I have a pool, and use an ancient Guardex "open" chlorinator that
takes 1-inch trichlor tablets. But I can't get parts for it
anymore, and every now and then the check valves get crud in them,
and overnight when the pump is off I lose prime. So it may be time
to get a new one.

All the modern chlorinators appear to be sealed systems. There are
input and output ports, and there's a screw-on lid that I assume is
air-tight. But I don't understand exactly how these things work.
What determines how high the water level gets inside the
chlorinator? Is there any way to adjust that? I assume it doesn't
fill up completely, but there's some air in the top.

The other issue I'm concerned about is that I only run the pump
about 12 hours a day. And I wonder what happens to the chlorinated
water in the chlorinator when I turn the pump off. Does it stay in
there and continue to dissolve the chlorine? In my old
chlorinator, the water drains out when the pump turns off, and I'd
like to keep that feature if possible.

I guess the alternative is floaters, but I'd rather avoid that if
possible.

Anyway, if anyone knows of a link where the operation of these
things is explained in detail, I would appreciate knowing about it.

Peabody wrote:
I have a pool, and use an ancient Guardex "open" chlorinator that
takes 1-inch trichlor tablets. But I can't get parts for it
anymore, and every now and then the check valves get crud in them,
and overnight when the pump is off I lose prime. So it may be time
to get a new one.

All the modern chlorinators appear to be sealed systems. There are
input and output ports, and there's a screw-on lid that I assume is
air-tight. But I don't understand exactly how these things work.
What determines how high the water level gets inside the
chlorinator? Is there any way to adjust that? I assume it doesn't
fill up completely, but there's some air in the top.

The other issue I'm concerned about is that I only run the pump
about 12 hours a day. And I wonder what happens to the chlorinated
water in the chlorinator when I turn the pump off. Does it stay in
there and continue to dissolve the chlorine? In my old
chlorinator, the water drains out when the pump turns off, and I'd
like to keep that feature if possible.

I guess the alternative is floaters, but I'd rather avoid that if
possible.

Anyway, if anyone knows of a link where the operation of these
things is explained in detail, I would appreciate knowing about it.

The one in my spa has a valve that adjusts the small water flow that goes
through the chlorine "canister" part. The solution within the chlorine canister
probably reaches saturation, and the small water flow carries a small amout of
chlorine into the spa. It does not empty when the pump stops. It requires a
check valve between it and the pump/filter to prevent concentrated chloring from
getting into the equipment when the pump stops, and has to be installed on the
pipe back into the spa.

I gave up using it for the spa because I couldn't regulate the flow well enough
to retain proper chlorine in the spa. That might not be a problem with a pool.

On 7/13/2011 2:21 PM, Peabody wrote:
I have a pool, and use an ancient Guardex "open" chlorinator that
takes 1-inch trichlor tablets. But I can't get parts for it
anymore, and every now and then the check valves get crud in them,
and overnight when the pump is off I lose prime. So it may be time
to get a new one.

All the modern chlorinators appear to be sealed systems. There are
input and output ports, and there's a screw-on lid that I assume is
air-tight. But I don't understand exactly how these things work.
What determines how high the water level gets inside the
chlorinator? Is there any way to adjust that? I assume it doesn't
fill up completely, but there's some air in the top.

The other issue I'm concerned about is that I only run the pump
about 12 hours a day. And I wonder what happens to the chlorinated
water in the chlorinator when I turn the pump off. Does it stay in
there and continue to dissolve the chlorine? In my old
chlorinator, the water drains out when the pump turns off, and I'd
like to keep that feature if possible.

I guess the alternative is floaters, but I'd rather avoid that if
possible.

Anyway, if anyone knows of a link where the operation of these
things is explained in detail, I would appreciate knowing about it.

First of all, avoid the Hayward chlorinators at all costs. Get the
Pentair Rainbow if you must use one. The Hayward model severely
restricts the flow of the pump, if you look at the two side by side
you'll see the problem. Also the Hayward model requires frequent gasket
replacements in the lid, and the lid often stick shut so that tremendous
force is needed to open it.

The big problem with using a chlorinator, or a floater, is the tri-chlor
tablets. They're fine at first, then you build up way too much cyanuric
acid from the stabilizer and it starts reducing the effectiveness of the
chlorine.

Read http://www.watermaid-europe.com/CHLORINE_LOCK_-_Description.pdf:

"If the level of cyanuric acid (stabiliser) in the water is much over
80ppm, the chlorine becomes trapped and is unable to oxidise
effectively. Despite being able to measure normal chlorine levels, the
Redox potential is very low, indicating a lack of oxidiser. The only way
to fix this is to drain some of the water and refill the pool. Care
should be taken when using stabilised chlorine products (dichlor or
trichlor) to avoid the level of cyanuric acid increasing too much."


