leaves, leaves ….. should I increase my SWG in advance ?

[Riddler0520]

First year with pool
Wooded lot
I knew we would be fighting leaves approaching Fall
No opportunity to cover
In NC, we do not close the pool

my question, I can’t sit out there all day and skim so if I go out a few times a day I expect a good amount of leaves to have fallen (either on the surface and/or pool floor)

my SWG is currently at 40% and I maintain an FC of about 6-7 normally with a CYA of 60’ish.

Should I bump my SWG to like 50% knowing I will have leaf debris in the pool. Logic being the more FC, the more it can maintain as the debris eats up chlorine.

Thoughts ?

anyone use the below ? Actually work or a gimmick ??

 

[Oly]

Any oaks? When do you expect he leaves begin to fall? Expect your daily FC loss to drop as days get shorter so you may not need to change anything and your FC will rise. Monitor your FC.

 

[Newdude]

Hey Riddler !!! I had crazy oaks at my old house. Like 60-80 on an acre, *after* I took down half of them. And my neighbors who didn't take theirs down, had stuff waft right on over to my yard too.

I never saw any FC loss from leaves or pollen. Whatever it is needs to be good and rotten, like the same leaves that snuck in under my cover and fostered all winter. But as long as whatever fell was fresh, even the dead (brown) leaves, it never mattered.

Keep an eye on your FC until you know yours responds the same. In your favor, as the leaves increase, the FC demand decreases. It will never hurt you to run hot either.

 

[Riddler0520]

Any oaks? When do you expect he leaves begin to fall? Expect your daily FC loss to drop as days get shorter so you may not need to change anything and your FC will rise. Monitor your FC.

Leaves are already starting to fall heavy here in Charlotte. Think it’s more about the mid 90’s heatwave and trees dropping vs Fall at the moment. So I would say now through early Nov on/off I imagine

I monitor FC daily most days and will monitor …. Just wasn’t sure if I should plan in advance

 

[Riddler0520]

Hey Riddler !!! I had crazy oaks at my old house. Like 60-80 on an acre, *after* I took down half of them. And my neighbors who didn't take theirs down, had stuff waft right on over to my yard too.

I never saw any FC loss from leaves or pollen. Whatever it is needs to be good and rotten, like the same leaves that snuck in under my cover and fostered all winter. But as long as whatever fell was fresh, even the dead (brown) leaves, it never mattered.

Keep an eye on your FC until you know yours responds the same. In your favor, as the leaves increase, the FC demand decreases. It will never hurt you to run hot either.

Haven’t talked with ya in awhile.Hope you and the family have had a good summer. We’ve enjoyed the pool especially on these hot days. Had 40 people over Sat, our first real event and things went well

wow, that’s a crazy amount of Oaks. We live on a wooded lot so a combo of many trees 100’ tall (sweet gums, maples etc etc). Lawn guy told me they drop leaves when it gets super hot as a defense mechanism…. Sounds logical but not sure if that’s really true but I do know I scooped out like 4 baskets full of leaves today.

I have a bottom drain so I assume I shouldn’t be to worried about skimmers getting clogged. Plus one skimmer typically is the dominant one (closest to the pump) that draws in probably 4x the amount of debris.

I’ll keep an eye on the FC but am eye balling these two products I listed in an effort to help catch leaves in larger quantity - I’ll take anything that even remotely helps.

Pros and cons with every set up and lot for sure

not related but a pic of where you can normally find me !!!

 

[Newdude]

.Hope you and the family have had a good summer.

We are great thanks !!! Still waiting on the pool to be built but the ocean is about 10 miles away so it's all good.

Lawn guy told me they drop leaves when it gets super hot as a defense mechanism…

Don't we all Riddler ? Don't. We. All.

I’ll keep an eye on the FC but am eye balling these two products I listed in an effort to help catch leaves in larger quantity - I’ll take anything that even remotely helps.

I battled them each year until the pool became tea. Then I furiously scooped one last time, losing ground by the second, and covered it.

We moved to open farm like space. I do not miss it one bit.

 

[Riddler0520]

battled them each year until the pool became tea. Then I furiously scooped one last time, losing ground by the second, and covered it.

