Is your pool water TOO hot? Here are a couple tricks to cool it off…
June 30, 2013
Here’s a common email I receive during heat waves: “Mike, my pool is too hot. How do I cool it down?”
It is very frustrating when we work so hard to get the water up into the mid 80’s by diligently running our solar systems, covering our pool with the solar blanket, taking the solar blanket off, repeat, repeat… and now all of a sudden in a heat wave many of us find our pool water in the upper 80’s, grossly warm and unrefreshing.
Here are a couple cool little tricks (pun intended) to lower the temperature of your pool water:
1) Run the waterfall at night. Exposing water to cold air cools the water. Sooooo… expose more water surface area to the lower temp night air to cool the water.
2) If you have a pool solar system- run it at night.
You have a 300SF (or so) radiator on your roof. It’s meant to absorb the heat from the sun to warm the water but it will work in reverse if you run water through it during the coolest hours of morning to absorb the night air and COOL your water off. The Folsom weather forecasts a low of 70° at 5am. It’s not much but it will lower water temps a couple degrees. Midnight -6am is our target range.
Here’s how to set it up:
1) make sure your pump runs from midnight to 6am
2) if you have a solar controller, set it to ON (not AUTO) and force water up to the roof.
b- if you don’t have a solar controller just make sure your valves are set to send water to the roof.
The night air will be absorbed by the panels and will cool the water off.
*One disclaimer: if you have a variable speed pool pump and a solar controller it will be tricky to set up. Your computer and its water temperature sensors are programmed to increase the speed of the pump when there is a call for heat to get water up to the roof and ramp down when there isn’t a call for heat (to save electricity demand on the pump).
If you have a Jandy controller you can do it by setting the outdoor Power Center into the Service Mode, pushing the filter pump button and the solar button. In the morning set it back to Auto Mode.
If you have a Pentair Intellitouch (mine) or Easy Touch you do the same thing: Service Mode, Filter Pump, and Solar.
If you have a Hayward Goldline it’s the same: Service, Filter Pump, Solar.
If you have the Pentair SunTouch I wouldn’t even bother (by now you know why it was so inexpensive compared to the other controllers-it’s a bear to program and manipulate unless you have a degree from MIT…)
If you have a solar system and a waterfall you’ll be even more effective running them both at night.
Good luck and please provide feedback on my Facebook page to let me know how it worked: https://www.facebook.com/MikeThePoolman
Sincerely,
Mike the Poolman
Pool Service & Repair in Folsom, CA since 1995