Getting ready for SWG

[Dirk]

Dirk for some reason only 3 of the pics showed up-the lock on the box (nice job!), the pic of how 5 jugs and bucket fit, and the pic of the cup in the pour and run with you holding it.

Huh. I can see them, as can bmoreswim. There are two posts, 10 pics in the first, two in the second. I did get a warning about more than 10 in a post, so I moved two to a second. They were all shot and processed exactly the same. Anything I can do to at this end to troubleshoot?

 

[Dirk]

Do not fall in pool while leaning over to pour muriatic acid.

Shoot, hadn't thought about that! So now my gear is:safety glasses, respirator, gloves, tyvek suit and life jacket!

Better start designing a respirator-snorkel combo device!!

 

[triptyx]

Can see them fine here. I'm impressed man, that looks (and more importantly seems to work) pretty cool!

 

[cfherrman]

How much it set ya back? Make it out of aluminum next time! (Waiting)

 

[Dirk]

How much it set ya back? Make it out of aluminum next time! (Waiting)

Approx...

The flat plastic pieces are from a chopped up cutting board: $5

PVC and nylon nuts and bolts, maybe: $15

That neat measuring cup was about: $10

Fabrication labor: priceless

So around $30.

No aluminum! 100% plastic, as is the bucket, so they can live in the MA storage box.

The "damage" I did, in 20 seconds, to my deck will cost me a day of hard labor! So 30 bucks is nothing. My stone guy thinks I didn't actually damage my deck, just cleaned it really well in a dozen spots! So the fix is to acid wash the entire deck. Which will look fantastic, as it will restore my deck's original color. So it (hopefully) is a blessing in disguise. But I have a lot of that concrete throughout the yard, so if I want it all to match... it's going to be a lot of work to disguise those few drops!

If I get a good long run, here on Earth, and I'm lucky enough to only have to add MA to my pool just once a week (with my SWG and living here in high-TA/high-CH Central CA), then I have about 1500+ MA doses to look forward to. I figure I'm only going to get older, and dumber, and more accident prone, so a little effort now to develop a fast/easy/accurate/safe MA-dosing regime will pay off somewhere down the road...

 

[kimkats]

How weird- I could not see them at home but here at school/work I can??? Just glad I can see them now!

LOVE it! Dirk you are something else! All it took was me throwing the "word" PVC at you and look at what you did! WOW!

So you say something about lead-I am guessing in the decking side PVC to weight it down?

Where did you find that neat measuring cup? It is almost like they designed it just for this! How big is the hole the m.a. comes out of and where?

Kim

 

[Dirk]

How weird- I could not see them at home but here at school/work I can??? Just glad I can see them now!

LOVE it! Dirk you are something else! All it took was me throwing the "word" PVC at you and look at what you did! WOW!

So you say something about lead-I am guessing in the decking side PVC to weight it down?

Where did you find that neat measuring cup? It is almost like they designed it just for this! How big is the hole the m.a. comes out of and where?

I'll have my attorney contact yours to discuss royalty fees!

I was going to use a wood plank, with some kind of counter weight bolted on, but the PVC idea makes it impervious to chemicals and time.

Yes, lead is in the deck side. It's all sealed up with PVC glue and a couple of silicon plugs. That should be enough to isolate it from the MA fumes. I finally admitted to myself that my Monterey Bay cold-water scuba diving days are behind me, so I cannibalized one of my old diving weights for the lead shot (forgot to include that in the cost).

Measuring cup from BB&Beyond. I had another, cheaper one at home ear-marked for the project, but when I saw that cup in the store I realized it was perfect for the job. Viewing the tiny little marks on the side of my cheapie one was going to be an issue while trying to pour while it was in place, below me, below the coping. The view from above makes a huge difference in speed and comfort and safety.

There's a 1/8" hole towards the front of the cup, pool-side. If you view that side view pic again you can just barely make out the tiny stream. Marty advises a "pencil size stream" so this is even slower, maybe 25% of a pencil.

I just actually used it this morning for chlorine. It works great. I poured two cups, walked away, checked the skimmer, came back, done!

 

[kimkats]

Well done sir!

Kim

 

[needsajet]

Be sure residue is impossible, if used for both chlorine and MA. Cool invention mate

 

[Dirk]

Be sure residue is impossible, if used for both chlorine and MA. Cool invention mate

Thanks, needsajet. Didn't quite get your first sentence. Are you warning about making sure there's not a speck of one left in the cup, or anywhere else, before I use the other? If so, good point. Will do. I was counting on the quick-rinse-capability to cover that...

 

[Dirk]

Process streamlining is kind of a hobby of mine. Even if the solution takes longer to develop than it'll ever save me in time, I find it fun to do, and better for my ever-dwindling brain power than just watching TV! I've fantasized over the years about commercializing a handful of my many "inventions." A couple of which address specific dangers. (I've got a doozie for keeping one from chopping their hand off in a garbage disposer!) But it all comes down to liability. Just defending a lawsuit from what some numbskull might try with a product could cost mid-to-high five figures. If someone actually got hurt... house/pool/retirement/life... poof!

needsajet's chlorine/ma warning is a perfect example. (Some kind of deadly gas, right?)

One would have to sell thousands and thousands of something for its profit to cover the required "incidental" expenses (safety R&D, safety/warnings copywriters, liability insurance, attorneys, etc)...

So my things, like the Pour'n'Run®, never make it out of my garage... or maybe an online forum somewhere...