I know how convenient the tri-chlor tablets are, but the reality is that
you're much better off buying liquid chlorine and saving the automatic
chlorinator for vacations. Cyanuric acid does not evaporate with pool
water so it never goes down except by being diluted by pumping out water
and refilling. There is no neutralizer on the market (apparently there
was one at one time but it is off the market due to side effects).

I buy 12.5% chlorine in gallon deposit bottles for $2.50 each at a local
pool store (need to buy eight at a time for this price). This is much
cheaper than the 10% chlorine sold at Leslie's or Home Depot or Lowes,
usually at around $7 for two gallons.

On 7/13/2011 9:22 PM, SMS wrote:

First of all, avoid the Hayward chlorinators at all costs. Get the
Pentair Rainbow if you must use one. The Hayward model severely
restricts the flow of the pump, if you look at the two side by side
you'll see the problem. Also the Hayward model requires frequent gasket
replacements in the lid, and the lid often stick shut so that tremendous
force is needed to open it.

I should have pointed out that the comments about Hayward and the
restricted flow refer to the in-line chlorinator, not the bypass
chlorinator (which would be used if you have a heater to avoid the
heater immediately destroying the chlorine). If you are using an in-line
chlorinator, get the Pentair Rainbow. For a bypass chlorinator the
Hayward should be fine (other than the gasket issue--I was constantly
buying replacement gaskets).

On 7/13/2011 2:21 PM, Peabody wrote:
I have a pool, and use an ancient Guardex "open" chlorinator that
takes 1-inch trichlor tablets. But I can't get parts for it
anymore, and every now and then the check valves get crud in them,
and overnight when the pump is off I lose prime. So it may be time
to get a new one.

All the modern chlorinators appear to be sealed systems. There are
input and output ports, and there's a screw-on lid that I assume is
air-tight. But I don't understand exactly how these things work.
What determines how high the water level gets inside the
chlorinator? Is there any way to adjust that? I assume it doesn't
fill up completely, but there's some air in the top.

The other issue I'm concerned about is that I only run the pump
about 12 hours a day. And I wonder what happens to the chlorinated
water in the chlorinator when I turn the pump off. Does it stay in
there and continue to dissolve the chlorine? In my old
chlorinator, the water drains out when the pump turns off, and I'd
like to keep that feature if possible.

The sealed systems require a check valve between the filter and the
chlorinator to prevent the concentrated chlorinated water in the
chlorinator from going back into the filter and pump. There is no
benefit to draining the water from the chlorinator, and it's not
possible to do so. Don't forget that the chlorinator needs to be
installed in the proper flow direction!

As someone else pointed out, the first few seconds after the pump starts
you'll get a burst of highly chlorinated water into the pool, but it
doesn't hurt anything.

The Pentair Rainbow filter has another advantage over the Hayward, you
can add extensions to increase the number of tablets it will hold,
http://www.yourpoolhq.com/extension-chlorinator-10in-r172087.html. I
have one extension on mine. If you're going away for more than a few
weeks it's useful. When I go away now I first super-chlorinate the pool
with liquid chlorine than fill the chlorinator with tablets and keep the
level pretty low. As long as the phosphate level is zero, the chlorine
level doesn't have to be maintained very high to prevent algae.

If you really want to automate the sanitizer delivery to the pool then
the solution (no pun intended) is to switch to a salt system. There is a
high initial cost for the salt system, and periodic salt cell
replacement, but additional salt is not needed often. This won't work if
you have any copper plumbing in the pool or in a pool heater.

On Jul 14, 8:52*am, SMS wrote:
On 7/13/2011 2:21 PM, Peabody wrote:





I have a pool, and use an ancient Guardex "open" chlorinator that
takes 1-inch trichlor tablets. *But I can't get parts for it
anymore, and every now and then the check valves get crud in them,
and overnight when the pump is off I lose prime. *So it may be time
to get a new one.

All the modern chlorinators appear to be sealed systems. *There are
input and output ports, and there's a screw-on lid that I assume is
air-tight. *But I don't understand exactly how these things work.
What determines how high the water level gets inside the
chlorinator? *Is there any way to adjust that? *I assume it doesn't
fill up completely, but there's some air in the top.

The other issue I'm concerned about is that I only run the pump
about 12 hours a day. *And I wonder what happens to the chlorinated
water in the chlorinator when I turn the pump off. Does it stay in
there and continue to dissolve the chlorine? *In my old
chlorinator, the water drains out when the pump turns off, and I'd
like to keep that feature if possible.

The sealed systems require a check valve between the filter and the
chlorinator to prevent the concentrated chlorinated water in the
chlorinator from going back into the filter and pump. There is no
benefit to draining the water from the chlorinator, and it's not
possible to do so. Don't forget that the chlorinator needs to be
installed in the proper flow direction!

