Heater On for Christmas. Chlorine High

Jump to latest Follow Reply
M

mayberry32

Silver Supporter
Jun 24, 2019
226
Watkinsville, GA
So, our pool remains open (we are in Georgia), but we haven't been in it since mid October. The water was down to 45 degrees yesterday morning and the leaves are finally through falling here. We have family coming to our house Christmas Day and they asked if I could heat the pool and us all swim in the afternoon. The highs will be mid 60's. So, I cut the heat on last night via my phone app and it's been running ever since. It's now up to 73 degrees and climbing. So, it'll get plenty hot in plenty of time. I plan to heat it to 90 degrees and have a nice bathtub for all our guests to swim in for an hour or two.
Tonight, I tested my water and my chlorine is at 11, and free chlorine is at 0. All my other numbers look good. Calcium hardness is 100, TA is at 50, CYA is 60, salt level is 3200, pH is 7.8....all tested via my TF-100 test kit and entered into PoolMath.

My question: I've put pucks in the skimmers to keep chlorine in the pool when the SWG shut down due to temp. Is there any way to lower the chlorine from 11 to around 5 or 6 in a few days? My SWG is cut down to 1%, so it's not producing chlorine right now, even though the water temp is back above 60. The only thing I can think of is to pump out water and add more water back to the pool. But, I'm not sure how effective that would be and how much I'd have to pump out. That would also slow down heating the pool back up. Any ideas, or is it a lost cause for Christmas Day at this point? How long will it take for the chlorine to lower naturally?
 
At a CYA of 60 your FC target is 7-9. 11 is not very high. It is safe to swim up to FC of 24. See FC/CYA Levels.

Enjoy your holiday swimming. Your FC is fine as it is.
 
Thanks. The pool builder explained, when the pool was built last summer, that he generally preferred FC to be in the 3-5 range, and it was safe to swim up to 10, at which is where he said most commercial and hotel pools were kept. So, I thought anything over 10 was a no-no. I definitely don't want people getting skin irritations and burning eyes on Christmas.

Also, my mother in law has pretty bad COPD (coughing and a lot of troubles breathing). It seems high chlorine levels could hurt her more than others. Is this likely true?
 
Since your SWG is not producing this time of year, you treat your pool as a non-SWG pool. 7-9 is the recommended range for CYA 60 in a non-SWG pool. You are safe to swim up to FC 24.

When you say FC is zero, I assume you mean CC is zero.

As for your family member with COPD, only a medical professional should advise you as to whether they should swim or not.
 
proavia said:
Since your SWG is not producing this time of year, you treat your pool as a non-SWG pool. 7-9 is the recommended range for CYA 60 in a non-SWG pool. You are safe to swim up to FC 24.

When you say FC is zero, I assume you mean CC is zero.

As for your family member with COPD, only a medical professional should advise you as to whether they should swim or not.
Click to expand...
Correct. CC is 0. Sorry. FC was 11 last night. Was 12.5 the day before. So, hopefully, it's dropping as the water temp heats up.

And correct me if I'm wrong. The SWG was not working when the temps were low. But, as I heated the water, it seems the SWCG kicked back on and is now producing again. I have it scaled back to 2% on my ScreenLogic, so it doesn't keep the chlorine levels high.
 
Since the SWG will only be able to operate for the few days you are keeping the water heated, use the non-SWG recommended FC levels.

In any case, you can swim as long as FC is at or below the SLAM level listed for your CYA level.... 24 FC for CYA 60. This makes no difference whether you are SWG or non-SWG.
 
mayberry32 said:
Thanks. The pool builder explained, when the pool was built last summer, that he generally preferred FC to be in the 3-5 range, and it was safe to swim up to 10, at which is where he said most commercial and hotel pools were kept. So, I thought anything over 10 was a no-no. I definitely don't want people getting skin irritations and burning eyes on Christmas.

Also, my mother in law has pretty bad COPD (coughing and a lot of troubles breathing). It seems high chlorine levels could hurt her more than others. Is this likely true?
Click to expand...

I suggest you read CYA Chlorine Relationship - Further Reading and CYA - Further Reading and understand how CYA buffers chlorine and that with the proper FC/CYA ratio to amount of active chlorine is very low. The FC/CYA Levels summarizes all of that so you don;t need to do the calculations.

