Glacier Chiller Not Living Up To Expectations

[jark87]

that's a lot of electricity to use to fight off only a couple of degrees.

I agree that you should be seeing a more significant drop in temp. Our dew point was 69 today, so DFW is slightly more humid than your dew point of 67. As far as electricity goes, the chiller doesn’t consume very much. It’s one of the reasons I selected it over a heat pump/chiller combo, which consumes electricity similarly to an AC unit. The primary electricity consumption of the chiller is just the fan running. It’s minor, but of course, the pump has to be running when the chiller is running, so that’s where the electricity consumption rises. If you have a VSP, it’s probably less of an issue for you as you probably run 24x7 anyway. I still have a single speed pump, so I’m adding 4 hours of pump run time. For me, it’s worth it, because I’ve been able to reclaim my pool. It’s 102° today and my pool is a refreshing 82°.

 

[flynwill]

For comparison sake, here in SoCal when the Santa Ana winds blow (and the air temps jump up into the 90s) the dewpoint is often near freezing. I expect that the Tuscon/Phoenix folks can report similar dew points until the late summer Monsoons arrive. Evaporative cooling does work but is really only truly effective in dry climates.

 

[Benkg43]

I agree that you should be seeing a more significant drop in temp. Our dew point was 69 today, so DFW is slightly more humid than your dew point of 67. As far as electricity goes, the chiller doesn’t consume very much. It’s one of the reasons I selected it over a heat pump/chiller combo, which consumes electricity similarly to an AC unit. The primary electricity consumption of the chiller is just the fan running. It’s minor, but of course, the pump has to be running when the chiller is running, so that’s where the electricity consumption rises. If you have a VSP, it’s probably less of an issue for you as you probably run 24x7 anyway. I still have a single speed pump, so I’m adding 4 hours of pump run time. For me, it’s worth it, because I’ve been able to reclaim my pool. It’s 102° today and my pool is a refreshing 82°.

Having a VSP makes no difference because you’re supposed to run the pump at full speed when the chiller is on. I’m jealous of your refreshing 82 degrees — I only see that in the early morning after running the chiller all night, and it doesn’t stick around for long even if the chiller stays on.

 

[an1vrsy]

Right now the dew point is 67 degrees. That's not a number I EVER pay attn to, but I will now. That said, I can't even get my pool to 80 degrees, much less 67!

For comparison sake, here in SoCal when the Santa Ana winds blow (and the air temps jump up into the 90s) the dewpoint is often near freezing. I expect that the Tuscon/Phoenix folks can report similar dew points until the late summer Monsoons arrive. Evaporative cooling does work but is really only truly effective in dry climates.

Dew point is a measurement that under the current conditions if the air temp dropped to the dew point, there would be dew on grass or condensation on cars, etc. What chance is there the air temp in Porter, TX will drop down to 66 to form dew? Or in Palos Verdes, CA the air temp drops down to 55 degrees? I use wunderground.com to check dew point.

I am in Las Vegas, the dew point is 43 degrees. There is no chance the air temp will drop low enough here to form dew. Humidity on the other hand is 17%, in my location we can get good cooling running the Glacier Chiller during the heat of the day. When I run it, the schedule is from 7 am - 7 pm and I can keep the water at 85 - 86. If I tried to run it overnight the water probably would get into the low 80's and I would be using an ice bag on my head because my wife would hit me, the water is too cold. I did oversize my chiller, I had the 45k unit installed (GPC215) for a 25k pool.

 

[jark87]

I did oversize my chiller, I had the 45k unit installed (GPC215) for a 25k pool.

I wanted to do the same thing. I can’t remember what happened, but I ended up with the 210. Turns out it is sufficient.

 

[jark87]

An1vrsy makes a good point about humidity. I know that humidity and dew point are related, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. I just checked the humidity for Porter. It’s currently 87% - yuck! It’s forecasted to drop to 52% as the sun dries things out during the day. As a point of comparison, Flower Mound has a current humidity of 61% and forecast of 38%. I suspect that’s the reason for the performance difference.

