Salt in pool HELP

[Sacramento Dave]

I just installed a Aqua Rite Electronic Chlorine Generator made by Goldline Controls Inc. Everything went smooth, Plumbing the turbo cell & flow meter was a lot easier than I thought.Wiring the electronic control was a breeze even for me with a limited knowledge of electrical stuff. Now hears were I'm having a problem, the pool supply said I need 550 Lbs. of salt ( the electric flow in the turbo cell turns the salt into chlorine) they only had 400Lbs he said to put the bags of salt in the pool and spread them around they will dissolve in a couple hours. So that's what I did , well it's been 2 days the bags are still sitting on the bottom of the pool. The water is pretty cold , maybe it's just to cold to dissolve the bags? Maybe they have been on the shelf to long? I did get the last he had. If I could get them out I could take them back for new ones. My son said he would get in and get them , but besides the cold water he is only 10, 50Lbs. bags would be hard to lift for him. Maybe me and my wife could get them but she can hardly swim.I should of known everything was going to smooth any suggestions? Thanks in advance Dave Bulinya

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Just put some chlorine in the pool to jump start it. The chlorine will attack the plastic bags and in a few months, they will break open enough to get the salt out and it will dissolve.

[Shopdog]

Were you supposed to put the entire bag of salt in the pool or should you have broken the bags open and spread the contents around? I wouldn't think that a bag would disolve in a couple of days. I don't have a pool but just adding my thoughts

Searcher

[Travis Jordan]

I think that by 'spread them around' he meant the contents of the bags, not the bags themselves.

[Toller]

Yeah, old salt takes forever to dissolve. Nothing you can do about it now but to drain the pool.

[Shopdog]

Drain the pool!!!

I love it..

Searcher

[Mark and Gloria Hagwood]

I have a strong suspicion that this is a troll or (pretty decent) humor.

I have an identical system and it's great when it works. Unfortunately, I've had terrible problems with the system that came with the house. It was the older analog version and the Turbocell would fail every year or two, despite being kept very clean. Nobody ever had a reason for the failure. Finally, I replaced my analog system with the newer digital version. Most of the items were the same, except for the diagnostics. So far, so good.

My reason for making this post is that I possibly have come up with what might have contributed to the problem or even been the problem. In the literature, you are told to occasionally immerse the cell in dilute HCL to boil out the deposits. I did this 3-4 times a year, using a 5-gallon bucket. In the digital version's information book, it states that you should also be careful to NOT immerse the outer part of the cell where the wiring harness connects.

That would be virtually impossible to do in a 5-gallon bucket. In my case, I used an extra plumber's union, connected to a short capped off 2" piece of PVC to make a dead end for the cell. Now, I can remove it from the system and screw on the dead end, standing it upright. I then premix a dilute HCL solution and pour it into the upright cell. Nothing ever gets on the outside or by the wiring harness.

Goldline now will SELL you an already made up device that does precisely this. Perhaps they've learned what causes the problem as well, now. It is a good investment.

Mark

[Sacramento Dave]

I'm not a troll I post hear all the time.

[PipeDown]

In that case, get a stick, reach in the pool and tear the bags open.

Old salt will dissolve in water just as good as new salt. Old salt may have absorbed some moisture from the air making it cake up but it still should disslove in water just fine.

If you had oversaturated the pool with salt, the water would taste like the ocean. (slightly salty is fine) and you would float better. Cold water will hold less salt but you should be nowhere near the saturation point at any temp.

[Shopdog]

Dave, Did you really throw the salt in the pool, bag and all?

I just can't stand the not knowing

[Stan]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Isn't all salt old salt? They don't "make" it any more.

[Sacramento Dave]

I have been taking the water out of the pool to get to the bags, but the shop-vac fills up quicker than I thought.I might be able to hire a diver, that will be 20$ plus an hour. It must be the curse of the family name

[Sacramento Dave]

If that was true it would be sold by now and would not be in this perdickerment (sp. Stan)

[Stan]

Also; the slowly dissolving bag of salt is an old smugglers trick!

They sink their contraband liquor in a bag or net in a known spot offshore with a line to a small buoy. Then sink the buoy with a bag of salt that would slowly dissolve in our cold seawater (presently about 1 degree Celsius (34 F). A few days later the buoy rises to the surface.

And BTW when we say 'bag' we mean one made of 'brin' or sacking. The fashionable term for which, these days, maybe 'burlap'?

The now innocent 'fisherman' quietly recovers his contraband and brings it ashore.

Recently someone was looking for a shorter trip than possible, at this time of year, with the twice weekly ferry, to the French islands. Someone on a local news group suggested, quite seriously, "Ask one of the local smugglers to take you over; you could then come back on the ferry"! Clean trip both ways.

[Shopdog]

OK, this just keeps getting better, now theres a diver involved, and the pools being drained.

OK, heres a suggestion, put on your trunks, grab a razor knife jump in pool / slice bags open / get out / take hot shower. Obviously your in Sacramento, weather there right now is 70 and sunny, shouldn't take you more than 10 min.

Or, heres a thought, go to the aquarium store and buy a large tank heater, put it in your pool and wait for the water temp to come up to a more comfortable level.

Searcher

[Grumman-581]

Shop-vac? Diver? Either you're a troll or an idiot... On the other hand, it's quite likely that you're both...

On the odd chance that you're just an idiot, tape a box cutter blade to a piece of PVC pipe and slit the bags...

[Sacramento Dave]

I post "here" ( thanks Stan) all the time I'm no troll . Ok I got the calculator out the Shop-vac will take 8 days. The Diver wants double time, wont even post how much. I've got it solved I called the Sacramento Zoo, talked to a Mr. Lion there sending out a trained Crocodile that can retrieve the bags, They said Old Blue Belly will even carry them to the truck. The good part is all I have to do is make a small donation and have some raw fish for Blue. Wonder if he likes salt on his fish, that's a joke. P.S. I thought of a box cutter already on a broom handle, my buddy was bringing me one but they took it at the airport.

[Craven Morehead]