOT a workable combination unless you don't mind draining and refilling every few months (and I speak from experience on this from many of my customers. Once they have gone through it they usually switch to liquid chlorine or bleach and then save the trichlor for vacations.)

I have a trichlor feeder, a cartridge filter, extended swim season, and I don't know what it means to winterize a pool. It can also rain a lot some years or some months and not so much in others. It seems to me that it would be reasonable to monitor CYA and stop using trichlor if they get too high. I don't buy the draining the pool bit. Assuming it didn't rain and I didn't have any splash out, how long do you think it would take to reach maximum CYA levels?

 

[JasonLion]

It would vary quite a bit depending on climate and the amount of sunlight and just what CYA level you were willing to go up to, but say perhaps three to six months.

 

[Guest]

In a pool your size I have seen CYA levels rise to about 60 ppm from 0 ppm in a three month span with trichlor feeders and cartrdge filters. On the other hand, I have seen many pools with sand filters that are backwashed regularly that maintain a constant CYA level or even have it decrease and need to have additional CYA added.

 

[KurtV]

I have a trichlor feeder, a cartridge filter, extended swim season, and I don't know what it means to winterize a pool. It can also rain a lot some years or some months and not so much in others. It seems to me that it would be reasonable to monitor CYA and stop using trichlor if they get too high. I don't buy the draining the pool bit. Assuming it didn't rain and I didn't have any splash out, how long do you think it would take to reach maximum CYA levels?

Brett,
Rain, I'm finding, is a huge factor. You get in Houston, like here, about five feet of rain a year (you may get even more this year since you've had two or three feet in the last few weeks). That's probably enough to completely fill your pool. I've been using tri-chlor for almost six weeks now and still have less than 20 ppm CYA. On the other hand, last year was much drier and my CYA stayed constant from January until November or December.