New AutoPilot help

[poolbee]

I have had the Digital 220 installed on my pool since last week. Today 2 guys from pool builder came today and dumped 550 lbs of salt into my pool with NO stabilizer. They set the Pilot for 51% output and left. Now it has jumped up to 100% output. Is it supposed to do that? From everything I've read on here it is not recommended to run the Pilot at 100% because of wear on the cell-correct? Shouldn't stabilizer been added with the salt? My pool builder service tech has been telling me for days that the AutoPilot rep will come over but he hasn't yet. My pool has been running on a packet of shock every few days up until today.

Is there a recommemded brand of CYA to use and should I add it or wait and hope the rep shows up some time soon? I have an approx. 23,000 gallon pool. AutoPilot recommends CYA at 60-80. How much would I add to get it to 60?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Sardian]

Using the Bleach Calculator found here: http://home.earthlink.net/~mwsmith70...achCalc262.exe

You can click on "More Calcs" at the top left and you'll see a calculator for CYA. It tells me that for a 23000 gal pool with NO CYA you'll need 11 pounds to get it to 60.

But the only problem here is you really need to know for sure what your CYA is NOW!! I would guess it's zero but I would test it to be sure.

I would download the program and play around with it. MWSmith2 here at the forum made the program and here is a link to a thread which discusses it: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1637

Hope this helps.

Russell

[poolbee]

Thanks, I'll check it out. I called AutoPilot guy yesterday and he said he'd come by , then called at 4 and said he couldn't so another day without any sanitizer in my pool(day 12 I think this is). He said he'd TRY to get here today. I am not holding my breath. I think the only thing keeping me from a real mess in my pool is the cool weather we have been having lately but that is going to change by tomorrow.
BTW I have a vinyl pool so I don't believe there is a waiting period to start up the SWG.

[Davenj]

Was the water cold when they started the SWG say low 60's. I noticed mine which I had set at 18% when it was in the low 60's and goes up to 52% when the water went up to 84. What size cell are you using. I have about the same size pool.

[Rangeball]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the SWG is working, it is continually super chlorinating the water in the cell, even if the chlorine is eventually lost to the sun when returned to the pool.

I wouldn't panic.

[Davenj]

Its not good for the life of the cell to keep it at 100%. I use a 48 cell set at power level 2 and reduced it 43%, water temp. 84. Keeps my cl at 2ppm with a cya of 60.

[nater]

Poolbee,
Have you tested your water to know how balanced everything is?

You can refer to your Autopilot manual, or download one off their website to see the recomended ranges for pH, Salinity, Alk, CYA, etc. They pretty much mirror the best practices preached here on the forum (excluding the CYA).

If you've got salt in the pool, power to the unit, flow through the cell, and no error messages on the unit, you are producing chlorine.

Search the forum for all kinds of good info on Autopilot operation. I'm sure you'll be very pleased once you learn the ins and outs of the unit, I know I am!

[PatL34]

You definitely need CYA in the pool with a SWCG. At about 60-80 ppm for most pools. The reason is the cell produces a high instantaneous chlorine concentration and a fair amount is immediately used in destroying the chloramines in the water at the cell. The CYA prevents the remaining chlorine from being used up until it gets into the pool itself.

I think that is what Poolsean or Mark mentioned but I may be corrected.

Pat