Brand New Pool 1st opening on Monday

[whixkid41]

Hi All,

This will be my 1st opening so I want to get this right. I have the pool company coming Monday to remove the covers and reconnect all the equipment. I have a pentair SWG but I never got it operational last year - no salt was ever added to the pool. It was way to late in the season to bother. What chemicals should the pool company be adding/not adding?
Is it safe for the salt cell to be installed and turned on instead of the pass through canister before salt is added to the pool? what stage should the salt be added?

Any other tips & tricks I should know?

As always, Thanks!

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to another season!

What chemicals should the pool company be adding/not adding?

That depends 100% on what your water test results show. I don't see a TF-100 or Taylor K-2006C test kit in yoru signature. Do you have one? That wold be #1. Once the system is up & running for about 30-60 minutes, draw a water sample and adjust from there. If they add anything else before good mixing, other than perhaps chlorine, it can be questionable. If they do add something, take note of the item and amount in case it comes-up later. The SWG should be fine installed, then you can add salt just about anytime. But I suspect you'll treat the pool as a non-SWG pool at start-up for s short period just in case there is any suspicion of algae or the need to do a "SLAM" (link below).

 

[ajw22]

Have the SWG installed but after you see that it powers up then disconnect the power cord. You don't want the SWG powered while you add salt. Once you get the salt to the requried level then power up the SWG.

You have a salt test? Either K-1766 Taylor Salt Test (preferable and more accurate) or Salt Test Strips - Aqua Chek (good enough)

Use PoolMath to calculate how much salt you may need. If you truly have 0 salt in your pool then you may need 420lbs for 3000ppm. Most pools have some salt in them. If you have 1000 ppm of salt existing then you will need around 285 lbs of salt. So best to get your salt test kit and test the water to figure out how much salt you really need.

Don't add all the salt at once. Add it in a few doses and test your salt level in between. You don’t want to overshoot as you can only lower salt by draining the pool.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I suspect your water will still be too cold for the SWG to produce chlorine yet. You can (and should) go ahead and add the salt (after first testing your present salt level which won't be zero). Use PoolMath to tell you how much to add to your current level to reach proper level for the SWG to work. Treat the pool as a non-SWG pool until the water is warm enough. Usually that's >60 degrees F.
Once you hit that point you just turn the device on and let it maintain your FC level. You'll tweak it now and then to increase or decrease FC, either by changing the pump run hours or the SWG percentage run.

Maddie

 

[whixkid41]

Have the SWG installed but after you see that it powers up then disconnect the power cord. You don't want the SWG powered while you add salt. Once you get the salt to the requried level then power up the SWG.

You have a salt test? Either K-1766 Taylor Salt Test (preferable and more accurate) or Salt Test Strips - Aqua Chek (good enough)

Use PoolMath to calculate how much salt you may need. If you truly have 0 salt in your pool then you may need 420lbs for 3000ppm. Most pools have some salt in them. If you have 1000 ppm of salt existing then you will need around 285 lbs of salt. So best to get your salt test kit and test the water to figure out how much salt you really need.

Don't add all the salt at once. Add it in a few doses and test your salt level in between. You don;' want to overshoot as you can only lower salt by draining the pool.

Have the SWG installed but after you see that it powers up then disconnect the power cord. You don't want the SWG powered while you add salt. Once you get the salt to the requried level then power up the SWG.

You have a salt test? Either K-1766 Taylor Salt Test (preferable and more accurate) or Salt Test Strips - Aqua Chek (good enough)

Use PoolMath to calculate how much salt you may need. If you truly have 0 salt in your pool then you may need 420lbs for 3000ppm. Most pools have some salt in them. If you have 1000 ppm of salt existing then you will need around 285 lbs of salt. So best to get your salt test kit and test the water to figure out how much salt you really need.

Don't add all the salt at once. Add it in a few doses and test your salt level in between. You don;' want to overshoot as you can only lower salt by draining the pool.

Thanks for the links.

I have not bought any test kit yet. I could be wrong but I do believe the pool company owes me one. It could be a total piece of junk so I opted to wait and see what they deliver - if anything. Besides that I was eventually going to research if a digital solution existed in todays tech savvy world. I really want to make my 1st year of maintenance as pain free and as enjoyable as possible. if it means investing in a $300 piece of technology that accurately reads some numbers with no fuss, for me its worth the investment. Although I suspect I would have come across such as device by now....

 

[ajw22]

Everyone would like a reliable digital pool water testing device. It doesn't exist. Your PB will not give you a test kit that does all the tests the TFPC methods require. See Test Kits Compared.

You need the TF-100 Test Kits and the Speedstir Magnetic Stirrer and a salt test kit.

 

[splashpad]

I have not bought any test kit yet. I could be wrong but I do believe the pool company owes me one. It could be a total piece of junk so I opted to wait and see what they deliver - if anything. Besides that I was eventually going to research if a digital solution existed in todays tech savvy world. I really want to make my 1st year of maintenance as pain free and as enjoyable as possible. if it means investing in a $300 piece of technology that accurately reads some numbers with no fuss, for me its worth the investment. Although I suspect I would have come across such as device by now....

Most of the expensive digital testing devices are "overkill" on a residential pool and no more accurate than a well stored 4/5/6-way liquid drop test (esp. in the hands of someone that cares about the results, aka you/pool owner vs pool store needing to sell product)
The pool comp. will likely not provide a Speedstir, this small electronic device increases test ease and accuracy!
You can start with a basic liquid drops test kit, but you won't be able to accurately measure FC/CC. That's where the FAS-DPD test comes in.
The 5/6-way test strips, even with digital scanning, are not accurate if not read in the correct time frame, the pads don't develop at the same rate.... so if compared/read to early or to late, the result will be 'skewed' aka wrong.

 

[whixkid41]

I went ahead and ordered the TF-100 Bundle off of TFTestkits.net. I am really surprised they don't have a halfway decent digital testing device yet. I guess my money is better spent on a robot vacuum ….

I will see what happens monday and I will post some readings once I get the test kit.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Texas Splash]

I went ahead and ordered the TF-100 Bundle off of TFTestkits.net.

You'll be glad you did. It's a great value and backed-up by very good service. If you have any questions about the contents or performing a test, let us know. Have a nice weekend.

 

[jtpipkin]

just FYI - when I installed my new Hayward SWG, I wanted to know it was right. They included salt test strips in the package. I used the salt strips THEY included and ran the tests twice. I ended up way overshooting the desired 3200-3400 ppm they recommended. The SWG was reading high and the pool store I used to use concurred. I ended up having to drain and refill about a third of the pool to get it to generate chlorine. Not to mention all the money literally drained away in salt that was just purchased... Just take it slow and confirm your result. The tech world is great, but if those devices are not calibrated correctly, you could end up in the same situation.