 

[lightmaster]

Forms chlorine gas iirc, highly lethal

 

[needsajet]

Quick rinse capability is good

It's not a huge risk, but mixing of muriatic acid and chlorinating liquid is best prevented, to avoid any breathing or other exposure to chlorine gas which is another strong irritant. Thorough rinsing is a good practice and some prefer using different measuring cups. I know you like to take ample precautions so I thought it might be worth mentioning.

 

[cfherrman]

I figured someone would point out my joke in my post, don't use aluminum as acid eats the heck out of it.

 

[kimkats]

How much it set ya back? Make it out of aluminum next time! (Waiting)

I figured someone would point out my joke in my post, don't use aluminum as acid eats the heck out of it.

LOL yeah we did glide right over that one. Dirk addressed it in his detailed post about how he made his Save-a-Deck (not sure how to do the circle R).

 

[Dirk]

No questions, just my "journal"...

I got my SWG acid washed today. Like most of what I've learned here, it was considerably easier to do than I imagined. Pretty straight forward with the Pentair kit attached. Turned off the breakers. Unscrewed it. Put on the kit. Stood it in a bucket. Had my mask, gloves and eye protection on, and a bit of ready-mixed baking soda at the ready in case anything went wrong (and to neutralize the acid after the wash so I could pour it into the rocks without worry). I mixed up a 200ml to 800ml batch of MA in a measuring cup and poured it in the SWG. I don't know why the instructions suggested one quart of MA to a gallon of water. I only needed a couple cups.

It was pretty caked up, but mostly just down the middle few plates. The build up (calcium, right?), came loose of the plates and floated up, in narrow sheets, like icebergs. Let it fizz for about 15 minutes, dumped the mix out of the SWG into the bucket, neutralized it, rinsed out the SWG with water, and reinstalled it. Reinstalled the SWG fuse and turned on the breakers and the pump. After some blinking lights, everything leveled out and I got all greens. Cranked it to 60%.

So debut is tomorrow. I'll see how low I can dial down the flow, and then start tweaking the schedule...

I'm going to start with 60% for 7 hours at 1400 RPM.

 

[cfherrman]

You just made me remember middle school science when we played with baking soda and hcl! Good times!

 

[Dirk]

I gotta admit, I wasn’t prepared for the reaction when I dumped the backing soda into the MA mix. Got quite a fizz. I guess I skipped that class!

 

[kimkats]

It will be interesting to see what difference you see. I know you keep good notes but I almost wish you left it set at where it was before so you can see the difference in the output from that. More of an apples to apples.

Kim

 

[Dirk]

SWG Journal

I'm an hour late. Wanted to do this at 7:00 when my SWG first came on. But it doesn't matter, as the SWG wasn't active:

ScreenLogic Chlorinator page reported:
Pool Output: 60%
Salt Level: 0

So I went out to check, and the flow light was red (at 1400RPM).
Up'ed it to 1500RPM and got a green flow light. So now I know where my threshold it.

After a minute or two the alternating red-green salt lights turned solid green. I have SWG!

So now ScreenLogic Chlorinator page reports:
Pool Output: 60%
Salt Level: 2950.


I did a full suite, to set my baseline:
FC: 6.5
PH: 7.7
TA: 80
CH: 340
CYA: 70
Salt: 3000
CSI: -0.26

RPM: 1500
GPM: 21
TEMP: 64

Gotta say, I'm pretty proud of those numbers! And I'm quite happy that the salt test and the SWG are within 50ppm on the salt reading (today, anyway)! The Chlorinator page is indicating salt level just at the low end of the green "optimum" range, which is exactly where I wanted it to be, allowing "room to grow" in terms of the IC40's Optimum Salt Level (according to the ScreenLogic interface). So yay on my numbers!!

I had hoped to be able to run my RPMs a bit lower. 1500RPM is 174Watts. I thought I've read others here were successful at 1200RPMs or less. But I checked, the IC40 manual states minimum flow rate is 25GPM. My FlowVis is reporting 21GPM, so I guess I should be OK with that. I have this going on:



Not counting the solar check valve, I have two check valves in my filtering system. The FlowVis, between the pump and filter, and a second check right before the SWG, messing up the desired straight run before the SWG's flow switch. I thought maybe this is compromising the flow, and flow switch, and that moving or removing it would help with the minimum RPM.

Anyone know if I could do without this second check valve? It was always there, even before FlowVis and SWG. Does the FlowVis, in its current position, replace the need for that second check? Or is it common/necessary to have a check right before you return to the pool? The pool water level is lower than the pad, by around 4" or so (pad is pretty much level with the coping). So I don't understand what that check is doing.

Or I could be happy that my SWG flow is green running 4GPM lower than the stated minimum. Since this is solar season, and the solar RPMs are quite a bit higher, I won't really be running all that often at 1500RPM anyway (more often at 2200). So I won't see all that much energy savings this time of year by trying to lower my solar-off-RPMs. But running at 1200RPM when solar is off, or outside of solar season, would have been cool.

Here's the other issue. The knucklehead that installed the SWG (same moron that burned my plaster), couldn't have left me a couple inches of PVC! Sorry in advance to all the pool pros here, but this is why I am so anti-pool-professionals, battling since day one this kind of inexcusable numbskullery! Uhg.



Unless anybody out there thinks I could get down to 1200RPM by moving or removing that second check valve, I'll likely leave this alone...