A Cheap Pool Cooler

[duraleigh]

Don't worry too much about restricting the flow a little. Your filter pressure will rise and your gpm will drop some (you'll also use a little less electricity) but what you get in return is "hang time". You need to get the water up as high as possible so the evaporative process will have the most effect. (mine goes up about 20-25 feet). I have 4 1/4" holes and am probably running about 65-70% of my water thru the evaporator. The shower head idea will work probably as well....what you'll trade off in vertical height you may well make up for in droplet size.

I'm not sure you get the most "bang for your buck" running at night. The relative humidity is VERY much higher at night so less evaporation is possible. I run mine daytime only. Yesterday was about 93 degrees and the pool got up to around 83. Today and tomorrow will be 100......I'll be happy if I can stay below 86.

You may do somewhat better in Illinois and the folks in the desert could probably cool down into the 70's if they chose.

[VOLDADDY]

Dave,

I ordered 2 of the coolers from the other thread on water temps and I received them a few days ago. I had to go buy a "key" yesterday. My question is if I have these on my returns, won't this greatly reduce the effectiveness of my skimmer? The water won't be circulating around the pool, instead it will be going in the air. My skimmer doesn't work too well to begin with, so I guess I will be skimming my pool a lot more often. Do you leave yours in all the time, or remove and replace as needed? TIA.

[duraleigh]

VOL,

Your thinking is exactly what I have observed also. My circulation and subsequent effectiveness of the skimmers, is reduced by redirecting the return flow up into the spray.

My "device" unscrews pretty easy, so I take the sprayer off around 6:00pm and circulate the water normally for a couple of hours. The cooler ends up not quite being "free" to operate because I run my pump a little longer. For me, it's a small price.......water has yet to exceed 84 degrees.

[Rangeball]

Thanks. Hopefully I'll get a chance to play with this soon.

I had assumed the cooler night temps would offset the higher humidity.

[LindaE]

FYI--- I ordered a fairly inexpensive pool fountain from Target.com that fits into the 1 1/2" pvc return of my inground vinyl pool. It has no hose and doesn't interfere with my Kreepy. It works great and for those of you who are not handy men- go to Target.com and check it out.

[VOLDADDY]

I installed my pool coolers on my returns tonight and I must say so far so good. As soon as I installed them I turned the pump on and jumped back in. The water spraying back into the pool is about 10 degrees cooler. You can put your hand in the water and then stick it in the spray and it is day and night difference. It was very refreshing as I was swimming my laps to swim past the spraying water. Unfortunately, I have algae starting to develop in my pool so I shocked it and put my Aquabot in. I am leaving the pump running all night with the coolers attached. My water was a yucky 91 degrees tonight, and we have nothing but 95+ days ahead with heat indexes of over 100. I am hoping to get it under 85 degrees. Now I have to kill the algae!

[VOLDADDY]

Wow. My water temp was a miserable 91 Thursday night around 10 PM. Today, my water temp was a wonderful 82. Now, we did get a storm yesterday, but my water never cools this fast with just rain. I say if your water is too hot you definitely need to buy these, or be creative like Dave and fabricate them yourself. Now that I see them and see what they are in person, they don't look like they would be that hard to make yourself. It does work!