Do you trust your SWG?

[Dirk]

I’ve been doing it all wrong. I’m… shocked… that I haven’t run into a problem yet.

It's just slower to adjust FC with an SWG alone, and less efficient. Once you determine the correct SWG setting to counteract normal FC loss, then you'll see how nice it is to have one. You'll be able to test less often, and adjust it way less often. On the odd occasion where something hits your FC, you quickly dose it back up to your target FC with liquid chlorine, and then can go back to forgetting about it (ya know, for a week at a time).

It'll likely be different for everyone and every pool, but for me, I test once a week and adjust my SWG about four times a year (to account for varying FC loss due to the seasons). I throw in some LC just before a big swim party, and then test right after the party and top it off if FC is low. That's it.

It's not so much you were doing anything wrong, we were just suggesting how you might do it better.

 

[proavia]

Not sure how to log results. I just put in what my Taylor tells me I’m at, and then log the addition.

Enter yout test results and then click the save checkmark.

Don't think about trying to be a perfectionist with your chemicals.
Just do what's needed to keep the chemistry within the recommended ranges.
Using the recommended ranges is so much less stressful and allows more time to enjoy your pool.

If your FC gets a little low or you need to raise is a bit before a swim party, boost the FC quickly with liquid chlorine.

 

[SJPoe]

You cannot use an SWG to move FC (I mean you can, a little, but that is not its purpose and so it doesn't function well trying, if at all).

One of the reasons we often recommend 'oversizing' the SWG is for this reason alone.

SWGs produce a steady stream of FC throughout the day - my RJ60+ will (in a perfect world) produce 15ppm in my pool over 24 hours, so I absolutely can bump it to max and have it bring up the FC...its nowhere as instant as a bottle of chlorine, but it's absolutely able to increase my FC over a day or two.

Had I sized it the way the store suggested, the max would be barely half of that, so a hot, sunny, busy pool day would basically eat FC faster than the SWG could make it. It might catch up a bit overnight, but my pool usually gets through 4-6PPM a day anyway...

Add in the fudge factor (what the factory says it'll do vs what it does in real life) and a 'correctly sized' SWG can be on the limit just keeping up with daily losses.

I always have a couple bottles of LC around for the hottub, so if I ever need a quick boost, that's my go-to

 

[Mdragger88]

Not sure how to log results. I just put in what my Taylor tells me I’m at, and then log the addition.

From the overview page hit the + at the bottom, then log test results, then the
Then when you go to each parameter’s box your most recent test results will be there as the “current”
Then you calculate your addition if needed and hit “log addition” at the bottom of the page.

 

[Rattus Suffocatus]

I am going to post about it in the VIP section later but the short answer is no, and never again.

I had a spinal infection twice and was hospitalized twice and the second time the cell completely failed with about a year left on the warranty when I was in the hospital and I returned to a green pool. I was in no condition to try to make a claim for months after that so... I dunno... So no. It's something that has to be monitored at least every few days. I think the only way I will go back to it is if I can plumb in a water softener somehow into the fill. The house plumbing won't allow it but I am considering an apartment sized unit outside in the equipment shed since we really don't freeze here in the winter if stuff is properly shielded.

I was sick for several months and I am only now starting to recover the pool. Once I get it physically clean I will drain it as much as I can and probably go back to LC at least for a year. Our terrible fill water in Tucson is what did it, and I would probably destroy a replacement cell in 2 to 2.5 years again unless I take care of the calcium levels in the fill water. In an area with soft water fill, it's almost set and forget though. I also had a display board go out on the control. I do have the replacement for it and I did get a discount under warranty for it, but didn't get it in because I received it right before round one.

I am going to probably end up coming back here and be active again as the TFP system really is the only way to have crystal clear water... but I can tell you that you have to check on the cell at least once a week. This was a 12 day hospitization we were talking about too. Not a month.

 

[Dirk]

I am going to post about it in the VIP section later but the short answer is no, and never again.

I had a spinal infection twice and was hospitalized twice and the second time the cell completely failed with about a year left on the warranty when I was in the hospital and I returned to a green pool. I was in no condition to try to make a claim for months after that so... I dunno... So no. It's something that has to be monitored at least every few days. I think the only way I will go back to it is if I can plumb in a water softener somehow into the fill. The house plumbing won't allow it but I am considering an apartment sized unit outside in the equipment shed since we really don't freeze here in the winter if stuff is properly shielded.

I was sick for several months and I am only now starting to recover the pool. Once I get it physically clean I will drain it as much as I can and probably go back to LC at least for a year. Our terrible fill water in Tucson is what did it, and I would probably destroy a replacement cell in 2 to 2.5 years again unless I take care of the calcium levels in the fill water. In an area with soft water fill, it's almost set and forget though. I also had a display board go out on the control. I do have the replacement for it and I did get a discount under warranty for it, but didn't get it in because I received it right before round one.

I am going to probably end up coming back here and be active again as the TFP system really is the only way to have crystal clear water... but I can tell you that you have to check on the cell at least once a week. This was a 12 day hospitization we were talking about too. Not a month.

So sorry to hear about your health issues, Fred, and I hope you're doing better. But if I may...

