Benefits of BBB method vs Traditional Pool Maintenance?

[Toesinsand]

2. Stenner pumps are generally considered the best, a Hasa Liquidator second.

Just curious, but why would you rate Stenner pumps over a Hasa Liquidator. Is it because you can run from a larger chlorine source requiring less manual addition? The benefit to the Liquidator is it keeps some mineral salts from the bleach out of the pool as they are precipitated in the bottom of the liquidator tank. It also requires no electricity, is cheaper, and is made of simple cheap parts if any maintenance is ever required. But as it has a lifetime warranty on all parts, this should not be an issue. I got one this summer and am curious if it was the best decision. So far I have seen no real downside.

 

[Bama Rambler]

I've had both the LQ (liquidator) and now have the Persitaltic pump. The reason I gave the LQ to my sis is that I have tons of leaves and they clog up the skimmer basket very often and that increases the suction head and winds up emptying the LQ very quickly or makes it a constant battle to keep the flow adjusted. It doesn't matter how clogged the skimmer basket gets, the injection pump always injects the same amount of bleach. Also I now have a 15 gallon drum that I fill with bleach about once a month, where the LQ was only 8 gallons, so I was filling it every week or so.

Now I want to say that I'm not bashing the LQ. In the right situation it works great. As I said, I gave mine to my sis and they don't have nearly the leaves or clogged skimmer that I do and it works great for her.

I also hesitate to recommend one for a pool greater than about 20,000 gallons. It will work, but you wind up having to fill it more regularly than most people want to do.

If yours is working well for you, that's great!

You're right about the upsides too. It's realtively inexpensive (less than $200), It doesn't require any extra eletricity than you're already using, it's pretty unintrusive and it has a lifetime parts warranty.

 

[Toesinsand]

Makes sense. I do keep my skimmer baskets clean so I guess that is why I haven't seen the increased flow problem. I suppose you could solve that by controlling the input flow rate as well. Then higher suction would not pull additional chlorine. My pool is 30000 gallons and I have the 8 gallon Liquidator. Now I am only topping off once a week and it is not even close to low. Perhaps next summer it will be twice a week, but my guess is 8 gallons should get me through a week or more. Granted you could set up a Stenner with a reservoir to last you a month easily.

 

[KenGood]

Thanks for the explanation about the increased flow for the liquidator. I had seen the issue presented, but I was not clear as to the cause of the matter. This explains it.

 

[laprjns]

Makes sense. I do keep my skimmer baskets clean so I guess that is why I haven't seen the increased flow problem. I suppose you could solve that by controlling the input flow rate as well. Then higher suction would not pull additional chlorine. My pool is 30000 gallons and I have the 8 gallon Liquidator. Now I am only topping off once a week and it is not even close to low. Perhaps next summer it will be twice a week, but my guess is 8 gallons should get me through a week or more. Granted you could set up a Stenner with a reservoir to last you a month easily.

Same here, 32,000 gallon pool with an 8 gallon liquidator, topped off twice a week with 12.5% chlorine , but did go eight days at one point. I also ran with a somewhat high cya at 60 ppm and a FC somewhere between 5 to 8. Once get I the cya down to 40 or so, I'll be targeting a FC between 3 and 5 and hopefully be able to spread the time between top offs.

 

[Toesinsand]

Yes, good point on the chlorine concentration. I use 11-12.5% as well so that would cut the refills in half over using 6% bleach.

 

[jblizzle]

Actually, as the CYA drops, even though the FC level is lower, the number of ppm needed to be added each day likely will be slightly higher because more is lost to the sun.

 

[Toesinsand]

Yes, but I think the same is true of a Stenner set up, you have to dose more chlorine in summer due the the sun.

 

[RobbieH]

I had a LQ, and the only reason I got rid of it was my pool is too big for it to be worthwhile. But, that ignored, the reason the Stenner pumps are getting better reviews than the LQ is mainly due to the fact the LQ's output can vary a little where the Stenner will always output the same amount. I don't see it as a big deal though, as long as the pool is somewhere in the proper FC range, I'm happy.