Taking the salt plunge...

[pitguy3]

I was able to get a Intex SWG fairly cheap and am taking the plunge. Waiting on my test kit to get here so I can see how much salt I have present in my pool prior to added the recommended amount to get to 3000ppm. My questions to the pool experts are...

1) Is salt, salt?? Meaning can I use salt for water softeners or do I need pool salt? I plan on dissolving it in a 5 gallon bucket prior to putting it in the pool so I don't do any damage to the liner.

2) I leave my filter pump running 24/7 just because... I understand that I need to check my FC at the same time to determine how much chlorine I lose so that I can adjust the SGW to produce that amount daily. Does it matter if my filter runs 24/7 or not (minus power consumption and wear and tear on my pump)?

3. My CYA is at 50. Do I need to raise it to 80ish prior to checking the FC drop? (sounds like a stupid question, because the higher the CYA the less FC I will lose)(I think I answered my own question.. LOL)..

Thanks in advance!!

Cheers!!

 

[kchinger]

1. As long as the salt doesn't have any additives and is just salt you're fine. You don't want corrosion inhibiters and stuff. Around me the pool salt is actually cheaper than the water softener stuff, and I can get it at Lowe's/Home Depot/Walmart, wherever. The finer the better because it'll take less brushing and less time to dissolve, but it's not a huge deal.

2. The only issue you may have with that much run-time is if your SWG will go to a low enough percentage, depending on your generator size and chlorine needs. For me, I'm currently running at 15% and 6 hours. So if I ran 24 hours it would need to be about 3%, but my system only goes down to 5% (and some systems only go down to 20%).

3. Yes, you should go ahead and raise the CYA into the 70-80 range for a salt water system before bothering to figure out what percentage you need to set your generator to. It will take a bit of experimenting to get the right percentage, since it will change based on time of year, swimmer load, organics (leaves and stuff falling in), solar cover use, temperature, etc.

 

[jeffchap]

2. The only issue you may have with that much run-time is if your SWG will go to a low enough percentage, depending on your generator size and chlorine needs. For me, I'm currently running at 15% and 6 hours. So if I ran 24 hours it would need to be about 3%, but my system only goes down to 5% (and some systems only go down to 20%).

Intex SWGs don't have a percentage setting. They just have a timer that you can set from 1 to 12 hours per day. They will come on and run that number of hours everyday at whatever time you intially power them on.

For a little more flexibility, you can plug them into an external timer and set that to power the SWG on as many times per day as the timer will allow. Each time the SWG is powered on, it will run for however long its timer is set for. So for example, you could set the SWG to run for 2 hours and you could set the timer to turn it on 4 times throughout the day. You'd get a total of 8 hours of chlorine generation, but spread throughout the day as opposed to one single 8 hour stretch. I used to run mine this way.

 

[kchinger]

Intex SWGs don't have a percentage setting. They just have a timer that you can set from 1 to 12 hours per day. They will come on and run that number of hours everyday at whatever time you intially power them on.

For a little more flexibility, you can plug them into an external timer and set that to power the SWG on as many times per day as the timer will allow. Each time the SWG is powered on, it will run for however long its timer is set for. So for example, you could set the SWG to run for 2 hours and you could set the timer to turn it on 4 times throughout the day. You'd get a total of 8 hours of chlorine generation, but spread throughout the day as opposed to one single 8 hour stretch. I used to run mine this way.

Gotcha. I guess I should've glanced at that particular model.

So running 24/7 would require an external timer then. Otherwise it will only generate once and then never again, since it won't even get turned off and back on.

 

[pitguy3]

Good idea Jeff! The unit I have is the 8110... I will check to see it's production rate and use the timer to "spread the love".. LOL!!

 

[jeffchap]

Gotcha. I guess I should've glanced at that particular model.

So running 24/7 would require an external timer then. Otherwise it will only generate once and then never again, since it won't even get turned off and back on.

No, if provided continuous power, it will generate once per day, up to 12 hours.

 

[mknauss]

I plan on dissolving it in a 5 gallon bucket prior to putting it in the pool so I don't do any damage to the liner.

No reason to do that. Throw a couple kids in the pool and they will dissolve it in a flash. Using the water softener pellets makes it more fun as they look like 'diamonds' in the water!