Use the Kreepy Klear?

[rifraf]

I am a new pool owner and thought that I had it easy with this pool: concrete/pebble ~10k-12k gallons. Since buying the home in Feb, I was using 3" tabs with luck, but with the increased sun and heat, my Cl and CYA levels have now become out of balance (seems to be a common problem with the tabs). The thought of dealing with liquid bleach (on daily basis?!?!?!) seems like a lot of work (our cat litter box suffers from the same laziness ).

The pool has a Kreepy Klear unit that doesn't appear to have been used in a long time. It also looks like that SWC has been discontinued, which makes me wonder if I should even consider trying to use it? I have no instruction manual for it, but I assume it's going to be as simple as bring a salt level up to 3000ppm or so and adjusting the dial until I'm happy with the daily Cl level.

So, my questions:

Does the SWC only run when the pump is running?
Does anyone have a manual for a Kreepy Klear (maybe I should contact Pentair)?
When I plug it in, the Service light is on, what could that mean?
Is there a way to check it out before I go add a ton of salt to the water?
What do you use for salt, just sea salt or something from the supermarket?

In the winter, when sunlight levels are much, much lower, should I go back to the tabs (which only seemed to disolve at the rate of 1-2/mo, now it's 2-3 per week).


Thanks!
- Rif

[thepoolman1]

The unit you have probably doesn't work. They performed fairly well when they were new, but didn't last very long. Auto Clear (the manufacturer) was bought by Polaris, not Pentair. It is doubtful that you will find support for your unit.