CYA question

[dcp063]

My last two readings for CYA were 40 & 30. Leslie’s had it at 50 two weeks ago. I know this is a difficult test to master but it seems my CYA is a little low for SWG.

However, it’s getting cold and from what I’m being told, my salt cell will stop working when my water gets too cold and I’ll have to switch to liquid chlorine.

So do I just leave the CYA alone for now since it’s within range for liquid chlorine and I’ll be switching soon?

Also my FC is still really high and probably won’t need to add anything for a while.

**Bonus question: I just broke up with my pool guy and in our last invoice he had a line item for 4 lbs of stabilizer. Pool math said that will raise CYA by almost 30 which means my CYA was almost nonexistent or they were hoping we wouldn’t know better and just added that to make an extra $40. Scammed?

 

[mknauss]

I would leave the CYA be. The UV impact is rapidly decreasing.

Who knows on the pool guy invoice. If you do not see them add it, and did not do your own testing in the past, you are at their mercy. I would write it off.

 

[Mdragger88]

You can leave it alone if you’re getting along ok without it. With cya that low I would stick to the liquid chlorine version of the FC/CYA Levels.
Do you close your pool?
As for the bonus?- who knows!
Good riddance to that guy

 

[dcp063]

You can leave it alone if you’re getting along ok without it. With cya that low I would stick to the liquid chlorine version of the FC/CYA Levels.
Do you close your pool?
As for the bonus?- who knows!
Good riddance to that guy

We’re keeping it open and FC is really high thanks to our pump and chlorinator running 24/7 @ 70% for as long as we’ve owned the pool (2 months). And since we continued with the previous owners pool service I’m guessing they were running it high too.

 

[Mdragger88]

Just keep fc @ target or a scootch higher & you’ll be good. You can probably turn the % down quite a bit so you’re not burning through your cell’s finite 8-10k hr life needlessly (which is based on 100%).
That setting is producing nearly 7ppm/day

This time of year many are seeing 1-2 ppm fc losses each day & that will lessen even more as the uv wanes & the weather gets cooler. So a setting of around 20% is likely more fitting


Your signature just says Hayward super pump - is this a variable speed pump?

 

[dcp063]

Thanks. It’s a single speed pump.

i prefer not to run the pump 24/7 unless necessary and I’m guessing that’s when it gets really cold and freezing is an issue.

Right now I have it running 12 hours and dropped the output to 60%. So according to that calculator I can run it 12hrs @ 40% and still maintain?

 

[mknauss]

Why do you need to run the pump 12 hours? You can create the FC needed right now in a few hours. After that, run the pump for a reason. Not just because.

 

[Mdragger88]

Fwiw - i have been running my pump for 6 hours & it’s been removing debris just fine. What is left behind falls to the floor & the robot eats
Will probably back down to 5 hours soon as the weather has really turned.
You could probably go to 6 hours & keep the % around 60. There’s no one answer just how much fc do you need & how much skimming/filtering do you prefer.
For understanding: 50% for 2 hours is the same as 100% for 1 hour as far as cell life is concerned
But 2hrs of pump run time costs twice the amount of energy as 1 hour you know
There’s certainly no reason to run 24:7 with a single speed pump unless you’re doing the SLAM Process/ trying to clear a problem.
In the dog days of summer I run up to 12 hours/day simply because I need to produce the chlorine. Generally up to 5ppm/day at the peak.
Every hour I run my pump costs me $5.25 a month so 24/7 would cost me $126/month!

 

[dcp063]

Luckily we must have an energy efficient pump because our electric bill doesn’t seem unusually high.

This might be a stupid question: our robot is attached to the booster pump and as far as I can tell, that doesn’t work unless the main pump is running. If I want to run the robot after the pump runs and don’t want to add any more FC, do I turn the pump to manual and the SWG down to 0%? Or do I run them simultaneously?

 

[Bperry]

My last two readings for CYA were 40 & 30. Leslie’s had it at 50 two weeks ago. I know this is a difficult test to master but it seems my CYA is a little low for SWG.

