Vacation Time

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DSdiver

DSdiver

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Sep 12, 2013
31
South Eastern Wisconsin
Does anyone have any suggestions on taking vacation time from your pool. It's been 3 years now and we are going on vacation for our first time away from our pool for a week. We have an auto cover and will close this and put the pump on. My question is do I need to do anything else for a week away I don't want to come back to a green pool our loose the crystal clear water we have enjoyed all summer. Does any one have any thoughts,

FC 5
CC .5
TA 210
PH 7.5
CYA 60/70
Calcium 220
Salt 3400 PPM
 
Since you have a SWG, there is really not much you need to do differently. Just lower the pH into the lower 7s (since the SWG will make it rise; although depends on how often you are finding you need to add acid to lower it normally), put the cover on, and enjoy your vacation.
 
Some of us with large pools need to run 24x7, and with a VF or VS and SWG this can be a good thing. His 34,000 gallon pool is pretty big, and depending on his SWG and pump, he may have to run all the time just as I do. My pump typically says it is using 350 watts. I just looked, right now it's running 430 watts, 1800 RPM, and 29 GPM. This is a little higher than normal. I do lower the run time when we move into fall and winter.

I lower my pH to 7.2 and leave. I don't cover the pool, or do anything any differently than I do when I am at home. That's why I have the SWG.
 
Why do you need to run 24/7? Seems like that would only be required if your SWG was operating at 100% already.

Sure with the VS pump, the electrical costs are lower ... but not running for 12 hours would save 50% of the power cost. Easiest way to save money on power is to turn off the pump.
 
When I installed the VF, I determined what the optimum RPM/GPM would be in regards to power use vs water clarity. At 350 watts, it's running about 1200 RPM (IIRC) and is really in the sweet spot. I believe the higher power usage currently is due to some changes I made in the eyeballs, but even at 450, it's not terrible usage. The SWG is running 22 hours per day at 90%. It was simply easier to let it go ahead and run 24/7 with it set up this way than to go through a bunch of trouble fiddling with the pump's programming and the SWG to find the absolute optimum run time by shaving 2 hours off.

Another issue is I only have returns in the shallow end and one skimmer that's not really in the optimum location. Also, I have lots of very large trees. To keep the pool clear of leaves, the longer run time helps to catch them in the skimmer before they go to the bottom. I guess not as much thought went into where returns and skimmer(s) should go when they built this pool. Currently I have slit eyeballs in 3 of the returns, and a PoolSkim on the 4th, to assist with the problem. It seems to be working.

If I ran the pump for 12 hours, I would have to use more power and a higher GPM. Twice the power does not equal twice the GPM, so really there is no savings. In fact, it could cost me more.
 
Interesting. Certainly sounds like you have some things in your pool that point toward the need for the long run time (like a nearly maxed out SWG, high debris loads, and not ideal return/skimmer locations). In most cases reducing the run time to 12 hours (or much less) should not actually require an increase in pump speed and thus no increase in power cost.
 
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