How much work is it to maintain a salt pool.

[Pollock]

Once you find a good setting with the generator are you good on Chlorine?

How does the salt system affect your PH and TA?

Curious if my life would be easier if I converted to salt?

 

[duraleigh]

How are you chlorinating now?

 

[Pollock]

I was trying to use a stenner system but I cant figure out a steady injection rate. The heat fluctuations really change how much my pool uses chlorine. I am tired of testing and adding liquid everyday so I went back to the tablets. My CYA is 30.

 

[Juggernaut1103]

This is my first year with the SWG, I have to say, i don't know how I lived without it. That and adding a robot have been life changing. I don't have time to keep up with manually adding bleach every day or two. It has made my life 100% easier than last year when i was battling algae from laziness of staying on top of bleach. My TA was 90 and i was having issues with the PH spiking up in the 8's, so i lowered PH to 7, and it dropped my TA (not sure how much, i should probably check) and PH has stayed steady around 7.6 ever since, and that was 3 weeks ago.

Im beyond happy with my decision to switch, my pool is about the same size as yours, a tiny bit bigger. i don't have any crazy automation, i just put my rj30 on a timer, and its set to go on 30 minutes after the pump starts, and turn off 30 minutes before the pump turns off. My pool is shaded in the afternoon, so i run my pump for 10 hours at 1500rpm, and have the rj30 set at 30-35%.

 

[Pollock]

I was dosing once a day with the stenner and that did good till it got hot then outta no where my 5PPM dropped to 1 and the pool got cloudy.
Then I tried dosing twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night but must have had too much run time and the chlorine started to build up. Since I was leaving for vacation I ditched the stenner and went back to pucks. So much easier and I think they might work better since they constantly add Chlorine just like a salt system would.

 

[jblizzle]

The SWG will behave like your stenner. It will add X amount of FC everyday. So if the demand changes, the FC may go up or down, just like it did for your Stenner setup.

That said, I find that I rarely ever change the SWG output. If I need to bump the FC for heavy use, then I do so with some bleach.

The SWG will also tend to drive the pH up faster, often requiring more frequent additions of muriatic acid.

- - - Updated - - -

I think you are missing the fact that a pool will required a certain amount of FC added each day due to losses to the sun, etc.
It does not matter if this is added all at once (adding bleach) or over a longer period of time.

Once you let the FC drop too low, the water got cloudy due to algae in the water which is going to consume your FC very quickly.

If you never followed the SLAM Process process to eradicate it, that could still be in the water consuming more FC than would be expected.

 

[Pollock]

The SWG will also tend to drive the pH up faster, often requiring more frequent additions of muriatic acid.

Okay so it will act like a liquid chlorine pool. Now adjusting my PH down was like clock work regardless of temperature. So if I did the salt system I could use my stenner for Acid.

Still my try a second shot with the stenner before I go salt. Doing some research first.

- - - Updated - - -

I did SLAM the pool after it got cloudy.

 

[bobandsherry]

On a regular basis during the week with SWG... test chemical levels, adjust SWG % if necessary, pour in a cup or so of MA, brush sides of pool, replace hair net in skimmer, run vacuum.

During the rest of the year..... As a result of splash out/refill or from heavy rains...Add a bag or two of salt. The other levels such as TA and CYA maintain more or less like you did before as well as backwash.

 

[Teald024]

The SWG will be like the stenner pump. The key is to not forget about regular FC testing. This will catch if your FC is drifting low.

I have a stenner pump also and I find that if I need to bump due to heavy usage, I just manually add with chlorine instead of changing the timer settings.


Edit: slow typer so basically a duplicate response.

 

[Pollock]

The SWG will be like the stenner pump. The key is to not forget about regular FC testing. This will catch if your FC is drifting low.

I have a stenner pump also and I find that if I need to bump due to heavy usage, I just manually add with chlorine instead of changing the timer settings.


Edit: slow typer so basically a duplicate response.

What is your run time. In the beginning 15 min a day was good. Then is drifted down.