There’s a forum member from Sugar Land that has reported success with his Glacier. If I can find that thread, I’ll post it here and maybe he can help.

 

[jark87]

The member from Sugar Land is in this thread. It’s from last year, so hopefully he’s still active here. You may want to send a PM. Good luck!

Glacier pool chiller

I just installed a glacier pool chiller a week ago. I'm running from 12am-10am then running just the filter pump from 10am-7pm. I don't feel like it's as cool as it should be. It's 84 first thing in the morning but by the afternoon it's 88. Any suggestions? I live in the Houston, Tx area and...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Benkg43]

The member from Sugar Land is in this thread. It’s from last year, so hopefully he’s still active here. You may want to send a PM. Good luck!

Glacier pool chiller

I just installed a glacier pool chiller a week ago. I'm running from 12am-10am then running just the filter pump from 10am-7pm. I don't feel like it's as cool as it should be. It's 84 first thing in the morning but by the afternoon it's 88. Any suggestions? I live in the Houston, Tx area and...

www.troublefreepool.com

I just read through the thread. His chiller is shaded. Mine is not and gets full sun for ~7 hours. I will be shading mine as soon as I figure out the best way to do so. It would be fantastic if that made a difference but I’m not going to hold my breath. Another note I saw on that thread was a word of caution about where the actuators are installed and how that could impact me during a freeze. My actuators are right at the chiller, which based on the thread sounds like a bad idea. It looks like I will be adding another fix-it item to the ever-growing list I have for my builder.

 

[jark87]

My actuators are right at the chiller, which based on the thread sounds like a bad idea.

That may have been a comment of mine, as my installer originally placed the actuator down by the chiller when it should have been up the line. Freeze that winter broke the pipe, which he quickly fixed.

His chiller is shaded.

Mine is too and I’m sure it makes a difference, even though my pool has full sun exposure. Thermometer at my equipment currently reads 95° but weather report for my town says it’s currently 102°. Our humidity has also dropped to 27% today.

 

[Benkg43]

I shaded the chiller as well as the other equipment, which includes the thermometer. The pool is registering much cooler on these hot days now, which has a lot to do with the thermometer being shaded. I believe the chiller being shaded is also aiding in a cooler pool. The last 3 days the pool has felt really good even at 100 degree air temp. The lowest I can get the pool is 81, which is what I wake up to after running the chiller overnight, and then with the chiller continuing to run throughout the day I'm topping out at 86. I wish I could keep it topped out at 84, but I'll take what I can get.

 

[Toxophilite]

I shaded the chiller as well as the other equipment, which includes the thermometer. The pool is registering much cooler on these hot days now, which has a lot to do with the thermometer being shaded. I believe the chiller being shaded is also aiding in a cooler pool. The last 3 days the pool has felt really good even at 100 degree air temp. The lowest I can get the pool is 81, which is what I wake up to after running the chiller overnight, and then with the chiller continuing to run throughout the day I'm topping out at 86. I wish I could keep it topped out at 84, but I'll take what I can get.

I've been playing with some umbrellas and some aeration. I'm now of the mind that shading from radiant heat of sun has the greatest, and most immediate, impact on water temp. I'm going to move my efforts more to shade than cooling the water mechanically. Especially the hot shelf. No doubt if a chiller was on my west wall from 1:00 pm till dusk, it would generate more radiant heat back into the pool water than remove.

 

[houstonnewb]

I believe we have been having low humidity this summer, which may be impacting your results.

 

[Benkg43]

For any who are interested here is where I have landed. I shaded both the chiller & pool equipment. Shading the thermostat alone led to a more accurate temp reading. As to whether or not shading the rest of it helped or not I'm not sure I have enough data to say. But here is what I have figured out.

The pool chiller is not capable of maintaining temperature when the sun is out. It keeps it from rising as quickly as it would if the chiller was off, but the reality that it can maintain temps during the day is bogus.

