Best Way To Maintain Chlorine Levels During Times of Travel?

[MSDalton]

If you can isolate the spa to run you can set up a Spillover or Spillway function.

I'm wondering if they piped it the way they did so the spa piping was always protected by the automatic freeze protection in the winter (no opportunity to bypass this functionality)... I'm thinking that it would be a huge bummer if the spa piping froze and burst. This is the best rationale I can think of for not allowing the spa to be isolated. Thanks again.

 

[mknauss]

So you cannot run your spa as a spa? You cannot heat it? Your Easytouch has Freeze protection.

 

[Dirk]

My pool was refinished to a PebbleTec PebbleFina finish 3.5-months ago. I am currently running it as a liquid chlorine system, but an thinking about switching to an SWG system. I am trying to maintain chems within the PTI values and am continuing to make small additions to try and nudge the chemistry into the PTI ranges while simultaneously reaching stability requiring only infrequent chemical additions. Thanks for your thoughts.

OK, cool. I was just making sure you were paying attention to the timeline: you can't run the SWG without the salt, and you can't add salt for at least the first month. You're not the first to be challenged with following the advice here vs following the PB's vs following the manufacturer's. Tough call.

One approach: contact via email either PB or manufacturer and in essence "ask permission" regarding any parameters you might want to push out of their bounds (like the extra CYA you need for the SWG). If they say OK, then you've got something in writing that would protect your warranty should the issue of chemistry ever arise. Otherwise, you're really only deciding if the warranty is more valuable than the health of your finish.

 

[MSDalton]

OK, cool. I was just making sure you were paying attention to the timeline: you can't run the SWG without the salt, and you can't add salt for at least the first month. You're not the first to be challenged with following the advice here vs following the PB's vs following the manufacturer's. Tough call.

One approach: contact via email either PB or manufacturer and in essence "ask permission" regarding any parameters you might want to push out of their bounds (like the extra CYA you need for the SWG). If they say OK, then you've got something in writing that would protect your warranty should the issue of chemistry ever arise. Otherwise, you're really only deciding if the warranty is more valuable than the health of your finish.

This is exactly my approach right now. I'm doing my best to honor their parameters, but at the end of the day that might not be possible without daily chemical additions which is not sustainable for long periods of time.

 

[MSDalton]

So you cannot run your spa as a spa? You cannot heat it? Your Easytouch has Freeze protection.

I CAN run my spa as a spa, with my EasyTouch, I just have never tried to turn the spa all the way off. Here's a photo of the subject piping (ignore the trichlor feeder (it is empty)):



This is the configuration when the return is to the pool. Looking at this anew, I'm guessing that the handle could be manually turned such that all of the flow is to the pool (with the above configuration some amount is going to the spa). BUT, I don't think I could adjust flow to the spa with my EasyTouch only. Thoughts? Glad you challenged me to take a closer look.

 

[mknauss]

All it would take is to adjust the cam in the actuator. It is pretty easy. Right now, when you go in pool mode, it only partially closes the spa side. You would adjust the cam so that in Pool mode, the valve goes all the way until it closes the spa. Then you set up the Spillway function to run for 30 minutes or so twice a day to chlorinate the spa water. This will reduce your pH rise.

Youtube has lots of how to guides on adjusting the cam.

 

[Dirk]

After you and Marty get the valve and its programming straightened out, you can check on the freeze protection before winter sets in. When the IntelliTouch is configured correctly, you don't need to rely on the spa spilling over all the time. The IntelliTouch will switch between pool and spa modes every 15 minutes so that water flows though each set of pipes to keep them from freezing. From the manual:

If freeze protection is set to both the spa and pool circuits, the filter pump switches on and the pool and spa valves alternate every 15 minutes to keep the water moving through both the pool and spa. This process continues until the freeze condition is over.

For this to work, you'll need an ambient temp sensor and you'll need to configure both spa and pool circuits for freeze protection. Which might already all be in place. We can walk you through all that when you're ready.

And if I can figure out how to adjust the cams in my actuator, anybody can do it!

Oh, and when you get the spa set up so that it's not spilling over all the time, you'll be able to send all the heat to the spa, without dumping it over into the pool. Which means it'll warm up faster and be cheaper to keep toasty.

 

[MSDalton]

All it would take is to adjust the cam in the actuator. It is pretty easy. Right now, when you go in pool mode, it only partially closes the spa side. You would adjust the cam so that in Pool mode, the valve goes all the way until it closes the spa. Then you set up the Spillway function to run for 30 minutes or so twice a day to chlorinate the spa water. This will reduce your pH rise.

Youtube has lots of how to guides on adjusting the cam.

Wonderful! Thanks so much. I'll certainly give this a try before I add borates.

 

[MSDalton]

After you and Marty get the valve and its programming straightened out, you can check on the freeze protection before winter sets in. When the IntelliTouch is configured correctly, you don't need to rely on the spa spilling over all the time. The IntelliTouch will switch between pool and spa modes every 15 minutes so that water flows though each set of pipes to keep them from freezing. From the manual:

For this to work, you'll need an ambient temp sensor and you'll need to configure both spa and pool circuits for freeze protection. Which might already all be in place. We can walk you through all that when you're ready.

And if I can figure out how to adjust the cams in my actuator, anybody can do it!

Oh, and when you get the spa set up so that it's not spilling over all the time, you'll be able to send all the heat to the spa, without dumping it over into the pool. Which means it'll warm up faster and be cheaper to keep toasty.

I already have an ambient temp sensor and currently it does alternate between pool and spa in freeze protection mode, so I think that's working perfectly. When I turn the spa on, only water in the spa is circulated through the pump & filter; there is no spill-over in spa mode. So I'm thinking that when I get the cam in the actuator adjusted properly, I'll be set. Thanks again!

 

[Dirk]

Sorry, misunderstood the valving issue. So you had a spa mode, and a spill over mode but no pool-only mode? No matter, sounds like you've got it figured out.