 

[Teald024]

Run time really depends on the flow of the stenner, how much chlorine you need to add, chlorine % and how many daily doses you do it in.
Early season it was 15 mins and got up to 60 minutes in the max of summer on 10% chlorine on my 10gpd stenner. I probably changed the timer every 2 weeks to add or subtract the to the end time of the run.

 

[Pollock]

Run time really depends on the flow of the stenner, how much chlorine you need to add, chlorine % and how many daily doses you do it in.
Early season it was 15 mins and got up to 60 minutes in the max of summer on 10% chlorine on my 10gpd stenner. I probably changed the timer every 2 weeks to add or subtract the to the end time of the run.

I have the same stenner and 10 percent chlorine. On the weekends 50 minutes was good with the pool open. The trick for me is when I am covered I use less chlorine. 30 min cover was too much. Was going to try 20 covered and see how it goes.

 

[Esloser]

Yes, salt water generator is the way to go. It probably won’t save you any more money than other means, but it is so much more convenient. Basically, you set the chlorine output and the pump run time at the level it takes to maintain the chlorine levels and you are good to go!

 

[Teald024]

I agree with you on the cover aspect. Mine does the same.
I think I planned on two covered days and two heavy used days. Then I just set the timer to keep FC above minimum values. It’s OK if the FC gets a little high. On the back half of the season I was probably always 6+ ppm above min.

 

[Pollock]

Okay maybe I was thinking to critical and will give the stenner another shot.

 

[tomfrh]

Once you find a good setting with the generator are you good on Chlorine?

How does the salt system affect your PH and TA?

Curious if my life would be easier if I converted to salt?

Much easier to maintain that manually dosing in my opinion.

you need to adjust your SWG run time depending on the amount of sun you’re getting and the lol usage, but it doesn’t that much work.

i havent changed my setting in a month or two now. (Winter here at present).


i run mine on a separate timer, to keep it independent of the pump run time.

 

[rmturner54]

Swg pools still require maintenance. I test for fc and ph about every other day. And do a full test once a week. Once i got it dialed in i know its likes and dislikes. Each pool has its own characteristics and once u learn those its fairly easy. I have only had to slam 2 times in 4.5 years. Thats because I got lazy. Warmer weather with the water temps up around 90 require a lot more attention. I am glad i went thw swg route.

 

[Sminor]

Dialing in the stenner pump should be fairly easy. You can just do the math but I found it more reliable to do a couple real world tests. With everything setup like normal, remove the injector and place it in a bucket. Run it for 10 minutes then measure the output in a measuring cup. Do this a couple times and then try 20 minutes a couple times. Average it out and you'll know exactly how much chlorine your pump adds under normal conditions. After that it's easy to test it couple times under stressful conditions (heavy sun and bather load) to know exactly how long to run the pump so you never go under FC minimum for your CYA. If your chlorine overshoots a bit on days when it's cloudy and no one swims that's ok. Better a little too much chlorine than not enough...

 

[Pollock]

Dialing in the stenner pump should be fairly easy. You can just do the math but I found it more reliable to do a couple real world tests. With everything setup like normal, remove the injector and place it in a bucket. Run it for 10 minutes then measure the output in a measuring cup. Do this a couple times and then try 20 minutes a couple times. Average it out and you'll know exactly how much chlorine your pump adds under normal conditions. After that it's easy to test it couple times under stressful conditions (heavy sun and bather load) to know exactly how long to run the pump so you never go under FC minimum for your CYA. If your chlorine overshoots a bit on days when it's cloudy and no one swims that's ok. Better a little too much chlorine than not enough...

Yeah I was thinking it would keep the pool at a constant 6. Dont know why I thought that would be possible. I put it back in yesterday and am giving it another shot.

 

[Serious1]

With the auto cover I struggle to find the correct percentage for my SWG. I manually dose as needed if the cover is off all day on the weekends. As for acid, I haven't had to add any since I added borates last month. Apparently we don't splash much and the salt cell isn't running enough to make PH go up. I run my pump twice a day for 4 hours each at 60% on my cell.