Running a pump

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Kpforest

Member
Jul 10, 2022
16
Middle TN
Hey Guys! I’m fairly new to this forum! Been reading and learning a lot! We finally got our pool looking GORGEOUS by using the SLAM method on this site! Thank you for that! We are starting to have more accurate chlorine and CYA levels again. We have a vinyl in-ground pool 17,000 gallons with a chlorinator and a pump that we currently run 24/7 because I’m scared to mess the pretty water up again! We are looking to reduce our pump run time. We live in Middle TN. It is pretty hot here lately with very minimal rain. We do have 4 large trees around our pool that causes quite a bit of leaves in our pool.

So we are curious how often per day we should run our pump to keep it clean and well chlorinated. We do not have a pump timer so it would be best if we could run it for the amount of hours at one time as opposed to intermittently. Also, what time of the day is best to run the pump?

Thank you for your time!
 
It is all based on how much chlorine and CYA your water has in it. Do you have a puck feeder is that the chlorinator you speak of? Pucks add CYA along with chlorine and are not recommended for long-term/regular use. Vacation/occasional use is ok. You would be better off using liquid chlorine and dosing to maintain the proper CYA to chlorine ratio. With liquid chlorine, you would add your daily dose and don't really need your pump after the chlorine is mixed and your skimmers have time to skim the surface. You might get away with 2 hours a day of pump time.
 
PoolGate said:
It is all based on how much chlorine and CYA your water has in it. Do you have a puck feeder is that the chlorinator you speak of? Pucks add CYA along with chlorine and are not recommended for long-term/regular use. Vacation/occasional use is ok. You would be better off using liquid chlorine and dosing to maintain the proper CYA to chlorine ratio. With liquid chlorine, you would add your daily dose and don't really need your pump after the chlorine is mixed and your skimmers have time to skim the surface. You might get away with 2 hours a day of pump time.
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So the chlorinator that our pool came with is plumbed in near the pump and you put the chlorine tabs in it and set it to 1-10 to keep your pool chlorinated. Yes, I learned this year that they do add significant CYA to the pool which we didn’t realize was a problem! We’re super newbies. This is our second year with a pool so we’re just learning. Is this the chlorinator that you are describing that is not for long term use?
 
Kpforest said:
So the chlorinator that our pool came with is plumbed in near the pump and you put the chlorine tabs in it and set it to 1-10 to keep your pool chlorinated. Yes, I learned this year that they do add significant CYA to the pool which we didn’t realize was a problem! We’re super newbies. This is our second year with a pool so we’re just learning. Is this the chlorinator that you are describing that is not for long term use?
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Correct. Puck feeders are not recommended for regular chlorine additions due to the CYA they also add with each puck. Not to mention, as you pointed out, that your pump needs to run all the time.

Do you have the TF-100 test kit? If so, post your latest pool testing numbers. If you use the PoolMath app you can have the app automatically share your results with the forum (see my username for a link to my tests).
 
PoolGate said:
Correct. Puck feeders are not recommended for regular chlorine additions due to the CYA they also add with each puck. Not to mention, as you pointed out, that your pump needs to run all the time.

Do you have the TF-100 test kit? If so, post your latest pool testing numbers. If you use the PoolMath app you can have the app automatically share your results with the forum (see my username for a link to my tests).
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Yes! We have the Taylor K-2006 test that I’ve been using. The last numbers I have are from yesterday about 230-300pm. They were as follows
FC 7.5
CC 0.5
pH 7.6
CYA 40
TA 100

So there were no recommended actions on the pool math app. I was just curious as to how to proceed now that we’ve finally gotten our numbers down from SLAMMING the pool week before last. I didn’t want them to keep dropping and not know what to do to keep them up. I haven’t added any chemicals in atleast a week except 4lbs of borax to raise the ph per the pool math app. And have had our chlorinator off the whole slamming process and after. We just always thought the chlorinator was what we were supposed to use!
 
Your CYA is low enough you aren't at a critical phase at the moment. How many pucks do you go through in a week/month? I'd still suggest switching to liquid chlorine. Have you considered switching to saltwater?
 
PoolGate said:
Your CYA is low enough you aren't at a critical phase at the moment. How many pucks do you go through in a week/month? I'd still suggest switching to liquid chlorine. Have you considered switching to saltwater?
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I truly have no idea! We barely have any experience since last year (our first year) we spent shelling out all kinds of money fixing things I think our pump actually functioned for maybe a week consecutively last year so I have no idea how much to expect it to use. This is a trial and error year I’m afraid. And we would love to switch to saltwater but we can’t afford the switch at the moment. If we use liquid chlorine instead, what do you use when the CYA drops? Just add in stabilizer when needed per the pool math app?
 
Kpforest said:
I truly have no idea! We barely have any experience since last year (our first year) we spent shelling out all kinds of money fixing things I think our pump actually functioned for maybe a week consecutively last year so I have no idea how much to expect it to use. This is a trial and error year I’m afraid. And we would love to switch to saltwater but we can’t afford the switch at the moment. If we use liquid chlorine instead, what do you use when the CYA drops? Just add in stabilizer when needed per the pool math app?
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Correct. I suggest buying a 10-25lb container of granular CYA which should last you a couple seasons. CYA will degrade but it typically is a once per season when the season opens addition.
 
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