Adding chlorine/bleach to salt water pool in cold weather when SWG is off

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platon20

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Bronze Supporter
Oct 13, 2016
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DFW/Texas
Water temp is 40 here, SWG won't run below 55.

My FC has dropped from 3 to 2 to 1 over the last few days.

Weather forecast is at least another week of sub 50s weather.

Since the SWG won't be running for at least a week, do I need to add chlorine/bleach every day to get my FC up? Or since the water temp is cold that will hold back algae growth so I don't have to worry about it?

How bad is it to have little or no chlorine in the pool for a week during cold weather?
 
Add liquid chlorine or bleach based on [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]. You should be able to just check your FC twice a week or so and add liquid chlorine as necessary.

Your SWCG is most likely off now until late February or March. Pool water temperature tracks more closely to your low temperatures at night.
 
Marty's advice is right on, but I would add enough chlorine to raise it to 10ppm and see what happens. You shouldn't be losing that much at this time of the year with the water in the 40's. If the pool is using 1ppm of chlorine at those temps I guessing there is a slight nascent algae problem.
 
20,

I live in the DFW area and it is just not worth the effort to try and nurse the SWCG during our winters... Once the water drops below 50 degrees, I just turn the SWCG off until next year.

I use Liquid Chlorine and test "about" once week.. The pool will not use much FC during the winter and you will soon get a "feel" for how often you need to test and add more.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
This is an interesting topic that I have not heard before today. I have a salt cell that is going bad but a pool guy told me this morning to shut it off and use chlorine until Spring when the our weather temp's will be getting warmer, then I can replace the cell at that time. At night we have been in the high 40's to low 50's but it will be going down to low-mid 40's going forward. We are in the 70's during the day. I thought he was wrong but then I saw this thread. I have been maintaining the pool myself for five years and have always just gone along with the salt cell not knowing any different.
 
Lisa,

The key is the water temperature... Depending on your location, your water temps may not drop below 50 degrees too often, so it might not make much of a difference for you.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
OK sounds good....

Is there a better form of chlorine to use than bleach? If possible I'd rather avoid the high PH that bleach brings which means I have to add muriatic acid to balance out the high alkalinity of the bleach.
 
I live in Austin and shut my SWG down for the season once the water hits about 60. You can get a three gallon pack of 10% chlorine, HDX brand at Home Depot for about $10 and it lasts a long time at these water temperatures. And in my experience Jim is right, shutting down the SWG more than offsets any Ph rise with liquid chlorine.
 
Lisa, I'm in Oceanside and this is news to me as well, however, I just checked my water temp and it is 61ºF right now. I'm sure it gets colder at night there in PD than here, but just check water temp first thing in the morning and you will know.

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Just be sure to use the proper % in PoolMath. Most current laundry detergent is 6%. Pool 'Shock' is normally 10% or 12.5%.
 
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