We moved to open farm like space. I do not miss it one bit.

Yeah, I bet you enjoy the new open space. I’ll see how this Fall goes. The only positve is if you recall our pool is slightly elevated about 18” out of the ground and hoping that blocks the stuff that blows around low and only catch leaves that fall from directly above.

How many that ends of being, time will tell.

I will say I just go out there pull the skimmer socks out and replace …. Don’t even bother trying to preserve the socks or empty the basket. They help a lot, just fills up quickly

miss my screen enclosure from Fl, but no one has them up here but then again I would just be cleaning mounds of leaves off of the screen so pick your poison

 

[YippeeSkippy]

If you want to throw some cash on the problem I know some folks like the Solar Breeze which floats around the pool picking up leaves.

Maddie

 

[Newdude]

Also, I forget where we left off with your runtimes, but running 24/7 when the debris is heavy gets a lot of it to the skimmers as it doesn’t have 12+ hours to get waterlogged and sink.

Some will sink no matter what, but running the pump at low RPM will do most of the job for very little cost.

 

[Riddler0520]

Also, I forget where we left off with your runtimes, but running 24/7 when the debris is heavy gets a lot of it to the skimmers as it doesn’t have 12+ hours to get waterlogged and sink.

Some will sink no matter what, but running the pump at low RPM will do most of the job for very little cost.

I planned to do that 100% as the skimmers really are effective at pulling the debris into the basket

I’ll keep ya posted !

 

[Newdude]

I’ll keep ya posted !

A well established rule which you follow. THANKS !!

 

[Riddler0520]

Fall is here in NC
@Newdude

few questions:

FC: tested it today and it was 12FC (24 drops). My SWG is set to 30% output and the pump is running 7a-9m
Is an FC that high OK, or should I drop down to 20% and reduce the pump cycle time to like 7a-4p ?

reason I like the pump running is skimming the many many leaves into the baskets, then I swap out the socks. Doing this 2x a day as Fall leaves drop.
All other chemicals in balance

as I prepare for winter months ahead. The Jandy system has a freeze setting that kicks everything on - assume this means both pumps so water features run and won’t freeze ?

when does the SWG cell stop working and I start to add liquid chlorine ? What if temps fluctuate and it’s in that borderline temp range where some days the temps are above the line and some days below …. Do I just add chlorine regardless or is there a way to turn off the SWG period until Spring.

Thanks in advance

 

[Newdude]

Is an FC that high OK, or should I drop down to 20% and reduce the pump cycle time to like 7a-4p

Its totally safe, up to SLAM / 40% of your CYA. If it was hot out, 12 would be my regular 'time to turn it down a bit'. Being October, there is much less daily demand and I'd probably target an 8. So yeah, knock it down a skootch and you'll still have plenty of spare FC if any events happened. You can lower runtime or % or both. Keep tabs on it though after adjusting because you might adjust too far.

reason I like the pump running is skimming the many many leaves into the baskets, then I swap out the socks

So probably leave the pump runtime and decrease the SWG %.

as I prepare for winter months ahead. The Jandy system has a freeze setting that kicks everything on - assume this means both pumps so water features run and won’t freeze

Exactly. If it detects 35 degrees (or whatever you set in settings), it will kick, on and circulate until it warms past the set temp.

when does the SWG cell stop working and I start to add liquid chlorine ?

Most die somewhere around 60 degrees. My Pentair was a bit prissy and didn't like 65, but we all have our things, right ? Lol. The unit will work until it doesnt. Then you need LC, but the daily demand will be slim by then. Shortly thereafter the daily demand becomes none. Daily tests turn to weekly, then to biweekly and monthly. Your pool will tell you. Listen to it like you have been doing.

What if temps fluctuate and it’s in that borderline temp range where some days the temps are above the line and some days below …. Do I just add chlorine regardless or is there a way to turn off the SWG period until Spring.

I'm lazy. I wouldn't want to have to go figure out if my swg had been working lately and then make up the difference. If I was testing and adjusting, say, half of the daily loss, I might as well just be adding the whole loss at that point. So I would just shut it off, and go LC for consistency. It won't be much at that point.

You can totally let it ride though and enjoy any use that it gives you.