Chlorinating with cold water temps

[bacevedo]

This is the first winter with our newly built pool. I have the Hayward system in my sig and everything has been fine.

However, now that the temps in Arizona have cooled, my system is telling me the cell is turned off due to low temperature. The water temp is in the 40s and low 50s, depending on the time of day.

My question is, how does everyone else deal with chlorinating their pool in the winter when it's too cold for the salt cell? Do I need to add liquid chlorine or is the water too cold for algae to grow?

I tested my chlorine and I was still at about 4.5 ppm, but wanted to know how everyone else handles keeping their pool open during the winter with a SWCG. My pool doesn't get much sun during the day due to the house blocking the sun for most of the pool. So I don't think I am losing much due to UV exposure.

Thanks,
Bryan

 

[jblizzle]

I would just supplement with bleach as required to stay in the recommended FC range. The FC consumption goes way down in the winter.

 

[pwrstrk]

+ 1 what Jason suggested to you.

 

[Richard320]

I'll make it unanimous: bleach. It won't take much to get the FC level up, and even less to keep it up.

 

[woodyp]

Just to add........once a week checking should be plenty.

 

[mas985]

My question is, how does everyone else deal with chlorinating their pool in the winter when it's too cold for the salt cell? Do I need to add liquid chlorine or is the water too cold for algae to grow?

I would agree that to be safe you probably should add chlorine but I did go one year for about 6 weeks without adding any chlorine while the water was below 50 degrees without any issues.

 

[bacevedo]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I'll add some liquid chlorine tomorrow.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I see in the OP's siggy line that he also has an ozone device in the pool. Will that alter anything or cause more chlorine loss as it does in a spa?
Otherwise, as everyone else suggests, I'd just top it off with bleach if I didn't want to use my SWG in the cold. I didn't even know cold would affect the SWG's production?

 

[jblizzle]

Yes the ozone will more rapidly break the FC down.

 

[chem geek]

Most pool ozonators are so woefully undersized that the loss of chlorine is not normally noticeable. However, with cooler water temps and most especially if there is much less sunlight on the pool (or if it is covered), then the chlorine loss from ozone might be more noticeable since one no longer has 2 ppm FC per day chlorine loss.