Another vacation question?

Bluechip · Jun 18, 2012

We will be away from home for eight days on vacation. It's our first pool and has only been completed since late April. It has a tab chlorinator that we've never used beyond when the pool builder was taking care of the pool. I've been using bleach since I took over. It holds 9 tabs if I remember right. That works out to about 15ppm for our pool which will be a little short of our normal needs.

I am planning on bringing up the chlorine level up a bit before we go and hope the tabs can keep it at the required levels. Does anyone have an idea how long the 9 tabs will last at the various settings (1-5)? Will they all be used up in a week? I'd test it out before hand but don't want to add any extra cya that I don't have to. Current cya levels are 40-45. The tabs will bring it up about 9ppm which should still put my levels in a good position.

Most of the people nearby that I could ask to add bleach are going to be with us on the vacation.

Any thing else I should be doing?

JasonLion · Jun 18, 2012

If you have a solar cover, putting that on combined with the tablet chlorinator will be more than enough. The solar cover will cut down your chlorine usage. Without the cover, bringing the pool up to shock level right before you leave, combined with the tablet chlorinator will probably do it, though if you go this route figuring out the ideal setting for the chlorinator will be a little tricky.

Bluechip · Jun 18, 2012

That's pretty much what I thought. I wish I would have paid more attention when they first filled up the chlorinator to see how much cl it added and how long it took to run through them all.

No cover as of yet, but I am beginning to see that it might have several benefits in the future.

Quick question on the chlorinator- Will it put out the same amount of chlorine on say setting #3 with one tab as it would with nine tabs loaded? Or does the number of tabs change the ratio?

yossarian · Jun 19, 2012

Maybe a floater would help disperse the tabs more slowly? If so, then you could shock and add tabs via a floater or two. I have a floater that holds 5 tabs and it adds chlorine quite slowly compared to a feeder or adding tabs to the skimmer. It will take a week or so for the tabs to be consumed when I use a floater. I have used that for vacations before I had a solar cover and it worked pretty well in conjunction with a shock in advance.

RobbieH · Jun 19, 2012

When my pool had low CYA, I floated 2 floaters with 3 tabs each. There was still some in them after a week of absence.

jmhjgh · Jun 19, 2012

Do you run your pump 24/7? If so, can you turn down your pump speed to make the tablets last longer?

Bluechip · Jul 16, 2012

Returned home yesterday to find the pool in perfect shape! We got a little worried when we returned to the port and checked online to find that we had received 6-8 inches of rain over the last few days. We were not sure what to expect.

I had brought the pool up to shock level and filled up the chlorinator with 9 tabs and also put in a floater with 4 tabs. Upon returning the chlorinator had a few small chips left and the floater had about the same. The FC was still at 10. CC at .5. The ph was a little low at 7.1. I'll do a full round of tests this weekend to see where we are with CYA after the tabs and the rain.

Thanks for the advice. Our first extended leave from the pool went great.