Pool maintenance

[Guroo]

I recently had a 24' above ground pool put in and one of the things that was included was a automatic timer for the pump. I have had it suggested to me that I only needed to run the pump for 4-6 hours at night and a few hours during the day. While the reduced electrical cost sounded good. I wondered if anyone had any experience with doing this and keeping the pool chemistry in line. I have an in-line chlorinator and I wondered if when I reduce the amount of time the pump is running if i should increase the amount of chemicals that are released during that time. Or is this going to be one of those things I will just have to try and monitor the chemistry as I go? has anyone done this with their pool? have any issues that arose?

Thanks,
G

[suemarkp]

I would run the pool pump during the day unless electricity costs you much less at night. The duration of time the pump needs to run depends on how many gallons of water are in the pool and how many GPM are flowing through the pump. The goal is to run all the pool water through the filter once per day. For me, this means about 8 hours of run time. If you have an algae problem, you may need to run it 24 hrs a day for up to a week.

I run during the day because it is warmer then and I think I'll get the pool hotter by circulating when the sun is out. I think I'll lose less heat at night by having water that doesn't circulate.

Once you pick your pump timing, you'll need to adjust the chlorine feeder to keep the chlorine about right. This can be difficult based on how sunny it is, how many swimmers you have, and how much dirt/leaves/bugs get into the pool. If you're using stabilized chlorine (the solid sticks or tablets), its better to err on not using enough and make up any shortages with unstabilized chlorine (calcium hypochlorite) as often as necessary during the day.

When you chlorine shock, that is done best at night, and also with unstabilized chlorine. In this case, you should circulate the water for a while (an hour or so) then it can sit stagnant. Chlorine lasts longer when the sun is down.

I usually have an "on" time set on my timer for 9:00am, an "off" at 5:00, and another "off" at 10:00. This way, I can dump shock into the pool around 8:00 or 9:00 at night, manually turn the pump on, and the second off stop will turn it off at 10:00.