New owner. Off line chlorinator question.

[tkim6599]

Hi all. New owner of 32,500 gal pool with Hayward EC75A DE filter. I have a New Water Cycler 430 off line chlorinator that feeds from between the pump and DE filter and puts out chlorine at one of return lines.

The pool people opened the pool last month and had changed the chlorine pac for me. When I tried to replace the pac, I couldn't open the chlorinator until I screwed it onto a wooden board and used the tool that came with it to torque it open.

I found out why I had a hard time opening the chlorinator - DE in the threads. Clumped up DE in the dial as well, making it hard to turn the dial at all.

I have three questions.

1) Is it a usual practice to connect the first line between the pump and filter and use dirty, unfiltered water to feed the chlorinator?

2) When I change the DE, I pour it into the closest skimmer to the pump, and thirty seconds later I see DE coming back out of one of the return ports. I'm assuming this is because some of the DE bypasses the filter through the chlorinator. Should I turn the chlorinator down as low as I can before changing the DE, or disconnect and plug the little hole so that the chlorinator does not circulate, or move that first line somewhere between the heater and return lines?

3) I was reading the literature regarding the New Water 430 off line cycler, and it seems to indicate that the max size pool it can handle is 25,000 gal. I've had difficulty keeping the chlorine above 1 ppm despite shocking and adding additional ca chlor. I plan on switching the the BBB method as soon as I get a decent testing kit, but it seems to me that the automatic chlorinator is inadequate for my size pool. Should I just change it to an in-line chlorinator like the Hayward CL200, which is cheaper and uses cheaper pellets I can add myself, or keep the off-line chlorinator cranked to max and shell out $40 every two weeks for a new chorinator pac?

[PoolDoc]

I would dump the 430, but do NOT replace it with a Hayward CL200, which *severely* restricts water flow, and which also has a 'broken from the factor' feed regulator. I'm not in love with tab chlorinators, but if you go that route I'd strongly recommend the Rainbow 320 ( -- there are other sellers besides this one, but watch the shipping costs!). The 320 also allows you to use standard tabs, and works pretty well.

But . . . you will need to move whatever feeder you have downstream of the filter.

And -- this is VERY IMPORTANT -- if you have a pool timer, do NOT allow it to turn the pump off for more than 12 hours at a time. Dangerous gases can accumulate in feeders when you do. Likewise, if you start up your pump, after leaving it off (for a power outage, whatever), get people out of the pool and away from the inlets. Trichlor feeder units can 'burp' chlorine gas when they've been left off for days.

[Watermom]

tkim -- Welcome to the Pool Forum and thank you very much for becoming a subscriber. We really appreciate that as those subscriptions help to keep PF online. Thanks again and hope you enjoy the forum!

[tkim6599]

tkim -- Welcome to the Pool Forum and thank you very much for becoming a subscriber. We really appreciate that as those subscriptions help to keep PF online. Thanks again and hope you enjoy the forum!

I like to support sites that edumacate me and save me time/money/hair-pulling. How many posts will need to be reviewed before my posts are automatically approved?

[PoolDoc]

I think it's 3 or 4 -- it will auto-magically boost you within 4 hours of reaching the threshold. But I just did it manually.

If your pump is ON and water is flowing through the chlorinator, that counts. I don't know your system, so you'll have to make sure that's happening when you vacuum.

However . . . rather than running 1x for 12 hours, it's much better to run 2x for 6 hours, even apart from the vacuuming.

[tkim6599]

This where water line goes into the chlorinator.



This is where it feeds out.




I'm trying to figure out if replacing it with a Rainbow in line chlorinator is easy enough for me to do, or do I need to call the pool people to install. I'm a little leery of doing so, since they were the ones who installed the chlorinator this way in the first place.

I can see replacing the connection between the pump and filter since there was a hole drilled into it to install the venturi scoop, but what about the hole that was drilled into the return line? do I plug it with something?

[tkim6599]

And -- this is VERY IMPORTANT -- if you have a pool timer, do NOT allow it to turn the pump off for more than 12 hours at a time. Dangerous gases can accumulate in feeders when you do. Likewise, if you start up your pump, after leaving it off (for a power outage, whatever), get people out of the pool and away from the inlets. Trichlor feeder units can 'burp' chlorine gas when they've been left off for days.

I run the filter from midnight to 8am every night, and turn the filter on when the pool is in use, which is becoming pretty much every day with a daily vacuum session.

Would it be okay to use the vacuuming or pool use time as a way to not allow the pump to stay off for longer than 12 hours, or should I just run the pump 12 hours a day?