Going a day or two before running the pump at all

[Kamin]

My pool is fully screened in, so it gets less debris from the environment. A few weeks ago, I decided to try running the pump only half an hour per day starting when I add chlorine.

I've invested in a nice skimming net, and spend a few minutes daily skimming, and vacuum any debris from the bottom of the pool on the weekend, which seems to be a little more than normal now, but not excessive. The pool is clear and looks pretty good, with the trade-off of being slightly less ascetic with a little bit of visible debris now, especially before skimming.

A short time after I started that, I tested for CYA for the beginning of the season, and saw that lo and behold, I actually needed to raise the level, so the floating chlorinator and trichlor tablets that the pool store sold me when I was ignorant went back in the pool to stay until the desired level is attained (hey, I already paid for them)!

Good idea or bad, I've actually been experimenting going a day or two before running the pump at all with the floating chlorinator in the pool. I've seen nothing obvious bad from this experiment, but I am wondering if the pump still needs to run for a short period every day to mix the chlorine, even if it was introduced by a chlorinator that floats from place to place.

 

[JasonLion]

At least a little pump run time every 24 hours is a good idea. While chlorine from the floater will spread out into the whole pool eventually, it can be a quite slow process without the pump running. Half an hour every day is enough to keep the water well mixed. You will also want to run the pump after adding any other chemical.

 

[jrguzmanr]

I tried running my pump every other day during the week since we only use it during the weekend. I would always end up getting algae in one corner of the pool, where it gets the most sun and limited circulation. You can try it, but it didn't work for me.

 

[bigglesworth]

Often, when the Santa Ana winds are blowing, I will spike my FC up to 7-8 (CYA of 30-40), run the pump for an hour to circulate the water, then shut it off for 2 days or when the winds die down. Otherwise I'd be cleaning crud out of the skimmer every 30 minutes, which is hard to do while at work and not at home. I've not had an algae bloom yet in the two seasons I've been managing the pool (knock on wood).