I will be leaving for 11 days in July. My pool is balanced and I plan on keeping it that way until I leave. I use liquid chlorine and here in south east Texas I have to add chlorine everyday. My cya is low 40’s high 30’s. I plan to addenough liquid chlorine to get it to shock levels before I leave. I am also going to fill my Pentair rainbow chlorinated with tablets and try to set it to add about 4 ppm per day. I know this will raise my cya some but I think with it so low I can afford to add some. Let me know what you think of this plan or you have a better way to handle not being around for 11 days
Vacation plan
- Thread starter Tckwilson
- Start date
- Jun 24, 2021
- 17,074
- Pool Size
- 29000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Without a Salt Water Chlorine Generator, or a neighbor to help, likely your best course of action.
What is your TA? You might consider lowering your pH if TA is elevated...
What is your TA? You might consider lowering your pH if TA is elevated...
- Nov 12, 2017
- 12,692
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
The more chlorine in your pool, the faster it'll burn up. Adding all the liquid chlorine that you would normally use in 11 days will not last 11 days. The CYA is protecting a certain amount. Above that amount will just vanish quickly. So without automation, you only have three choices: tabs or favors or a service.
If you really have no neighbors or friends or family to dose the pool daily, then tabs it is. CYA will be what it'll be when you get back.
But if you can coerce someone to help, you can make their job as easy as possible. You must know by now what chlorine your pool typically consumes a day. Prepare that amount in 11 containers (like plastic jugs, empty soda bottles, etc). Then all your helper has to do is show up at about the same time each day (when your pump is scheduled to be running) and dump in one container. They won't have to test. They won't have to measure. Just a quick visit.
I know I would do that for a neighbor, especially one that has a pool that might let me use it once in a while.
For next time, consider fostering relationships that could cover for you. Or start looking at automation. My pool will easily go 11 days without me. And I have a pool cam, and a separate pad cam, that I can view while away from home, just to be sure everything is running OK.
And of course, you can always pay someone to be your friend! A local pool maintenance service could come once a day to cover for you. That has the advantage of engaging a service that could step in to repair something that goes wrong while you're away: which Murphy's law dictates is the only time it'll happen!
Point being, without someone visiting your pool daily to keep an eye on it, there's a lot more that can go wrong than just an algae outbreak. I doubt a pool can last 11 days in Texas without being topped off with water, so I assume you have some sort of auto-fill system. Do you have a plan should that system fail on day two of your time away? My auto-leveler system, for example, decided to act up a few days before I left for a long weekend last week. It was overfilling the pool (dang Murphy)! I was able to check the pool level a couple times a day, via cam. In addition to FC and pH automation systems, I have a motorized valve on my auto-fill supply line that would allow me to shut it down while away should my auto-filler get stuck in the open position.
If you have no one to help you, automation can save the day. And you should have a pool maintenance company standing by, willing to handle emergencies, and a pool cam that you can trust to let you know if and when you have one. You could have a pool cam from Amazon up and running in two days, if you wanted to...
Check out this post.
If you really have no neighbors or friends or family to dose the pool daily, then tabs it is. CYA will be what it'll be when you get back.
But if you can coerce someone to help, you can make their job as easy as possible. You must know by now what chlorine your pool typically consumes a day. Prepare that amount in 11 containers (like plastic jugs, empty soda bottles, etc). Then all your helper has to do is show up at about the same time each day (when your pump is scheduled to be running) and dump in one container. They won't have to test. They won't have to measure. Just a quick visit.
I know I would do that for a neighbor, especially one that has a pool that might let me use it once in a while.
For next time, consider fostering relationships that could cover for you. Or start looking at automation. My pool will easily go 11 days without me. And I have a pool cam, and a separate pad cam, that I can view while away from home, just to be sure everything is running OK.
And of course, you can always pay someone to be your friend! A local pool maintenance service could come once a day to cover for you. That has the advantage of engaging a service that could step in to repair something that goes wrong while you're away: which Murphy's law dictates is the only time it'll happen!
Point being, without someone visiting your pool daily to keep an eye on it, there's a lot more that can go wrong than just an algae outbreak. I doubt a pool can last 11 days in Texas without being topped off with water, so I assume you have some sort of auto-fill system. Do you have a plan should that system fail on day two of your time away? My auto-leveler system, for example, decided to act up a few days before I left for a long weekend last week. It was overfilling the pool (dang Murphy)! I was able to check the pool level a couple times a day, via cam. In addition to FC and pH automation systems, I have a motorized valve on my auto-fill supply line that would allow me to shut it down while away should my auto-filler get stuck in the open position.
If you have no one to help you, automation can save the day. And you should have a pool maintenance company standing by, willing to handle emergencies, and a pool cam that you can trust to let you know if and when you have one. You could have a pool cam from Amazon up and running in two days, if you wanted to...
Check out this post.
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if you do not already have a solar cover we find it helps with this sitaution. It reduces boh water loss and chlorine degradation, which helps our pool water remain clear for 7-10+ days if we bring to SLAM before leaving.
However our climate is different: summer rain does not happen here, so overflowing or dilution are not concerns. We only have to worry about so much evaporation that the sand filter shuts off. We learned that if the water is at a certain level, the solar cover is on, and we shut off the heat pump, we'll get minimal evaporation.
In case of a power outage, large amounts of rain, etc, having. a friendly neighbor would be very helpful.
However our climate is different: summer rain does not happen here, so overflowing or dilution are not concerns. We only have to worry about so much evaporation that the sand filter shuts off. We learned that if the water is at a certain level, the solar cover is on, and we shut off the heat pump, we'll get minimal evaporation.
In case of a power outage, large amounts of rain, etc, having. a friendly neighbor would be very helpful.
Thanks to everyone for all the ideas about things I haven’t considered. I can definitely find someone to add a set amount of chlorine even if I have to pay them. I’ve got a camera that I can move to view the pool. I don’t have automatic fill so I will have whoever does the chlorine check and fill as needed.