A pool is a complicated thing, and needs constant monitoring. No level of automation can reliably sustain a pool for 12 days without supervision (key word being "reliably"). And of course no pool without any automation can be left unattended for 12 days either. At any given minute of any given day, regardless of the age of any component of your pool, there can be a failure. In the heat of summer, a sanitation failure (whether that be automated or manual) can go about two or three days before an algae outbreak can occur. That is just a fact of pool ownership. A shell failure (a leak) can sometimes go for only a few minutes, or hours, or a day, depending on the leak, before your expensive pump or your landscaping or the pool itself, could be damaged. Etc.

The list of things that could go wrong, and the consequences, are almost endless. So pool ownership means deciding on a level of risk tolerance and a level of commitment based on that risk tolerance. My pool is fully automated, so I can theoretically go for weeks without attending it. Nonetheless, I installed cams over my pool and my pad and check on both at least once a day, more, more often than not. Currently, I'm monitoring potential problems with both my filter and my auto-leveling system, and so I'm checking both several times a day.

Any expectation that you should be able to leave your pool unattended for 12 days (or more or less), or that an SWG could provide that, is just not realistic. I suspect new pool owners, or those that buy a house with a pool having never managed one before (like me), comes with expectations that are quickly dashed. A pool is a huge responsibility, and a huge expense, even if you get one "for free" like I did when I bought my house.

The automation I applied to my pool minimizes the amount of work it requires, but hasn't, and won't, reduce the daily task of monitoring it. It's been said here many times: a pool is like a pet. You don't have to play with it every day, but you do have to take care of it every day.

If you don't have a back up plan in place should you be unable to monitor your pool daily, then you have to be prepared for the consequences. The presence or absence of an SWG doesn't have any bearing on that fact, at all.

 

[Rattus Suffocatus]

It actually worked the first time I was in the hospital and that too was 12 days. (I think I know what my health insurances limit is now for inpatient, ya think?) Unfortunately the bigger issues are that no one in my family was willing to follow my instructions and take care of the pool when I was down, and the cell lasted not even 2/3rds of its rated lifetime.

I am starting to recover the pool but my off time is limited unfortunately so it's going to take probably weeks, with me doing serious work on the weekends and keeping it just stable and cleaning the filters once a day during the week. We will get there. I just don't know if it's worth it financially anymore, the advantage of a SWCG cost wise isn't the same proposition as it was when I put it in initially. Probably since I only need the cell and can recover the rest of the hardware I will bring it back next season.

I think I could have probably had better results with the family if I would have had them add LC the whole time I was in the hospital, honestly. They got too used to me only having to tweak chemistry once a week.

I overall am pretty disappointed about the whole situation. The good news is that the underlying condition that caused this all has finally, after six years of fighting medical insurance, been fixed and I can swim again. So maybe I will learn not to hate that pool as much as I have since my wife forced me to build it.

Sorry to admit that fact but it is 100% true.

The point is that you can not get at all complacent with a SWCG because the darned things just shut off if something goes wrong.

 

[Dirk]

The good news is that the underlying condition that caused this all has finally, after six years of fighting medical insurance, been fixed and I can swim again.

That certainly is good news. Congrats!

 

[Rattus Suffocatus]

Thanks. Once I get all that fell apart in the two years I was sick fixed, I should be back. The pool is the only thing left in Arizona....

 

[Mdragger88]

I’ll chime in on the og question-
Do i trust my swcg?
Yes, as much as I trust any other machine that I rely on daily knowing that any device can & probably will fail at some point.
I have safeguards/backups in place to ensure I am not riding a fine line with my pool maintenance since I am really the only one who cares for the pool.

1) I “run hot” with fc so if there’s a mechanical failure, weather event etc I don’t immediately have a swamp.
I did this when chlorinating manually as well. It has saved my rear when one billion leaves were blown in at once in a storm & multiple times when my power has went out & I failed to reset my swg. (This is an Intex unit problem)
2) when going away I raise my fc level a bit higher than I normally run (depending upon how long, it may be near slam level)
& deploy a floater with Trichlor pucks. Whoever checks on the pool then only needs to dump the skimmer, visually confirm the equipment is working, and get something obviously large out of the pool.
3) i have cameras on my pool & equipment so I can see if it came on as scheduled, the robot is running, there’s water gushing everywhere, the person actually checked it etc. so I can call in reinforcements if necessary. I highly recommend this - its cheap and so useful for all pools. My initial purpose was as an additional layer of safety for the kids (via motion alerts) but it has also truly been so helpful in the ways mentioned above.
Fwiw-
When the covid/chlorine crisis hit the swcg really shined & proved to be much more dependable than the retailers. Unfortunately the liquid chlorine situation is still not what it once was back when it was cheap & plentiful year round.
I’m not sure it will ever go back to being that way again now that they know they can get away with the way things are now. I certainly like knowing I can make my own chlorine in my backyard and only need to supplement occasionally. I bought 10 gallons of liquid chlorine this season (because I went ahead & refilled my 4 jugs at opening) and still have 4 or so gallons left. They will be used at closing and in my hot tub.