Is My SWG Working Correctly?

[wjmano]

What’s the best way to check if my SWG is working correctly?

My SWG is about 6 months old and when I visually check it, it looks fine with no obvious scaling. I acid-washed it about a month ago because I suspected it wasn’t working well and wanted to try something. I’ve been told by the company that built my pool, that during the summer months here in Florida, I should expect to run it at around 50% for 10 to 12 hours per day. This has not worked for me, even though my CYA is around 70. I find myself struggling to maintain my FC levels in the 6 range and having to add liquid bleach frequently.

Thanks
Bill

 

[mknauss]

That level of FC generation in your volume pool and with a screen enclosure should be sufficient.
The Aquarite SWCG is pretty straightforward. If no warning lights are showing I suspect it is operating correctly.

Have you done a Overnight Chlorine Loss Test? I would suggest that.

 

[wjmano]

Hey Marty - You mean an OCLT with the SWG running overnight with the expectation that my FC will increase? Never thought of doing that. I do think its working to some extent because I can see the small air bubbles at my returns, but don’t know if it’s running effectively. I’ll try the OCLT - any idea what level of FC increase to expect, if for example I ran it at 50%?

Thanks

 

[mknauss]

I was suggesting a FC loss test. To see why you are consuming more FC per day than you should be. Read the article.

 

[wjmano]

Yes, I’ve been running an OCLT nightly during my slam. I was losing over 1 ppm each night, although at FC levels around 23 I wonder if the testing is consistent enough to call it a failure if I lose say 2 ppm. It just seems like when I’m using nearly 50 drops of R-0871 that the consistency/accuracy of the test may suffer a bit.

 

[Newdude]

It just seems like when I’m using nearly 50 drops of R-0871 that the consistency/accuracy of the test may suffer a bit.

The test does just fine. It is very difficult at best for the human testER to repeat 50 perfect drops, border lining on not possible.

 

[mknauss]

Yes, I’ve been running an OCLT nightly during my slam.

You said nothing about a SLAM process. You said your SWCG was not keeping up. You do not use a SWCG during the SLAM Process.

 

[wjmano]

Sorry the confusion Marty. i recently had to SLAM my pool after some cloudy water and failing an OCLT. This is what led me to question if my SWG was working correctly...looking for things to change/fix.

Thanks for the help…your advice is always appreciated.

 

[cowboycasey]

I believe you have a couple things going on.. The main thing is rain, your rainfall can be 6 inch's a month..

1. Your CYA is continuously dropping in the summer, Keep checking CYA monthly and add as needed to keep at 80, when it falls to 70 take it back to 80, your SWG works less the higher it is..
2. With all that rain the FC is going down at times because of overflow water leaving the pool and dilution of the FC..
3. salt is also going down, check this every month also..

So you have all this water and elements leaving the pool after every rain and it gets to a point and the pool goes cloudy with the start of an algae bloom and then you have to SLAM...

So try to keep CYA at 80, FC at 7 or above and salt at 3600 and see what you get..

 

[wjmano]

Thanks for the advice! Ever since I increased my CYA to 80 and added salt, my FC has been very stable. This is quite a change from what I was experiencing. Previously I was running my oversized SWG at 60% for 12 hours a day and it couldn't keep up.

For salt management, my relatively new SWG consistently reports salt at 300 ppm lower than a Taylor drop test, but plan to simply rely on my SWG readings to decide when to add salt. I've read many times to just keep the SWG happy and it will perform better. So far so good.