Recent content by foobert

Re: tear out & replace 700 Square feet of concrete around pool. How much should it co The slab area wasn't very much, 2-300 sq ft. I replaced it with travertine tiles set on 6" of compacted road-base. It was not cheep: $20/sq.

That doesn't quite sound like nothing, but, about as simple as it gets :)

Re: tear out & replace 700 Square feet of concrete around pool. How much should it co For what it's worth from the land of fruits and nuts (CA), I spent $4K for the basic replumb +$1.7K per skimmer. Thick, bull nosed travertine coping was about 4K installed. Tile was quoted with the plaster...

I installed a T with a 3/4" pipe thread as the "T port" and thread a stainless steel thermowell into that. You can get them on amazon for <$15. I soldered the wires onto the DS18B20 and dipped it in epoxy for weather proofing. Once cured, slide it into the bottom of the thermowell and stuff...

Assuming the waterline is mid-level of the skimmer, I'd leave them both open.

If it were mine, I'd start with this. Create a counter-clockwise motion to move the water past the skimmers with, taking advantage of the natural direction that the majority of returns are already facing (except for the one at the 1 o'clock position).

Well, 6" might meet code, but that's REALLY shallow, in my personal opinion. Also, having dug up 35 year old rigid metal conduit near to the pool environment, I would NOT ever install it myself. It rusted completely down to nothing. I'd prefer PvC, even if it requires digging another foot deeper.

My guess: suction side air leak underground. After the pump is shut down, water saturates the ground and blocks the air from leaking in. Once the pump is on for a while, that water is pulled out of the dirt, and then it sucks air. Doesn't take much of a leak to pull a significant amount of air.

Regarding your burial depth for conduit, see this. Short answer, 6" for RMC (rigid metal conduit), 18" for NMC (pvc conduit). Note that RMC is thick like a water pipe and has threaded ends.

If you are changing the motor, for the cost of a breaker and a new outlet receptacle, I'd convert your 120V circuit to 240V. The motor will be more efficient at the higher voltage, and you will be just fine with a 15A circuit. EDIT: This also assumes your chlorinator can run on 240V. Most...

Huh. I guess you don't know how green the grass is till you really get on the other side of the fence. I've only ever had a DE filter; I don't find it to be terribly fussy at all. The biggest issue was not having a hard-line plumbed for the backwash. Finally dug the trench and installed...

I don't have any code to share yet, but, it will one day be posted when it's in a state that is self contained enough to make sense of. Once I have validated the PCB, yes, I'd be happy to get rid of the extras :)

What panels did you go with? This is on my list of things to do some day, so, curious how you get on with it. You can't post too many pictures :)

It's not a big deal to do by hand -- except for the I2C A-D converter, it's mostly 0805 packages, which are quite easy to place by hand. Cut a solder mask on the vinyl cutter, place the parts, and reflow it on a hot plate. Easy peasy for a couple of boards :)

Ya remember this project? Yeah, I hardly do either :confused: Quite a few moons ago, I hand-wired a board with 16 copies of the above circuit, and actually had it all working! Alas, as I was taking things apart after that test, an alligator clip got away from me and shorted something out...