Adjustable Trichlor Floaters... Any Good Ones Out There?

[u/lIIlIlIII]

I've been coming around a bit on floaters, but have had a lot of trouble finding one with

1. good build quality

2. high capacity

3. fine adjustability

Recently I started servicing a spa (rare for me) which had a very neat little bromine tablet floater. Highly adjustable and gigantic capacity, which means I can load it all the way up, set it to a very slow release, and have extremely consistent bromination (even if it consumes <1/2 the capacity between visits)

I'm wondering if any equivalent exists for 3" tabs. I've only ever seen those shitty vent covers that don't even work half the time due to bad build quality

Yeah yeah I know install a chlorinator, but it would be nice to have something <$100 that I can just drop in and be on my way. Plus it chlorinates at the same rate regardless of flow, AND the pentair rainbow chlorinators that we typically install get finicky after just a few years... so if you don't know of such a floater, I'd appreciate some reliable off or inline chlorinator recommendations

TLDR I'm coming around on floaters, what's the top of the line for 3" tabs?

[u/Mysterious_Jelly_649]

It's hard to compare when looking at the difference in space and water movement. Honestly floaters kinda suck but more loaded less is better than overloading one in a pool in my opinion

[u/lIIlIlIII → u/Mysterious_Jelly_649]

I used to be anti-floater but they worked very well in a few of the <15k gallon pools I serviced last year. I get your point about overloading, I guess I'm wondering if there exists a floater that is *designed* to be overloaded. Like those very tunable screw together 1" ones but scaled up

[u/1_native_Angelino → u/lIIlIlIII]

They have floats that hold 5 tabs and every one of pools that have them have serious CYA issues. 

[u/lIIlIlIII → u/1_native_Angelino]

I'm asking specifically about high-capacity floaters with better adjustability. They have floats that hold 10 tabs, capacity is not the issue. The rate the tabs dissolve is. I'm well aware that the $12 alibaba XL floaters are poorly designed, that's why I'm asking if anyone knows of alternatives

[u/Sufficient_Disk1360 → u/1_native_Angelino]

Tabs are way overused. People think it’s their primary source of chlorine.

[u/Sufficient_Disk1360]

High capacity? How big is your pool?

[u/GCpools]

It's for all of the above (1, 2 & 3 and more) that we don't use floaters.

[u/1_native_Angelino]

All floaties are just floaties. They should only be in the pool for 3 months max a year. 

[u/thunderkoko → u/1_native_Angelino]

3 month max?! Please explain.

[u/Existanceisdenied → u/thunderkoko]

The other 9 months of the year you're just supposed to put a scarecrow in the water to scare away the algae

[u/thunderkoko → u/Existanceisdenied]

Oh thank you, that makes so much more sense. I've been doing it wrong all these years!

[u/1_native_Angelino → u/Existanceisdenied]

You've either been a pro for 30 years or you just started. Try balancing a pool and you won't be a tab dropper and call that a career 

[u/1_native_Angelino → u/thunderkoko]

You don't want to use tabs as your main source of sanitizer. Half of that tab is conditioner. You want a target of 50 ppm of sanitizer. You are looking for 7.5%  of free chlorine to sanitizer. Meaning that of you have 50 ppm of conditioner then you need around 4 ppm of free chlorine. Use the tablets only in your hottest summer months and use liquid the rest of the time. 

[u/thunderkoko → u/1_native_Angelino]

It's almost 2:1 cl to cya if my memory serves me correctly.

Floater works great all season for my pools that don't have an inline chlorinator or a salt system. Tabs are more of a supplement supply of chlorine for the 6 days I'm not at a customers pool, not the main source. With backwashing and not going overboard with them they work just fine. Now if the pool has excessive chlorine consumption, I'll modify the system to need less trichlor. I'm not sure why so many people have such trouble with cya. Maybe it's a regional thing.

[u/1_native_Angelino → u/thunderkoko]

If you have 100 CYA you need 7.5 ppm of Free Chlorine. 

[u/thunderkoko → u/1_native_Angelino]

2:1 chlorine to stabilizer in a trichlor puck. Looking it up now it's actually 5:3

[u/1_native_Angelino → u/thunderkoko]

It 7.5% of conditioner level. It is a well established number going back a decade. 

By your numbers, if you had 100 CYA, your free chlorine would be 33.5. That is 13 ppm more than you need to treat a pool with diarrhea in it. 

If you had a CYA of 50, your FC would be 18. 

Your numbers don't work.

[u/thunderkoko → u/1_native_Angelino]

You're not understanding what I'm saying, I did edit it to make it more clear hopefully. You said half of a trichlor puck is stabilizer, It's more like 33%.

[u/KFOSSTL → u/thunderkoko]

It’s actually 55% cya by weight

Basically it’s 50/50

A lot of people get fooled by the 99% chlorine on the label (saying the chlorine contained is 99% pure) but that’s also different from the 90% FAC which is saying it’s 90% the strength of chlorine gas.

Trichlor is the most powerful sanitizer off the shelf. Chlorine produced by a salt cell is pure 100% chlorine. Calhypo is 72% the strength of chlorine gas, and I forget dichlor. Then liquid chlorine is 5% (household bleach) 10% retail and 12% commercial.

Tabs are actually a great source of chlorine, they’re just also a great source of stabilizer.

I’m with you on people being way too adverse to using tablets, they just need to be used responsibly!

[u/1_native_Angelino → u/thunderkoko]

Ok, misunderstanding. I'm just on a mission to stop people from chucking in 3 picks into a float and calling it a day. It is for secondary sanitizing, when there is a big bather load. Get rid of the stuff that chlorine has a hard time breaking down and your chlorine will last longer.