Cost Comparisons to Chlorinate Pool Water

[ShallowWater]

Are there current cost comparisons between liquid chlorine and a SWCG? Pentair IC40's are north of $1,000 currently. If I were to use a gallon of liquid a week at, let's say $8/gallon, I'd spend $416 a year on Chlorine and whatever power it takes to run the cell plus a bit of mileage on my vehicle getting chlorine so let's say $500 a year. Are my numbers wrong? How much liquid would I need to maintain my shallow 11,000 gallon pool in sunny Southern California?

Moved from here.

 

[Newdude]

Hang tight old friend. I got a case of the Mondays BAD today and am getting my rump whooped for enjoying my weekend while work piled up. I'll run your specific #s later so you can see exactly where you fall.

 

[HermanTX]

Your SWCG should last 5 yrs. (this is just an average) so that converts to $2080 of LC (excluding any price inflation). So you can spend $1500 now (just an estimate) for a SWCG now or spend $2080 over the next 5 years. Basically you are paying for your chlorine upfront and the advantages are 1) ease of use - no lugging of LC jugs 2) unique constant control of your FC - with LC you dump it and then it depletes, then dump again, etc),, 3) you can go away for several days and know your FC will be consistent.

 

[Jimrahbe]

SW,

There is a lot more to having a SWCG than just the cost.. Owning a SWCG means not making trips to the store to buy chlorine. You can go on vacation for a month and come back to a clear pool. And.. the water just feels better.

When you get out of a standard chlorine pool, you feel like you need a shower. When you get out of a saltwater pool, you feel like you just took a shower..

Cells last 5 to 7 years so even at 5 years and a $1,000 cell, you are talking about $200 bucks a year to chlorine your pool.

In my mind, going saltwater is a no brainer..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[mknauss]

With an 11000 gallon pool in Riverside, I suspect your average FC consumption will be about 2 ppm per day. Year around. So that is about a quart of 10% per day. Or 90 gallons a year.

 

[drsipe]

One of the biggest advantages of a SWCG is a more consistent chlorine level in the pool. When you add liquid chlorine, the chlorine level spikes high and drops over the day. With the SWCG the chlorine is added to the pool over the entire day, so the chlorine levels are more consistent.

As stated above, cost wise, the SWCG might be cheaper than liquid chlorine, but it's not a huge savings. With the SWCG it's like you purchase 5 years worth of chlorine up front.

A SWCG defiantly saves your back, I add about 2-3 ppm of chlorine to my pool every day, that's about 1/2 gallon per day, my pool is open 150 - 160 days per year, so that's 75 to 80 gallons of chlorine per year,,,, at about 8 lb per gallon, that's 640 pounds lifted, transported and carried out to the pool. With the SWCG I have to add 2-3 bags of salt when I open the pool so 80-120 lb of salt.

This is my third season with a SWCG and I will never go back.

 

[mgtfp]

A SWCG defiantly saves your back, I add about 2-3 ppm of chlorine to my pool every day, that's about 1/2 gallon per day, my pool is open 150 - 160 days per year, so that's 75 to 80 gallons of chlorine per year,,,, at about 8 lb per gallon, that's 640 pounds lifted, transported and carried out to the pool. With the SWCG I have to add 2-3 bags of salt when I open the pool so 80-120 lb of salt.

To be fair, it does make a difference to your back to carry 120lb in one trip or 640lb spread out over 150 days . I am always mindful of my back when I'm lugging these 20kg bags in and out of the car and over to the pool.

But for no money in the word would I want to swap lugging salt once a year with daily chlorine lugging.

 

[ShallowWater]

With an 11000 gallon pool in Riverside, I suspect your average FC consumption will be about 2 ppm per day. Year around. So that is about a quart of 10% per day. Or 90 gallons a year.

How do you know this? Is there a chart or formula somewhere? I should add my pool is on the south side of the property and in full sun until 3 or later in the summer when a west portion of my single story house starts to shade it.

How much liquid chlorine is required a day to provide a 2ppm boost every day.

 

[ShallowWater]

I should add that this whole question came about yesterday when a friend of mine was over and stated he went back to manually chlorinating, which method he uses I did not ask, when is salt cell went out and it was going to cost him $1000 to replace it.

Now he complains to me about his pool turning green occasionally and saying just wait until it gets really hot and your shallow pool turn green too.

I just smiled.

 

[Newdude]

*cracks knuckles* Here we go.

1 gallon of 10% is 9.1 FC in 11k gallons

$4 jug = $0.44 per FC
$5 jug = $0.55 per FC
$6 jug = $0.65 per FC. (Walmart)
$7 jug = $0.76 per FC (lowes)
$9 jug = $0.99 per F. (Home Depot)

A pentair IC40 system is going for $1500 best price today and will make 6255 FC over its expected lifespan in 11k gallons. The equivalent of 687 gallons of 10% LC.

