I love my swg

[donberry]

i have an abg 24' round pool. have had it for about 16-17 years now.
Few years ago , against the advice of the local pool store, I decided to try out a swg. First one I got was the Chlorease. loved it, at first. Once i went to salt water, with my polaris 65, it had basically became a zero maintenance pool.
The next year, the transformer on the Chlorease literally melted, was not very happy with customer service, so decided to try a Simple Chlor.
I really liked the simple Chlor plus they had great customer service.
The flow switch wasn't working on mine, which shuts it off when the pump isn't running and i emailed them with just a question about it and without asking, they sent me new everything - basically a brand new unit.
I never had a problem with it and it was back to a zero maintenance pool.....just my style.

I did not need a new one, but I had a little bit of extra cash and came across a decent deal for the hayward Aqua Trol so picked it up.
man I love this thing.
I do not know why, but i have never had a timer on my pump, I always had to turn it off manually, which usually meant it pretty much ran most of the day.
With the hayward, I have it set up to run an hour on and an hour off, starting at 7 am and shut it down at 10.00. I do this because I always leave my polaris 65 connected so I pretty much never have to do anything except jump in and cool down. I really do not use the pool much unless my grand kids are here except to jump in and cool down when i am working outside.
So now I am sure I am extending the life of my pump by not running it all day when it is 100 degrees outside, but every other hour is enough where as long as the polaris is working right, the pool remains free from bugs etc......
Plus I like the digital readout. No kit or strip to check my salt level, just push a button and i instantly know what it is (my old liner leaked so i was always having to add water, which of course affected the salt levels. i now have a new liner so it should remain stable now).

Now if i would have listened to my local pool store, they said i should not use one with an abg pool. I am glad i did not listen.
I honestly do not do a thing to my pool since using a swg. I get the levels set in the spring when I open it up and probably because it does not get heavy use, they stay level all year until i close it.
I pretty much do absolutely nothing. maybe once a week i will check the chlorine levels as i do adjust the output during the different times of season. Since adding a solar cover i have it turned down to less than 20% and it stays perfect, of course it isn't 100 degrees every day now.
My advice would be, if you like to just enjoy your sparkling clear pool and not have to be messing around with the levels all of the time, get yourself a swg. I would bet it will be the best thing you ever did for yourself and your pool.
But if you like to always be tinkering with the chlorine levels, buying tubs of bleach etc, trying to decide if you need to add 1/2 gallon, 1 gallon etc, stay away from a swg as you may just find you no longer have anything to do except swim

 

[ROB N]

What about your ph? Swcg tends to increase ph....

 

[dmanb2b]

What about your ph? Swcg tends to increase ph....

It does, but not usually an issue if you adjust TA properly. Although we always advocate daily testing, i've also gone weeks without adjusting PH, especially when I hit my TA sweet spot of around 60-70.

 

[donberry]

I have never had a problem. I do use borax.
Since going to a swg, I honestly have never had to adjust anything after I get it set in the spring. To be fair tho, my pool would not get what you consider heavy use. My grand kids are 2 and 5 now and they normally only use the pool 3 days a week.
Then it is just my wife and I. I normally only jump in when I am working outside for maybe 15-30 minutes at a time. Wife is more of a floater.
Is why I actually hated the pool before i went to a swg. Not much use but i was always out there fiddling around keeping everything in check.
Now, I know many do not believe me, but I will go 3 days or so only glancing at the pool to make sure the polaris is running right. I check the levels of everything once a week, but it has just become a ritual because the only thing I ever have to adjust, if at all, is twist the knob on the swg output.
When it was the over 100 degrees for a month, I had it running around 65 %, no cover, full sun from sun up to sun down and it was a tad high at 3 ppm. Now we are in the low 80's during the day, mid 60's at night and i am using a solar cover at night and I have it turned down to less than 20% output and it is still a tad high at 3 ppm. I just put in a new liner and i did put a little bit too much salt in it so is probably why I can turn it down so low. I have 3500 ppm but I figure the season is nearing an end so I am not messing with it and am hoping when I open it up next spring it may be just about perfect.
When I open it up I adjust the ta, ph etc as needed and i do use borax.
I have had the pool for 16-17 years and it has always been sparkling clean once opened, but I always had to mess with it when using chlorine. It was an every day thing. Since I went with a swg and now especially with the Aqua-trol, it really is a zero maintenance pool as far as levels etc.....
Now when i changed the liner, that was a different story. A 16-17 year old pool. You have no idea how long it took me to finish it up. It uses the metal rails - every single one was really corroded. Priced new ones and they were very expensive ( I thought so anyway), so I had to grind every one down using a wire wheel on a grinder, then put on a rust converter, then paint each one with rustoleum. I also had some corrosion on the metal "ledges" , the metal pieces that you see. Then of course I had to buy 165 stainless steel bolts - i have no idea why they used phillips head. had to drill out about a dozen because they were rusted and stripped.

I doubt the rust converter I used will work for that long, but it will be easy to get them back off now and if I see them starting to corrode again I will buy a gallon of Por-15 ($140 a gallon) and that stuff stops rust in it tracks. It basically seals the metal so air can no longer get to it to rust. Expensive but works.
I spent a good 8 hours a day for at least a week working on it putting in the foam, liner, repairing rust etc......and of course that was when it was still 100 degrees out and i did not have a pool to jump in and cool off.
Was a royal pain, but it looks pretty good again for a pool that is 16-17 years old.
If I did not switch to a swg, I probably would have taken it down a few years ago as I was sick of always messing with it for as much use as it got. It has been getting more use this year tho.