Is there anything you should do if you will be on vacation for a week? Live in FL so lots of rain and sun. Should you over chlorinate right before leaving, for example?
Prep for vacation
- Thread starter Joementum87
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,414
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
You should be fine if your SWG is set properly. You might want to up the SWG % a notch.
Post a set of your tests.
Post a set of your tests.
There is the rub. It is a new ppol, so they have not delivered salt yet. Better kit coming this week. Added CYa to get to about 30 the other day. Ph 7.5 and FC was 1.5 last night. Grabbing some bleach today.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,414
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
When was the water put in the pool?
Do NOT use Clorox bleach. Best to get 10% liquid chlorine like
Do NOT use Clorox bleach. Best to get 10% liquid chlorine like
Water was put in about 2.5 weeks ago. End of June.
I was under the impression that 6% was ok without addatives etc. What you linked makes more sense, but just curious.
I am leaving tomorrow for a week as well. My plan was to raise the FC to SLAM levels and add a few chlorine pucks?
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,581
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
6% is fine, but the 10% often ends up being better cost per actual chlorine you get out of it. Also it means less lugging water around. 
Hootz
Bronze Supporter
- Feb 5, 2018
- 374
- Pool Size
- 24000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Your target cya with swg is 70...consider getting closer to 70 before you leave. The sun will eat up chlorine quickly otherwise. The night before or morning you leave increase your chlorine to SLAM level based on cya at that time. Pucks dissolve slowly so plan accordingly but also be aware pucks will increase your cya.
with a proper cya (50 or so) you are going to lose 4ppm fc per day... times 7 days=28ppm of additional chlorine available . higher cya’s allow higher slam fc levels and finish it off with pucks
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,581
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Note, however, that higher level of FC also means higher level of daily burnoff.
yes it does. i used a cover when i left for two weeks.
Danforth
Gold Supporter
I also live near Orlando and I take a lot of 3 day trips for work. I’ve had great results by dosing the pool with liquid chlorine to account for my typical daily FC loss for the time I’ll be gone plus 1 day (to account for significant rain events, organics getting in the pool, etc.)
For example, my daily FC loss is 3 ppm. It’s very consistent. For a 3 day trip I’ll add 12 ppm worth of chlorine. I generally come back to find that I lost 9 ppm while away, but love the insurance of having extra FC in there.
That said, I am currently running a high CYA pool (CYA = 100 and relying on rain to lower it over time), which may cause me to have different results than someone with lower CYA. But at 100, my system works great and very predictably.
For example, my daily FC loss is 3 ppm. It’s very consistent. For a 3 day trip I’ll add 12 ppm worth of chlorine. I generally come back to find that I lost 9 ppm while away, but love the insurance of having extra FC in there.
That said, I am currently running a high CYA pool (CYA = 100 and relying on rain to lower it over time), which may cause me to have different results than someone with lower CYA. But at 100, my system works great and very predictably.
Thanks for all the info. Since my pool is new, and the salt had not been delivered yet, I was instructed to keep the CTA closer to 30 until the salt delivery. Assuming 3 ppm of lose I will need to get to 21ppm or so. Tonight the tf100 finally arrives, so I should be able to get accurate numbers. Thanks again!
I have a concern on leaving my pool for 7 days. The evaporation of water in my pool here in Texas is significant at this time of year. (summer). The concern is the water level getting so low that the skimmers may start sucking air and force the pump to shut down. Would it be okay to turn off the skimmers valves and only use the main drains only during this vacation time?
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,581
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Should be fine and will keep the water moving a bit, and allow any inline chlorinators or SWG to keep functioning. You'll get some crud on the surface that you'll have to clean off when you get back.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,414
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Yes. As long as you are sure your main drain works. Many don’t.
Test that configuration before you leave.
Joe,
Floaters with trichlor should be your best option since you need to raise your CYA anyway. I didn't have any trichor before going on a 9-day vacation a couple weeks ago and tried out the "liquid chlorine floaters" idea (pic attached). I put in 4 gallon jugs of 10% bleach with a single tiny hole drilled in the bottom of the jug so the bleach would slowly leak out. Because the bleach is more dense than water, I had to pour out 10% to get them to float. It ended up working just fine and my FC level was a little low since there was still some bleach in the jugs but still worked. A SWG or Stenner pump would be the proper direction for vacation maintenance but the floating jugs worked in a pinch.
Sid,
You could also leave a hose trickling into the pool to make up for evaporation. If you happen to get a very heavy rain while you are gone and the water level gets to the top of your skimmer, it would be the same (or less) debris as if you turned off the skimmers. I would still put 75% of your suction on the drains anyway in case you get a lot of stuff in the skimmer to clog it and the pump just runs from the drains as if the skimmer was shut off.
Attachments
leave cover on or off? My CYA is around 35 right now (no SWG so Im happy with that). I lose about 2-3ppm a day as well. Should I just whip it up to 20ppm for the 5 days im gone and cross my fingers?
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,414
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
If you have a cover leave it on. You should lose very little FC with the cover closed.
