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Thanks for the detailed response Dirk. My solar controller is the Hayward E-Command 4, which I believe is their basic automation system. The "solar extend" feature seemed logical, but maybe it's not that common. As you know the heating time varies dramatically throughout the season. Spring and...

I recently switched from liquid chlorine to SWG. Electricity is expensive in my area, so I opt for healthy sized filtration and SWG, and keep the pump run time to ~4 hrs a day. I had everything nicely balanced with my new SWG producing correct levels, then the weather changed for a few days and...

Thanks for the tips. I'll go with the T-CELL-15. I do not have a spa if that makes a difference.

Haven't dropped in here in years because my pool has been so trouble free, but now I've decided to switch from liquid chlorine to SWCG and have a few questions.. I have an all Hayward system, so will likely go with Hayward/AquaRite. My pool is just 11,000 gal, so following the 2X rule of thumb...

I spent some time looking at robot cleaners today, but just can't justify the expense for my small pool. So I'm going to try the suction route. I couldn't get a good photo of the plumbing, so here's a drawing of what I have in mind. Any problems with this? Obviously there are some valve...

Thanks for the feedback. I suspected I would get suggestions for a robot, and I'm sure they are valid, but as an engineer at a robotics company I'm inclined to to minimize reminders of work while relaxing at the pool. Most likely I will re-plumb so I can select pressure or suction with...

When our pool was built I requested a 1.5" pressure side cleaner line, because we had a lot of leaves from the neighbor's trees. Happily, shortly after the pool was completed, our neighbor cut down the trees, and I didn't need a cleaner! A bit of manual vacuuming was all I needed to keep the...

1. Which liquid chlorine dosing system do you use? (custom peristaltic pump based) 2. Does your system respond to a sensor, or do you dial it in based on your drop-based testing? (drop-based, dial it in) 3. What is your current pump run time? (6 hrs) 4. What is the run time of your liquid...

I built a DIY peristaltic chlorinator that is controllable from my phone. It has worked flawlessly this first year and is kind of fun to use, but I'm not sure I saved any money over a Stenner. $50 .. Watson-Marlow OEM peristalic pump w/ DC motor from ebay $50 .. mbed microcontroller development...

It does make sense that water will float on bleach, but it seems like eventually diffusion would mix them. Anyway my pool chemistry is stable so I'll just assume stirring isn't necessary.

I have peristaltic pump and 15 gal tank for liquid chlorine. I keep the tank at 8.25% concentration because that's how I usually buy bleach. From time to time I pickup 10% at Home Depot, in which case I add 27oz of water per gallon to get it back to 8.25%. I always assumed it would mix by...

When the our pool was built last year I requested 1.5" dedicated line for a Polaris 360 (non-booster pressure-side) because I thought it was a good choice for large debris from the surrounding oaks, redwoods and pines. However, it turns out the pool stays incredibly clean. A couple pine needles...

It is Aquarius Moorea Lapis Blue. We really like the tile, but it would look even better with a deeper blue water. The blue granite pebble gives a lighter water color than we expected.

Now for a question... The coping is a pre-cast concrete tile and two of the corners are constantly wet, as seen in the photo. The water has been dead calm for days and it's still wet, so I assume water is somehow wicking up the waterline tile grout. Is this common? Is it a problem? The...

The white cylinder on the wall houses my home-brewed chlorine automation. I read all about peristaltic pumps on this site before the pool was build, but unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to reserve a place on the pad for the tank. Anyway its been more than a month since I've touched a...

The pool has been done for a while, but just got a flickr account set up. Hopefully this works..

My Hayward EcoStar displays power consumption, and it says 23W when idle. I didn't think much of it until I realized in the off season I'm running 4 hrs @ 120W, which means my idle of 20 hrs @ 23W is costing me as much as the actual pumping!

I hear ya. One goal for the pool was low operating cost, and I think we achieved that. 1000 rpm gives me a turnover in 8 hrs and the pump is showing under 100 Watts! But I'll keep the speed up for the first few weeks.

I did contact the PB again yesterday but nothing came of it. The PB had set the "low" pump speed at 40% for filtering and "high" at 60% for solar. It's a small pool with big plumbing so 40% is still 4 to 5 turn-overs per 24 hrs. I went ahead and got the pH, TA and CH in check, and added...

First off, we might not have a new pool if not for this site. Discouraged by the conflicting information from pool builders, I wasn't willing to pull the trigger on a pool until I found this site and gained the confidence to go for it. I'll post some pics shortly, but first a more pressing...

Back to the 10 psi rule of thumb, if we could. I've been doing some energy calculations for our soon-to-be pool, and I found Jandy and Pentair both suggest cleaning at a 10 psi rise. I put this number into our pump curve, and 10 psi would bring our flow to a halt. I checked a couple other...

Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't thought about the possibility of a plumbing failure causing flooding, but we have good drainage so the mess wouldn't be too bad. I did discuss pump noise with one PB, and he assured me the variable speed pump (intelliflo) would normally be running slow and...

Last year we had two PBs out to discuss a new in-ground pool, and I soon realized that I wanted to be better informed before proceeding. So please help me on my quest to learn more. Both builders identified the same spot near our house for the equipment pad. It seemed logical because it's...