[beachhead]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

There is an alternative: run your pool water through a Reverse Osmosis system to clean it. It returns quite pure H2O to the pool, and dumps the hardness minerals, CYA and other things in the water down the drain.

This company does it locally: http://neverdrainyourpool.com/what-is-it/

This sounds great, but any idea on cost? It cost me $30 in increased water bill to fill my pool this spring. Something tells me it would be hard to beat that. And it's my understanding they recycle the waste water, so there is really no "waste" in doing this if you pump into the sewer system. Although you do end up without any calcium, so that would be nice for a couple years.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by beachhead

This sounds great, but any idea on cost? It cost me $30 in increased water bill to fill my pool this spring. Something tells me it would be hard to beat that. And it's my understanding they recycle the waste water, so there is really no "waste" in doing this if you pump into the sewer system. Although you do end up without any calcium, so that would be nice for a couple years.

I don't know how much it costs, but clearly their competition is the drain-and-refill, so it must be comparable or less. If it only cost you $30 to drain & refill, that's quite affordable. I would have guessed it cost much more.

Typically, this type of setup is done with several RO membranes run in series. Each membrane generates two outputs: clean water (down near 5 PPM of TDS), and wastewater, which is very high in TDS. The clean water goes back to the pool, and the wastewater goes into a 2nd RO membrane. Again there are two outputs: clean water and wastewater. The ratio of clean to waste is different this 2nd time around.

They may run several membranes in series, and ultimately the remaining wastewater that goes to the sewer has a ton of calcium and other minerals and dissolved solids in it.

So yes, there is wastewater generated. It is not completely wastewater-free.

As a note, you don't want *all* the dissolved calcium removed from the pool water. The sides of the swimming pool are a mixture of portland cement and clean, fine sand. A primary component of portland cement is Calcium Silicate. If you run pool water with zero calcium, the water will leach the calcium out of the walls of the pool. Not a good thing.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I don't know how much it costs, but clearly their competition is the drain-and-refill, so it must be comparable or less. If it only cost you $30 to drain & refill, that's quite affordable. I would have guessed it cost much more.

Over on TFP, the few people that have had it done said it was in the several hundreds of dollars range.

It's not cost effective in Las Vegas. It's more for people who either can't refill their pool (during the drought we were not allowed to refill pools in CA), or who feel guilty about dumping all that water into the sewer.

The owners of TFP also don't have anything good to say about the people behind PuriPool. They stole a lot of content off of TFP and put it on their site.

[beachhead]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

I don't know how much it costs, but clearly their competition is the drain-and-refill, so it must be comparable or less. If it only cost you $30 to drain & refill, that's quite affordable. I would have guessed it cost much more.

Typically, this type of setup is done with several RO membranes run in series. Each membrane generates two outputs: clean water (down near 5 PPM of TDS), and wastewater, which is very high in TDS. The clean water goes back to the pool, and the wastewater goes into a 2nd RO membrane. Again there are two outputs: clean water and wastewater. The ratio of clean to waste is different this 2nd time around.

They may run several membranes in series, and ultimately the remaining wastewater that goes to the sewer has a ton of calcium and other minerals and dissolved solids in it.

So yes, there is wastewater generated. It is not completely wastewater-free.

As a note, you don't want *all* the dissolved calcium removed from the pool water. The sides of the swimming pool are a mixture of portland cement and clean, fine sand. A primary component of portland cement is Calcium Silicate. If you run pool water with zero calcium, the water will leach the calcium out of the walls of the pool. Not a good thing.

Sounds like an interesting process. Thank you for mental picture. And I do understand a zero calcium condition is not good, but it would be nice to at least start out in the recommended range.. I just wonder if that would help the never ending appetite for acid my pool seems to have (1/2 gallon ever 2 days in summer, stretching it to 3 now)

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by MediocreButArrogant

Over on TFP, the few people that have had it done said it was in the several hundreds of dollars range.

It's not cost effective in Las Vegas. It's more for people who either can't refill their pool (during the drought we were not allowed to refill pools in CA), or who feel guilty about dumping all that water into the sewer.

The owners of TFP also don't have anything good to say about the people behind PuriPool. They stole a lot of content off of TFP and put it on their site.

Good to know.

What is TFP, by the way? I assume it is a competitor of PuriPool.

[qingguy]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

Good to know.

