Over Chlorinated Water

Chlorinating, maintaining the right chlorine levels,
chlorine problems. Dichlor, trichlor, cal hypo, bleach,
granules, chlorine pucks and chlorine sticks.
smcrea
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Joined: Tue 15 Jul, 2008 12:24

Over Chlorinated Water

Postby smcrea » Sun 05 Apr, 2009 22:44

Our Pool is just over a month old. Last Thursday the pool company installed the chlorine generator. They left it running for 24 hours. When I looked at it I noticed that the output was set to 60%

I checked my free chlorine and it was of the chart. This was on Friday. I immediately set the chlorine generator to 0% in other words switched it off.

I checked it again today and Sunday 3 days later and the free Chlorine is still 9ppm!!


My CYA is = 50ppm
TA = 90ppm
Ph = 7.5
CH = 220ppm
Combined Chlorine = 0ppm
Free Chorine = 9ppm


I am very reluctant to add any chlorine reducing chemicals, I like to add as little as possible and keep my scaling index within spec.

Has anyone got any ideas?.. how long will it take in southern California sun to burn off the Chlorine? any other suggestions?

Thanks!!


chem geek
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Location: San Rafael, California

Over Chlorinated Water

Postby chem geek » Mon 06 Apr, 2009 01:49

9 ppm FC with 50 ppm CYA has the same active chlorine concentration as 0.18 ppm FC with no CYA. It is not extremely high and far less than found in most indoor pools with no CYA in it. As long as you don't drink the water, you aren't going to see any effects from this level of chlorine (even then, you'd have to drink a LOT of water). I wouldn't worry about it.

At that CYA level and typical southern CA sun this time of year, I'd expect you to lose from 1/4 to 1/3rd of the chlorine in one day if exposed to direct sunlight.

Richard
Pooltech32
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Joined: Thu 06 Jul, 2006 20:43

Over Chlorinated Water

Postby Pooltech32 » Mon 06 Apr, 2009 23:11

Also note that some salt systems have a preset limit for generating chlorine, the ones we have even if you turn the dial right down will still generate chlorine at 5% rate, that does not sound like much but could be enough to add some time to lowering your chlorine, I agree with Richard, 9ppm is not something I would worry about, just turn the system off and check it every day, should not take long. Oh and let the sun on it.
Pool repair guy
smcrea
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Posts: 33
Joined: Tue 15 Jul, 2008 12:24

Over Chlorinated Water

Postby smcrea » Sun 12 Apr, 2009 02:29

Thanks for your help!!

After about a week, the FC seems to have settled to around 4ppm even though the chlorine generator is set to 0%.

It really does look like the unit is generating chlorine despite being at 0%.

I have a Pentair intellichlor unit.. the smaller one of the two models. My pool is 10,000 gallons exactly ( I know this because I metered the first fill)

So can we confirm that an intellichlor does output FC even though it's set to 0%? That's a disturbing discovery if this is true. I would prefer the unit to do what it's telling me it's doing!! :)

Thanks!

Steve.
Pooltech32
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Posts: 75
Joined: Thu 06 Jul, 2006 20:43

Over Chlorinated Water

Postby Pooltech32 » Sun 12 Apr, 2009 16:53

I don't know off hand, I only have 1 pool with that system and it is brand new so we have not even started using it yet try reserching it online, sorry I could not anwser your question
Pool repair guy

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