Oversize Pentair Intellichlor

[MoebiusStreet]

Our pool is new, we just put the salt into the water. As I was learning how to use the SWG (it's a Pentair Intellichlor IC40), I noticed that this model is for pools up to 40,000 gallons. My pool is a measly 11,000 gallons.

In general I'd think it would be better to have excess capacity (indeed, our filter is rather large as well), but this is pretty extreme. I'm wondering if that's going to be giving me headaches down the road.

My expectation is that I should just run it at 20%, or 40% tops. For finer control, I can adjust the pump schedule and speed, and still be able to manage everything successfully. Does that sound correct?

 

[JoshU]

My expectation is that I should just run it at 20%, or 40% tops. For finer control, I can adjust the pump schedule and speed, and still be able to manage everything successfully. Does that sound correct?

Yes, you should just be able to run at a lower percentage. You'll get a feel for the percentage needed as you own the pool longer. This cell will just last you longer than the smaller cell.

 

[jblizzle]

I think the only headache you may run into is being able to dial in the FC generation easily. You can do that with either pump run time or the SWG % output setting as you stated. The issue you have is without the Pentair automation system, you can only change the FC in 20% increments as you also seem to know. So you are going to have to likely play with the pump run time to get a good FC level. Realize that the speed of the pump has nothing to do with the FC output.

I am guessing you are going to want to use the 20% output and then adjust your pump to be at a low RPM for as long a run time as possible before the FC level starts climbing. You just may not be able to have the pump running for very long each day. If the pool does not filter enough for that run time, you may have to increase the pump speed to filter more and then you are spending more money on electricity.