One of the things I have done the very beginning of October the past couple years is to start running my fountain sprayer to cool off the pool water as much as possible. Without a heater, swimming season is behind us and the colder your water, the less FC you will need. We are getting a cold front Friday and overnight temps are supposed to get down into the mid 40's overnight this weekend. The dew point is not supposed to get above 50 until WED/THU next week after the cold front. I hooked up the fountain yesterday with the water at 80 and it is down to 76 today.
2023 Bleach Prices
- Thread starter Texas Splash
- Start date
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,996
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
This not something I have ever thought about! Not sure how effective it would be for me long term since I have an above ground pool (tends to heat back up quickly with hot days) but it would probably get me over the hump & speed up the waiting game for cooler water temps as late October approaches. I only run my pump 8hrs a day now for the past month - probably going to dial it back some more tomorrow. The evaporative cooling approach will help those with vsp’s probably more than single speeders like myself who are so excited to finally cut run time back. In the summer I am already having to run the pump up to 12-14 hrs a day so I don’t add any runtime for the fountain except maybe for a day or two to get ahead of a heatwave.
The reduced uv of the late season also has a large effect on fc consumption which I am thrilled about lol.
+1. It was 82 yesterday with blazing skies but the SWG maintained my FC at 20% producing about 1.6 FC.
I also do a lot of running and fall is normally a time when I am training for a lot for races. Cold pool water serves really well for convenient ice baths for recovery by just standing in the shallow end for 5-10 minutes. It is not really fun in January when the pool water gets down into the 30's but if I can get the water down to 50 or lower end of Oct and into Nov, the pool will still be of value by serving multiple purposes.
I have a big oak tree on the south side of my pool so with the low sun angle this time of year, my pool is only getting about 3-4 hours of direct sunlight a day. Now that oak tree will also be shedding leaves from now until end of December so it is going to make up for the shade with the tannin from leaves in the water.
Also, regarding the above ground pool warming up faster during warm days in Oct, we are still dealing with ground temps of 75+. It will take a while for the ground to cool down enough to not warm up the water for in-ground pools.
I have a big oak tree on the south side of my pool so with the low sun angle this time of year, my pool is only getting about 3-4 hours of direct sunlight a day. Now that oak tree will also be shedding leaves from now until end of December so it is going to make up for the shade with the tannin from leaves in the water.
Also, regarding the above ground pool warming up faster during warm days in Oct, we are still dealing with ground temps of 75+. It will take a while for the ground to cool down enough to not warm up the water for in-ground pools.
I was able to get the temp down to 57 with the cold front. Still not cold enough for recovery for my legs but that will certainly help with reducing the FC demand.
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,996
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
jwiegley
Silver Supporter
HDX 7.5% bleach from Home Depot here in Sacramento is $7.48 for 121oz. This works out to be almost 3x the cost of cal-hypo 65% powder that I was able to find at Ace hardware: $2.80/FC for the bleach, $1.00/FC for the cal hypo. Since my CH is quite low (below recommended range due to a leak that I'm addressing), I'm going to with the cal hypo while it's also helping me raise CH. PoolMath wants me to add 55 lbs of increaser, so I was thinking instead to add enough to get inside the recommended range, and then let the cal hypo me over time until target, and then switch to bleach. Hopefully I can find a better source for bulk, I dislike the idea of generating so much plastic waste so frequently.
I don't get it why liquid chlorine is so expensive in the USA... HTH liquid shock 10,8% is 6,99 CAN$ in any pool store in Québec right now and I paid 5,99 CAN$ this summer
Last edited:
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,996
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Beware, These have been hit or miss for folks. Some varieties contain fabric conditioners/polymers. Its also weaker than the “pool stuff” @ 7.5% so the savings isn’t really as great.
jwiegley
Silver Supporter
I’ve found even cheaper at Costco (roughly $6 for 7.5%). But even better than this, in terms of $/FC, was the 100 lbs of 65% Cal-Hypo I found at Ace Hardware, which is overall less than half the cost at the additional expense of raising CH.
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