help newbie with SWG in winter

[waterbear]

I also do not worry too much about my pool when it is too cold to swim. I live in N Fl so we only have about 2 or 3 months when it's cold enough to shut down the SWG (Goldline Aqualogic) and I don't worry about the chlorine droppping. Pools tend to stay in balance more in the oold weather because:
1) there is no bather load
2) the colder temps slow down the chemical reactions that occur in the water
3) the colder temps slow down the growth of algae and bacteria (much like your refrigerator does for the food you put in there)

The only danger is a suddend warm and sunny day or two in the middle of a cold spell. It could warm the pool enough to let algae take hold if the FC has dropped to near zero but on the other hand the SWG would start generating if the water got that warm. At any rate, it's nothing a few jugs of bleach couldn't take care of quickly!

[chem geek]

CH is Calcium Hardness. It's just a measure of the amount of Calcium in the water.

As for the pumps, don't worry about it as you didn't do any damage. It's just expensive (in electricity) to run that long. I'm surprised you run them 24/7, however. Most people run them around 8 hours a day, sometimes 10 or 12. It all depends on how powerful the pumps are -- specifically, their Gallon-Per-Minute (GPM) rate and the size of your pool, with these two factors determining your turnover rate which is how many times an entire volume of pool water gets pumped by your pump. You usually want to run your pump in the summer so that you have at least 1 turnover per day though some people go with up to 2 and it really depends on how dirty your pool gets (i.e. how much stuff gets in it). In the winter, many people lower the run time to 2 hours or even 1 hour per day, but in your case since you were starting out so high and don't know the turnover rate, I'd say you are safe to go down to 4 hours per day at least for now (tell us your pool water volume or pool size including depth and your pump size in Horsepower and we might be able to estimate something for you).

Richard

[Poolsean]

Richard,

In most of the country that winterize their pools, they tend to run the pumps 24/7 to prevent the pipes from freezing up. For some, that's just how the pool builder built it (NO TIME CLOCK). These are mostly lower HP pumps so the cost to operate is not that bad.

[chem geek]

Thanks Sean. I actually thought that might be the case, but when I saw that Sharon was in New Orleans (in her signature in her first post), I didn't think it got to freezing there so that's where my comment came from.

Richard

[szcakes]

No, we rarely hit freezing. a few nights per winter at most. I was told to run the pumps 24/7 in the heat of the summer ( which is brutal here), not for the winter. I just never put the timer on the pump when winter came, due to my own ignorance. Of course now I cant find any little clip things to put on the timer wheel thingy; so I am hoping the pool store guy has some.


Update:

we have warmed up quite a bit the last few days here. Water temp has been showing 60-70's off and on last few days. The SWG did not kick back on by itself; I had to "reboot it" to get it going again. Then I would come check it later in the day and it was back to error 91 . Is the water temp fluctuating that much that it's kicking it off again?

water temp showed 74 this AM, I went to SWG; it was not running, I rebooted it again and it has been runnong for a few hours now. Will monitor to see if it shuts off again. Is this normal procedure or should it start sanitizing on its own again when the temp goes up?

thanks again for all the help; I really apprecite it.

[Poolsean]

It's probably going to continue doing that, fluctuate on and off, due to water temperatures. What you can do is ensure that your cell is clean of any scale or debris by giving it an acid bath. Rinse it off. Test your salt level, then increase the salinity to the upper end of the acceptable salt range. The increased salt will compensate in conductivity somewhat for the decreased conductivity of the water temps.

[szcakes]

Well; it shut down again and showing low salt error ( which is what it has been showing all winter). I know the salt level is fine as I just checked it manually. I just cleaned the cell last weekend. the water temp has been 74 all day. is my cell broken?

[szcakes]

Update:

I called Polaris tech support again and he had me push some buttons on the screen for readings. He said my cell is having low amperage on one side??? It is still under warranty so I am getting a new one free of charge. Hopefully this will cure my problem. Thank you all for the help and the education I so desperately need!