New and Struggling

[Bperry]

To my surprise I had no CYA in my pool and that is said to never leave your pool unless you drain it to get rid of it, well I want to tell you differently!

Incidentally, TFP doesn’t say it never leaves the water, just that is leaves really slowly. Somewhere on the order of 5-10ppm per month depending on weather.

 

[woodyp]

TFP says it doesn't evaporate. It leaves through degradation of about 5 ppm monthly, water replacement, and an unknown bacteria thar can consume it over the winter.

 

[SpockF4]

Drd,

Have you ever thought about using a Saltwater Chlorine Generator instead of liquid chlorine?

For me anyway, it makes those things that happen to everyone in life, a lot less problematic.

Thanks,

Jim R.

I’m new to all of this pool maintenance and I’ve been reading up on salt water generators. I am all about working smarter and not harder, and it seems SWG might make things easier. Still doing research though. Of course I have to leave town for tens days so I can’t go hard at the SLAM until I return!! So many things to consider but I really find this site to be most informative and appreciate all the expert knowledge that lives here. Quick question: since I will be gone for so long, other than leaving the filtration system operating as normal, is there anything I can do to prevent coming back to a mess? My CYA is so high I have stopped using the pucks…should I turn that back on while I’m gone to at least get some chlorine in the pool? Again thanks for sharing the wisdom.

 

[Oly]

Find someone to add your liquid chlorine to the pool while you are gone. This could be an adult neighbor, a neighbors responsible teen or hire a pool maintenance person for the 10 days. Have the needed liquid chlorine on site with detailed instructions. Is your pool screened and enclosed? Is it covered? You may need them to clean the skimmer basket and add water if low.

 

[Jimrahbe]

I am all about working smarter and not harder, and it seems SWG might make things easier.

F4,

Having a SWCG makes it possible to go away for weeks and come back to a perfect pool.

Other than the initial cost, there is just about no downside to going with saltwater. After you realize how a SWCG pool works, it makes pool maintenance just about as easy as you can get. And if you realize that the initial cost is really just the cost of buying all the chlorine your pool will need for 5 to 7 years in advance. It costs the about same, with 1/4 of the work.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Drd]

F4,

Having a SWCG makes it possible to go away for weeks and come back to a perfect pool.

Other than the initial cost, there is just about no downside to going with saltwater. After you realize how a SWCG pool works, it makes pool maintenance just about as easy as you can get. And if you realize that the initial cost is really just the cost of buying all the chlorine your pool will need for 5 to 7 years in advance. It costs the about same, with 1/4 of the work.

Thanks,

Jim R.

That I'm afraid that is more of a luxury because of the upfront cost and it has it's own list of cons too. You could be right about long term depending on how often you have to replace the cell and how much salt you go through. One negative for me is dealing with a 40lb bag of salt, where as I can handle 128 oz jug.

"Installing a chlorine system for the pool only costs about $100 to $400 (mine is a HASA feeder 200.00 investment with parts either lifetime replacement or cheap), but installing an electrolytic chlorine generator can cost up to $2,500. The generator cell, which ranges from about $200 to $700, will also need to be replaced every few years in a saltwater pool."

Of course some of you pool professionals I know get some freebees. I'm told the cells don't last as long in our Arizona high temperatures too. My neighbor had a really nice pool with spa, then he put in pebble tech and salt system and I looked over the fence to find it empty and falling apart, wow! That scared me! One of the issues is you really have to keep a close eye on the PH level on salt systems. Salt is not environmentally friendly either if it gets in the soil, Calif has banned home salt water systems.

 

[Drd]

Find someone to add your liquid chlorine to the pool while you are gone. This could be an adult neighbor, a neighbors responsible teen or hire a pool maintenance person for the 10 days. Have the needed liquid chlorine on site with detailed instructions. Is your pool screened and enclosed? Is it covered? You may need them to clean the skimmer basket and add water if low.

I used to have a pool service, one I discovered they weren't balancing my chemicals or even putting them in so I let them go. Another company told me their pool guys don't work with liquid chlorine only dichlor, so I do it myself now. If you check out my stats above, my chemicals are right on the money so do take care of my pool, but like I said just yesterday the winds kicked up pretty good and my pool was full of leaves today. The point was a simple additive gives me the added peace of mind and protection against getting algae. If I going to be gone more than a few days, I'll consider hiring a service because my feeder holds 6 gals of chlorine, so they don't have to handle that and I have exterior cameras to monitor them!

 

[SJPoe]

Calif has banned home salt water systems.

Some local communities have banned connections from salt water based pools to the local sewer systems in an effort to control salinity of protected waterways. Not exactly a statewide ban on saltwater pools

 

[Bperry]

That I'm afraid that is more of a luxury because of the upfront cost and it has it's own list of cons too. You could be right about long term depending on how often you have to replace the cell and how much salt you go through. One negative for me is dealing with a 40lb bag of salt, where as I can handle 128 oz jug.

"Installing a chlorine system for the pool only costs about $100 to $400 (mine is a HASA feeder 200.00 investment with parts either lifetime replacement or cheap), but installing an electrolytic chlorine generator can cost up to $2,500. The generator cell, which ranges from about $200 to $700, will also need to be replaced every few years in a saltwater pool."

Of course some of you pool professionals I know get some freebees. I'm told the cells don't last as long in our Arizona high temperatures too. My neighbor had a really nice pool with spa, then he put in pebble tech and salt system and I looked over the fence to find it empty and falling apart, wow! That scared me! One of the issues is you really have to keep a close eye on the PH level on salt systems. Salt is not environmentally friendly either if it gets in the soil, Calif has banned home salt water systems.

For reference, The salt isn’t consumed by the process, it breaks up and reforms once the chlorine sanitizes, so there’s only the initial cost of salt in the water and topping it off once in a while maybe adding another bag when the winter is done. It’s not like jug lugging

The cost of the salt chlorinator wasn’t anywhere near $2500 and I installed it myself. Going on three years of use and expect to get 7 years out of it. Maybe they’ve gone up but not that much.

The pH is no different than it was before I added the SWCG.

The salt water system ban in CA is for water softener systems, not pool chlorinators. The pool chlorinators don’t discharge anything into the waste stream so aren’t affected.