However, it’s getting cold and from what I’m being told, my salt cell will stop working when my water gets too cold and I’ll have to switch to liquid chlorine.

So do I just leave the CYA alone for now since it’s within range for liquid chlorine and I’ll be switching soon?

Also my FC is still really high and probably won’t need to add anything for a while.

**Bonus question: I just broke up with my pool guy and in our last invoice he had a line item for 4 lbs of stabilizer. Pool math said that will raise CYA by almost 30 which means my CYA was almost nonexistent or they were hoping we wouldn’t know better and just added that to make an extra $40. Scammed?

Just in case…stop going to Leslie’s for CYA test. You can take a look at my recent thread about pool stores testing CYA. You just can’t trust them

 

[Mdragger88]

Luckily we must have an energy efficient pump because our electric bill doesn’t seem unusually high.

This might be a stupid question: our robot is attached to the booster pump and as far as I can tell, that doesn’t work unless the main pump is running. If I want to run the robot after the pump runs and don’t want to add any more FC, do I turn the pump to manual and the SWG down to 0%? Or do I run them simultaneously?

The booster & the main pump need to both be running to operate the cleaner. Its not good for the booster pump to run without the main pump running & often will not operate the cleaner correctly.
You can certainly run the swg at the same time. Or as you mentioned turn it off if you don’t want any fc.
Most people have the booster pump on a timer that runs somewhere in the middle of their normal pump’s cycle.
Your swcg should be set up to run only when the main pump is running. Most people accomplish this with a timer or a relay in their automation panel.
The flow switch should not be the thing that turns the swcg off & on.
Show us some pictures of your setup

 

[dcp063]

Just in case…stop going to Leslie’s for CYA test. You can take a look at my recent thread about pool stores testing CYA. You just can’t trust them

Only went there once last week after my first ever test. I don’t plan on going back

 

[dcp063]

The booster & the main pump need to both be running to operate the cleaner. Its not good for the booster pump to run without the main pump running & often will not operate the cleaner correctly.
You can certainly run the swg at the same time. Or as you mentioned turn it off if you don’t want any fc.
Most people have the booster pump on a timer that runs somewhere in the middle of their normal pump’s cycle.
Your swcg should be set up to run only when the main pump is running. Most people accomplish this with a timer or a relay in their automation panel.
The flow switch should not be the thing that turns the swcg off & on.
Show us some pictures of your setup

Ok that makes sense. My booster pump won't turn on unless my main pump is running. As far as I can tell the only timer we have runs the main pump and it was running 24/7 until I replaced the 'off' pin that was taken off by the previous owner. I have a switch that turns on the pool robot/booster pump

Photos attached of what I'm working with. I recently replaced the flow switch and pressure gauge.

 

[Mdragger88]

can you show us how the timer is wired?
The best option is to have the timer feed the pump & the swcg.
This ensures that the swcg cannot run/have power when the pump is turned off. This also ensures that if the breaker trips they are both off.
As I mentioned it is not safe to have the swg’s flow switch be the only on/off mechanism for the swg.
It is to be a backup. Flow switches can & do fail/get stuck this can cause the chlorine gas in the pipe to build up & cause an explosion if the swg is on but the pump is off.

 

[dcp063]

can you show us how the timer is wired?
The best option is to have the timer feed the pump & the swcg.
This ensures that the swcg cannot run/have power when the pump is turned off. This also ensures that if the breaker trips they are both off.
As I mentioned it is not safe to have the swg’s flow switch be the only on/off mechanism for the swg.
It is to be a backup. Flow switches can & do fail/get stuck this can cause the chlorine gas in the pipe to build up & cause an explosion if the swg is on but the pump is off.

The wiring at the base of the dial?

And if it matters we had a pool inspector come out before we bought the house. Inspection report caught some minor things the previous owner addressed

 

[Mdragger88]

The wiring at the base of the dial?

Yes- under the cover. Turn it off at the breaker first.

And if it matters we had a pool inspector come out before we bought the house. Inspection report caught some minor things the previous owner addressed

They may or may not have concerned themselves with how the swcg is wired.