My Pool Cooler Build - Share your results

[ctfortner]

Well I finally built one since the temps havent gotten below 100 lately, and dont appear to be anytime soon. My pool temp was 94 when we swam Saturday, just plain sucked.

I had pvc laying around so I made 2. 1 out of 1.5" pvc and one out of 3/4". I wanted to see if the smaller one would spray higher, but it didnt. I am wondering if less holes would shoot higher, I am considering taking one of them and cutting some of it off and let it have 10 or less holes per side and see if it would go higher, any thoughts there?

I will post results here as I get them. I want everyone to tell me what works for them, running it at night, during the day, all the time, or what. My humidity here in W. TN is lowest between 11Am-6PM. I assumed I should run it at night during cooler temps, but maybe its best to run it during the lower humidity times, I dont know. I wanna cool this baby down before the 4th much as I can.

So Far:

Day 1 (Sunday) - Pool 93 degrees at 6PM. Ran cooler 6PM-6AM
Day 2 (Monday Morning) - Pool 88 degrees at 6AM
Day 2 (Monday Afternoon) - Cooler off all day, pool 93 degrees at 6PM.
Day 3 (Tuesday Morning) - Pool 88 degrees at 6AM. Cooler running all night.
Day 3 (Tuesday Afternoon) - Pool 91 degerees. Cooler running 24/7 since Monday night. I added a 2nd cooler on shallow end just now.

I put about 25 holes in each side. I hooked it up, plugged one other return and this is what it does. I have 4 returns, and 2 returns/jets in the step. With cooler installed, 1 return plugged, and then using my hand to close another return, the result is not much different. However it gained a couple of feet when I placed my had over one of the step jets. Strange. Anyway I would love to hear whats working best, time of day, low vs. high humidity, etc.

I guess if all else fails I can buy a polaris adapter and use the booster to shoot the water over the house and see if that helps

[attachment=1:3mjw3rvh]mine.jpg[/attachment:3mjw3rvh]

[attachment=0:3mjw3rvh]mine2.jpg[/attachment:3mjw3rvh]

 

[harleysilo]

I hit up Home depot over lunch for some more parts to continue to play around with/design mine. What diameter did you drill the holes out to? I picked up some 1/16th inch bits (smallest i could find), the one like yours i made the holes were 1/8" which i think are way too big, were talking streams of water and when it falls into the pool it sounds like a waterfall, can't barley talk over it. I'm liking my new design with the spray heads, you can just barley hear it sounds like rain but i'm concerned about the trade off of water volume, how cold the water gets etc. so i'm not sure which way is the best.

I have measured the temp difference by catching a couple inches of the "rain" in a bucket and checking the temp, i saw an 8 degrees change in temp, have you tried that? When i tried the 1/8 holes in length of PVC the temp drop was 3-4 degrees, but again there is the total water volume issue....

I'll be following your thread to see what you figure out...the biggest problem is my wife wants the pool 89 in the day and 92 for late night swimming....i told her she can't have it both ways....we'll see...

 

[ctfortner]

I havent tried any other tests yet other than what my pool temp gauge on the aquarite says. I also drilled 1/16" holes in mine. I think its the perfect size, its not to noisy and the its pretty "misty" with that size. Man she wants it 92 at night? I wouldnt be upset if mine didnt hit 90 night or day, although I dont mind it a little warmer at night. If I could get it around 85 during the day I would be tickled. Only time will tell.

 

[harleysilo]

I havent tried any other tests yet other than what my pool temp gauge on the aquarite says. I also drilled 1/16" holes in mine. I think its the perfect size, its not to noisy and the its pretty "misty" with that size. Man she wants it 92 at night? I wouldnt be upset if mine didnt hit 90 night or day, although I dont mind it a little warmer at night. If I could get it around 85 during the day I would be tickled. Only time will tell.

Well, the answer to your (our) questions lies in the post quoted below, just need to exchange the ice for water in the calcs......

I wonder how much ice (wet) it would take to make a significant temp change in say a 15000 gal ag pool.

Well you significant heat absorber there would be the transformation energy it takes to actually change the ice from a solid to a liquid.

So, an example...

for a 15000 gal pool, thats 15000gal X 3.7854118 kg/gal = 56781 kg (approx) or 56781000g (approx)

Lets say the starting temperature of the pool is 92deg F
Target temperature is 85 deg f
We will ignore the heat loss/gain through the sides and bottom of the pool for this example, as well as to-from the air.

Change in temperature desired is 7 deg F
Thats 33.33 deg C to 29.44 deg C a change of 3.89 deg C

lets also assume that the ice is at -10 deg C starting.

