Pentair Acid Tank w Stenner Pump GPD?

[dw886]

Does anyone know how many Gallons Per Day the Stenner pump is on the new Pentair Acid Tank? My IntelliChem defaults to 50 GPD, but I'm not sure if that's right or not. There's zero instructions on how to do anything with the tank (hook-up, assembly, etc). I'm still wondering if the "Vent" is supposed to have a hose attached to it, and if so, where I'm supposed to run the hose to...

This is what my tank looks like:

 

[Bama Rambler]

According to the manual, if you set it to 100% it puts out 2.13 oz./hr.
Are you sure that the IntelliChem is defaulting to 50 GPD and not .50 GPD?

Are there any markings on the pump tube or housing itself?

The vent can have a hose attached to it. If you attach a hose, it needs to be routed to a safe location and not have any part above the bottom of the pump.

 

[dw886]

Yes, it's 50 GPD. The IntelliChem is set to do a "5 oz dose" which I'm assuming is dependent on the value you put in for GPD. Since mine is set to 50, and the pump may be doing far less than 5 oz and is likely part of my problem. As an observation, the pump runs for a very short period of time when it's dosing (like seconds or maybe a minute, not hours)....so I'm assuming it's doing the math on how to measure "5 oz" based on my 50 GPD value for the pump.

It's been dosing for about 24 hrs at 2 hour intervals, and PH hasn't moved - it's literally at the exact same spot as yesterday. Pool has been covered for the last 17 hours.

So I'm thinking either it's not actually pumping fluid, or the dosing is too low. I don't have a great way to test if it's pumping fluid, since I don't really want to watch it pump acid into something...and given what you found, it leads me to believe that the dosing is too low...

When lowering PH, what's an acceptable dosing strategy? I diluted my MA 2:1 with water. My PH is at 7.71, and I want to get to 7.6. Pool math says I need 7.5 oz of 31.45% MA. Since I'm diluted 2:1, I need 22.5 oz in total. How fast should I be adding? (what's an appropriate dose size?)

 

[Bama Rambler]

You can dump it all in at once. Just pour it in front of a running return and you're good to go. Wait about 30 minutes to test to see if you hit target.

 

[dw886]

Interestingly enough, the IntelliPH manual seems to be more helpful (https://www.pentairpool.com/~/media/websites/pool/downloads/automation/manuals/intelliph_acid_dispenser_system_installation_and_users_guide_english_spanish_french.pdf) .

The acid canister is actually pictured in this manual (it's not in the IntelliChem manual at all). The pictured canister is the same stenner pump version that I have, and there's a chart in there that shows the 2.13 oz / hour that you mentioned. I'm guessing that I need to make the dose smaller so it can actually keep up, and then change the GPD setting to 0.4. Right now it's probably dispensing hundredths of an ounce / hour because it thinks the pump is 50 GPD, and it looks like it's more like 0.4 GPD. That would explain why PH isn't changing at all...

 

[Bama Rambler]

I think you're right, a good place to start would be setting the pump size (GPD) to something close to the actual size. Then adjust the amount pumped to maintain the correct pH.

- - - Updated - - -

They probably have it default to 50 GPD in case something screws up it doesn't dose much acid into the pool, and possibly cause severe damage to surfaces and equipment.

 

[dw886]

So in looking at this a little more, and doing a little trial and error research and correlating using Pool Math, I think that this pump actually does do about 50 GPD. I actually think it's this pump on my tank:
Stenners Custom Econ OEM Pump

The fact that the stenner pump that I linked says OEM in the title also points to other manufacturers using it. I had my pump off of the tank yesterday, and it looks like that one.

My last test was to set the IntelliChem to 80 GPD, and dose 16 oz (which should have moved my PH from 7.65 to 7.59). It moved it to 7.61, which according to pool math means it actually dispensed about 11.4 oz. The math in that equation would indicate that it's pumping at 57 GPD...

I'm assuming the pumps aren't that accurate though, so it's probably the 50 GPD that the IntelliChem defaulted to and what's listed on that Stenner website. I'm guessing that my dosing just wasn't strong enough to move the needle, or that it wasn't drawing any solution yet...I've dosed twice tonight, and the PH has moved from 7.71 to 7.61, so it's definitely moving now with my changes...