The system itself costs $0.24 per FC (lifetime)

Add $500 for a fair DIY buffer and it costs $0.32 per FC

Double the cost for a typical PB install and it's $0.48 per FC.

The next 2 cells shouldn't need the $500 controller and is a 10 min DIY install for free. At $1049 best price today the next 2 cells will generate at $0.16 per FC.

Sales tax on the $1500 unit is $131.25 (8.75% riverside CA).

Sales tax on 687 gallons is $300.56 for $5 jugs. The sales tax savings on more expensive jugs saves you even more.


*not lugging jugs is PRICELESS, saving an untold amount *more* than already saving.

 

[ShallowWater]

I had the IntelliCenter installed with the IntelliChlor when the pool was built last year. I'm just looking at Cell replacement vs Liquid Chlorine replenishment. It seems it is less than 1/3 the cost not even considering the rest of dealing with liquid chlorine.

My friend has a higher IQ than me but I don't think he thought this through very well!

 

[ShallowWater]

*cracks knuckles* Here we go.

1 gallon of 10% is 9.1 FC in 11k gallons

$4 jug = $0.44 per FC
$5 jug = $0.55 per FC
$6 jug = $0.65 per FC. (Walmart)
$7 jug = $0.76 per FC (lowes)
$9 jug = $0.99 per F. (Home Depot)

A pentair IC40 system is going for $1500 best price today and will make 6255 FC over its expected lifespan in 11k gallons. The equivalent of 687 gallons of 10% LC.

The system itself costs $0.23 per FC (lifetime)

Add $500 for a fair DIY buffer and it costs $0.32 per FC

Double the cost for a typical PB install and it's $0.48 per FC.

The next 2 cells shouldn't need the $500 controller and is a 10 min DIY install for free. At $1049 best price today the next 2 cells will generate at $0.16 per FC.

Sales tax on the $1500 unit is $131.25 (8.75% riverside CA).

Sales tax on 687 gallons is $300.56 for $5 jugs. The sales tax savings on more expensive jugs saves you even more.


*not lugging jugs is PRICELESS, saving an untold amount *more* than already saving.

Do you have a spreadsheet that does these sort of calculations?

 

[Newdude]

Do you have a spreadsheet that does these sort of calculations?

Good old fashioned chicken scratch.

 

[ajw22]

Do you have a spreadsheet that does these sort of calculations?

PoolMath app Effects of Adding function.

 

[ShallowWater]

Good old fashioned chicken scratch.

View attachment 485651

LOL

So there's a lot of numbers just there without explanation. Where did they originate? For example 11kgal / 9.1FC / 687 Gallons..

PoolMath app Effects of Adding function.

Or did @Newdude just do this and write it down?

 

[ajw22]

Or did @Newdude just do this and write it down?

Yeah, I gave away the Magician's secret.

 

[woodyp]

The Emperor has no clothes!

 

[Newdude]

I used a combo of pool math and the cell calculator. I write it down because tracking multiple #s gets fun. Plus it makes it easier to transfer the info to the post.

For example 11kgal / 9.1FC / 687 Gallons..

11k gallons (your pool) can expect 9.1 FC per gallon of 10% (per pool math).

A 10k hour rated cell produces for 417 days, (10000/24). The IC40 produces 1.4 lbs of chlorine or 15 FC per 24 hours (pool math). 15 X 417 = 6255 lifetime FC (calculator). 6255 FC / 9.1 FC per gallon = 687 gallons of 10% (calculator).

And so on.

No matter how you slice it, we got you.

 

[mknauss]

How do you know this? Is there a chart or formula somewhere? I

In the summer (May to September) it is likely your pool will consume about 4 ppm FC per day. Pretty typical for a pool in the desert (Riverside is close to the desert) in our southern area. The rest of the time October to April, you will average about 1 ppm FC loss per day. So 5 months at 4 ppm and 5 months at 1 ppm averages a shade over 2 ppm per day, year around. Your SWCG will not operate for 6-8 weeks in the winter when the water drops below about 55F.

Newdude did the math on how much each will generate.

I do recommend you replace the iChlor with an IC40 when the iChlor dies. The IC cells are far more robust and will have a longer life.

 

[Newdude]

Also, for the LC/SWG decision don't get too tripped up on how much FC you'll need. You'll need the same FC either way and it's only a matter of time until you use the lifespan of the SWG, or the equivalent gallons of LC.

I'll use less of either with a shorter season, but the math is the same regardless of location. Either buy the FC up front at a discount, or have a wallet friendly today, but more expensive in the long run liquid chlorine pools.