Does anyone with a swcg use pucks?

[kevreh]

I was talking to a pool maintenance guy who said it would be good to throw a couple pucks in the skimmer during times of heavier use. Like right before the weekend. His point is that swcgs are a little slow to fight bather load. I have powder shock I can throw in, but its not slow release like a puck is.

Thoughts?

 

[Jezza]

Throwing pucks in the skimmer is never a great idea because of the acidity of the pucks which could affect your equipment.

Adding them in general is only a good idea when you know what your CYA level is and then that is relative to what FC level you need to maintain.

He is right on the SWG but for a quick chlorine rush without any perhaps unwanted side effects, bleach or liquid chlorine is the way to go.

 

[Silver_2000]

I use pucks on rare occasions but only because the house came with 100lbs of them and only when I know I need to increase CYA

Right now for example we had to drain 1/3 of the pool for some work AND we have had a bunch of rain so my Salt is too low for the SWG and Im sure the CYA is low as well, and it wont be fixed till Monday. So Ive thrown a couple pucks in this cool solar lighted duck .. Im pretty sure I paid closer to $10 at walmart
https://www.amazon.com/GAME-8002-Solar-Light-Chlorinator/dp/B007MPVT2O
I like him so much I may put a rock in him to keep him upright when Im done with the pucks
be sure to get the new Version with the panels on the side

 

[tim5055]

Throwing pucks in the skimmer is never a great idea because of the acidity of the pucks which could affect your equipment.

Adding them in general is only a good idea when you know what your CYA level is and then that is relative to what FC level you need to maintain.

He is right on the SWG but for a quick chlorine rush without any perhaps unwanted side effects, bleach or liquid chlorine is the way to go.

I always have pucks around, but normally just to top off my CYA when needed.

 

[Richard320]

Bleach is a lot quicker for boosting FC and all it leaves behind is a little salt, which should make up what you lost during splashout during the high-use period. It's a win-win.

Some "shock" leaves behind Calcium, which can lead to scale on the pool walls or the SWG plates. And the dichlor/trichlor raise CYA, which you may not want. And I mean fast. Guessing your pool is 20,000 gallons. A single 1 lb packet of dichlor will only add 3.3 FC, but it will add 3 CYA, too. Big party, boost it a few times, and suddenly your CYA is 10 higher.

 

[kevreh]

Hmmm, my cya and ch are a little low....40 and 200. So a little upward creep is ok. With kids in pool I also loose some water. I know liquid bleach is gospel around here, its just easier to handle dry goods.

I like how the bleach makes up some salt loss.

 

[BasicTek]

I was talking to a pool maintenance guy who said it would be good to throw a couple pucks in the skimmer during times of heavier use. Like right before the weekend. His point is that swcgs are a little slow to fight bather load. I have powder shock I can throw in, but its not slow release like a puck is.

Thoughts?

I was thinking (as I look to sell my old Pentair inline chlorinator) that it would have probably been a better idea to leave it in....)

It could be a backup if the SWCG ever had problems
My SWCG that is 4x the rating of my pool currently only needs to run at 10% because my CYA is still a little high(100) so I would probably never need both
But in the future if my CYA drops below 60 it would have been a great way to bump it up on occasion...

Anyway take this with a grain of salt as I'm a new pool owner and just learning, so all this is theory in my head, but seems to make sense...

 

[kevreh]

Is the pentair plumbed in to feed chlorine after all equipment? Thats a good thing, may be worth keeping in that case.

 

[BasicTek]

Is the pentair plumbed in to feed chlorine after all equipment? Thats a good thing, may be worth keeping in that case.

Not to hijack but the guy that installed the SWCG pulled it out already, I thought about it after the fact...

On this thread it seems if someone had a SWCG, an inline chlorinator, and low CYA, or in the OPs case trouble maintaining FC then tabs might be a good idea on occasion....

 

[cfherrman]

Rule of thumb, never use solid forms of clorine

 

[Poppop50]

I learned early on that chlorine pucks are dangerous to your pool liner if not handled correctly. Now that I have swcg I don't use chlorine except for shock at the beginning of the season and maybe once or twice the remainder of the season. If I know there is going to be more bathers, I will push up the amount of chlorine generated a day before, the day of, and the day after. Then I will return the unit to its normal position. That's basically it. I'll test the pool regularly and vacuum several times a week. The initial outlay of cash to purchase the unit may deter people from purchasing one but it's well worth it. I figured within 5 years of purchase., I will have made my money back.

 

[tim5055]

I use pucks on rare occasions but only because the house came with 100lbs of them and only when I know I need to increase CYA

Right now for example we had to drain 1/3 of the pool for some work AND we have had a bunch of rain so my Salt is too low for the SWG and Im sure the CYA is low as well, and it wont be fixed till Monday. So Ive thrown a couple pucks in this cool solar lighted duck .. Im pretty sure I paid closer to $10 at walmart
https://www.amazon.com/GAME-8002-Solar-Light-Chlorinator/dp/B007MPVT2O
I like him so much I may put a rock in him to keep him upright when Im done with the pucks
be sure to get the new Version with the panels on the side

OK, that is just neat....

Had to order one!

 

[Silver_2000]

OK, that is just neat....

Had to order one!

Yeah

Here is an image of him lit up at night
He holds like 6 pucks if you really used pucks a lot
He is supposed to tip over when empty, which is why I said I would add a rock to keep him upright ...

And the LED is impressive for the tiny little Solar panels

Once I noticed he was still glowing at 5 am

 

[kevreh]

Cool photo, duck floating in a sea of purple and blue.