Chlorine Generator

[neary]

Both my neighbor and myself have a CLORMATIC 3 generator for our 10K pool. In 5 years we have had excellent results and have only had to shock about 5 times. Nitrates from airborne and local fertilizers have zap'ed us several times.
A beautiful system.
Question: The neighbor is going overseas for several months, and he has some one to baby sit the pool. It's his intention to set the cantrol for 100% production.
Will continuous production for this period of time reduce the life of the cell?
hanks.

 

[waste]

Neary, first of all, welcome to TFP!

Yes, the cell's life is directly correlated to the time the unit is energized, so running it 100% vs. 50% will 'kill' it 2x more quickly . If the pool's "babysitter" is able to test the water and adjust the chlormatic when necessary or simply add enough bleach to shock the pool, it would save hours of 'life' for the cell. However, it's your friend's choice and 'he' needs to decide for himself whether the "babysitter" can be trusted to 'really' care for the pool or if the premature failure of the cell is an acceptable cost if the sitter isn't 'up to par'.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Yes, running for extended periods at 100% will use up more then the normal amount of cell life. The cell is designed to last some number of hours turned on. The longer you have it turned on each day the fewer days it will last.

Running the cell at 100% will increase the rate at which the PH goes up and the TA goes down, which could cause issues if someone isn't keeping a close eye on the PH and TA. Another problem is that chlorine levels might get too high, which could result in significant corrosion of metal objects (including the pump and heater) in contact with the water and shorten the life of vinyl liners.

 

[EskimoPie]

it sounds like he really wants to make sure he doesn't have a green pool when he returns... I'd say that would be FAR preferable than having high pH and Chlorine levels permanently damage the pool and equipment. Definitely seems like a case of the cure being worse than the disease.

 

[Guest]

If the swg is oeprating fine now then don't change the settings. Short of a power falure the pool should be fine when he returns as long as the water level is maintained and the salt, pH, and CYA are maintained.