Pentair Chlorine Tank with built in Pump

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Jul 6, 2017
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I saw a few threads on the acid setup but not much with the Chlorine Setup.

Do the same corrosion issues happen with the Chlorine Setup with the pump on the Tank?

It's still not clear if the Pentair Stenner pump is 24VAC, 24VDC or 120VAC. I've read conflicting info (what little I could find).

The price with the pump was close to the same without the pump, so figured I'll give it a shot. I can always move to external pump once the first one burns out.

I plan to control the pump through a Intermatic PE653 and a SmartThings Hub. I have that all installed ready to go. Pentair Tank/Pump arrives today.

How critical is it that the pool filter pump be running when the Stenner is running. I assume it's better to be running, but curious how bad it is, if it's not running.
Can you control the rate of the Stenner or is it fixed? I know you can control it by time, tied to the filter pump.

I'd ideally like to dump Chlorine at a higher rate towards the end of the day.
I currently run the pump on low 12 hours a day, during the day.

I'm kind of curious, I've never had a PH problem, ever. I have not added PH+ or PH- in decades. If I get Alkaline correct, the PH always comes in right.
I have been doing mostly Chlorine Powered manually over the years, with tablets for about 1 month a season while I'm not around. I have been doing straight liquid chlorine for the last year or so to get CYA down (which it now is).

Will PH creep using liquid chlorine? Are the Automatic Acid dispensing setups primarily for SWG?
 
I got it all installed.

It appears to be 24VDC. I used a 20VDC adapter I had from an old Dell laptop. If I reverse the wiring the pump does go backwards so it is DC and wire to the pump was like 16-18AWG.

It it takes about 40 minutes to pump a gallon.

Which is better to inject into? suction side into the pump or pressure side out to pool jets.

I made one boo-boo I drilled the one place I could on suction side. And the 15 year old PVC just fractured. I really didn’t need to make the hole as big as I was in hind site. Grrrrr.

So currently I tapped into the base of an old Pentair tablet feeder, which is on the pressure side.

I figure if backflow valve fails ( and it certainly could) pumping water backwards into tank would be bad. I assume that would be very hard to happen through the Stenner Pump.

On the suction side the worst that could happen is it sucks chlorine in when Stenner is not running. But that would not be so bad.

I don’t think it matters where the chlorine really enters the system as it’s so slow.

I set set up a “blink” web cam to monitor it.

When using liquid chlorine I never notice and fumes. Is it oderless? How careful do I need to be with ventilation when filling tank, since it’s inside my shed?

I did vent the tank outside the shed.
 
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I have the Pentair acid tank and pump. I don't know how similar they are. Very, would be my guess.

The chlorine should enter your system last. After everything, especially a heater, if you have one. You definitely want it on the pressure side. If the tab feeder was plumbed correctly, that would seem to be a fine place for the injector.

The injector has a check valve in it, and I believe the pump itself sort of acts like one, as it has rollers that squeeze the tube the liquid flows through (again, this is assuming your setup works as my IntellipH does). So a lot would have to go wrong for water to pump up through the injector, past the pump and into the tank. I think you're safe there. Nor is liquid drawn out of the tank when the chlorine pump is off.

The filter pump must absolutely be running while chlorine is injecting. Otherwise, you'd just be pumping chlorine into your pad plumbing. If there is a check valve before the old tab feeder, as there usually is, then chlorine shouldn't get past it, but if there's no check valve, or if the spring in the check valve is old and not doing its job, then you'd be filling your pad's plumbing and filter, etc with chlorine. So you have to have your pump run and chlorine injection coordinated so that they happen together, and more importantly have some safeguards that prevent the chlorine injection from ever happening while the filter pump is off.

I wouldn't know what the corrosion issues would be with chlorine vs acid. My IntellipH is new, so I haven't faced any of that yet. I'd guess that the chlorine would cause less damage, but that's just a guess. Diluting the chlorine (half and half with water), might lessen corrosion. My IntellipH manual instructs 1:1 dilution for full-strength acid. Does the manual for the chlorine system mention that? If not, that might be Pentair's way of saying that is less of an issue for chlorine. Check your manual.

I would guess (lots of guessing!) that you won't be able to control the flow of the chlorine pump. I doubt they are designed to accept variable voltage to control variable liquid output. If you want more chlorine during different parts of the day, you'll have to set the timer to be on more during that period. In other words, you'd control chlorine output with runtime, not voltage. Though I don't know why you think you need to do that.

I think muriatic acid fumes are far more dangerous than chlorine fumes. But I wouldn't want to breath either. If you're quick about it, pouring chlorine into the tank is probably OK. I'd hold my breath if I could, or use the mask I bought for handling acid. It's cheap insurance, and if you can take the chiding you might get from here for using one, wearing a chemical mask is a safer way to handle pool chemicals. Have you discovered yet? The tank has a spike and chamber under its lid to accept a typical gallon jug. You remove the lid, take the cap off the chlorine jug (but not the seal), turn the jug upside-down and place it in the chamber. The jug's seal gets punctured by the spike and the chlorine then gurgles into the tank. You could do all that while holding your breath, and then walk away as the jug empties, minimizing your exposure. It's a cool feature of these Pentair tanks.