The target temperature for the ice is also 85 deg F (29.44 deg C)

The specific heat of water is 4.186 joule/gram °C

The heat of transformation for water ice is 333 kJ/kg or 333 J/G

The specific heat of water type ice is 2.1 j/g °C at 1 atmosphere (we are going to assume sea level here as well)

so we are going to wind up with some unknown mass amount at 29.44 °C . that mass will be Z

We need an energy budget, so taking water through a 3.89 °C change will require 56781000g (mass of pool water) X 4.186 J/g deg C X 3.89 = 924595685 joules to be absorbed by the ice on it way to 85 deg F

so we have 3 components to getting the ice to 85 deg F. Heating the ice to 0 deg C, melting the ice, then taking the now cold water to 85 deg F.

heating the ice 2.1 j/g deg C X 10 deg C X Z g = 21Z
melting the ice 333 j/g X Zg = 333Z
heating the cold water 4.186 j/g deg C X 29.44 X Zg = 1232.3584Z

Add all those up =1536.3584Z which has to equal 924595685, so solving for Z is 601810g (rounding)

so thats 601 Kg of ice.

or 1326.7617354 lb of ice.

if you buy it in 20 lb bags, thats 66 bags of ice. :blah:

 

[woodyp]

found-a-use-for-recirculate-on-the-multi-t48380.html
This seems to work for me!

 

[cepler]

Trying to get our water down below the 90's here in PA, ugh, hope this works. I am trying a vertical tower design right now but I could cut it down and put the T in and do horizontal if I want I guess, less cutting this way Had trouble finding the 1.5" down to something reasonable reducers so I ended up using 1" pipe (1.5->2" of pipe->1.25->Union->1" elbow->riser->cap, all pressure fit) Sticks out a little bit from the edge but not really that bad since it needs to clear the tile on the edges...

 

[msgtdan]

Once I finally get our pool up and hard plumbed I'm planning on using an old shower head we have laying around for aerating and water feature duty. It's one of the adjustable type with pulse and different sprays. It had started leaking and the DW bought a new one. After I replaced it I found what was wrong with it and it should work as good as new. If not we still have the original shower head that was never installed when we built the house, it just doesn't have all the fancy features. I've seen several threads about drilling pvc to create water features, but decided not to reinvent the wheel.

 

[ctfortner]

Water temp 93 when got home at 6PM today, that is with cooler not running all day. I am going to let my pump/cooler run 24/7 for the next couple days to see what happens. Oh, I have recirculate also, tried that, didnt go any further on mine.

 

[duraleigh]

[attachment=1:1ticef7h]DSC00167.JPG[/attachment:1ticef7h]eyeball fitting removed from pool and a short piece of 1.5" PVC stubbed in it's place. It was unwieldy to thread the thing on so I simply drive the PVC stub into the "T" with a rubber mallet...it holds fine until the kids start twisting it. 1/4" holes drilled in top of each extension.[attachment=0:1ticef7h]poolcooler.jpg[/attachment:1ticef7h]

 

[ctfortner]

Well so far mine isnt doing squat. I am running it all day today to see if it helps. Luckily I didnt glue the end pieces on so I can try different things. I have plenty of 1.5" pipe left at home, so I am going to pick up a couple more end caps and try less holes to see if it gets more height.

 

[ouachita]

I built one a couple of years ago and it works well if I run it an night.

 

[ctfortner]

Pool temp 91 now, 2 degree progress WOOHOO. I can feel the difference to, not outstanding, but a little cooler. I have now added the other cooler in another return, so I have 2 going, 1 on each end. Doing all I can to get this temp down by party 30 tomorrow.

 

[cepler]

In just a day of use we noticed a HUGE difference in the pool temperature. I don't trust the temp readouts and I was adding a bit of well water but it was actually refreshing to swim today! Glad I took the time to throw it together!

 

[ctfortner]

Well i now agree you cant always trust the temp. I got up this morning and it said 87, unimpressive. It now says 90, which is better than the 93 usually. I jumped in to clean pool and wow, the initial landing was chilly. The hot bath water 3 days ago is now awesome and very refreshing. I am thrilled and my guests today will be to.

 

[DaneCE]

dane-s-how-to-for-a-quick-easy-pool-cooler-t36086.html

 

[Guest]

Here is what my husband came up with, a kick board, the hose and the spray nozzle, floating fountain[attachment=0:t0cgiq6d]pool cooler (2) (800x599).jpg[/attachment:t0cgiq6d]

 

[harleysilo]

Here is what my husband came up with, a kick board, the hose and the spray nozzle, floating fountain[attachment=0:3q4f35j2]pool cooler (2) (800x599).jpg[/attachment:3q4f35j2]

How are ya'll anchoring the fountain in place?

 

[Guest]

Ours is not anchored, just free floating, that way we can move wherever we want and it helps fill the pool from the heat evaporation...

 

[Speedo]

I'll be checking mine tonight, I started it around 10pm last night and it's still running now. At 2am it was down to 87 from 92 at 6pm. (which could be because of the lack of sun)

I will check it tonight when I get home and see if it's below 92. The true test. I also took a picture at lunch, I will post that as well!

 

[DaneCE]

I ran my cooler overnight starting at 7:30 PM, for 12 hours. Starting air temp was 94, end air temp at 80, humidity around 85%. Starting water temp was 91, end water temp 82.