How many pucks in the floater at a time?

[drmac22]

Might be a rookie question but I am a pool rookie so I will ask. How many 3 inch pucks do you put into the floater if your using one at one time? One? Three? Same Question for my Bromine spa, I use a floater for it and put in the 1 inch bromine tablets. Do I just fill the floater up or just put one in at a time?

 

[woodyp]

If water gets to all the pucks equally, they should equally degrade I'd think. You can always take them out if needed, allow to dry, and reuse later.

 

[chem geek]

For the same output setting on the floater (adjustment of vane open/close sizes), more tabs will output more chlorine or bromine. Also, more tabs last somewhat longer (not proportionately, though). So you can adjust between the number of tabs and the output setting to get the amount of disinfectant you want and how long the tabs last.

Remember that for Trichlor tabs/pucks in a floater in the pool, that for every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) that they add, they also increase Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm. For the bromine tabs in a spa, you usually set the floater to provide a background level of bromine in between soaks while you add an oxidizer, such as chlorine, after each soak to handle the bather waste from that soak.

 

[Durk]

I used tabs exclusively from the mid-1970's until 2003 so I probably know more than most about using them. (They work fine if you dump your pool and winter empty and that's what we did from 1946-2003. You only have a problem in your second season on the same water.) My theory back then was to load the floater full up, and then close the vanes gradually if the FC was too high. That way you can leave the floater untouched for a longer period of time.

Now I just use tabs on vacation and to raise CYA when I need it as gunite doesn't like being empty. LC the rest of the time.

 

[TIMMAH]

I use my spa a lot and I have a ozonator so what I need could be a lot different then what you need. but for me I add 1 tab at a time. when it gets down to a 1/2 tab I add another. so I have between 1/2 tab to 1.5 tabs in the floater. a tab seems to last about 10 days for me. you will have to keep a close eye on your ph and alkalinity using tabs. I have to add ph up/baking soda about every 7 days since the bromine tabs are acidic and lower the ph and alkalinity over time.

for the pool we have a inline pool chlorine dispenser but we almost never use it. when we do I add a few and have it halfway open. my uncles pool guy uses 1 puck a week for his pool and runs the inline pool chlorine dispenser wide open. I have a landscaping co and most of the pool guys I see shock it with liquid chlorine and add 1 puck a week in a floater.