Going to saltwater

[boondog]

OK, I've had it with chlorine bottles, I bought the Intex Krystal clear SWCG. The vast majority of reviews are 4 or 5 star so i'm gonna give it a try. Hopefully I'll have it installed this weekend, I say hopefully because I'm not sure what all it's gonna take to hook it up.
If I've been adding bleach for a couple years how much salt should I already have and what is the best way to test for salt?
If anyone has one of these units and has any tips please let'em fly.

Thanks,
Roger

 

[jml]

I use salt test strips which are what I can find on the shelf at the pool store or WalMart, and which seem to be good enough to keep my SWG happy. But I've seen some posts here suggesting that they are not terribly accurate (here: salt-tests-inaccurate-meter-strips-t21911.html ). I'd guess that the strips will be good enough for you to determine your starting point, and that you can use that plus the pool calculator or the intex manual to figure out how many bags to add.

Pool School has good advice for SWG ownership:
pool-school/water_balance_saltwater_generator
pool-school/salt_water_chlorine_generators

I find that the salt level really doesn't change much - after getting the initial level sorted out in the spring, testing salt level once a month or so seems to be enough for me - I added one bag late in the season last year when enough rainwater and splashing had finally driven the salt level down towards the low end of the SWG operating range. Keep your pH and TA reasonably low - the SWG will tend to drive both of these up, so you can expect to add dry ph down or muriatic acid from time to time. You'll need to experiment a bit to figure out how much runtime you need to keep your FC levels right, and you may find that you have to vary the runtime depending on weather, water temp, and pool usage.

Other than that, just pull the hose off the output side of the electrolytic cell once a month or so to check for scale build up, especially if you've got hard fill water or high TA. If you see lots of white crusty scale on the metal plates in the cell, you'll need to clean it following the instructions in the manual to soak the cell in straight household kitchen vinegar for a couple of hours until the scale dissolves.

 

[boondog]

The chart says about 180 lbs. of salt, i added 160 tonight and will check in the morning. I'll get the SWG installed tomorrow and cut it on tomorrow evening. hopefully it will go good and keep my pool clear.
One question, does the salt itself have some disinfecting qualities?

Thanks,

 

[boondog]

Oh, by the way, my TA was 95 and pH was 7.8. Should I bring my pH down a little? My CYA is around 40 so I can bring that up some but I'm gonna wait to see how the SWG does. It says for my size and ambient temps I should run it 7 hours a day, does that sound about right?

 

[fuzzy_dba]

Oh, by the way, my TA was 95 and pH was 7.8. Should I bring my pH down a little? My CYA is around 40 so I can bring that up some but I'm gonna wait to see how the SWG does. It says for my size and ambient temps I should run it 7 hours a day, does that sound about right?

Most SWG's cause pH increases so I'd bring it down to 7.4 before you get started. In addition, the TA can creep up so keeping your TA in line helps the pH stay a little bit more stabilized. I find that I need 1-2 cups of MA every 7-10 days, but that's for a 24,000 gallon pool.

I run my SWG at a 20% duty cycle for 12 hours a day; starting at noon for 6 hours and the other 6 hours starting at midnight. You'll need to experiment to see what's the best time of the day in the Houston heat and sun.

The family likes the water that sparkles and I like the ease of maintenance!

Terry in NC

 

[boondog]

Everything went good except for connecting up from the sand filter to the weird fitting that came with the unit. Trip to HD was successful though. My salt was bout 3500 (according to the expensive strips I bought before I found some in the box) so I'm glad I didn't put more than 160 pounds in last night. It's now running on boost so i'll compare my chlorine reading before I started it to the reading after 6 or 7 of run time.

Thanks,
Roger

 

[boondog]

Chlorine was 9.5 around 1 PM yesterday and 10.5 last night after running for about 7 hours, so it kept up good on a very hot day. Running 7 hours today and will check tonight.

 

[boondog]

So far so good

It's only been a little over a week but I am going to say initially at least, the Intex Krystal Clear chlorine generator is a success. It makes plenty of chlorine for my pool in just a few hours a day, I usually run it about 7 hours a day. This has been a wonderful week of not having to dump bleach and worry about how low the chlorine level is going in the day and my water has been clear all week. It would be nice to have a more versatile timer but for the cost it does the job. I hope it keeps on keeping on.