Intex questions

[Brokk]

There are many possible reasons why you might have air bubbles, but the two most likely are

1. Hydrogen gas produced by your SWCG

2. A small suction leak UPSTREAM of your pump.
However, if you can see into the return stream (@ "the chlorinator") than usually the bubbles would be visible.

So . . . test for hydrogen by disconnecting the power to the SWCG. If that stops the bubbles . . . you've found the source!

I had it off this morning when I was installing the auto cleaner, so when I saw bubbles coming out of the return, the chlorinator was not running. So that's not it.

I am amazed; is your Intex SWCG still producing chlorine after 4 years? You can test this by grabbing a sample of the water returning to the pool with the SWCG in an ON state, and comparing it with water on the opposite side of the pool.

Last year we took the summer off from having a pool. I think that was the fourth summer using it. It was generating chlorine fine at that time. No need to test. I never add chlorine. If it wasn't generating it, then the pool wouldn't have any at all, and it definitely was doing fine.

I do have to clean the "element?" at least twice/season as well as when I pack up the pool for the year.

The only issue I have really had over the years has been if it gets too hot (a week of 100 degree weather without it cooling down much at night), or an influx of biological material (my wife mowed the lawn for me once to be helpful, and didn't pay attention to the fact that the chute was blowing grass clippings into the pool). In both cases it is too much for the typical system that is running and can result in an explosion of algae.

This year I'm adding the auto cleaner and a solar blanket. My wife likes warm pool water.

I replaced the vinyl, because there was a screw up when we first ordered the pool. We only got 1/2 of it and it took weeks to straighten out. Amazon fixed the problem by sending us a complete pool and said "keep the extras". So I have some brand new parts and the vinyl pool was one of them. It was starting to look a bit worn 18 months back when I was packing things up and I knew we weren't going to use it the next summer, so I threw out the old one and this year unpacked the "spare". :-)

We are already on our second pump though. Is it worth it it to buy another one when this one dies, or is there a better grade pump that would be compatible with the Intex setup?