Autopilot And Bubbles- Riddle Me This

[tenax]

hmmm..interesting..i hope poolsean will stop by with some thoughts...sounds like pretty much exactly what happened to me. now, this may "burst your bubble", (bad joke, i know) but my cell was inside all winter (i have a pvc piece with unions on each end that goes where the manifold goes until i have the pool pretty close to cleaned right up. i simply attributed it if not something else with my pool, to the high output level i accidentally ran. i certainly am not thrilled at the idea of having a bunch of bubbles every time i want to use my pool..we'll see how it goes tomorrow..i'm running my heater starting at 3am until i get home so it's swim ready and i'll be leaving the autopilot off but i don't anticipate any problems..just not as much fun or nice to look at a pool with what appears to be a bunch of white scum all over the place (and i can confirm it definitely was coming from the returns and the autopilot. the water was quite clear as it the cloud started to come out and it very quick turned into clusters of very tiny bubbles all over the place and it was coming from both returns. like i said, it stopped almost immediately when i shut off the autopilot. for reference, i'm running the soft touch version. it occurred to me to take off the top part and check that filter thing in there that looks like a tea bag holder, but given my flow is fine and it's downstream from my heater, i can't believe there would be any issue there.

[Poolsean]

Bubbles are a normal part of chlorine generation. Most pools have equalized flow or tend to see these bubbles come out of the closest return jet to your equipment. When this jet is reduced in oriface size, it forces more flow to the other jets so the bubbles are less noticable. Its not all cases, in fact most cases, the bubbles are very small and not noticable.
The bubbles are not all hydrogen, some are oxygen.

Question: What size pipes and hp pump do you have? Do you have a pool spa combination?

[CanuckPool]

I think we all know bubbles are a result of Chlorine generation... not visible during the day but more so at night in front of the lights. But I think what we are experiencing is a LARGE mass of bubbles, almost cloudlike, very visible during the day on initial opening, but after that it doesn't come back until I presume... the next opening.

[tenax]

Bubbles are a normal part of chlorine generation. Most pools have equalized flow or tend to see these bubbles come out of the closest return jet to your equipment. When this jet is reduced in oriface size, it forces more flow to the other jets so the bubbles are less noticable. Its not all cases, in fact most cases, the bubbles are very small and not noticable.
The bubbles are not all hydrogen, some are oxygen.

Question: What size pipes and hp pump do you have? Do you have a pool spa combination?

i would agree, canuck on large mass of bubbles. sean, i have a pool only. the pipes are 1.5 inch except for 2 inch intake and outtake on the pump. the pump is a 3/4 hp uprated to 1 hp sta-rite max-e-glass. i had a true 3/4 hp sta-rite dynaglass before. i did have initially a few small leaks..not enough to show any air bubbles rising from my 2 pool returns but enough to hiss a bit. i patched those on the pvc and all is quiet now, only a few small bubbles in my pump view window. nothing has been changed equipment wise since i installed the autopilot and used last season. the biggest difference really is:

a) i've never ran my chlorine as high as it was running yesterday until i turned it down.

b) the temperature is not as hot outside or in the pool as it was last year given i'm about 1.5 months earlier in starting to run a salt water generator.

ps- i believe i ran my salt level at about 2500 last year rather than 3400-3500 as i currently do so there is likely more "effect" of the chlorine level with the generator than last year to factor in.

[tenax]

well, i'm up to 83 degrees on the pool (85 on my heater..i'm told there's about 2 degrees difference between heater temp and temp read at pool surface) . i didn't run the autopilot at all today until i got home. the air temperature was about 85 at peak. took the cover off..no bubbles even though pump and heater had been running since i went to work at 5am..i swam the first swim of the season..lovely.. i can taste a bit of a salt taste, smell a bit of a chlorine smell but nothing as strong as using bleach or pucks (i commented to my son that you can smell your skin right after it dries and it smells kind of fresh/clean but not that strong smell from regular chlorine. the water was clear and silky. i turned on the autopilot for one hour at i'm not sure what level..2nd output light up and 8 presses of the raise button (so maximum indicator before it would go to the 3rd light up. within 5 minutes, white bubbles start forming..not nearly as many as the day before but...so i'm wondering if i just live with that and that's the way it is? lower my output to only one light and monitor chlorine? i didn't do a kit test again today but i would imagine given i had the cover on and 60 cya level that it's still way up there if it was 15 yesterday..but don't know if dissipation of the existing chlorine would make a difference..i just didn't expect so many bubbles..today, switching the surface skimmer only, on cleared them in about 4 minutes after i turned the autopilot off.

[tenax]

hmm..so, ran the autopilot, heater and pump for the most part today at one full light concentration. it auto compensated at some point today up to the 2nd light (don't think it's a full 4 clicks of that light though) zero bubbles. weird..