Hello. I'm new to this forum and new to the world of swimming pools. We bought a foreclosed house almost 3 years ago that came with an unfinished IG pool/spa, which I estimate at 15000/400 gallons. After several years of other major house projects and periodic gentle reminders from the city's code compliance department that we have an unfinished pool, we finally bit the bullet and got it done. We lucked out in several respects. The previous builder (Blue Haven) had a proper building permit, and was current on his inspections up through "OK to gunite."
So all we had to do was pay a small fee to reinstate the expired permit, clean out all the debris, and call for inspection of the gunite and fence. Then we hired an outfit to pressure test the plumbing and install PebbleTec, which we are really pleased with. We got the equipment running, but I have some questions on our set-up. We got absolutely no documentation on the pool equipment or plumbing scheme, and it didn't take me too long to realize that calling Blue Haven with questions was not going to yield anything. I'm glad I was able to download operating and installation manuals for just about everything. Here's what we have equipment-wise:
Filter Pump: Hayward Northstar 4020
Filter: Hayward C5520 cartridge
Heater: Hayward H400, 400,000 Btu/hr
Ozone Generator: Ultrapure SPP70 UV-type (not connected to the plumbing)
Booster Pump: Hayward 5060 (but we don't posses a pressure cleaner, just the pump and wall nozzle)
Blower: Polaris 1-470-01
Lights: Fiberstars 6008 fiber-optic lights
Controller: Aqualogic AQL-PS-8
Ozone generator: I know that this forum does not recommend ozone for residential IG pools. It's hooked up electrically so that when the pump comes on, so do those two powerful UV lamps inside the housing. But they're not doing anything useful since there's no line into the pool plumbing. From what I understand reading the literature, it needs an air flowmeter and needle valve, tubing connection to suction side of the filter pump, and a bleed line needs to be installed from the top of the filter to return line after all other equipment. If bought in kit form, all that comes to roughly $200 from ozoneparts.com. Looking at it, I can buy a 0-10 SCFH rotameter for $10 on eBay, and the rest is just tubing and compression fittings. And I THINK that the mystery capped-off 1" PVC pipe coming out of the ground is a stand-pipe connected to the return line where the ozone was supposed to be tied in. The question is, since I have the darn thing, should I bother hooking it up, or should I disconnect it so it's not wasting electricity? I mean, just to make sure I'm interpreting correctly the consensus here that there is no reason to have an ozonator in a residential pool system, are we saying that for the cost of installing an ozonator (in a system where chlorine is the primary sanitizer), there's no benefit or savings compared to using chlorine alone? Or are we saying that an ozonator is actually detrimental to the system. New, this thing runs around $800 or so. Since I have it, it's working, and I think I can hook it up cheaply, my inclination is to hook it up and run it until I need to make a decision whether or not to replace two $100 lamps when they burn out. Then I can always remove it.
Booster pump: It it worthwhile investing $400 to $500 in a Polaris pressure cleaner? Are there any other alternatives or recommendations considering my set-up? Why not just a good brushing once a week?
That's it for now. Really glad I came across this web site. I'm chemical engineer, and it's nice to see pool chemistry discussed properly for a change, and not in the language a sexy trade names and sales BS. I get irritated when pool store people (same goes for aquarium shop, water softener salespeople, etc.) who don't understand the chemistry themselves, and who also assume their customers don't understand it, start BS-ing me, I get annoyed.
Cheers,
Eric
So all we had to do was pay a small fee to reinstate the expired permit, clean out all the debris, and call for inspection of the gunite and fence. Then we hired an outfit to pressure test the plumbing and install PebbleTec, which we are really pleased with. We got the equipment running, but I have some questions on our set-up. We got absolutely no documentation on the pool equipment or plumbing scheme, and it didn't take me too long to realize that calling Blue Haven with questions was not going to yield anything. I'm glad I was able to download operating and installation manuals for just about everything. Here's what we have equipment-wise:
Filter Pump: Hayward Northstar 4020
Filter: Hayward C5520 cartridge
Heater: Hayward H400, 400,000 Btu/hr
Ozone Generator: Ultrapure SPP70 UV-type (not connected to the plumbing)
Booster Pump: Hayward 5060 (but we don't posses a pressure cleaner, just the pump and wall nozzle)
Blower: Polaris 1-470-01
Lights: Fiberstars 6008 fiber-optic lights
Controller: Aqualogic AQL-PS-8
Ozone generator: I know that this forum does not recommend ozone for residential IG pools. It's hooked up electrically so that when the pump comes on, so do those two powerful UV lamps inside the housing. But they're not doing anything useful since there's no line into the pool plumbing. From what I understand reading the literature, it needs an air flowmeter and needle valve, tubing connection to suction side of the filter pump, and a bleed line needs to be installed from the top of the filter to return line after all other equipment. If bought in kit form, all that comes to roughly $200 from ozoneparts.com. Looking at it, I can buy a 0-10 SCFH rotameter for $10 on eBay, and the rest is just tubing and compression fittings. And I THINK that the mystery capped-off 1" PVC pipe coming out of the ground is a stand-pipe connected to the return line where the ozone was supposed to be tied in. The question is, since I have the darn thing, should I bother hooking it up, or should I disconnect it so it's not wasting electricity? I mean, just to make sure I'm interpreting correctly the consensus here that there is no reason to have an ozonator in a residential pool system, are we saying that for the cost of installing an ozonator (in a system where chlorine is the primary sanitizer), there's no benefit or savings compared to using chlorine alone? Or are we saying that an ozonator is actually detrimental to the system. New, this thing runs around $800 or so. Since I have it, it's working, and I think I can hook it up cheaply, my inclination is to hook it up and run it until I need to make a decision whether or not to replace two $100 lamps when they burn out. Then I can always remove it.
Booster pump: It it worthwhile investing $400 to $500 in a Polaris pressure cleaner? Are there any other alternatives or recommendations considering my set-up? Why not just a good brushing once a week?
That's it for now. Really glad I came across this web site. I'm chemical engineer, and it's nice to see pool chemistry discussed properly for a change, and not in the language a sexy trade names and sales BS. I get irritated when pool store people (same goes for aquarium shop, water softener salespeople, etc.) who don't understand the chemistry themselves, and who also assume their customers don't understand it, start BS-ing me, I get annoyed.
Cheers,
Eric
