I am always looking to simplify and automate and the LQ seems like a good step in that direction. But I am not sure if it will work well for us given our equipment. Here are the facts for our pool:
12-year old pool
Pebble Tec
15K gallons
Phoenix area
Purex Clean and Pure Cartridge Filter 520
A&A QuikPure Ozonator 25K
A&A In-Floor Cleaning System
2" plumbing
No Heater
AO Smith 2-Speed Motor: .33 or 2.0 HP; 1725 or 3450 RPMs
Winter (Dec - Feb) - pump on low only for 6 hours
Shoulder (Mar - Apr; Nov) pump on low for 12 hours
Summer (May - Oct) pump on low for 22 hours and high for 2 hours
Sanitation: Ozone + trichlor pucks dropped into in-deck chlorinator; 1 puck every 2 or 3 days in summer seems to work; average of 1 puck per week for the rest of the year
To deal with CYA creep from the trichlor we have been doing a complete drain and refill every 2 years. I own a good pump and we have a desert wash right beside our house, so this is a pretty simple operation. Extra cost on the water bill is about $60 to do the refill. I figure we use about 120 pucks in a year and the pucks cost about $1.25 each. So chlorine costs about $150 year. The total annual cost for this system of trichlor and every other year drain/refill is about $180 ($120 for chlorine + $30 annual cost allocation for drain/refill). This seems pretty cheap and I am tempted to just stick with it.
The only reason to consider the LQ is to keep the water in the pool for more years and to eliminate the need to keep track of the trichlor pucks every couple of days in summer. Also, we usually leave Phoenix and travel with our fifth-wheel during August-October. We pay our friends kids $20/week to come drop in 3 or 4 pucks, test the pH, and add acid as needed. If we got the LQ dialed in for summer use, then we might only have the kids come by every two weeks to refill the LQ and check the water balance.
Questions on the LQ:
Will it work with the low speed setting on our pump motor?
I read of some people having a hard time getting the pressure draw they need.
Will it be too much work to get it set right given the three seasonal settings of our pump motor?
We have never experimented with running the pump on low setting for 24 hours in the summer, but that would simplify things if the pool still stayed clean with no high speed operation.
Is it even worth messing around with this given that our current system of ozone/thrichlor + drain/refill is cheap and has worked for 12 years?
12-year old pool
Pebble Tec
15K gallons
Phoenix area
Purex Clean and Pure Cartridge Filter 520
A&A QuikPure Ozonator 25K
A&A In-Floor Cleaning System
2" plumbing
No Heater
AO Smith 2-Speed Motor: .33 or 2.0 HP; 1725 or 3450 RPMs
Winter (Dec - Feb) - pump on low only for 6 hours
Shoulder (Mar - Apr; Nov) pump on low for 12 hours
Summer (May - Oct) pump on low for 22 hours and high for 2 hours
Sanitation: Ozone + trichlor pucks dropped into in-deck chlorinator; 1 puck every 2 or 3 days in summer seems to work; average of 1 puck per week for the rest of the year
To deal with CYA creep from the trichlor we have been doing a complete drain and refill every 2 years. I own a good pump and we have a desert wash right beside our house, so this is a pretty simple operation. Extra cost on the water bill is about $60 to do the refill. I figure we use about 120 pucks in a year and the pucks cost about $1.25 each. So chlorine costs about $150 year. The total annual cost for this system of trichlor and every other year drain/refill is about $180 ($120 for chlorine + $30 annual cost allocation for drain/refill). This seems pretty cheap and I am tempted to just stick with it.
The only reason to consider the LQ is to keep the water in the pool for more years and to eliminate the need to keep track of the trichlor pucks every couple of days in summer. Also, we usually leave Phoenix and travel with our fifth-wheel during August-October. We pay our friends kids $20/week to come drop in 3 or 4 pucks, test the pH, and add acid as needed. If we got the LQ dialed in for summer use, then we might only have the kids come by every two weeks to refill the LQ and check the water balance.
Questions on the LQ:
Will it work with the low speed setting on our pump motor?
I read of some people having a hard time getting the pressure draw they need.
Will it be too much work to get it set right given the three seasonal settings of our pump motor?
We have never experimented with running the pump on low setting for 24 hours in the summer, but that would simplify things if the pool still stayed clean with no high speed operation.
Is it even worth messing around with this given that our current system of ozone/thrichlor + drain/refill is cheap and has worked for 12 years?
