Liquidator not feeding any bleach

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H

heatmisr

0
LifeTime Supporter
Jul 10, 2007
299
Northern NJ
Well, I hooked my liquidator up last weekend. Wasn't able to do some testing until later in the week because it rained most of the week. I noticed that the bleach level was not going down. Well, CL level is 0 and remained 0 even when I tested the water directly from the return. There is water flow into and out of the liquidator because I can see it through the tubing. I have the same problem that Miranda had with the lack of flow through the liquidator with the skimmer valve completely open. I have both check valves on and the valve from the skimmer to the pump is only about 1/3 open. This gives me a flow rate of 3. Just can't figure out why it is not drawing any bleach.

Any suggestions?

Oh, I don't know if this is related or not, but the pump is on a timer and when the pump starts back up, the pressure on the filter gauge is 0 and stays 0.
 
Hmm, if you have a flow of 3 on the flow meter and I assume you hooked it up correctly then you should be getting chlorine into the pool. One thing that is important to remember with the liquidator is that it, IMO, is best used to keep chlorine levels stable once you reach the desired level. Another thing to consider is how long you run your pump for. If you only run it 8 hrs a day you will need to increase the flow. Lastly, what is your stabilizer level? If you have no stabilizer then your chlorine level will be impossible to maintain.
 
I believe everything is hooked up correctly. I have the check valves and flow meter on the suction side pointing away from the liquidator. The check valve on the pressure side is pointing towards the liquidator.

I run the pump 12hrs/day. 6 hours at a time. I have it running 6a-12p and 6p-12a. I am going to change it so that it runs during the day from 12p-6p and then 12a-6a.

My stabilizer was at 0, which is why I wasn't initially alarmed by the 0 reading. I turned the pump on and let it cirulate for about an hour, then tested the water coming directly out of the return. Figured I would get some type of reading. It was still 0.

I have added the stabilizer, but that still doesn't explain why no bleach is coming out of the liquidator. Sunday was a week that it has been hooked up and the bleach level is the same as it was when I set it up last Sunday.
 
If your CYA was at 0 then there is a good chance that the Chlorine is dissipating almost immediately. What is it up to now? I would shot for at least 30PPM. What is your flow rate when you open the valve all of the way? Unfortunately the easiest fix on the Liquidator is removal of the check valves and above ground pools make for a dilemma if you cannot get the Liquidator above water level.
 
You should bring the chlorine level up to a reasonable number with some additional source of chlorine (presumably bleach) and then see if the Liquidator can maintain that level. There are some situations where there is an initial clear water chlorine demand that could cause the symptoms you are seeing. Getting an initial FC level with bleach external to the Liquidator will make it clear if there really is a problem with the Liquidator or if you just have some chlorine demand that it can't keep up with.
 
Nicole,

If the little ball in the flow guage is above zero (hopefully "3") you ARE getting chlorine in the pool....there is no choice.

It is simply being consumed thru lack of CYA or algae or too little pump run time.
 
keithw said:
If your CYA was at 0 then there is a good chance that the Chlorine is dissipating almost immediately. What is it up to now? I would shot for at least 30PPM. What is your flow rate when you open the valve all of the way? Unfortunately the easiest fix on the Liquidator is removal of the check valves and above ground pools make for a dilemma if you cannot get the Liquidator above water level.
Click to expand...

I am going to test it when I get home today. I got home too late last night to test it, but all the CYA in the nylon is dissolved.

If you are talking about the valve from the skimmer, the flow rate is 0. The highest output I can get on the flow meter is 3. That is with the skimmer valve 1/3 open and the flow control valve all the way open.
 
JasonLion said:
You should bring the chlorine level up to a reasonable number with some additional source of chlorine (presumably bleach) and then see if the Liquidator can maintain that level. There are some situations where there is an initial clear water chlorine demand that could cause the symptoms you are seeing. Getting an initial FC level with bleach external to the Liquidator will make it clear if there really is a problem with the Liquidator or if you just have some chlorine demand that it can't keep up with.
Click to expand...

Ok, I will add some bleach tonight once I take my CYA reading.
 
duraleigh said:
Nicole,

If the little ball in the flow guage is above zero (hopefully "3") you ARE getting chlorine in the pool....there is no choice.

It is simply being consumed thru lack of CYA or algae or too little pump run time.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is at 3. That is as high as I can get it without completely closing the skimmer valve. I would think that I am, but the CL level is not going down in the liquidator. That's what is making me think that it is not pulling CL. I know that there is water flow in and out of the liquidator because I see it, but I am just concerned that the CL level is not going down and there is no CL in the pool.

Having some CYA and bringing the CL level up manually should enable me to see if if is working or not, I hope.

Do you think I should run the pump more than 12 hours per day? I was thinking of switching the schedule so that it is running in the afternoon, but I thought 12 hrs would give me more than enough turnover.
 
Well, I cannot comment on the flow issues but I can say if you have flow in and out of the Liquidator then you certainly are putting CL into the pool. I would mnake sure your stabilizer level is where it should be and manually bring the chlorine up to 4ppm. Run the pump for the same time and see what happens.
 

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To confirm chlorine, take a sample of water right at the return. Test it for chlorine. I did this when I first put the Liquidator online to ensure it was working. I wanted to build my confidence that the tank was working. I don’t have any knowledge about above ground pools beside what I have read here. Have you found the other thread which discussed similar issues?

For start up, you will need to let the pump run 24hrs to get a good reading. I let mine run 24hrs for 7 days to ensure chlorine was getting in. Then I moved back to 12 hrs a day and adjusted the flow rate as needed. Even today, I am tweaking the flow every few days due to conditions such as sun, swim load, ect...

It's best not to start with zero chlorine in the pool. The instructions want you to start with a balanced pool, this way you will not have to deal with large swings. (Been there... ;) )
 
Probably the best way to make sure that you have CL coming out is to disconnect the return tube before the check valve while the pump is running and get some of that water into a container to test. Once it hits the return into the pool it will become quickly diluted. How many gallons is your pool? I would expect that you are going to want the flow indicator to stay to at least three on a norm to hold the right CL level. My pool is 6700gal, I run it 6-8hrs a day, and I keep the flow at two. That gives me 3-4PPM CL @ 30CYA. I don't think that you should have to increase pump run time to get it working correctly, that will impact your electric bill.

The best solution would be to get the supply and return holes on the liquidator above the water level of your pool and remove the check valves. That will definitely give you a lot more flow rate.

And you are definitely going to what to throttle the flow from the skimmer. There is another post about this where chemgeek pointed out that very short tube runs from the skimmer to the pump (such as what are normally found on aboveground pools), do not have enough resistance to pull a sufficient quantity of water from the Liquidator. Throttling the skimmer flow will give a better flow.
 
I think my biggest problem right now is my CYA level. I let some dissolve over the course of a week and tested yesterday. I didn't even get a reading of 20, so I added some more to the stocking. I added a gallon of 5.25% bleach yesterday around 7p. When I tested about 2 hours ago, I had no CL. I think until I can get the CYA up, I will just be spinning my wheels.

Since I need to get this CYA level up quickly, I think I may remove it from the stocking and just dissolve it in hot water. That way I don't have to wait for it to dissolve and it can start circulating immediately.

ETA: typo
 
Try adding the bleach in the early evening, let it settle for 10 minutes and then test. Then test again in the morning. If it decreases then you are fighting algae or something and should probably shock your pool to around 10ppm CL for a few days.
 
I would give it half an hour or more with the pump running after adding bleach before doing the evening FC test, but otherwise I agree with keithw. You probably have some chlorine demand that is using up the chlorine before it has time to show on the test.
 
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