Well, for better or worse I just went under contract on a house with a pool. I insisted on a supplementary pool inspection which revealed that the heater, salt system, pump, and booster pump are all dead or dying. We're getting a credit from the sellers for much of the expense so I've got the opportunity to redesign much of the equipment to my liking. Thus, I need recommendations. Here's the shit they had: Pump: Pentair Superflo 1HP - one year old, covered in pine straw and overheating, what could go wrong? Booster Pump - Polaris PB4 and Polaris 380 - fucked Heater - Raypak 266k BTU - fucked Salt pump - Mineral Springs power pack and t-15 cell - fucked Chlorinator - Pentair Rainbow 300 - I guess they started using this when the salt cell shit out I, like a lot of people, would like to keep chlorine levels as low as possible, but I realize you'll always need residual FC. Does anyone here use UV/Ozone? Does that actually allow you to keep residual FC levels lower? People get pretty animated over this debate in all the forums I've read. If I go the UV/Ozone route would I need a variable speed pump with more juice to pull more water through the cleaner? Are the booster pump and Polaris a necessity? I've got the time and motivation to skim some leaves and scrub some walls if that's all I'm missing out on by not having one. I'm going to wait a season to see if I really would like having the heater, but I am looking at installing a Glacier evaporative chiller. I can't stand a lukewarm pool. Anybody have experience with a chiller? Sorry for being longwinded, but I look forward to spending money and being cunty with you gents. TL;DR - all my shit is broken.
Interesting. My sample size is one, but at my local Leslie’s they don’t hassle at all. Free test and that’s it. Hopefully it stays that way.
I must have missed the bolded, but that's something I've been wondering for a long time. I clean out my filter but feel stupid putting it back into 2 inches of dirty water. I need to figure out where this is.
I had no idea it existed until a.tramp pointed it out in a picture of my equipment he had on his phone Spoiler haha lmbo Just look at the bottom of your tank, small black circle, should be there. There’s no better feeling then cleaning the filter with a power washer and seeing the results of it...psi low in the the filter housing, vacuum is running robustly, waterfall spill from the hot tub looks like Niagra Falls. Can’t beat it.
It's annoying to clean the pool yourself - walls, bottom, etc. If you prefer to get fancy, get a real robot: https://sunplay.com/blogs/posts/the-truth-about-pool-cleaners-what-your-pool-store-isnt-telling-you Yikes, why would you want to keep your chlorine low? Dealing with algae all the time sounds terrible. I suppose you could go bromine or something super fancy but my guess is that's pretty expensive. You need to find a source for good information. I have that place for you - PM if you're interested. Don't know about a chiller living up in the NE. My heater is critical, though.
I have a DE filter and I'm worried the previous owners never properly cleaned it. PSI is OK for now (starts at 17) and take a while to raise 25% as my water is perfectly gin clear. But, I think I'll have it acid washed when I close the pool at the end of the summer.
Lets talk chemicals... Do you guys “shock” your pool? Pool store says to do it once a week but I never do. My Chlorine is always 2-3 and I only use the tricolor tabs and nothing else. If my chlorine is always good why would I need to shock the pool?
I never thought about it, but my pool pump runs 24/7. What type of schedule do people usually do? My pool tends to get dirty pretty quick (a lot of vegetation and a golden retriever that loves to swim).
No to shock - usually pool store shocks have things in them you don't need to add. If you keep your FC in the right range for your CYA then you're fine. Trichlor tabs every week? That's not going to be good for you long term. They add CYA to the pool and eventually your CYA gets too high for your FC to work properly and you have to drain the pool.
It's fine to run it 24 hours - the pump was designed to run that long, but it does add to your electric bill of course. Do you have a SWG? I currently do 13 hours a day with my SWG at 100% because I've balanced my daily FC loss with the SWG output over 13 hours at 100%.
Troublefreepool.com??? I've been reading some of their content and forums. Almost to a person they think UV/Ozone is basically useless and they may very well be right, but other people disagree. Again, I'm under no illusions that I won't be using chlorine, just wondering if there are legitimate ways to keep less residual.
