Directing rain water from gutter to pool

[hpt84]

So i live in middle georgia. Area is pretty hot and ill be adding water to pool every year. Im in the process of adding gutter to the house. I was thinking of directing gutter into a few rain barrels. The rain barrel will have overflow hose, and I want to direct the overflow hose into the pool. Im not concern about sediment as that will settle at the bottom of the rain barrel. Is this a good idea? My biggest concern is having to balance the pool after a big rain. Would the chemical cost outweight the water saving. I got a saltwater system.

Secondly, i want to move water away from my lawn. My lawn drainage suck and if I dont do this, then i will end up installing a french drain and directing the rain barrel overflow into the french drain.

 

[Bperry]

So i live in middle georgia. Area is pretty hot and ill be adding water to pool every year. Im in the process of adding gutter to the house. I was thinking of directing gutter into a few rain barrels. The rain barrel will have overflow hose, and I want to direct the overflow hose into the pool. Im not concern about sediment as that will settle at the bottom of the rain barrel. Is this a good idea? My biggest concern is having to balance the pool after a big rain. Would the chemical cost outweight the water saving. I got a saltwater system.

Secondly, i want to move water away from my lawn. My lawn drainage suck and if I dont do this, then i will end up installing a french drain and directing the rain barrel overflow into the french drain.

Do you all really get not as much rain as we do up here? I’m constantly draining off water. Either way, rain isn’t going to affect the pool chemicals very much.

 

[PoolStored]

There are a number of folks that do this...

You may need to pour some CL into any barrel you use to accumulate rain water to keep algae from growing in it. Last thing you want is for algae to grow in the tank and dump it into your pool. It would take you a while to figure out why you are constantly fighting algae breakouts.

 

[ajw22]

What type of roof do you have?

A shingle roof can wash debris off as it ages. You would want to capture the roof runoff in a settling tank and then pump cleaner water into the pool. I would not simply direct roof gutters into the pool.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I would suggest some simple filtration prior to putting the water into the pool. As others have stated, roof water is dirty and rain barrels can grow algae if they are not treated with chlorine. Around here in the desert, rain collection systems are pretty common but most use the water for irrigation which doesn’t require sanitizing.

You could get a chemical floater for the final tank before the pool and add a calcium hypochlorite tablet floater to it. It’ll add minimal calcium hardness to the water but at least it will be sanitary enough to add to the pool.

 

[hpt84]

Do you all really get not as much rain as we do up here? I’m constantly draining off water. Either way, rain isn’t going to affect the pool chemicals very much.

There have been a couple of mega storms where I had to drain water from a pool in the past, but generally, we are adding water to the pool. We also get long period in between rain where grass turn brown unless you run your sprinkler system.

 

[hpt84]

There are a number of folks that do this...

You may need to pour some CL into any barrel you use to accumulate rain water to keep algae from growing in it. Last thing you want is for algae to grow in the tank and dump it into your pool. It would take you a while to figure out why you are constantly fighting algae breakouts.

Thanks. I wasn't planning on keeping water in the rain barrel for anything longer than a week as I will use it to water my garden

 

[JoyfulNoise]

At the very least look into slime bags for filtering -

Home - The Slime Bag

www.slimebag.com

They can be very useful for capturing a lot of fines and they will also capture algae as well. If you drain the rain barrel slowly through them, the water you add should be fairly clean and all you would want to do is bump up your FC in the pool for a little extra insurance in case some organic or minimal algae gets through.