A/C condensate for pool anyone?

BowserB

Silver Supporter
Jul 29, 2018
777
"Old" Katy, TX
Pool Size
15000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Most recent post I can find here on this topic is six years old, so I'm starting again. According to reputable sources, places like the Gulf South where I live a residential A/C can produce 15-20 gallons of condensate a day. Now there may be a little dust if you don't keep your air filters clean/replaced, and there could be a bit of bacteria from your home in the condensate as well (in your home, but not in mine ;)), but is that enough reason to throw away 20 gallons of 7 pH essentially distilled water a day? Our A/C condensate goes into the sanitary sewer system. Meanwhile we buy a comparable amount of 8 pH from the city to compensate for evaporation...and then we buy muriatic acid to bring the pH down.

I'm seriously considering collecting my A/C water in a barrel and then running a hose from the barrel to the pool. No that water isn't strictly potable as is, but I have UV, Ozone, and chlorine to treat it, just like the rest of the water in the pool. Further, since it is cool water, the peak of summer when A/C runs the most and humidity sits at 80% plus, that could even contribute a tiny bit to lowering the water temp--which can hit 92 degrees or more. And since down here in the south we run our A/C and pools 12 months, this is a year 'round issue. In fact, I can't help but wonder why the environmental lobby hasn't mandated recovery of A/C water. Is anyone here doing this? Here are a couple of articles. One specifically mentions swimming pools as a place to use the condensate.

Potential uses for condensate recovery:
Potential Uses For Reclaimed Air Conditioning Condensate
Condensate for plants:
StackPath
 
Wow, 15-20 gallons a day... that's quite a bit.

It may be worth harvesting the condensate. But use it to water your plants. No telling what type of nasties might be in that stagnant condensate. No way I'd use it in my pool.
 
I have been collecting the a/c condensate and using it to water my plants here in Las Vegas. That is when we were using the a/c. Now it’s about 70 during the day and drops into the high 40s over night.
 
Just know that AC condensate can contain copper, tin and, possibly, lead ions in it from the heat exchanger tubes and any brazed joints that may be present. Distilled water is very aggressive towards metal surfaces and can easily pick up lots of metal contaminants. This is not usually an issue for condensate that is recovered for irrigation but it could cause staining in your pool over time. I collect and water plants with AC condensate. If my recovery line were closer to the condenser pad, I would setup a misting pump to spray it into the condenser coils to improve heat transfer efficiency (I live in a very dry climate so AC condensers work a lot harder around here to reject heat).
 
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