As someone else pointed out, the first few seconds after the pump starts
you'll get a burst of highly chlorinated water into the pool, but it
doesn't hurt anything.

The Pentair Rainbow filter has another advantage over the Hayward, you
can add extensions to increase the number of tablets it will hold,
http://www.yourpoolhq.com/extension-chlorinator-10in-r172087.html. I
have one extension on mine. If you're going away for more than a few
weeks it's useful. When I go away now I first super-chlorinate the pool
with liquid chlorine than fill the chlorinator with tablets and keep the
level pretty low. As long as the phosphate level is zero, the chlorine
level doesn't have to be maintained very high to prevent algae.

If you really want to automate the sanitizer delivery to the pool then
the solution (no pun intended) is to switch to a salt system. There is a
high initial cost for the salt system, and periodic salt cell
replacement, but additional salt is not needed often. This won't work if
you have any copper plumbing in the pool or in a pool heater.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It does seem that all the new pools I see are going with the salt
system. Our community pool converted a couple years back.

On Jul 14, 11:50*am, wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:21:41 -0500, Peabody

wrote:
I have a pool, and use an ancient Guardex "open" chlorinator that
takes 1-inch trichlor tablets. *But I can't get parts for it
anymore, and every now and then the check valves get crud in them,
and overnight when the pump is off I lose prime. *So it may be time
to get a new one.

What's wrong with just using a floater? It is simple, adjustable and
seems to get the job done with zero maintenance beyond dropping a
couple 3" tabs *in it every week. Just tell the kids not to **** with
it.


My pool chlorinator is very hard to open and close -- and I have
arthritis. I stopped using it. I use the floaters .... my pool is not
real large and one was enough. My friend had her pool filled in --
and gave me her floaters... so now I use two. They work fine and it's
easy to put in more tablets when I need them.

On 7/14/2011 8:50 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:21:41 -0500, Peabody
wrote:

I have a pool, and use an ancient Guardex "open" chlorinator that
takes 1-inch trichlor tablets. But I can't get parts for it
anymore, and every now and then the check valves get crud in them,
and overnight when the pump is off I lose prime. So it may be time
to get a new one.

What's wrong with just using a floater? It is simple, adjustable and
seems to get the job done with zero maintenance beyond dropping a
couple 3" tabs in it every week. Just tell the kids not to **** with
it.

A chlorinator is less work once it's in. You could put in enough tabs
for a few months with an extension. It also distribute the chlorinated
water throughout the pool better. Try to avoid floaters if possible.
Actually try to avoid tri-chlor tablets completely because you end up
with far too much stabilizer after a while.

On 7/14/2011 2:54 PM, Dottie wrote:

My pool chlorinator is very hard to open and close -- and I have
arthritis.

The Hayward models can be incredibly difficult to open. I had one once
and my brother had the same problem. I ended up cutting a 3' x 1" x 10"
piece of wood with the same pattern as the cover on the Hayward so it
fit over it tightly. Then I had plenty of leverage to unscrew the top.
Then I would often find that the gasket had stretched and I needed a new
one at $10 each.

The Pentair Rainbow is a much better design. It's not been stuck yet.
But I rarely use tablets any more because they are not good for the pool
water. Liquid chlorine is best if you don't want to put in a salt
system. If your cyanuric acid level is over 80ppm then you want to stop
using the tablets. Stopping at 50ppm is even better.

On 7/14/2011 5:34 PM, wrote:

We get enough rain to keep the stabilizer down. I haven't noticed any
sign of concentration of the chlorine around the floater. It seems to
test pretty consistently, wherever I take the sample.

LOL, that's what finally reduced my stabilizer low enough this past
winter. It rained so much that was pumping water out of the pool every
few weeks. This diluted the stabilizer and got in to between 50 and 80
(depending on the employee performing the test).

I'd say at least half the time I go in to get my water tested a Leslie's
employee is trying to explain to a customer that they have to partially
drain their pool to get the cyanuric acid down in order for the chlorine
tablets to be effective at algae control.

It's ironic because probably the biggest selling item at Leslie's is the
tri-chlor tablets which cause the cyanuric acid problem in the first
place. We normally don't get a tremendous amount of rain to dilute the
acid.

Sometimes Leslie's will grudgingly admit that the tri-chlor tablets
cause problems, and advise chlorine or try to sell you a salt system.
They only sell the weaker chlorine, to get the more concentrated (and
cheaper) chlorine I have to go another mile down to an independent pool
store.

One thing I found out is that the cyanuric acid test results are highly
dependent on the employee performing the test. It's not an easy result
to read. I could see an employee reading too low a result and the pool
owner adding cyanuric acid to bring it up when it's already high enough.

