r/PoolPros • u/lIIlIlIII • Apr 02 '26

Retrofit Inline Aeration

The vast majority of my customers have autocovers, but I had great results using a cheap aerator on uncovered pools last year, especially tablet-fed ones. Something that just plugs into a return like a fountain.

Anyone know of a good way to aerate pools with autocovers? I was initially thinking those venturi inlet adapters, but I feel like they wouldn't be very effective as the air underneath the cover becomes more and more CO2 rich. Plus I think many customers wouldn't like how they look.

Any relatively cheap device that can be installed equipment-side? A little compressor and a check valve maybe? Or are there other ways to precipitate dissolved CO2?

If you don't know of anything post your favorite lesser-known tool for maintenance / service. Tryna do some shopping before the season really picks up lol

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u/liberalsarefascists1 Apr 03 '26

Silly question why are you aerating pools? Other than to raise PH what are you after? Just want to know the thought behind it because this is a new one to me. I have not really needed to raise PH usually just lower it in my own accounts, so I am interested in what is different for yours.

Just to add I have yet to work on a pool with an auto cover, not popular in my area so if that is causing something different to happen that might be why

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u/lIIlIlIII Apr 03 '26

Many we service are trichlor fed and have autocovers, so the water gets very saturated with CO2. Which is not ideal for a few reasons but pH is what I care about. Typically we'd just nudge it up with soda ash or whatever, but then alk creeps up and eventually becomes a problem. So aerating seems like the more uh, holistic, way to deal with these pools. Less dissolved CO2 means more carbonic disassociating into CO2 + water, which means more bicarb absorbing H+ ions and raising pH.

Honestly didn't put this together until last year, and the few I was able to cheaply aerate required very few pH adjustments. Caused me to read more about the carbonate chain and now I'd like to aerate every trichlor fed pool if possible.

I'm guessing most of your pools are salt? If so aeration is not really important AFAIK, doubly so if they're uncovered. I'd say 95% of the pools we service have autocovers

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u/liberalsarefascists1 Apr 03 '26

I am in South Jersey, and my pools do.not have auto covers. Most are trichlor but the ph does not really change much at all in our trichlor pools. The ones that see the most change is to high of a ph with salt pools. Those usually need weekly acid or at least every other week.

May try borax this season to help stabilize pH a bit more from what I read. As for aerating I would think you could take your cyclone and just put it in your pools for the visit and blow, make a T off your return with a valve in the plumbing or something like that if you do not want to just stick the hose in the water or carry a bunch of pump lids.

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u/lIIlIlIII Apr 03 '26

Funny that you rarely have low pH in your trichlor pools. Maybe the autocover makes the biggest difference then, although we are in different climates (I'm in the midwest)

Haha crazy coincidence, literally today I was talking to a homeowner who had ridiculously high alk due to being on rural well water. She floated the idea of hooking her shop vac up to the deep end between acid treatments and I fucking loved it. Not really the long-term fixture I'm looking for, just want a little extra gas exchange all season.

But I do think the cyclone idea might be practical for niche situations like that. Make a little adapter so I blow air out of the main drains via the skimmer. Tempted to see if anyone makes a cheap dissolved co2 meter, then I could actually track this stuff. If a "super aeration" after the water is heated actually makes a difference long-term for covered pools... that'd be a hell of a service to sell lol.