My old, achy bones are getting tired of lugging 100 lbs of chlorine from the pool store every few weeks during the summer and I'm going to break down and get an SWG. I'm looking at the Circupool RJ-60 PLUS. I've got everything figured out except the flow switch: how the heck do you install that into existing plumbing? It looks like a standard PVC coupling connection-wise. That means it's literally impossible to cut a length from existing plumbing and install it. The way my plumbing is set up there is no possibility of using some elbows to make the install possible. Is my only option to rig some unions onto that sucker? That could be challenging in the short length of pipe I have. Hopefully I'm just missing something.
Flow Switch Install
- Thread starter sbcpool
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 53,342
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
You are presumably going to cut your plumbing to add the SWG; you will just add the switch before the SWG and add the union for the SWG after that. Hopefully, you have enough length to add everything...… I'm pretty lucky and have a LOT of room for the switch and the SWG.
I don't want to do it that way because I have a spa and do not want the SWG running when output is spa only (it would build up chlorine way too fast). That means I have to put the flow switch on the return line for the pool, hence my difficulty.
The center pipe would be the output from the SWG, the left pipe is the pool return, and the right is the spa return.
I'm thinking I may just install it before/after the SWG and hope people remember to turn off the SWG before they use the spa and turn it back on again afterwards (even though I know they will forget and I won't know until the pool turns green).
- Jul 21, 2013
- 53,342
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
My SWG runs when I am using the spa and I have measured the FC afetr an hour or more of spa use. It never came close to SLAM levels. You have a lot of room between your SWG target and the SLAM FC level for the Fc to get out of the safe zone.
A SWG makes CL very slowly. Especially if you have a long daily pump runtime.
I think once you measure it you will find leaving your SWG on while using your spa will be fine.
A SWG makes CL very slowly. Especially if you have a long daily pump runtime.
I think once you measure it you will find leaving your SWG on while using your spa will be fine.
- May 3, 2014
- 58,715
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
If someone uses the spa for two hours, the RJ60 plus will generate about 115 g of chlorine. In a 600-gallon spa that's going to raise FC by 50! ? Am I doing the math wrong?
The spa has 5 returns: 4 that run when in spa mode and 1 that runs in pool mode. To answer your question, it does overflow into the pool in pool mode, but only relatively slowly. The pool has three returns of its own.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 53,342
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
What % runtime are you assuming you will run the RJ60? My guess is around 20%.
At 20% it would take close to 5 hours to get 24 ppm.
In 2 hours you would add 10 ppm of FC to your spa.
Last edited:
100%. I only run my filter 3 hours at night. I need 100% to generate 2 ppm FC in 3 hours. I'm not real keen on running the filter longer at California electricity prices, which can reach $0.48/kWh.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 53,342
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
That's going to be a problem then.
At 20% it would take close to 5 hours to get 24 ppm in your spa.
In 2 hours you would add 10 ppm of FC to your spa.
Get a VS pump that you can run efficiently on low speed.
Am I messing up my math somewhere?
10 ppm would be:
600 gallons x 3.7854 = 2271.24L x 10 mg/L = 22712.4 mg = 22.7124 g = 0.05 lbs. If I'm only generating 0.05 lbs per hour, I can only make 1.2 lbs per 24 hours.
Either way, that's why I want to put the flow switch on the pool return only.
EDIT - Never mind. You meant at 20%.
I usually have my SWG set to a high output% and I never run the SWG while the spa is on. Hot water and excessive chlorine is not a good combination what so ever. In my nine years of having to turn off the SWG each time we go in the spa, only once, a few weeks ago, did the SWG failed to be turned back on.
I would install the cell on the center pipe and flow switch on the pool return line. Cut all three pipes and add couplings as required, the overall height will be a bit taller.
I would install the cell on the center pipe and flow switch on the pool return line. Cut all three pipes and add couplings as required, the overall height will be a bit taller.
You and I wouldn't forget, but the wife and kids... I'd bet a paycheck they'd forget more often than they'd remember. Most of the time they don't even remember to turn the valve back to "pool" and for a couple of days the spa is REALLY clean.
Now that's one of those "why didn't I think of that" ideas. I'm trying to think of all kinds of stupid arrangements and that's just too simple. Is the flow switch fitting the same length as a standard coupling?