Starting up Jandy Aquapure SWG first time advice needed- new pool

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Cyclist7531

Bronze Supporter
Jun 27, 2019
142
Central Valley California
Hi, Looking for some advice on starting up my SWG for the first time. This is a new pool completed on Dec. 19. Water temps are now consistently above 65 degrees and when the sun is out and the solar running will get up above 70. To date, I've been using 10% liquid chlorine but would like to get the SWG going. PB hasn't been much help so thought I'd just do it myself. The system is a Jandy Aquapure PLC1400 with Aqualink. It looks like the PB set up the program at the panel but the % is set to zero. I've included a picture of the display. The display also shows 144. I've measured my salt level with the Taylor 1766 test kit and it shows the salinity at 1400ppm. Today my water shows the following:
FC - 5.5
PH - 7.5
TA - 80
CH 500 (I'm working on slowing bringing this down to 400. The PB did an acid bath and it sent my CH up to 650)
CYA - 30
Water temp this morning is 65

Right now pool runs for 6 hours a day at between 1750 rpm (if the solar isn't running) or 2450 rpm if it is.

Pool is 9500 gallons. According to pool math to go from the current salinity of 1400 to 3000ppm I need to add 127 lbs of pool salt
I also need to add 1 gallon of CYA. I have a gallon of Natural Chemistry liquid conditioner.

So, looking for advice on how to proceed.

From what I can tell I should:
Have FC of at least 5
Add the salt in the shallow end and brush, brush, brush to mix it up.
Turn on the pump and run it for 24 hours
After turning pump on slowly add the gallon of CYA to the skimmer or in front of a return - not sure which is best. PB added the first gallon to the skimmer. Check CYA level to ensure it's at least 70.
Leave the percentage at zero
After 24 hours verify salt level, FC and CYA. If salt and CYA is ok and FC is at least 5 then raise the chlorine production level to say maybe 50%
Measure chlorine level daily to see if the FC is staying at 5. If not, adjust up or down as needed.

Anything I'm missing or should do differently?

Also, what about my Jandy PDA handheld device? Is there anything I need to do with that?

Thanks for the help.
Mark
 

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Sounds like a plan.
Only thing I would suggest is if you are replacing water to lower your CH, then I would not add the CYA until you get that done. You can probably wait until mid April before the elevated CYA is really needed to protect the FC.

What is the CH of your fill water?
 
Thanks. I'll hold off on the CYA until I can get the CH down. I'm hoping to get it down within the next week or so. What I've been doing is using soft water to top off the pool along with any rain we've gotten and that has brought it down from the 650 level to where it is now. When I test my soft water the color never turns red. My auto fill runs off my non-soft water and it is at 75. I may go ahead a drain a couple inches off and refill with the soft water and check my CH then. Maybe wait until I get it down closer to 400 before I fire up the SWG.

When I do add the liquid CYA should I add it slowly to the skimmer as the PB did?

Thanks
 
To drop from 600 to 400 CH using soft water you will need to replace 1/3 of your pool volume. Dropping the level a couple inches will not make much difference.

I would say you just live with the higher CH if you plan to continue to use soft water for fill water. Over time, due to splashout, etc, the CH will drop.

With liquid CYA you can add slowly to the skimmer if you like. Powder CYA is far cheaper for future knowledge.
 
Consider a different brand if you're going to DIY. Jandy eliminates warranty for DIY or internet sales. SWG cells cost too much and fail too often to accept no warranty. You can use any 3rd party SWG and get full warranty, often better than OEM. Installation yourself is almost trivial for any person that's handy and can hook up 240 v power. Even if you need help with the 240 v power an electrician can do it for you and you'll still save big $.

You do lose some remote control when you switch brands. You will have to control %power at the wall unit. But you get full control of runtime. I have only changed my % power once in the past year. This is well worth giving up to get a 7 year warranty!

I hope this is helpful.

Chris
 
Cyclist7531 said:
From what I can tell I should:
Have FC of at least 5
Add the salt in the shallow end and brush, brush, brush to mix it up.
Turn on the pump and run it for 24 hours
After turning pump on slowly add the gallon of CYA to the skimmer or in front of a return - not sure which is best. PB added the first gallon to the skimmer. Check CYA level to ensure it's at least 70.
Leave the percentage at zero
After 24 hours verify salt level, FC and CYA. If salt and CYA is ok and FC is at least 5 then raise the chlorine production level to say maybe 50%
Measure chlorine level daily to see if the FC is staying at 5. If not, adjust up or down as needed.

Anything I'm missing or should do differently?

Also, what about my Jandy PDA handheld device? Is there anything I need to do with that?
Click to expand...
Here's my comments on your plan:
  • You can use cheaper granular CYA. Use the sock method. Add the CYA to an old sock or panty hose leg. Squeeze it once per day.
  • You'll need to adjust CYA upward but it's not critical especially now since hot sun days are limited. Focus on getting the SWG running. CYA is easy to increase - not so easy to decrease.
  • Use Pool Math to predict SWG % power and runtime. I've found it to predict your settings very accurately. Make small changes to tweak.
  • Enjoy your salt pool!
I hope this is helpful.

Chris
 
Thanks Chris. The pool builder installed the SWG but getting him out to get the SWG running has been hard especially now with the virus thing going on. He had left the gallon of liquid cya as well as 3 bags of salt so I think I’m good. At some point If I need to add more cya I will use the granular type. I’ll have to look at pool math to see how to use it for SWG runtime since I can’t recall that function in pool math.
edit. Just found it in pool math when I switched from chlorine to SWG sanitation
 
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