50 And it’s been close to that since the beginning and all I’ve used is the tricolor tabs. Pool store gives me the same reading.
I went to Boston Thursday to go see Bruins and then a Red Sox game. Came back Sunday only to see that it's been raining a ton and wife has not once gone out back, so the pool is: - Overflowing - Basket was suctioned super tight because there was so much debris - Filter that's filters before it goes to pool pump was completely jammed full - Top of water is 25% covered by palm debris/flowers - Algae is on the sides/bottom - Filter was nearly black I poured half a gallon of Muriatic acid in it before I left and asked her to check on the baskets because of all the debris tree's are leaving right now. Look how dirty the filter was.
How long have you been using the trichlor? Each one adds about 1.4ppm cyanuric acid depending on the size of your pool, so it takes time but it build up eventually. Unless you are draining and replacing water a lot?
What is FC and SWG? I asked pool guy what new pump I should buy about a year ago and he said to get the once I got. I was stressed with work and was happy to delegate it out. But now I'm stuck with an under powered pump that isn't remotely energy efficient.
That's surprising then. Your CYA should be going up up up. I'd be careful with using those pucks long term - the CYA doesn't just disappear. It's there.
Your minimum FC should be 4 (never go below that) and you should be targeting 6-8 ideally. Otherwise you are at risk for algae blooms.
cyanuric acid - it's what protect the chlorine loss from UV light during the day. but, it also decreases the effectiveness of the FC to kill organic material.
1. What do you guys use to lower your phosphates? 2. My total alkalinity has been slightly low for the last month and I’ve slowly been bringing it up with bulk baking soda from Walmart. Everything I’ve read online says baking soda won’t raise the pH which doesn’t make sense to me as it is basic and also has not been my experience as I usually need to add muriatic acid afterwards.
Look into Clear Blue ionizers. I have one and it does a pretty good job, I keep the chlorine at 1 ppm and rarely shock.
You really have no idea do you? I’m not trying to be an ass, but you seem to be throwing out a lot of wrong info here as gospel.
I’ll give a.tramp some stuff for you that he can deliver next trip if you are concerned with your phosphate levels. Shocking your pool weekly during the swim season is a best practice and is cheaper than fixing a problem down the road because your pool couldn’t keep up.
Im here for the Zack Zedalis vs pperc15 chemical off One seems like a professional and the other a real DIY'er. Should be good.
1. I don't even know what my phosphates are. Why do you think that matters? 2. What is your TA? Why not just leave it alone? It should stabilize in a range as your pH stabilizes.
1. Algae feed on phosphates. Keep your phosphates down to minimize your risk of algae 2. TA is 70. Keeping it in an optimal range of 80-120 will limit wide fluctuations in pH.
Here's what I've learned: The "chlorine smell" and eye or skin irritation in improperly maintained pools isn't from chlorine, it's actually from chloramines, which are created when chlorine reacts with organic material in the pool. If chlorine levels are properly maintained, there shouldn't be a lot of chloramines created, and those that are should be broken down quickly by the free available chlorine. It's only when there's a lot of organics in the pool and not enough chlorine that excess chloramines become an irritant. So, when you had issues, what was your CC reading?
Algae can't grow if the FC is maintained at the proper level. So whether you have phosphates or not, doesn't matter. Go ahead and address your phosphates if you want, but shouldn't be necessary if FC is good. Agreed on TA. Why not wait and see if it naturally comes up? Have you checked to see the TA of your fill water?
Your eye irritation is real of course. Could have been the chloramines or could have been pH. Just try find what works best for you. The reason for keeping FC higher than you are is that during the day with lots of Texas sun it may be dropping below a point where you could be at risk of getting an algae bloom. Shocking weekly is what the pool store tells you to do because they assume you don't want to check your levels every day so they just say "dump this bucket in" and it will take care of whatever was trying to grow since your FC was too low for much of the week. But buying those big things of shock and dumping them in your pool every week is more expensive than just maintaining your FC properly all week using liquid chlorine (which only adds salt to your pool, rather than CYA).
Should say that this is great kit. If you find yourself running out of chems in it buy the K2006C next time as it's more bang for your buck.