Buying new home

[friguy3]

We are buying a new home with a gunite pool built in 2008. I HAD a cartridge filter with one pump so this is all new. Any help or advice would be great. There is a "separation tank," what is that?? The filter is earth, I'm used to the ease of cartridge filters. 2 pumps? One for the hot tub? Thanks for any input.

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[borjis]

Wow! quite the setup you have there..and a gorgeous pool!

And you have one of the best Heater brands too.. that's great.

The separation tank has to do with your DE filter and backwashing i think.

In floor cleaning with a vinyl liner...neat! didn't know that was possible.

Have you ordered a test kit yet?

 

[friguy3]

Wow! quite the setup you have there..and a gorgeous pool!

And you have one of the best Heater brands too.. that's great.

The separation tank has to do with your DE filter and backwashing i think.

In floor cleaning with a vinyl liner...neat! didn't know that was possible.

Have you ordered a test kit yet?

Oh, my "old" pool is a liner with a cleaning system. Ugh I'm going to miss it. Love the in floor system. I've been doing my own pool for 3 years now. The new pool is what is shown. I also noticed, no side basket things. Only 4 medium sized intakes at the deep end floor?? I'll also convert to salt water, assume that should be OK too. Thanks!

--and what's the third black pump? I'm so confused lol

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[OldPoolMan]

That black pump is to operate a pressure side pool cleaner, eg a Polaris? Is there one in the pool?

 

[friguy3]

That black pump is to operate a pressure side pool cleaner, eg a Polaris? Is there one in the pool?

Yes! It was hooked up to a port inside the pool. Someone told me its a water propelled cleaner. That good? Bad?

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[YippeeSkippy]

Yes! It was hooked up to a port inside the pool. Someone told me its a water propelled cleaner. That good? Bad?

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Assuming its working- its Good!

 

[Agent99]

As to the PB4-60...I have that exact pump and it pushes Huey (a Polaris 280 cleaner) around the pool sucking up pool bottom debris and occasionally sending out spurts of water hitting oblivious passerbys.

 

[friguy3]

So I spoke to the builder, there are 2 returns on the side I didn't see and the 4 small main drains are because they have a sheer descent. Guess that explains most lol

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[borjis]

As to the PB4-60...I have that exact pump and it pushes Huey (a Polaris 280 cleaner) around the pool sucking up pool bottom debris and occasionally sending out spurts of water hitting oblivious passerbys.

Haha! I named the hayward navigator at my last place Huey as well! (silent running)

Left him behind as the new house had an older red colored hayward navigator.
I put new cork shoes on him works just like new, named him "Bob" (the red color of it is just like the 2 robots from Disney's "The Black Hole")

 

[Manlymaid]

Your second pump does run the sheer descent, the separation tank is used in areas where d.e. runoff is prohibited and is not allowed discharg to a sewer, think of it as a fine net that catches the dirty d.e. as you backwash the pool to the pool, thats exactly what it does and you clean it when you clean the filter. As far as salt..... not with this pool, that awesome raypak heater is packing a copper heat exchange and your separation tank is stainless steel, id imagine your light conduit is red brass as well, the salt water will lead to its quick demise. And thats alot of vac alerts for a residential pool. To reset them pull down with both sides of the red handle bars.

 

[friguy3]

Your second pump does run the sheer descent, the separation tank is used in areas where d.e. runoff is prohibited and is not allowed discharg to a sewer, think of it as a fine net that catches the dirty d.e. as you backwash the pool to the pool, thats exactly what it does and you clean it when you clean the filter. As far as salt..... not with this pool, that awesome raypak heater is packing a copper heat exchange and your separation tank is stainless steel, id imagine your light conduit is red brass as well, the salt water will lead to its quick demise. And thats alot of vac alerts for a residential pool. To reset them pull down with both sides of the red handle bars.

Ahhh, so that's what those pressure things are! And no salt with the raypak heater?! Oye, might keep that from the wife until we move in. Why would they make systems that can't be salt water? Thanks for the info!

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[pabeader]

I hate to play the he said she said game but I truly believe that is incorrect. I have read everything on this site and raypaks site and I find nothing to say that you can't have a SWG. In fact I remember this question being directly addressed by Chem Geek and others. The final answer is, as long as your water is balanced, your equipment is safe. Unbalance pH is the greatest culprit as far as corrosion is concerned. The only devices that would preclude a SWG would be soft iron or soft steel.

 

[domct203]

I hate to play the he said she said game but I truly believe that is incorrect. I have read everything on this site and raypaks site and I find nothing to say that you can't have a SWG. In fact I remember this question being directly addressed by Chem Geek and others. The final answer is, as long as your water is balanced, your equipment is safe. Unbalance pH is the greatest culprit as far as corrosion is concerned. The only devices that would preclude a SWG would be soft iron or soft steel.

Agreed.

Stainless steel is exactly what you need for a SWG pool as well. Stainless steel is also used throughout the marine/maritime industry.

Again, as mentioned, correct water balance is all that is needed.

Dom

 

[chem geek]

Most heater manufacturers don't explicitly say not to use salt but rather promote their cupro-nickel or titanium heat exchangers as being designed to handle the higher corrosion rates normally associated with pools that have higher salt levels. See this post, for example.

As for stainless steel, there are different types and the standard type used in pools is 304 which will be more susceptible to corrosion from higher chloride levels than 316 or 316L which are marine-grade.

Metals such as brass or zinc-coated are going to have more problems, but they would tend to corrode at lower salt levels as well, just more slowly. Aluminum is also a problem though issues with metal corrosion can be at least partially alleviated by connecting a sacrificial zinc anode to the bonding wire and burying that anode in moist soil. This puts a small negative electric voltage on the metal in contact with pool water and that helps prevent corrosion that converts metal solid to metal ions. The zinc anode corrodes instead of the metal in the pool so is sacrificed.

Most people with heaters with copper heat exchangers and with normal stainless steel don't have problems in their SWCG pools. Some do but it's a small percentage. As was noted, low pH is most detrimental at accelerating metal corrosion, but there's no question that higher conductivity from the salt also plays a role and higher chloride levels interfere with the reformation of the passivity layer in stainless steel (especially when sulfate levels are higher). This EPA document states the following on p. 28 of the PDF file:

Non-halide salts have little effect on stainless steels, but chlorides particularly tend to promote pitting, crevice corrosion, and stress-corrosion cracking. In some cases sulfates seem to aggravate the effects of chlorides. Chlorides present in amounts as little of 0.3% with sulfates present can produce severe corrosion. Even quite low concentrations of chlorides can cause corrosion when concentrated by occlusion in surface films. Oxidizing chlorides such as ferric or cupric chloride are specific for severe pitting, although halide salts can cause severe pitting and stress corrosion cracking. The austenitic stainless steels are, however, the most susceptible of all the stainless steels to “chloride” stress corrosion cracking.