Vacation and in-line chlorinator

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H

houston_tink

0
Oct 9, 2016
88
Belton/TX
I have an in-line chlorinator but haven't used it yet. We leave for vacation soon for 8 days. I normally put a gallon of 8% bleach in daily to keep FC at 7 and it drops to 4 the next day.

CYA 30
PH 7.4
TA 70

i have 3" trichlor tabs and a commercial chlorinator....question is how many tabs do I put in it? Will they last all week? Do I leave flow wide open?
 
Before leaving, put a tab into the chlorinator and test each day to observe how well it is chlorinating your pool. Adjust it until you're satisfied, then you can put it to those settings when you leave. :)

If you find it is not keeping up, you can also raise your pool to shock level with bleach the day you leave to give it an assist. Don't forget to retest CYA before you leave and after you get back so you can adjust your normal FC targets.
 
My pool is a similar size to yours and I used three 8oz pucks in a floater and they easily lasted a week and ran out after 10 days. My FC loss during peak summer is 2ppm and the three pucks kept my FC stable and in my target range. I expect your inline chlorinator will be more efficient that my floater. Set your FC at the high end of the target range with bleach before you start using the tabs. Have fun, where you going?
 
Always good to test. Using pool math will provide an estimate of the effects of using the trichlor but it will not factor the release rate or how fast the pucks dissolve. You can get a good idea after a couple of days how much FC per day the pucks release and also how fast they are dissolving in your system. I assume this is affected by water temp and the amount of water flow over the pucks. Let us know what you learn.
 
Check out pool math. Looks like you need to add 12 oz of trichlor to raise your FC from 4 - 7ppm.

Are your pucks 8oz? So 8 days at 12oz per is 96oz or a puck and a half per day. Total of 12, seems like a lot.

I would suggest you get your FC up to your shock level a few hours before you leave and back calculate based on your FC loss per day.
 

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How long is it taking to dissolve the pucks?

If I recall... my chlorinator also had 2 ways to connect it, for small pools (mine) it was connected at the bottom (pucks piled above) for large pools it was supposed to be connected at the top (so water had to cross all the pucks). Is yours connected underneath the pucks or above. I might not be describing it right I only used the thing for a few months but that could be a reason it's not dissolving them quickly.... I never needed to turn mine over 1-2 and my FC was always really high even with 1 puck but my pool is like a 1/3 or yours....
 
I think the hose needs to be connected to the top for maximum chlorine but I'd get verification on that (I couldn't see it in the description). See this pic on amazon of mine. the black plug on the top is where you would connect the hose. You may need a replacement hose if already cut to fit the bottom.
 
Using your FC loss per day = 3ppm number, you could raise your FC to 12 before you leave. If you can supply 8oz of trichlor per day it will raise your FC by 2ppm and at the end of 8 full days the FC in your water should be at 5ppm or the middle of your target.

If you cannot get more than 8oz of trichlor dissolved in 24 hours from your system another option would be to add a floater.

How may tabs can you fit in your chlorinator?
 
BasicTek said:
I think the hose needs to be connected to the top for maximum chlorine but I'd get verification on that (I couldn't see it in the description). See this pic on amazon of mine. the black plug on the top is where you would connect the hose. You may need a replacement hose if already cut to fit the bottom.
Click to expand...

yup, mine looks just like that but taller because it is a commercial grade one. My dial is at the bottom but I have a second hose coming from the top (like where that black dot is above the label in the pic you sent)

- - - Updated - - -

Oly said:
How may tabs can you fit in your chlorinator?
Click to expand...

24!!! It's a commercial grade one!
 
24 wow, that would raise your CYA by 29ppm if they all dissolved.

The rate at which the tabs dissolve is the missing bit of information in this estimate using Pool Math. Do you have any test data over time that includes your FC level when you started with the 6 tabs and how the levels have changed? Assuming your daily FC loss is 3ppm you may be able to make a good estimate. I would still start out with the FC levels at the shock value for your system right before you leave and try to get a minimum 2 ppm daily addition from your chlorination system.
 
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