Please don't brag here that you have no pH issues. The rest of us will curse you under our breath!! ;) Kidding, of course. Count yourself lucky. Injecting chlorine vs manually dosing liquid chlorine should have no affect on your pH level. Switching from tabs (or other forms of solid chlorine) to liquid injection might, as some of those solid products contain CYA, which can affect pH.

Did I cover everything? Maybe others here can fill in the blanks where I was guessing...

Congrat's on the new gizmo. Chlorine injection has a few downsides when compared to SWG (you still have to buy and handle chlorine), but a big plus is your system will be dispensing chlorine year-round, while my SWG takes the winter off.
 
My system only runs May through September.

I wear a mask when I run my diesel tractor.

I’m just curious about the Chlorine fumes in that if I don’t smell a thing or sense anything harmful is that a false security. I feel like I’m pouring water in. Absolutely nothing. Where as the powder would knock you off your feet.

Some things are oderless / senseless but extremely harmful. Like CO or natural gas (that doesn’t have stink added to it). Is the Liquid Chlorine like that?

Liquid Chlorine I get has no seal (oddly enough - Job Loy) Even if it did I’m not sure I’d use the puncture method because that creates a lot of splash which will generate fumes. I try to pour it in smoothly. And I will probably fill it 3 gallons at a time.

Tank is only 4 gallons as it is and I’ll be lucky to get a week out of a fill. At 2 gallons that would defeat having a tank.
 
Sorry, can't advise about chlorine fumes beyond what I did. I don't think anyone here thinks twice about chlorine fumes when pouring chlorine from a jug directly into a pool. I'll just add this: when I added acid to my tank, while wearing a chemical mask, I could still feel it in my nose and lungs. Pouring acid directly into my pool was nothing compared to pouring it into my IntellipH tank. And you mentioned yours is in a confined space. So if you have a concern, wear the mask. Otherwise, use the ol' google machine to learn more about chlorine fumes.

I hear ya about diluting the chlorine. The IntellipH manual makes clear that replacing the parts affected by the acid is a regular maintenance necessity, for which they suggest a timetable. So I'll just do it. Refer to your manual to see what Pentair suggests for maintaining your chlorine dosing setup.
 
I don’t think the pump will be exposed to chlorine drips or fumes. Manual was pretty near useless. We will see how long it lasts.

I came back after a week of vacation and noticed a few brown spots at the bottom of the tank. Like rust colored.

Anyone know now what they could be?

There is no metal in the bottom of the tank.

Maybe a tiny crumb of metal was in the tank from manufacturing or something.

Not sure if a couple bugs got in there when I installed it or something and chlorine are it. I will empty the tank in couple weeks to check it.
 
No clue on the spots. They're dead, now, though! ;)

Looking back at your pics. Did you make your own gallon markers? Were those on your tank way off? Mine were. Didn't think to make my own. Would have been simpler had I thought to do that before filling, but I didn't notice until I was filling!! My tank is bolted down, now, and I don't expect it to be empty, like ever. And I'm not siphoning out MA... Oh well. Come on, Pentair, how hard would it have been to mark the tank properly? Sheesh.
 
Those spots don't look too good. There are a lot of them. Are they floating on the surface? Could they get sucked up the intake? I'd be inclined to clean that all out spotless (literally). You don't want whatever that is in the works: the pump, injector or pool.
 

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I really wasn't keen on unbolting the tank and unbolting the top half of the setup to clean it out, just yet.

So what I did is let it run almost dry and put a gallon in fast as I could to stir it up and ran the pump until it was almost dry again.

I think that got rid of most of it. But I'm gonna do that a few times. Hopefully I don't end up with brown spots in the pool ;)

All I can think of is there was some contamination in the tank and the chlorine is attacking it.
 
By the way I figured out a nice way to have my Intermatic PE653 control the Stenner Pump (with a Schedule on the PE653) and be able to remotely (SmartThings Hub) disable the schedule.

Basically I setup the Stenner Pump as a "Cleaner Boost Pump" (on Circuit 3) with a required Circulation Circuit Active (Circuit 1).

I had to put Pump "Low" on Circuit 1 (because the PE653 is hard programmed to that channel). And I also wired Circuit 5 in Series, such that Circuit 3 (Stenner/Cleaner Boost) AND Circuit 5 have to be on to run the stenner pump.

So I put a Schedule in the PE653 (using PE953) to run 20 minutes a day on Circuit 3 (Stenner). That will force the pump on Lo if it's not running or on High.
And if Circuit 5 is off (controlled remotely) the schedule is effectively skipped.

Works fantastic.

Only disadvantage is that if I have a power failure Circuit 5 (normally on) will not restore to on state. But power failures are pretty uncommon.
I may add a script to SmartThings to monitor Circuit 5 and text me once a day if it sees it's off. This will also be a reminder when I purposely have it off.

For a long stretch away. I shock the pool and disable the schedule (via Circuit 5). Wait 3-4 days and turn Circuit 5 on.
Then the schedule will run for next 5-6 days until tank is empty. So I can be away for like 9-10 days.​
 
9-10 days would be fantastic. I'm shooting for a week, more if I can. I just realized this morning that I've been neglecting my testing, and it's been five days. So in a bit here I'll test and know how close I'm getting to my 7-day goal. Which is the inherent problem in this type of automation, at least for me. Without the need to dose everyday, I'm already getting pretty lazy about testing as often as I should!
 
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