Bad Plumbing causing Chlorinator Issues?

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K

Kebabian

0
Oct 18, 2016
36
Glen Mills, PA
I have a 36k gallon pool and spa. I can't keep the chlorine levels stable and I believe it is due to the chlorinator placement and lack of flow. Here is a diagram of the layout:

Plumbing-Diagram.jpg
The pump runs for 10 hours per day, but every morning, the chlorinator is half full of air and little to no flow is going through it. I suspect the issues are two-fold:

1. The ozone venturi injector allows air into the system as the return pulls from the equipment (which is above the water level). This air then enters the chlorinator.
2. The flow through the chlorinator is low due to the split prior for the spa and the pool cleaner.

This is a brand new pool and the 3rd or 4th re-plumbing that the builder has done due to many "forgotten" or incorrectly installed components.

Suggestions or comments?
 
Welcome to the forum --

If this was mine, I would remover the UV and Ozone items and the flow reducers, all are creating TDH with no effect on your water chemistry. I would then remove the in-line chlorinator and add a SWCG --

That being said, if the Ozone thing is adding air, disconnect it or plug it. You will see no effect on your pool water chemistry.

Good luck
 
K,

I really doubt that your plumbing has anything to do with your "unstable" chlorine (FC) levels.

Tell me how you are measuring your FC level, what is your CYA level, and what FC level are you trying to maintain?

Also tell me what you are using to make your measurements and how often are you testing?

Just to make sure we are both on the same page... most pool pools use 2 to 4 ppm of FC everyday...

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
Some added notes. I've thought about the SWCG and may do that down the road, but have opted to at least try the UV with Ozone and chlorine route. I'm trying to maintain a FC level of 1ppm which, from what I've read should be OK with the additional UV. I use a Taylor Test kit once per week and good ol' test strips once per day. My CYA is 70ppm.
 
K,

Since most pools use 2 to 4 ppm of FC per day, I can't see how it is possible to target 1 ppm???

With a CYA of 70 your FC should be about 7 ppm.. See this chart... [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]

Anything less than 5 ppm is an open invitation for an algae party... :party:

Good luck with your UV and Ozone experiments.. I call it "Magic" because it is all an illusion and unfortunately there is no rabbit in the hat... ;)

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Understood that with a CYA of 70, my FC should be around 7ppm. My original target was 1ppm with a CYA of 0-10 based on what the pool company told me.... along with telling me that UV, Ozone and a chlorine tab feeder was the new way to do things instead of SWCG!!! I have well water and couldn't fill the pool originally and so had to have water brought in, so the thought of draining half the pool to bring the CYA down is not too appealing.

I guess the moral is, My pool builder sucks. (And this isn't the only reason)

Having said that, even with my Pentair 320 inline chlorine feeder full of tabs, top feeding and set to max. I can't get or even maintain 1ppm of FC without putting tabs in skimmers, floats and manually purging the chlorinator every morning. Beyond frustrating.
 
K,

You most likely have an early algae bloom in process... It is consuming the FC as fast as you are putting it in..

To find out you need to perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test (OCLT)... See this ...Overnight Chlorine Loss Test The hardest part is getting out of bed before sun up... :p

If you do the OCLT make sure all the tabs are removed or shut off...

You can live with a CYA of 70.. assuming that is what it really is.

Unfortunately, to run our tests or fix an algae problem, you really need an accurate test kit. Either the TF-100 (the one I use) or the Taylor K-2006C (and yes the 'C' is important...)

Hang in there, you'll get it fixed...

Jim R.
 
Kebabian said:
......Having said that, even with my Pentair 320 inline chlorine feeder full of tabs, top feeding and set to max. I can't get or even maintain 1ppm of FC without putting tabs in skimmers, floats and manually purging the chlorinator every morning. Beyond frustrating.
Click to expand...
That statement has me concerned that your CYA has risen from 70ppm, and may be higher than you think.

When you do the CYA test, is it outdoors on a bright sunny day, back to the sun, reading the view tube at waist height in your shadow?
 
I'll do the overnight test tonight, but I think it's important to note that I can keep FC levels if I use tabs in the skimmers. I rarely have to replace tabs in the chlorinator and I suspect it's because the flow through the chlorinator isn't enough. (More is being diverted to the cleaner pump even tough it's off and the spa, primarily due to the back pressure of the ozone injector and flow restrictor to the pool.) In addition, if I don't purge the chlorinator of air EVERY day, it doesn't do anything, again, because I feel that the flow through it isn't string enough to purge itself and air is entering the system via the ozone injector.....

What I'm hearing from everyone though is that the Ozone is totally worthless. (Do commercial places really use them?)

So maybe I'll just remove the Ozone Generator entirely and switch from tabs to liquid Chlorine..... I don't really want to switch to SWCG for two reasons. 1) My boss AKA wife who doesn't want the salt taste. 2) We have a travertine deck which, as I understand it, could be harmed by the salt water.

I'll do the FCLT tonight and post results.

Thanks all for the input so far!!!!
 
Almost zero FC loss overnight. The pool is crystal clear. If I don't put the floater back in and the pucks in the skimmer, I can almost guarantee that it will be zero by the end of the day though.

I think I'm just going to remove the inline puck chlorinator and ozone generator. Keep the UV and install a liquid chlorine feeder.

I really can't continue to use pucks as the rising CYA would cause the need to drain and refill (which I can't do from a well so an expensive delivery would be required). A SWCG would obviously be ideal, but I'm concerned about the travertine deck and my wife being unhappy with the water taste.

Thanks everyone for the help.
 

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What makes your wife think she's going to taste the salt? It is not uncommon for a regular chlorine pool to get a salt level over 1000 PPM. The swg requires a salt level around 3000 PPM. The ocean is 30000 PPM.

Just tell her to keep her mouth shut :shock: perhaps that is a bad idea :mrgreen:
 
I can't taste the salt in ours either, of course that may be because of two many jalapenos in my past ---
 
I think travertine is not nearly as susceptible to any problems as other Stones like Flagstone.

What state are you located in? I don't know where Glen Mills is. If you get a fair amount of rain that also helps to dilute any salt build-up.
 
jblizzle said:
What makes your wife think she's going to taste the salt? It is not uncommon for a regular chlorine pool to get a salt level over 1000 PPM. The swg requires a salt level around 3000 PPM. The ocean is 30000 PPM.

Just tell her to keep her mouth shut :shock: perhaps that is a bad idea :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

I sure hope he didn't take your advice Justin since he has not posted since yesterday......
 
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