Adding CL with no circulation? Help!

[JimK]

My pump motor is dying. Today it was giving off a burning smell so I shut it off. Since I'm using a SWCG, I'll need to manually add bleach until the new motor arrives so my pool won't turn into a swamp.

How do I safely add bleach (8.25%) without a pump to circulate the water? Also, I have no clue how much bleach I should add each day to maintain at least 5ppm.

Help!

[Watermom]

In a 20K pool, each quart of 8.25% bleach will add about 1ppm of chlorine to your pool. You can use that as a reference to help you figure out doses of bleach to add. How high you need to keep the chlorine depends on what your CYA reading is. Take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below for more info.

You can pour the bleach slowly around the perimeter of your pool reaching as far from the edge as you can. Then, use a clean broom or oar or something to stir the water around as much as you can. Or, you can use a submersible pump.

Hope this helps!

[JimK]

In a 20K pool, each quart of 8.25% bleach will add about 1ppm of chlorine to your pool. You can use that as a reference to help you figure out doses of bleach to add. How high you need to keep the chlorine depends on what your CYA reading is. Take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below for more info.

You can pour the bleach slowly around the perimeter of your pool reaching as far from the edge as you can. Then, use a clean broom or oar or something to stir the water around as much as you can. Or, you can use a submersible pump.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the info.

My CYA is 80 so as i understand it the minimum CL using a SWCG is 4. I like to keep it between 5-6 to give a little wiggle room. I tested this morning and CL was 6.5. Since I don't know know much I'll lose during the day, I added 121oz of 8.25% bleach; that should raise it to about 10 or according to the pool calculator. I'll test again this evening to see how much is lost during the day which should help estimate how much CL to add each day.

For an extra safety net, I also added 1 Qt of polyquat 60. My borates are currently at 60, so I think I shouldn't have any algae problems while I'm waiting for the new pump motor.

Does it sound like I'm doing the right thing?

[Watermom]

Sorry to not get back to you sooner but I think your plan sounds fine.

[JimK]

Sorry to not get back to you sooner but I think your plan sounds fine.

Thanks. That's reassuring.

Ugh...still waiting for the pump motor to ship. The joys of ordering online. I did save over $100 compared to local price though. Hopefully the savings wont get eaten up in the cost of bleach while waiting for the motor.

The seals shipped though.

[JimK]

UPDATE:

Still no pump motor.

I've been adding 121oz of 8.25% bleach each day to maintian 6ppm of CL. Thankfully the water is still clear. I'm beginning to think I should have just spent the extra $100 to get the motor from the pool store. They would have also installed the seals and pump and we would be back to normal by now. Oh well, another pool lesson learned.

[JimK]

Motor still hasn't shipped.

I called the company and was told since it ships direct from the manufacturer they have no control over it and cannot expedite shipping. They're now saying it could take 7-10 business days to ship.

Meanwhile, I'm adding bleach every day and cleaning the pool the best I can with a net. The water is still clear, however, the finer stuff just goes through the net and isn't getting filtered out since the motor I have is just about dead (it will run, but is really loud and gives off a burning smell if ran more than a few minutes).

How long can a pool be properly maintained and sanitized without circulation?

Of course wouldn't you know we have company coming this weekend for a cookout/pool party. Will the pool be OK for swimming as long as I maintain good CL levels?

[Watermom]

It is fine for you to swim this weekend.

Last summer, we were hit by that huge derecho. Trees were down everywhere and my pool was full of leaves, tree branches and other sorts of debris. It was during a week where we had temps in the 100s every day. I lost my power for a full week. So did 80% of the rest of the people in the state. You couldn't find ice anywhere and we were miserable. The only thing that made that week bearable was having a pool. We stayed in it. I removed the branches, twigs, leaves, etc. I added bleach every day while we were in the pool and swirled and twirled and made waves and moved the water around as much as I could. The water stayed clear. Of course, I had no way to get the dirt off the bottom without a pump and vacuum but the water was clean and clear.

Go ahead and use the pool this weekend. As long as you have maintained proper chlorine levels, you will be fine.

[JimK]

It is fine for you to swim this weekend.

Last summer, we were hit by that huge derecho. Trees were down everywhere and my pool was full of leaves, tree branches and other sorts of debris. It was during a week where we had temps in the 100s every day. I lost my power for a full week. So did 80% of the rest of the people in the state. You couldn't find ice anywhere and we were miserable. The only thing that made that week bearable was having a pool. We stayed in it. I removed the branches, twigs, leaves, etc. I added bleach every day while we were in the pool and swirled and twirled and made waves and moved the water around as much as I could. The water stayed clear. Of course, I had no way to get the dirt off the bottom without a pump and vacuum but the water was clean and clear.

Go ahead and use the pool this weekend. As long as you have maintained proper chlorine levels, you will be fine.

Thanks for the encouragement. I've really been stressing over this.

[Watermom]

Don't stress. It will be fine. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.