The Circulator

[Beez]

You do a dye test by introducing some food coloring right near one of the return jets and then watching how it spreads through the pool. How much food coloring you need varies somewhat depending on the color of the food coloring and the size of the pool, but is typically about an entire bottle of the small size sold in grocery stores. It will use up a little chlorine, as the chlorine breaks down the dye, but not usually enough to be an issue.

You want to see dye everywhere within a couple of minutes, 15 minutes at the longest. The dye gets lighter as it spreads, so it sometimes takes a sharp eye to spot it towards the end of the test.

Thanks for responding! While I was waiting I poked around on the web a little and came across this article. Any thoughts? It recommends using the dye, sodium fluorescein, and introducing it into the skimmer instead of in front of a return.

 

[chem geek]

Standard dye is great. However, since I already had GLB Party Blue, that's what I used and had a bluer pool for a few days. It's really neat to see the dye circulate. If you add it to the deep end in front of the return, then you can walk around the pool and see it go vertically into the depths as well as horizontally around the pool. Once the dye gets into the floor drains or skimmer, it soon starts shooting out of the returns where you can really see the effectiveness of strong flow rates.

 

[teapot]

Standard dye is great. However, since I already had GLB Party Blue, that's what I used and had a bluer pool for a few days. It's really neat to see the dye circulate. If you add it to the deep end in front of the return, then you can walk around the pool and see it go vertically into the depths as well as horizontally around the pool. Once the dye gets into the floor drains or skimmer, it soon starts shooting out of the returns where you can really see the effectiveness of strong flow rates.

Ah ha! so its BBB,GLB :lol:

I use it for the poor unfortunates who buy pools from manufactures/installers that fit the single unit skimmer/return/filter to prove why they have Crud water flow at halfway along their pools and why the far end keeps going green.

Long live the fun!

 

[Jayson42]

OK a bit late here but - does anyone have any experience with a Circulator with a pool alarm - subsurface or sonar?
Thanks

 

[4JawChuck]

I find it hard to believe anyone actually needs this product. I swim in my pool until the air temps are close to zero Celcius and using 90 degree eyeballs I have never felt "cold spots" in my kidney shaped 16X32 ft pool, I have two returns, one skimmer and a bottom drain. I aim the returns down and to one side to rotate the water in a clockwise direction so trash goes towards the skimmer and goes towards the bottom where it would be coldest.

Seems to me you could get 99% of the effectiveness of this product with a simple low restriction 90 degree return nozzle and probably better skimming than it claims. I notice there is no mention of the head loss associated with its use, its got to reduce water flow to actuate its internal mechanism right?

Gimmick if you ask me, here's what I use...$5.

http://www.nextag.com/Pentair-KREEPY-KRAULY-EZ-646423907/prices-html

 

[Ranger987]

I find this "red dye" demonstration and others I've seen a bit deceptive. Chlorine isn't normally dispensed in the massive volumes like the red dye demonstrates. If you're circulating the pool several hours a day anyway and likely 6-12 hours during summer, your sanitizer is going to be dispersed fully thru normal circulation. If you must get the sanitizer dispersed in 10 minutets, then this is your tool. I usually set my return jets to rotate the water in the pool, to enhance surface skimming. I don't see any specific problems with the gadget, but it's not a magic bullet, either. How does it work on low speed or on a VSP - does it have a minimum gpm recommendation?