The chiller is expensive to run due to the fact that the pump has to be on high while it's running. Combine this with how long the chiller has to be on to be effective and stay effective, it's not financially ideal.

My pool has no shade but I do have 2 umbrellas that cover ~30% of it. They appear to make little to no difference in keeping the pool temperature from rising. It's been in the high 90s lately which I know does not help. Stupid summer.

Because the chiller has to run 24/7 as long as I want the water to get cool and remain cool, I'm settling into the pattern of turning it on Friday night ~8pm and letting it run through Sunday late afternoon. In other words, Saturday & Sunday are my chill days. The rest of the week the pool temps are going to stay in the mid to high 80s. It is what it is. The alternative is to run the thing nonstop, which again means running the pump nonstop, to maintain a cool pool throughout the week. That does not feel financially practical.

The lowest I've been able to get my pool is 81 degrees, and that's after running most of the previous day and all night. If I leave the chiller running all day the next day the pool will still reach 86, but it still feels reasonably good. I know humidity and dew point plays into the equation here...

The biggest drop I can get overnight is 5 degrees, and that's from 86 to 81. But sometimes it's only a 3 or 4 degree drop. How others are seeing a 10 degree drop is absolutely BEYOND me.

I'm glad i have the chiller but I'm by no means super impressed by it.

 

[sacredcow]

Old-timers, older than this old-timer, have told me that evaporative cooling was heavily tried here way before A/C was around. Heck, I grew up here in the 60's and few had A/C, our house included. Anyways, was told it was a short lived conversion, as they found they couldn't keep the wall paper on the walls.

Grew up in Baton Rouge (no different from Houston climate) and in the 1970's, someone built a Mexican restaurant using the specs from AZ, NM, which included an evaporative cooling system. They were told that it wouldn't work well, but went ahead with the plans. The first summer saw that system removed and replaced with AC.

My pool has been upper 80's to low 90's for a month now. This year, it sailed past the upper 70's and right into lukewarm.

 

[Benkg43]

Grew up in Baton Rouge (no different from Houston climate) and in the 1970's, someone built a Mexican restaurant using the specs from AZ, NM, which included an evaporative cooling system. They were told that it wouldn't work well, but went ahead with the plans. The first summer saw that system removed and replaced with AC.

My pool has been upper 80's to low 90's for a month now. This year, it sailed past the upper 70's and right into lukewarm.

Your first sentence has me thinking negatively about my chiller but your second sentence has me feeling grateful for having it. Like I said, I'm picking and choosing when I want to chill the pool and will just deal with lukewarm water the rest of the time. So I suppose what I'm saying is I'm glad I have the option to "chill" the pool in preparation for parties/weekends. It definitely does make a difference... just not as much of a difference as I would like.

 

[otter86753]

I've been playing with some umbrellas and some aeration. I'm now of the mind that shading from radiant heat of sun has the greatest, and most immediate, impact on water temp. I'm going to move my efforts more to shade than cooling the water mechanically. Especially the hot shelf. No doubt if a chiller was on my west wall from 1:00 pm till dusk, it would generate more radiant heat back into the pool water than remove.

I am in Charleston, SC with no shade on my pool either. Until the pandemic, I used a fountain overnight to cool the pool and could see a 6-8 degree drop depending on RH. When we started working from home, we could baby sit the umbrellas to ensure wind didn't destroy them and have maintained a cooler pool as a result. We have two umbrellas that tilt and are on rolling bases that we move once in the morning to shield the eastern sun and then again early afternoon to shield the western sun. Before using the umbrellas, the pool could get 93 or 94 which was wet, but not very enjoyable. The past two years, the highest the pool temp has reached is 88 with the umbrellas.

 

[jark87]

pool temps are going to stay in the mid to high 80s.

If you’re able to maintain mid to high 80s without the chiller, you’re starting in a much better place than I was. My pool would hit low to mid 90s by July and stay there until September. I’m in the DFW area, so our climate is less humid than yours and we probably hit higher air temps became of that.

