HELP! Thought things were going well....

[ctrav]

Thanks Kjp...

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Thank you you so very much for this excellent explanation. Much appreciated. You’ve pretty much just sold me on a swcg. I have 3 kids 3 and under and I manage the pool. I cannot see myself lugging and dealing with all that liquid chlorine on a regular basis. We are often away most weekends in the summer and our heavy pool usage has been during the week so I need a way to manage it when we are away a few days at a time as well. Going to make some calls today. Thank you thank you.

one more question though - what happens at the end of 5-7 years, it’s the 800-1000 cost again typically? Or you don’t have to replace the general just a different part? THANK YOU!

My cell is sized for a 36,000 gallon pool. My pool is just about 12,000. So as you can imagine, I run my cell at very low percentages (the time its producing chlorine) and this in turn really seems to extend the life of the cell. I'm currently on year 7 and imagine it will go for a few more. And when it wears out all you have to replace is the cell itself, not the entire device. It is a fraction of the cost.

We also have gone away at times on vacation, the longest one being 17 days, and still come home to a crystal clean pool with good test results.

Yes, you're basically paying for all your future chlorine use in advance when you put a SWG in, but it has been researched that the costs are just about the same as if you'd purchased bleach all the years of use. So it really isn't that expensive, right?

Maddie

 

[Jwmote]

Thank you you so very much for this excellent explanation. Much appreciated. You’ve pretty much just sold me on a swcg. I have 3 kids 3 and under and I manage the pool. I cannot see myself lugging and dealing with all that liquid chlorine on a regular basis. We are often away most weekends in the summer and our heavy pool usage has been during the week so I need a way to manage it when we are away a few days at a time as well. Going to make some calls today. Thank you thank you.

one more question though - what happens at the end of 5-7 years, it’s the 800-1000 cost again typically? Or you don’t have to replace the general just a different part? THANK YOU!

One side benefit if your CYA is high is that SWG typically like a higher CYA. This won't help if your CYA is over 100 as you will still need to adjust it but SWG typically like it around 60-80ppm on CYA.

As far as the cost it is cheaper than the initial investment after the cell needs replacing but it is still expensive. Depending on which SWG you have cell costs can run anywhere from 300-600 or more. It is typically half of what the initial system cost for just the cell which you can replace yourself easily.

For instance my Jandy TruClear cost $999 and the replacement cell for it is around $300 or so give or take on where you buy it.

 

[Petersenico]

Hi everyone I’m back! Finally got my test kit and did the measurements. Here were my results. CYA wasn’t as bad as I thought it was but I know I still need some tweaking. I’ve been adding bleach instead of using the bio guard sticks for the past 5 days.

FC= 9
CC= 2
CYA= 60
Alkalinity= 90
PH= 7.5

Thoughts?

 

[mknauss]

Good job on a great test kit.

The CC of 2 is concerning. What does your water look like?

Have you added any non chlorine 'shock' in the pool recently?

 

[Petersenico]

Good job on a great test kit.

The CC of 2 is concerning. What does your water look like?

Have you added any non chlorine 'shock' in the pool recently?

Water is crystal clear. Has been clear all summer and I was keeping the FC much lower than 9 prior to finding Trouble free pool. At the beginning of the season (early June) I added a bunch of bags of non chlorine shock per the advice of the pool store. But nothing since then.

 

[mknauss]

Non-chlorine shock shows up as CC in your testing.

I would do a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test tonight or tomorrow night.

 

[Petersenico]

You mean it would still be showing up as cc from June? The cc was at 3 or something per pool store calculations prior to the non chlorine shock. That’s why we added it to begin with. The pool holds chlorine very well. I didn’t even add any bleach today. That reading was from adding a gallon mid-day yesterday (Friday). I’ve been adding a gallon or less every day and chlorine level has been climbing, not dropping.

I will test it in the morning as early as I can just to see. That reading was from after dark. I have 3 kids 3 and under and don’t plan on waking before the sun rises!!

 

[mknauss]

I doubt the non chlorine shock would still be showing up but something is indicating CC. Anything over 0.5 ppm is a concern.

 

[Petersenico]

A concern meaning it needs to be slammed?

 

[mknauss]

Possibly. An Overnight Chlorine Loss Test would be a good data point to have.

 

[Petersenico]

Just checked chlorine at 7:30 this morning. So well after sunrise but sun was filtered by trees to pool. It was 7.5. Which is actually not too bad right?

 

[mknauss]

Just checked chlorine at 7:30 this morning. So well after sunrise but sun was filtered by trees to pool. It was 7.5. Which is actually not too bad right?

What was the FC of the water last night after the sun went down?

 

[Petersenico]

It was FC= 9 after dark last night

 

[mknauss]

A drop of 1.5 ppm FC doing a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test is more than we like to see. It would be best to keep at SLAM level for another day or two and do another Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

 

[PoolFool.]

Welcome to the forum.
Until you get a SWCG or other automatic system installed you will likely need a good liquid chlorine / bleach supply.
A lot of pool owners in your area seem to like Ocean State Job Lot for bleach / chlorine / shock (used somewhat interchangeably, my store had no idea that what they label as shock is really concentrate 10% bleach)

As a newish pool inheritor myself I can tell you that a lot of pool supplies online and locally go on sale at the end of the season. I just got a big glossy end of season sale catalog with a 10% additional discount code, it only gets better from here. So you may want to sign up for a few online retailers catalogs and/ or buy a cheaper essential item from them right now.

Automatic cleaners, SWCG cells and eventually pool covers all get cheaper from here until next season. You should see some pretty good sales, just not rebates on the really expensive pool stuff like robots and SWCG systems.
Good Luck!