SWG Automation?

[Andylit]

Hello to all,

We moved into a pool with a house attached. After 5 years of the same old thing I've decided to take the plunge into the world of SWG. Call it chemical fatigue. I had to replace and replumb the pump 2 years ago. Just replaced the propane heater with a high capacity heat pump. Wow. Awesome.

Now it's time for the SWG. Research tells me I need to go big. 60K or so. Self cleaning. But I have questions about automation.

The pool is surrounded by mature oaks and various flowering trees with dense forest on one edge. All manner of flora and tiny fauna choose to fall in on a daily basis. So, I leave the pump running 24/7. The Heat pump calls for high speed so I'm running 3100 RPM. 2" main pipes coming and going.

Is there such a thing as an electronic chlorine sensor I can hook into the SWG control panel?

Is there a specific control panel that can convert such input to turn the SWG on and off?

I am hoping to reduce the number of tests and adjustments.

And, how do you folks feel about chemical injectors, specifically to reduce PH?

Many thanks in advance and hoping for more information than I can possibly use.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Andy,

Very nice looking set up...

In general we do not believe in fully automated systems.. Like an autopilot, they are great right up to the point of impact!!!

A SWCG pool is the easiest to care for in my mind, but it still takes a human to routinely test and make sure the chemicals are in balance..

Some pools have a hard time with pH, and others have no problems at all.. I would suggest you don't initially install an acid feeder and see how your pool reacts to a SWCG first.

I find that adding a 20 to 30 oz of Acid per week not much of a choir. or maybe chore...

Saltwater Chlorine systems don't measure the chlorine and then only dose when needed, they run at a fixed rate that you can adjust.. I adjust mine about once a month, so again, it is not a lot of effort.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[mguzzy]

Andy
Welcome to the forum! Every pool should have a gargoyle!
I agree with Jim. There are a group of members that add lots of automated dispensing. But honestly there is really not much to it. A little acid once a week, a tweak of the knob every now and then to set the chlorine output. And its an easy excuse to keep up on what's going on with the pool. I see you have a VSP so you probably run it low and slow, You can put the SWG on its own timer so it runs the amount of time needed to generate its allotted amount of Cl.
As to your wonderful trees, my pool is surrounded by redwoods and oaks.. I put a nylon sock over he basket to catch the tree snot. It helps alot.

I find that adding a 20 to 30 oz of Acid per week not much of a choir. or maybe chore...

I find it nothing to sing about either.

 

[mgtfp]

Hi Andy,

There are "fully automatic" SWG systems around, with pH-sensor and acid-feeder, and ORP-sensor (not chlorine!) to regulate the SWG output. People seem to be reasonably happy with the pH-part of it.

I know of a few Aussies here on the forum that run Astralpool SWGs with acid feeder, but they don't seem to recommend the ORP-sensor. For example, it doesn't work very well with CYA, the manual does even recommend not to use any (or only very little) CYA. Doesn't sound very economical to me.

I am not sure I wanted to trust a pH- sensor that gets hardly ever calibrated to feed acid into my pool. Sounds like a recipe for wrecking your plaster or a scaling problem to me.

I am currently thinking about replacing my 15 years old SWG. The unit I am considering, comes with an acid feeder but sensors are extra. Might be an option to feed a base amount of acid, but keep manually testing pH and adding some extra m.a. from time to time. Could be useful to have the option when out of town.

Regarding chlorine, after a while you get quite a good feel about the required SWG output and runtime anyway. Can all get automated with timers. And when you have an SWG that can talk to your pump, you can also assign different pump speeds to individual timer periods. Like that you can have periods with higher speeds to work with the heater, and periods on low speed to just create enough chlorine. I don't think the ORP- sensor is worth its money.

Cheers,
mgtfp

 

[Andylit]

Thanks to all who answered so quickly. I will restrain my lazy gene and go with the simple methods.