The pool chiller is not capable of maintaining temperature when the sun is out.

That’s not my experience at all. We’re in the middle of one of the hottest summers ever, with temps well over 100° for the past week+ and into the foreseeable future. My max pool temp with the chiller running has been 83°, including during the hottest part of the day. It would be well over 90° without the chiller. Again, our climates are different, as our humidity during these hot days is something like 25%. That helps a ton.

The chiller is expensive to run due to the fact that the pump has to be on high while it's running.

Expensive is a relative term. I have over $100k invested in my pool. I couldn’t enjoy it at 95° water temps, so any added expense is well worth it to me. I’m running my pump 4 extra hours per day for the chiller, and while I haven’t taken the time to figure out what that costs, I doubt it’s that much, and I have a single speed pump. I look at it like AC. I’m not going to sweat while in my house and gladly spend money to run my AC to keep the house cool. I’m in the pool almost every day and even when I’m not, I want a refreshing pool available 24/7 in the event I decide to jump in.

I'm settling into the pattern of turning it on Friday night ~8pm and letting it run through Sunday late afternoon.

My experience is that it takes 2-3 days running the chiller 17 hours per day to chill the water to its lowest temp (3am - 8pm). I almost never get a big temp drop overnight. The exception is when a cool front moves through with lower overnight temps and exceptionally low humidity. I’d probably have water temps in the mid 80s to low 90s on Saturday and mid to upper 80s on Sunday following your schedule in our current weather pattern.

I realize that every experience can be different and I’m not advocating on behalf of Glacier or any other chiller. Just wanted to give my perspective in case others are evaluating one.

 

[Benkg43]

My experience is that it takes 2-3 days running the chiller 17 hours per day to chill the water to its lowest temp (3am - 8pm). I almost never get a big temp drop overnight. The exception is when a cool front moves through with lower overnight temps and exceptionally low humidity. I’d probably have water temps in the mid 80s to low 90s on Saturday and mid to upper 80s on Sunday following your schedule in our current weather pattern.

If I start @ 3am then I'm lucky to get a 2 degree temp drop by 8am. Once I hit 8am the temps start rising, though slowly thanks to the chiller. By 2:30pm my temps max out at 86 (sometimes 87) and then slowly start coming down. I ran the chiller for 4 days straight last week (no breaks) and this pattern repeated itself daily. Down to 81, at best, by 8am. Up to 86 by 2:30pm, then it starts slooooowly coming back down -- back down to 81 the next morning. Rinse and repeat. I'm SUPER jealous of your ability to keep it at 83 and below.

 

[an1vrsy]

It definitely does make a difference... just not as much of a difference as I would like.

I didn’t read back up the thread. What are your temperature intentions? Is it just to see how low you can go? For my family, when the air temp is 105 and the water temp is 86 that’s pretty nice. If I dropped the water temp to 81, by running the chiller overnight, my wife or grandkids wouldn’t swim. Running the chiller from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm is all it takes for us in the Las Vegas desert.

 

[scdaren]

Intesting read about your experience with the chiller. I have a Pentair 140 heat pump, that also runs in a chiller mode - though it's analogous to an air conditioner as opposed to a swamp cooler, and I'm in a low humidity area. My experience is similar, actually cooling the pool would require way more runtime than I want to pay for -- I think it mostly comes down to the physics of trying to fight off 105 degree ambient temps and the amount of water that has to be cooled. Except from what I understand it's far more expensive with my setup - and for this reason I don't even bother. At our peak afternoon electric rates it would be like $4.50 per hour to run, or $1.95 per hour in the middle of the night, and that's just the heat pump, not including the pool pump (though I can run it at 50% and that's pretty cheap energy-wise).

What I do have in my pool though is sheer descent waterfalls coming down along a bench in the pool. When it's like 110 outside, and the pool water is like 90, turning on the chiller and sitting under those waterfalls is wonderful, well worth the cost for the few hours we are in the pool.