Your MIL will be exposed to less active chlorine in your CYA60/FC11 pool then if she was in a CYA0/FC3 pool.
 
Just be aware that PH reading with a FC 10 or higher will not be accurate. Not to say FC of 11 won't be accurate and it'll be very close but when the FC gets up there in the higher teens is where your PH won't be what it reads.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
So, apparently, FC levels don't read accurately at lower temps. Or, FC drops much faster at higher water temps. Tonight, the water temp is 89 and the FC level is 9.0. CC is still 0.0. So, either the test is affected by temp, or it drops very quickly when water temps are higher....because that's the only thing that's changed since yesterday. Today, it was partly cloudy and 68. So, there wasn't enough sun to kill off that much chlorine.

As long as it drops a little more tonight and tomorrow morning, we may be good to go for a Christmas Day "heated" polar plunge!!! The kids are going to be really excited.
 
Your pool is FINE to swim in....stop worrying about the nonsense the pool builder told you. *Public* pools don't use CYA stabilizer for the most part so that they keep their chlorine level lower. You own a *residential* pool so you *do* use CYA. Your pool is far, far cleaner than most any public pool.
As for your mother's coughing spells- Combined Chloramines (the cooties we test for and dislike) along with cold air can aggravate her. But it sounds like you don't have any CCs (yay!). If you normally keep the pool covered make sure you remove the cover at least 30 minutes before the swim to allow any trapped gases to dissipate.

Enjoy the swim! If I had a heater I'd have done the same when it was 73 degrees on Xmas Eve!

Maddie :flower:
 
Thanks for the replies. I jumped in this morning to test it out and everything seemed fine. The walls and floor weren't slippery, so no algae. Water was perfectly clear and all the other chemistry was exactly where it should be. Chlorine was 9 this morning. We swam this afternoon and then turned on the lights and swam again after dinner tonight. It was awesome! The 90 degree water felt awesome and everyone had fun. It was extra fun with the steam rolling off the water after it got cooler outside. I started a fire in our fire pit and we all warmed up after getting out before heading inside. Great day for all. I'm even leaving the heater running tonight so we can have one more day tomorrow. Then, we'll cut it off again and accept that we are still in winter. Anyway, it was a great added Christmas gift and we all enjoyed it. I don't regret putting in the heater at all. Being able to do things like this are special and it makes having the pool completely worthwhile. Merry Christmas to all of you and thanks again for the replies.
 
  • Like
Reactions: YippeeSkippy, Leebo and mknauss
OK, follow up question because I’m starting to worry. The ambient temperature was in the 60s the entire time the pool was heated. So, there was substantial steam coming off at night when it dropped into the 40s overnight. Tonight, I heard a gurgling sound and walked out to look. The skimmer baskets were barely getting water and the pool is around 3 inches lower than I normally keep it, if not a little more. The jets back into the pool were gurgling as if it was sucking air a little, so I shut the pump off. I have a hose in now adding water, and I assume it is just from evaporation due to me heating it up to 90° in colder temperatures. But the water level dropped further, and faster, than it ever has before. There’s no way I have a random leak after just using the pool, I don’t believe, but wanted to check here. I’ve been adding water with a water hose for about 25 minutes and See very little rise in the water level. Not sure how long It should take to raise the water level. 20x 40 rectangle with 8’ deep end. I pray to God I don’t have a leak from heating this thing up in the winter. We are about to leave town for over a week and I am freaking out a little.
 
Mb,

Like Allen, I suspect it is just evaporation... I would think it will take a 2.5 to 3 hours to replace the 3" of water you have lost..

I can't think of anything that would be damaged by just heating the pool.

Try to Relax... :mrgreen:

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Mb,

Well... Where could the water be going?

I just noticed that you have a vinyl pool... I suppose it could have sprung a leak.

If you don't see any increase in the pool level, in the next hour, I would shut off the hose and all pumps, and see if the water level continues to go down. If it does, I would just let it drop until it stops..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
After about an hour and a half with the hose, it’s finally up about 1/2 inch.

I just had horrible thoughts about cold ground and hot water and a pipe bursting underground. I’m sure that didn’t happen, but I’ve never seen the water get below the skimmers, so it scared me.

Water is still running and I’m trying to get it back to normal levels. As long as it doesn’t lose any by tomorrow morning, I think I’m fine.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply