Chlorinated Pool Owners : Where Does Your Backwash Go?

For anything to do with the garden and pool
LotBoy47
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Chlorinated Pool Owners : Where Does Your Backwash Go?

Post by LotBoy47 »

My adventures in pool maintenance continue having rebuilt both multiport valve and our pump impeller recently.

After some detective work, it appears that the waste is directed to the gravel bed area of the main fosse. This is obviously bad from a chemicals Vs. good bacteria point of view and very bad from a 400 litres per minute hydraulic destruction point of view.

Number 1,264 in an increasing series of “Why the **** did they do it like that?” moments here in Dept 47.

There are no public drains to direct this waste water to (which is probably illegal anyway), so I’m wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation and how you deal with the waste water from your pool generated by backwashing and vacuuming to waste.
SPJ
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Post by SPJ »

Pipe goes straight to the edge of a bank and the water gushes down a gulley between our land and our neighbouring farmer's. In the 12 years we've been here he's never complained and there's no evidence that it's affected the quality of his crops. Must say, never thought about it until you raised the question.
LotBoy47
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Post by LotBoy47 »

Our American friends usually just spray it over their lawn or run off downhill.

As it will be human-safe pool water with very low level of bio-crud from the sand filter, I’m pretty sure it won’t hurt anything.

I do have a nice tennis court sized patch of weeds I can test it out on as it happens.

Looks like I have another plumbing project on my hands...
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Moliere
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Post by Moliere »

We live on a hill and a few days ago I heard the sound of rushing water. I discovered the chap across the road was discharging his pool straight out onto the road, where it rushed down the hill!

Ten points for chutzpah anyway.

Mols
Jumping is just dressage with speed-bumps.
LotBoy47
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Location: SW France

Post by LotBoy47 »

“We drain everything downhill and it sucks to live in the valley!” appears to be a thing around here.
LotBoy47
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Location: SW France

Post by LotBoy47 »

After some DIY plumbing and an Amazon delivery, I now have a reel of 50mm lay-flat hose which couples up to the waste pipe from the multiport valve via a firehose style QD connector.

So far, I’ve sloshed a couple of thousand litres of dirty pool water onto a nearby patch of grass and it’s the healthiest looking grass on our property.

Closing the other skimmer and sump valves once the pump is primed greatly reduces the amount of pool water going to waste without losing suction on the vacuum hose.
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Sanchisimo
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Post by Sanchisimo »

Yes, for us it's down the hill as well. I do hate to see all that water just going to waste when if it were collected somehow it could be put to some useful purpose. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has a collection system particularly in areas prone to drought.
LotBoy47
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Post by LotBoy47 »

If you had an old skip and some pond liner, the sun would burn off the chlorine after 3-4 days, so you’d just need to have the drain hole/hose high enough to avoid sucking up any algae/sediment that’ll settle on the bottom.

Should be fine for plant irrigation after that.
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Vera
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Post by Vera »

We have had a salt water pool for 15 years and apart from changing the cell every 3 years it has been brilliant. This year we fitted a new system for €600, it will serve a pool bigger our 10 x 5, 75,000 litre one and seems to be more efficient meaning less pump running time. The other advantage is we can backwash directly into the garden with no problems.
Guests continually comment on how wonderful the water is to swim in. Win Win for not a lot of money.
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bornintheuk
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Post by bornintheuk »

Vera wrote:We have had a salt water pool for 15 years and apart from changing the cell every 3 years it has been brilliant. This year we fitted a new system for €600, it will serve a pool bigger our 10 x 5, 75,000 litre one and seems to be more efficient meaning less pump running time. The other advantage is we can backwash directly into the garden with no problems.
Guests continually comment on how wonderful the water is to swim in. Win Win for not a lot of money.
Unless things have changed recently here in France, salt generation pools are not acceptable to the dept of sanitation for use in multi-usage (IE Gites) pools. Only standard chlorine dosage.
As the salt water pools actually generate chlorine from the added salt by electrolysis then you have a chlorine pool so whether you drain straight onto the garden would not make any difference whether salt or chlorine dosed pools.
I agree that a poorly regulated chlorine pool can be unpleasant on the eyes etc, but that is the fault of the owner/pool maintenance people not the system. Properly regulated chlorine pools (Cl and pH levels controlled.) are a joy to use.
What would Plato do ?
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PW in Polemi
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Post by PW in Polemi »

We pump into a large storage barrel- I think it is has one tonne capacity - let the muck settle to the bottom and then using a submersible pump, pump it up to barrels so I can then decant it into the watering can for watering my pots.
Dogs have masters. Cats have slaves!
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