SWG and Chlorine in the winter

[tagteamcomputing]

I have been reading the threads about what to do with my salt water cell in the winter but have a few questions specific to my setup.
1. I don't close my pool and keep it open all winter
2. I do have some liquid bleach to use

Questions:
1. My CYA is usually low coming out of winter. Should I do some Pucks and some liquid bleach in the winter to keep some of the CYA up
2. I don't shut my pool and I have an insulated shed around it with a heater in it so it will never freeze. Can I just turn off the SWG and leave everything as is?
3. Using a rough formula of 2 pucks = 1 bottle bleach is it cheaper in winter to use pucks (1 bottle of 10% bleach is about $8.50 for me) so in the basic math it seems pucks are a bit cheaper.

 

[Newdude]

1. My CYA is usually low coming out of winter. Should I do some Pucks and some liquid bleach in the winter to keep some of the CYA up

Half a dozen or six and up to you. With low UV loss these days, you don't need the higher CYA now, but the more you maintain it now, the less you'll have to add later, minus any rain dilution.

2. I don't shut my pool and I have an insulated shed around it with a heater in it so it will never freeze. Can I just turn off the SWG and leave everything as is?

Yup. The only (small) concern is a power surge taking it out, so unplug it but leave it in place.

Or you can leave it running and if it kicks back on for a week or more with a warm spell, that's less FC you have to add. But personally I would rather just use LC so I could get into a groove instead of doing it one way for a couple days/weeks, then the other, then the first again. I'd anticipate the SWG not producing and bring chlorine out there with me, then Murphys and the cell produced and I'd have to go put the jugs back.

Using a rough formula of 2 pucks = 1 bottle bleach is it cheaper in winter to use pucks

Lately no, but prices fluctuate on both so it can change. Pucks take a while to dissolve when it's cool, but you also don't have much loss these days so that may still work for you. Kinda like the SWG though, it'd irk me trying to figure out if I had to step in with LC.

 

[Mdragger88]

$8.50/gal is crazy ought to be a crime!
Here I can get plain unadulterated chloralen 8% bleach at Walmart for $5/gal. The 10% i get at the pool store is $4.50/gal
Keep in mind that pucks are acidic so take that into consideration if you keep your ta on the low side. This may be a help or a hindrance. I use them very conservatively in the heat of summer sometimes to supplement my cya & my undersized swg & have been caught off guard by my otherwise extremely stable ph & ta dropping.
That said,
With the greatly reduced fc consumption in winter many folks are ok with using pucks in a floater so long as you’re still monitoring everything.