Leslie's also doesn't sell the more highly concentrated, and far, far
less expensive, phosphate removers, only Phos Free. Even the commercial
Phos Free they sell is not as concentrated as some other phosphate removers.

On 7/14/2011 7:46 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:10:21 -0700,
wrote:

On 7/14/2011 5:34 PM, wrote:

We get enough rain to keep the stabilizer down. I haven't noticed any
sign of concentration of the chlorine around the floater. It seems to
test pretty consistently, wherever I take the sample.

LOL, that's what finally reduced my stabilizer low enough this past
winter. It rained so much that was pumping water out of the pool every
few weeks. This diluted the stabilizer and got in to between 50 and 80
(depending on the employee performing the test).


When I built the pool I put an overflow in the design so it auto
levels when it rains. There are 3 cutouts under the coping in the far
side swim out that allow the excess to drain away from the house. That
ends up being part of the normal drainage from the pool deck, roof etc
that all slopes out that way.

So where does it drain? Here you can't let your pool water drain into
the soil or the storm drain on the street, it has to go into the sewer.

On 7/15/2011 9:50 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:13:08 -0700,
wrote:

On 7/14/2011 7:46 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:10:21 -0700,
wrote:

On 7/14/2011 5:34 PM, wrote:

We get enough rain to keep the stabilizer down. I haven't noticed any
sign of concentration of the chlorine around the floater. It seems to
test pretty consistently, wherever I take the sample.

LOL, that's what finally reduced my stabilizer low enough this past
winter. It rained so much that was pumping water out of the pool every
few weeks. This diluted the stabilizer and got in to between 50 and 80
(depending on the employee performing the test).


When I built the pool I put an overflow in the design so it auto
levels when it rains. There are 3 cutouts under the coping in the far
side swim out that allow the excess to drain away from the house. That
ends up being part of the normal drainage from the pool deck, roof etc
that all slopes out that way.

So where does it drain? Here you can't let your pool water drain into
the soil or the storm drain on the street, it has to go into the sewer.

We don't have that problem here but I would ask "why not"? Can you
water your lawn with your tap water? (questioning the pollution
factor, not water restrictions)

If your pool is properly balanced the water is just about the same as
typical "city water"

It would flow into San Francisco Bay eventually. They probably are
concerned about the phosphates more than anything.

On 7/17/2011 7:20 AM, wrote:

Why would a pool have high phosphate (or nitrate) levels? That comes
from lawn fertilizer in suburban environments.

No, it comes from decomposing plants, bugs, frogs, etc.. The biggest
struggle against algae in my area is phosphates. In California it is
rare to have screened in pools, unlike in Florida, since we don't have
much of a mosquito issue, so we get a lot of leaves and bugs in the
pool. People spend much more on phosphate removers than on chlorine or
tablets. Draining and refilling helps a little but the tap water also
has relatively high phosphates. I empty the skimmer basket at least
twice a week, and it's got a lot of stuff in it.

On Jul 17, 10:58*am, SMS wrote:
On 7/17/2011 7:20 AM, wrote:

Why would a pool have high phosphate (or nitrate) levels? That comes
from lawn fertilizer in suburban environments.

No, it comes from decomposing plants, bugs, frogs, etc.. The biggest
struggle against algae in my area is phosphates. In California it is
rare to have screened in pools, unlike in Florida, since we don't have
much of a mosquito issue, so we get a lot of leaves and bugs in the
pool. People spend much more on phosphate removers than on chlorine or
tablets. Draining and refilling helps a little but the tap water also
has relatively high phosphates. I empty the skimmer basket at least
twice a week, and it's got a lot of stuff in it.

Lots of trees and stuff here in NJ, and I've yet to spend any $$ on
phosphate remover, nor have I ever had problems attributable to
phosphates. There is debate as to what level of phosphate creates
a real problem, as well as where it may come from. The folks
promoting the lower level of phosphates seem to be in the business
of selling the phosphate removers.

Also, if phosphates in the pool are coming from blown in debris or
fertilizer, seems a bit strange to have a ban against letting the pool
water be discharged into the storm sewers or ground. Isn't that
exactly where the rest of the rainwater is going together after having
been in contact with far more debris, fertilizer, etc?

On 7/17/2011 8:11 AM, wrote:

Lots of trees and stuff here in NJ, and I've yet to spend any $$ on
phosphate remover, nor have I ever had problems attributable to
phosphates. There is debate as to what level of phosphate creates
a real problem, as well as where it may come from. The folks
promoting the lower level of phosphates seem to be in the business
of selling the phosphate removers.

The advantage of a low phosphate level is that you can keep the chlorine
level lower and still not have algae.

The phosphate remover is actually pretty inexpensive if you buy the
commercial, highly concentrated product (PR1000 from Orenda) in the
gallon size. A gallon should last several years.