Chlorine smell? and other ?'s

[new2pools]

Okay,dumb question but shouldn't the water have a smell of chlorine??? I dont' smell anything at all in the water.

Brand new pool, installed last week, was sold Baquacil with the pool and had added the Baquacil Alkalinity increaser and calcium hardness and almost started with the Baquacil Sanatizer.....stopped just short of that, Thank Goodness and switched to chlorine instead! Anyway, added 4 bags of Burn Out shock yesterday morning and the day before that the Stabilzer (CYA?). I was told to add the Back Up algaeside but have not per a post here saying it's not needed. And, told to put tablets in my skimmer which again was told not needed. Soooo, I did the test with the PH and everything looks as if it's where it should be but I am just wondering since I don't smell any chlorine in the water at all. (btw, I do have my good test kit on order so I can get real #'s soon! :-D )
The pool gets full, direct sun from about 8:00am until about 2:30-3:00 pm every day, then shade.

HOw often should I vacuum? I do also have an automatic that came with the pool....not sure how great it is though. It's called Dirt Demon, I believe.


I have a 27 foot round with a 2HP, 2 speed motor. Should the pump run 24/7?

How often should the filter be washed/rinsed, etc? (don't have a sand filter)

Hmmm. think that's all I can think of right now!
Thanks!

 

[Buggsw]

No you really shouldn't smell the chlorine. If you do start smelling chlorine in your pool, that would be a sign that you have what we call CC's - Combined Chlorine and that is not the good kind of chlorine to have.

TC or Total Chlorine is the amount of Combined Chlorine plus the amount of Free Chlorine. It is best to have 0 Combined Chlorine. Stated in another way, Free Chlorine (which is what you want to be at a good level) is Total Chlorine minus Combined Chlorine.

Combined Chlorine is the chlorine that has bound with all the cruddy stuff like ammonia, organic material and other contaminents. It's not an effective sanitizer at that point.

When you "shock" you are trying to overcomeand get rid of Combined Chlorine.

 

[JasonLion]

If everything is working correctly you shouldn't smell chlorine. Generally what you smell is the combined chlorine, which you want to avoid having.

A basic default is to vacuum once a week, but really it is whenever there is something to vacuum up and you have the time. If the bottom looks clean there isn't any need to vacuum.

The filter should be cleaned when the pressure goes up 10 lbs.

There isn't generally a need to run the pump 24/7 unless you are having a problem. Try running the pump 8-10 hours a day and then adjust from there. If the water looks a little off run the pump more. If the water has been perfect for a while run the pump less.

And remember to enjoy your pool!

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

We run our pump on low 24/7, the first year we didn't and we had problems. Supposing if you had a timer....but we leave our heater with a temp setting so if the water temp drops below say 84 degrees it turns on, this is why we leave our pump on. But if you don't have to worry about that I guess it doesn't matter really. Also, we used to have a pool frog system and with that it made more sense to run the filter all the time. Depending on your filter pressure changes is when to clean the filter, but it depends on the filter. Our filter is 3.5 on low, 15 on high (we have a bottom drain too), we just hose off the cartridge once a month or so, more often if we have had alot of gunk or algea problem. They get gross pretty quick and a dirty filter can interfere with the heater.

Because of our bottom drain I only have to vacume at opening...