The cell in my Salt Chlorine Generator is broken and I’m waiting for a replacemen. It’s been about 10 days. Was adding bleach to keep chlorine up while waitint but started getting algae a few days ago. AddEd shock, but can’t get it under control. Everyday I have tested my water and my chlorine levels are always 4.0 and up. What could be letting the algae over take me? I’ve added a photo of my test results tonight.
SWG cell is out.
- Thread starter wmmallette
- Start date
Lake Placid
In The Industry
- May 27, 2021
- 632
- Pool Size
- 17000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Did you adjust your FC to a range of 7–9 with 5 new minimum? Remember SWG can run at a lower % CYA/FC but when you switched to Liquid your range should have as well. Sounds like a slam is in order now.
I’m sorry, I do not understand. if I am adding chlorine as opposed to having my SWG make it, then I need to be shooting for 7-9?
Lake Placid
In The Industry
- May 27, 2021
- 632
- Pool Size
- 17000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Yes. That is correct and your new absolute minimum would be 5. Here’s the CYA chart for reference. You’d want to make sure you’re using the LC selection for now until you get a running SWG again.
www.troublefreepool.com
The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship
Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.
www.troublefreepool.com
Now I am curious . . . . Why aren’t FC levels just that? Why doesn’t a level of 5.0PPM mean something universally as opposed to being tied to the chlorine source?Yes. That is correct and your new absolute minimum would be 5. Here’s the CYA chart for reference. You’d want to make sure you’re using the LC selection for now until you get a running SWG again.
The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship
Managing your cyanuric acid and Free Chlorine levels is key to stabilizing your pool. Learn how these two items affect each other.
a FC level is a level regardless of the source.
The source determines a good FC level.
With LC, you dump a gallon(?) in for a quick boost and you have a full 24 hours for it to drift down while staying above minimum.
SWGs add that same daily amount, but over 12-24 hours. So imagine pouring the gallon of LC so slow that it took 24 hours. The FC would remain much more stable while remaining above minimum, so you are almost replenishing it as it burns off one drop at a time. As such, the SWG can use a lower target than LC, which needs to spike it to 8 so there is still 4 left tomorrow after a full day's loss. (Insert any CYA/FC values from the chart).
But, if you have a very large SWG that can add your daily FC in a short period of time, or you only run it at night to save on electricity tiers, then the pool responds just like a LC pool and you need to follow that chart because the FC will swing like a LC pool.
Thank you! That is the best explanation and makes total sense.
I would love input on balancing costs by not running my pump 24/7 and using my SWG at higher rates, vs. the opposite. Having the coloring come in small doses over an extended period of time does seem more ideal, but having to run the pump all day everyday would seemingly just be wasteful.
I have a variable speed pump and a 60,000 gallon rated SWG for a 31,000 gallon pool.
but regardless, thanks again for the explanation!
Well that's the beauty of the VS pump. You have a 2X unit so you will need to run it about 12 hours @ 100% during the peak season. Those extra 12 hours of the day can be at low RPM just low enough to keep the SWG on drawing about 100 watts, then setting the SWG to 50%.. It would also reduce the skimming and filtering load from the primary 12 hours so you could likely run them at low RPMs as well.
Your heater likely needs higher RPMs to work as would any features / etc. But any other times you could be sipping electric on low RPMs.
Wanted to add another angle on running the pump 24/7. I switched from 12 hrs per day to 24/7 and have not used my leaf net since. The pump draws about 125 Watts from evening through morning but it’s enough to keep the skimmers skimming. At the electric rates with my utility, it costs $5.40 per month to run those extra 12 hours. When I look at the pool first thing on the morning it’s clean without the former night time bugs and stuff floating in it waiting to get to the skimmer so the five bucks or so seems well worth it 
+1. Nothing has 8-16 hours to get waterlogged and sink. Now. Acorns, sand, and twigs will drop like bricks of course, but most of everything else will make it to the skimmers just a few minutes after falling.
Thanks for the replies! Heater was an impulse buy when building. In 4 years, we never turned it on, so I sold it. On the pump, during peak season , are you saying run it at 100% those 12 hours, then reduce the speed low enough not to activate the flow switch? Or do you mean change the SWG to 50% those low speed 12 hours?
I‘d have to go out there twice a day everyday to change the SWG %, but if that’s what works, I will try it.
I was saying to run the pump as low as the SWG activates 24/7. (Pluss 100-200 RPMs to accommodate a dirty filter)
You can run the SWCG as many hours as you want and no reason to change during the day. The cell could care less how fast the pump is as long as it activates the flow switch. 5 hours at 100% is the same as 10 hours at 50% so all you need to figure out how much FC needs to be replaced each day to the uv and bathers and just back calculate the % and let it roll to see if it ahead or behind then you just adjust accordingly.