What is TFP, by the way? I assume it is a competitor of PuriPool.

I got a quote ealier this year, I think it was around $700 if memory serves me correctly.

TFP = Trouble Free Pool, it's a forum of pool enthusiasts who thumb our noses at pool stores and the products they peddle to keep your pool clean. I've been doing their pool care method for three seasons with great success. I laugh every time I go to Leslie's to buy acid and take a pool sample for them just to see how wrong they are.

Very simple method of maintaining your pool. I buy a bucket of pucks to float in the winter, some bleach to pour in after a party to get my chlorine level back-up vs. maxing out my salt water chlorine generator out and about 4 gallons of acid a month, that's it. Very affordable method of maintaining your pool, my water has been crystal clear for 3 years without having to shock etc.

There are also forums for new pool builds, equipment, testing your water etc. Highly recommend looking at them.

Search for my handle on there, my pool build is documented there, you'll laugh, you'll cry, it's an entertaining read.

[wyzd]

Originally Posted by LVAllen

No need to. The water was always crystal clear, the pH was perfect, and it was a joy to swim in. Since I kept the pH where it needed to be, I never had a problem with scaling.

Thank for all the advice! I am also new here. But I couldn't believe you never of a problem with scaling. I thought the scaling is mainly because the water evaporates into the air and leaves the salt behind, especially a problem for the dry climate. If this is the case I cannot see how a good pH and chlorine level can help with that. Do I understand this wrong?

[equid0x]

Originally Posted by qingguy

I got a quote ealier this year, I think it was around $700 if memory serves me correctly.

TFP = Trouble Free Pool, it's a forum of pool enthusiasts who thumb our noses at pool stores and the products they peddle to keep your pool clean. I've been doing their pool care method for three seasons with great success. I laugh every time I go to Leslie's to buy acid and take a pool sample for them just to see how wrong they are.

Very simple method of maintaining your pool. I buy a bucket of pucks to float in the winter, some bleach to pour in after a party to get my chlorine level back-up vs. maxing out my salt water chlorine generator out and about 4 gallons of acid a month, that's it. Very affordable method of maintaining your pool, my water has been crystal clear for 3 years without having to shock etc.

There are also forums for new pool builds, equipment, testing your water etc. Highly recommend looking at them.

Search for my handle on there, my pool build is documented there, you'll laugh, you'll cry, it's an entertaining read.

I concur with this... Aside from my scale issue(which I believe was my own fault) the water has been crystal clear following the methods on TFP.

[equid0x]

Originally Posted by wyzd

Thank for all the advice! I am also new here. But I couldn't believe you never of a problem with scaling. I thought the scaling is mainly because the water evaporates into the air and leaves the salt behind, especially a problem for the dry climate. If this is the case I cannot see how a good pH and chlorine level can help with that. Do I understand this wrong?

From my understanding of this, the scaling occurs when the pH remains too high and the calcium precipitates from the water because it falls out of solution. To control the issue, one would either need sequestration chemicals, or to simply keep the LSI/CSI within an optimal range. This isn't too difficult if you use the app and take correct measurements. I've managed to mostly reverse the problem in my pool by simply keeping the CSI a little low and aggressively brushing the pool. Once the problem is gone, I can return to normal CSI levels.

I use the app called "Pool Pal" that tells you what the optimum levels should be and how many of which chemicals to add... Appears to be fairly accurate.

[WestieJeff]

Anyone running salt cells, how long are you going between cleaning and how often are you replacing your cell?

I have a Hayward Aquarite T-15 (40,000 gal) salt system. My pool is 15,000 gal, but I upsize to be able to run the generator at less than 100% during the summer and maybe make it last longer.

I've had the system since early 2011 and the salt cells are lasting about 1.5 years each. The warranty is 3 years so I usually get one warranty replacement and usually the second one dies a few months after the warranty expires. On the cleaning end of things, I am finding I have to clean my cell every one month typically.

The first two years I had the system, I was pretty rigorous about keeping the PH < 8.0 which required adding around a gallon of acid per week (less in the winter). The cell still died in 1.5 years and I don't recall it increasing the length of time between cell cleanings. I eventually got tired of hauling so much acid so for the last couple years I've completely ignored PH levels in the pool. I just clean the cell when it's due.

My cell just died again this weekend. Trying to decide if I should just replace the cell again or possibly look at going to a different system entirely.