How Fast Is A Salt Water Generator?

[drumfunky]

I have my levels of salt right and was wondering how fast the SWG produces chlorine? What kind of jump should I see. It's a new Jandy and I have it at 60 percent. How long do you generally leave the SWG on?

Thanks.

Monte

[quantumchromodynamics]

The Jandy Aquapure 700 is rated at 0.625 Lbs per 24 hour. The Jandy Aquapure 1400 is rated at 1.25 Lbs per 24 hour.

The percentage you need to use depends on your pump run time and your total chlorine demand. The unit only runs when the pump is on. The unit run time per day is the pump run time X the percent. Therefore, a pump that runs 12 hours a day and a unit set for 60 percent will generate chlorine for 7.2 hours per day.

For example, running the Jandy Aquapure 1400 at 20 % on a system that runs continuously will generate 1.5 ppm of chlorine per day in a 20,000 gallon pool, which would be about right. If the pump run time were 12 hours per day, then the chlorinator output would have to be increased to 40 % to generate the same amount of chlorine.

How many gallons is your pool?

How long do you run the pump each day?

What model of chlorinator do you have?

What is your cyanuric acid level?

You will have to do some experimenting to find the optimal run time for your unit.

[mlobitz]

My pool's around 15000 gal with a pump run time of 4 hours on high(Jandy Stealth - I think it's a 1.5HP). The Aquapure 1400 is set at 60%. I'm not getting but maybe 1 ppm on these hot(100+ deg.) days. Should I crank up the cell or the pump run time? Or...is this just the way it goes with the hot days? Will running the pump on low (say...3 hours high and 3 hours low)produce the same amount of chlorine at a higher concentration as the volume of water is decreased?

Thanks!

[Pool Clown]

I would increase the run time and run it on slow, if there is enough flow to run the A/P that is. If there isn't, i'd still run the pump longer, even if on high. On hot days, you should be running the pump longer anyways (bather load, and heat).

[quantumchromodynamics]

Will running the pump on low (say...3 hours high and 3 hours low) produce the same amount of chlorine at a higher concentration as the volume of water is decreased?

Yes, the amount of chlorine produced by the cell, when it is on, is the same regardless of the flow rate (assuming the flow rate is sufficient to trigger the unit to turn on).

I agree with PC about longer run times. You should also increase your cell percent as well. You should have about 60 to 80 ppm of cyanuric acid and you should be maintaining an FC of 4.0 to 5.5 at all times.

[Pool Clown]

I suggest running the cell as low as you can get away with. The lower the percent, the longer the cell will last.

[quantumchromodynamics]

The cell needs to be run enough to produce the amount of chlorine needed. I don't think that it matters if it is run 24 hours a day at 20 %, or 12 hours a day at 40 %, or 8 hours a day at 60 %. In each of these cases, the cell runs for the same total amount of time, and produces the same amount of chlorine.

[chem geek]

That is correct. When the cell is set for 20%, that just means it's "on" 20% of the time, not that it's at a lower power. So no matter how you set things up with shorter pump times and higher SWG % on-time or vice versa, if the total chlorine output per day is the same the wear on the SWG is the same. The SWG wear is related to the current density times time -- that is, the current per plate area times time. So getting a larger SWG will have it last longer since you won't have to have it on as long and larger SWG cells don't cost proportionately more. So generally, you should get larger cells -- not something that will require close to 100% for maintaining chlorine in the pool.

[Pool Clown]

Yes, bad post. What i was trying to convey (poorly) is that, if you choose to run the pump longer, you could turn the unit down, (percent wise) providing your original percent setting was adequate. And if you do choose to turn up (Cl generator) to compensate for hot days, that you should turn the unit back down when the heat wave passes, or you may begin to get Cl levels that are undesirable.

Keep in mind that you are taking advise from a clown...

[drumfunky]

OK, here is an update and thanks everyone for your help.

I have a Jandy Ei APURE35PLG. My pool is 26,000 gallons. I think my Phosphate levels were throwing the chlorine levels off.

They are at 1000. I added some PHOSFree by Natural Chemistry. Has anyone used that? It's really expensive stuff.

Is there a cheaper way to knock down the Phosphate levels?

[chem geek]

See my response to your same question here.

[Erinn]

I have a 17,000 gallon pool that was recently converted to saltwater with a Circu-pool RJ-45 Plus generator.  Can someone please advise what percentage I should be running the generator at, to achieve a clorine reading of 3ppm? The pump and generator run for 10 hours per day.