Solar blankets and chlorine

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T

tlevy

0
Jun 3, 2015
355
Ottawa/Ontario
Hi all

Am I correct in assuming that if I leave my cover on, the sun will degrade less chlorine as compared to the pool water being exposed to direct sunlight?

Cheers, and happy Saturday to everyone.

Tom


90,000litre, IG vinyl, 1/2 HP Tristar pump, Sandfilter, Aquarite T-15 ASG
 
Interesting. So our cover is white/opaque, but I have noticed that my chlorine is a little on the high side - dialed down the salt generator to 40% as a means to compensate....


90,000litre, IG vinyl, 1/2 HP Tristar pump, Sandfilter, Aquarite T-15 ASG
 
There are other factors. You need sunlight directly on the pool to get rid of excess CC's A pool cover prevents that. Pools like to "breathe". The chlorine in your pool "eats" a solar cover faster than if it is folded up and stored.

Use your Solar cover to save heat but I would not use it for the purpose of saving chlorine.....the side effects are not worth it
 
Agreed. I have been using it for the heating/heat loss prevention side of things but have since realized that this is having other "negative" side effects as you describe above. Good information al! Thanks!


90,000litre, IG vinyl, 1/2 HP Tristar pump, Sandfilter, Aquarite T-15 ASG
 
Usually if your pool is exposed to direct sunlight, then an opaque pool cover cuts down chlorine loss. However, as was noted, a cover gets slowly oxidized by chlorine so increases chlorine loss from that. Usually the net is a lower loss of chlorine. If you aren't seeing that then maybe your sun exposure was not full or your cover reacts with chlorine more than most.

I have a mostly opaque electric safety cover and it most definitely cuts down the loss from sunlight where overall my chlorine loss if the pool is not used is only 0.7 ppm FC per day though the pool is typically used every day so actual loss is closer to 1 ppm FC per day. If I have the cover open all day, the loss is closer to 2 ppm FC per day. If I had no sun exposure at all, then having no cover would have minimal chlorine loss (probably less than 0.3 ppm FC per day).
 
duraleigh said:
There are other factors. You need sunlight directly on the pool to get rid of excess CC's A pool cover prevents that. Pools like to "breathe". The chlorine in your pool "eats" a solar cover faster than if it is folded up and stored.

Use your Solar cover to save heat but I would not use it for the purpose of saving chlorine.....the side effects are not worth it
Click to expand...

I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread. I've noticed every time I test my water when the cover has been on for a few days, my CC's are elevated. I thought that maybe my cover had algae on it and that was the reason for the elevated numbers. Not to high jack the thread, but are these elevated CC's a concern and do they require any action on my part? In the past I was increasing FC to SLAM level until everything came back down to normal. I actually stopped using the cover because I was afraid I'd come out to a green pool one day.
 
If you don't notice a "bad pool smell" then those CCs are not a serious concern and you can just uncover the pool once in a while (probably at least once a week) and they should stay under control from the UV in sunlight. The CCs are probably not from algae but from by-products from the oxidation of the cover itself or if the cover is dirty than substances that were stuck on the cover.
 
Good to know. I have begun to really regret even getting that cover. It does a great job warming my pool, but I'm always freaking out, especially after it rains, and there is a bit of water sitting on the cover or debris begins collecting on the cover. Always makes me worried that when I pull the cover off, I'm going to be dumping algae/debris filled water into my pool, which is where I thought the CC's might have been coming from.
 
Well if you had algae or other debris on your cover and it got dumped into the pool then yes, that could create both additional chlorine demand and possibly increase CC. That is a downside to using a cover and one should try and roll it up in a way so as not to dump what is on top of it into the pool.
 

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CC = Combined Chlorine. Basically chlorine combined with ammonia or with an organic compound. Some people worry a lot when they see CC measured in their chlorine test, but it's not always an issue and is usually easily resolved by exposing the pool to sunlight and letting it air out a bit.
 
Not quite. It's Total Chlorine = Free Chlorine + Combined Chlorine where the Free Chlorine has a portion of it that kills pathogens and algae, while the Combined Chlorine is not a fast-acting disinfectant. Free Chlorine by itself is misleading because the active chlorine that kills pathogens and algae is only a portion of it dependent on the Cyanuric Acid level, related to the FC/CYA ratio.
 
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