Can my pool stay home alone for 10 days?

[chem geek]

How many 3" pucks should I use? Can I put too many, and if so besides raising CYA what would too many do to my pool?

Amy,

Chuck's advice is a good "better safe than sorry". I'm glad he mentioned it though I don't think you'll be running out of chlorine nor getting algae.

I can't find in any of your posts where you said how many gallons of water you have in your pool. I'd need to know that to tell you how many pucks to use and what the effect would be. As an example, one 3" Tri-Chlor puck adds 2.54 ppm of chlorine and 2.1 ppm of CYA into my 16,000 gallon pool and lowers the pH by 0.07 (when the TA is 110). If you use too many pucks, you will have more chlorine (not a problem), lower your pH more (could be a problem if it drops too much), and add CYA into your pool (only a problem if this were a lot). I wouldn't worry at all about the amount of chlorine and even CYA you will be adding to your pool. It's really only an issue if you use pucks all summer long. I'd be more worried about the effect on pH which is why we recommend beefing up your alkalinity level (TA) and starting with a higher pH to somewhat reduce that effect.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. For 10 days, just throw in 3 pucks in a slow flow feeder and I think you'll be fine unless your pool is much larger than mine. Just start out with your pH at 7.7 to play it safe.

Richard

[ChuckD]

I routinely leave my pool for a couple weeks at a time with only someone to add a bit of chlorine once a week. I leave it with a solar cover on that's been cut to fit the water surface and the pump runs twice a day for four hours at a time. No pucks for me, thank you.

I added a maintenance dose poly60 (one quart for my 22,000 gals.) at the beginning of the season in May, and two weeks ago when I discovered a small bit of algae appearing in areas where the water didn't get much circulation. My water's always crystal clear.

As I've said before, I think the Poly60 is a CYA (the other kind) and good insurance.

If your CYA (the real one) is at 20, I agree with the others, three pucks in a floater, cover it and have a holiday. If your CYA was high I'd say the punctured Clorox bottles would be the way to go.

C.

[tenax]

i just got back from 8 days away with temps in the mid to high 20's everyday i was away. pool was covered with a solar cover for the whole period, timer was set for 2 -6 hour cycles each day,my normal. what i did was dumped in a full jug of chlorine night before i left then 2 pucks that morning (big round ones) when i came back saturday, i was very pleased how clean the pool was. i had some leaves on the bottom that came in around the edge of the cover, but the water was very clear. pucks were completely dissolved (so maybe 3 would have worked a touch better) and 2 very small streaks of algae. i vacuumed the pool, checked the chlorine and it was at a marginal level. dumped in a full jug of chlorine and the levels are great on all chems today. my cya level runs about 40ppm.

[AnnaK]

What an interesting thread and applicable to many of us. Like Amy in Raleigh, we live out in the boonies and couldn't possibly ask anyone to come and care for the pool during our absence. My husband, also named Richard and also a chemist, likes Richard's scientific approach, of course. I like the strung up bleach bottles, an elegant and inventive fix.

i just got back from 8 days away with temps in the mid to high 20's everyday i was away.

That would be Centigrade, yes? Because if it's Farenheit you're keeping your pool open even longer than we do

pool was covered with a solar cover for the whole period, timer was set for 2 -6 hour cycles each day,my normal. what i did was dumped in a full jug of chlorine night before i left then 2 pucks that morning (big round ones)

Question about using the pucks in the floating dispenser with a solar pool cover. Our solar cover is also cut to fit the water surface. I liked the suggestion of tieing the floater to a string to keep it from touching the sides of the pool, but won't the solar cover prevent the floater from floating?

We're going to be gone for several days and we cannot leave the pump running, and we don't have a timer. Hence, either the floater or the suspended bleach bottles sound like a decent solution.

[ChuckD]

Anna, is your pump 110V? Mine is and I use a <$20 timer from ACE Hardware. I feel strongly that some circulation is important and even if you only run it for a couple hours a day it can help.

I think you could get away with pushing the floater out away from the side of the pool before lowering the cover on it.

Chuck

[AnnaK]

Anna, is your pump 110V? Mine is and I use a <$20 timer from ACE Hardware. I feel strongly that some circulation is important and even if you only run it for a couple hours a day it can help.

Yes, it's a 110V but it's hard wired. There's no way of plugging in a timer. Eventually, we'll hire an electrician to either wire in a timer or to change the setup to a plug-in, but for now, things are as they are

I think you could get away with pushing the floater out away from the side of the pool before lowering the cover on it.

Ok, thanks. A load off my mind.

[Spensar]

10 days can be a long time, despite the best laid plans, etc., you can easily be looking at a discoloured or green pool. Lots of variable, including hot spells. What I do is buy the regular sized bleach containers and have whoever is feeding the cats while I'm away put in a jug every two days. Mark dates on them with marker if you want. The idea is to keep it really quick and easy for them, and I know the chlorine level is good. For this period of time I figure keeping the Chlorine high enough to prevent a bloom is the #1 thing, and I can balance out PH, etc. after I'm back.

This is for an inground 32x16, so if yours is smaller, space the jug to 3 days or whatever you need. I also invite them to use the pool as much as they want, as I like to have it stirred up. My pump is on 24/7 since I don't have a timer. It's cheaper and easier than having to shock, filter and vacum a pool back from a mess.