SWG and Heater Issues?

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Aubade

Aubade

0
Jul 27, 2017
40
New Jersey
My pool is acting crazy this year. We opened it and set the heater at 84 and put the solar cover on, but within 2 cloudy/cool days it was up to 87! It was a bit green when we opened so I added liquid chlorine up to shock level, but couldn't SLAM since my old test kits expired and I was waiting for the new ones. The SWG low salt light was on so I ordered that kit too.

Once they came in, I did some testing for CYA which was low, so I got that up to around 60. I tested the salt and added less than what the TFP app called for, then tested again which brought it up to a good amount (I don't have exact # b/c i couldn't seem to save the reading in the pool math app).

After adding the CYA and salt, the chlorine seemed to be holding well. I had my SWG set pretty high since it is pollen season, and it tested at an expected 7ppm FC. I thought things were going good so I didn't add anything else.

Then the next week it was sunny but the pool didn't get above 80, even though I had it set to 84.

Then this week it randomly went super high from 85 in the morning to 92 in the evening, even though I had the heater set to 82. In past seasons the pool would get over 90 if we had a heat wave, but it definitely wasn't this erratic.

Tonight I had a chance to test the FC again and it was 15!! I tested twice and it still was very high. I haven't changed anything with the setting on my SWG or added any chemicals so as far as I thought it should still be 7.

Sorry this is probably too unspecific and random but I can't figure out what could possibly be wrong! It sounds like the heater isn't on during the day, so I have no idea how it could be getting so hot. But when you feel the water it definitely is that hot so it isn't an inaccurate thermometer. And I can't figure out at all how the FC could have gotten so high.

Does anyone have a clue what could be going on? Is there something I should be looking for like a broken timer or???
 
Last edited:
You mentioned a solar cover. When is it on the water and when is the water allowed to breathe?
 
Well we definitely try to keep it on at night to keep the heat in. I probably should have mentioned I'm in New Jersey, so it's still spring here with temps in the 60's-70's, only occasionally climbing up into the 80's (thanks global warming!). We opened it on Apr 30th. But any time it isn't raining we take the cover off during the day, to run the vacuum and swim. I actually love swimming in cooler temps because it makes the water feel so warm! It has been raining a lot though, and we've already had to drain a couple inches 2-3 times.

The pool is in full sun, and is relatively small so we've definitely seen temperature increases in past seasons on a sunny day with the solar cover on from 5-7 degrees. But this year just doesn't seem to follow the usual pattern. The pool has gotten so hot on cloudy days and for example, last 2 days I had the heater set to 82. Somehow it got up to 92 yesterday, even though it only went up to 75 outside temp. We swam in it (though now I wonder what the chlorine was!) and didn't put the solar cover on until ~9:30pm. It went down to 51 at night, but at 9am this morning the water was still 85 degrees (but the heater wasn't on).

Also with the high chlorine, it doesn't smell bad at all. I was so surprised when I did the test tonight. It's a brand new K-2006 test kit. It was already getting dark when I tested, so I had to bring it inside but it's pretty obvious when it turns from pink to clear and I did it twice, so I don't think the high readings could be wrong...
 
Pools don’t smell due to high chlorine levels. It is the CC residual from chlorine killing organics that smells if the CCs accumulate in the water. If no CCs then a high chlorine pool does not smell.
 
What model Aqua Comfort Heat Pump do you have?

What times is your pump running?

It went down to 51 at night, but at 9am this morning the water was still 85 degrees (but the heater wasn't on).
Click to expand...

How do you know your heater was not on?
 
The heat pump model is ACT1100. We've been running then regular pump running from 8AM to 6PM, the heater will only run when the pump has flow. My husband is home all day and he can hear it when it is on, so he's been listening for it.

We left the cover off last night and this morning it was down to 81 degrees. It's set for 82 but it isn't going on. Maybe it is just some weird effect of the cover and air temperature fluctuations we've been having? I paid the app subscription so I can record the water temp and keep better track.

I did a full test this morning:
12.5 FC
7.2 PH
50 TA
50 CH
80 CYA
1800 Salt

I guess I should do something about the low CH. I'm so bummed the chlorine is still too high! Me and the kids really wanted to swim today. It's sunny out so hopefully it will burn off.
 
It’s a good problem to have. It means your pool is really clean...nothing for the chlorine to kill. Much better than your pool not holding chlorine levels and your SWG too small to keep up.
 
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Use PoolMath to determine what setting and run time combination will generate the chlorine your pool needs. If you do not have any past information on what your FC consumption is, start at 3 ppm per day.
 
OK so I noticed our SWG was on and asked my husband why. All this time I thought it had some kind of sensor and would only go on if it needed to get it to the level we set, but my husband just explained that it will continually output the level it is set at regardless of the chlorine level in the pool. Duh! Silly me. It's always been pretty much 'set it and forget it' in prior seasons so it just never occurred to me I guess.

Sure enough, I tested again and it's up to 15.5 FC. So we did the manual override and turned it off.

The low salt light is on again, and our manual says the salt should be up to 4000, and never less than 3000 but it's currently 1800 so maybe that has something o do with it..
 
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