Recent content by Eauclaire

You might want to check the small print on your vehicle rental contract. In 2018, our rental agreement clearly stated that ‘no roadside assistance will be provided on highway 360, south of Hana’. Mind you, that doesn’t stop people from driving that stretch anyway… The best decision we made on...

If your pool freezes solid and remains so for many months, just add chlorine manually just before final freeze up. If you time it right, it will last all winter under the ice cover.

A black opaque tightly woven fine mesh cover, designed to trap pine needles, inhibits photosynthesis very well. I keep my pool in ‘hibernation mode’ for six weeks, between the end of the swimming season and winter drawdown. Chlorinate, mesh cover, stop all circulation and chlorination. After...

Bugs can exit ponds in shallow water, pools haven’t been around long enough for Darwinian selection to enable bugs to ‘adapt to‘ pool walls and skimmers.

Yes, as soon as nighttime temperatures dip near 10 C, swimming season is over. So keep your salt for next year. The later you winterize, the cleaner your water will be after ice out. I usually winterize when water reaches 6 C; early November. Just before the permanent ice cover sets, I dissolve...

A reel simplifies things; you can sweep any leaves as you are reeling It in. Most leaves stay on top of the solar blanket, and the skimmer should be unaffected. Depending on number of returns and orientation, there is sometimes less scouring action near the pool floor or in corners resulting in...

If you get much weight from snow or ice accrual, the overall geometry of the pool should be maintained to prevent collapse. So I would re-level and fix.

Thanks for the update. Chemicals can be delayed at customs, but Shippsy seems to be on track with procedures.

Did your kit arrive on schedule? What was the total cost?

Do we know how chlorinated isocyanurates affect solar blankets?

The triazines melamine and atrazine are nephrotoxic and are endocrine disrupters (ED). Unfortunately CYA has not been studied to the same extent mostly because it’s acute toxicity is lower, but we know virtually nothing on its endocrine effects on amphibian or fish models, much less on human ED.

Please let us know how the TF Pro kit delivery went, with respect to costs and customs. Many thanks!

That’s a good question! It’s all about rates of dissolution, the trichlor might dissolve too quickly even at minimal setting on the floater, and add too much CYA. Since you have a pool, you can always put undissolved leftover trichlor pucks there. Normally, after a spa water replacement, you set...

Anywhere they sell spa products. They are 1 inch diameter tablets/pucks, that fit in small floaters. They add CYA as well, so use sparingly or only when you are away. You need to experiment to determine dissolution rates in your spa and amounts needed.

If you are using ‘Nitro’s method’, you just need to add a few dichlor tabs in a floater in your tub.