Why/how the pool techs could clean my pool in 15 minutes?!

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I have just read through the whole thread. I must tell you that I am on the other side of this one. I am a tenant who decided to take control of a bad pool and make it better. Boy is my landlord happy with me!! The pool is not perfect by any means. It was left bad and open for many years. But the water is clean, clear to the bottom and is great to swim in. I have some work to do to remove metals. I know this. Pool School has told me how to fix it. I am just waiting for the season and the finances to do it.

In answer to your question. At this point it's very simple. Test, input into PoolMath, add to get back to required FC. Wait and hour or two. Repeat. Continue until the drop between testing is small. Testing and adding can then be stretched out to three or four hours. Eventually FC will hold between tests. You really don't want to test less then 4 times a day. That is usually only suggested in cases where there is no other option. The more you can test and add, the faster a SLAM usually progresses.
 
Only read the following if you are comfortable with what you've done and read so far I do NOT want to create confusion...

Note: The FC test can be done with different amounts of pool water.
25ml is most accurate but that level of accuracy is not normally needed. (Best choice for OCLT)
10ml is what I read is used most often by folks for everyday readings.
5ml is also possible. Might be an idea during a SLAM. (The 5ml sample needs to be very closely measured since too much or too little has a greater effect on the accuracy and error rate)

In general, the accuracy goes down and the error rate goes up as you decrease the amount of test sample.
So:
25 ml each drop is .2
10 ml each drop is .5
5 ml each drop is 1
 
pabeader said:
I have just read through the whole thread. I must tell you that I am on the other side of this one. I am a tenant who decided to take control of a bad pool and make it better. Boy is my landlord happy with me!! The pool is not perfect by any means. It was left bad and open for many years. But the water is clean, clear to the bottom and is great to swim in. I have some work to do to remove metals. I know this. Pool School has told me how to fix it. I am just waiting for the season and the finances to do it.

In answer to your question. At this point it's very simple. Test, input into PoolMath, add to get back to required FC. Wait and hour or two. Repeat. Continue until the drop between testing is small. Testing and adding can then be stretched out to three or four hours. Eventually FC will hold between tests. You really don't want to test less then 4 times a day. That is usually only suggested in cases where there is no other option. The more you can test and add, the faster a SLAM usually progresses.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your perspective!

I think where we differ is that your lease was not inclusive of maintaining the pool? Ours is. If the tenants have to maintain, we will reduce rent a bit. No problem with that. I just need to be able to hand the pool over to them in good condition, and confident that I have a clue as to how to do it myself.

Waiting on noon results from pool guy.
 
You can test PH when the FC is at 9. It is not valid if the FC is 10 or more.

You DO want him to test the PH when the FC falls below 10 to make sure it not too low.

Low PH can cause MAJOR problems with equipment.

You are doing a great job! Wonderful that they are all trying to do it the right way.

Do you think your Pool boy will come to TFP and ask questions or at least read?

Kim
 
You're correct. Their approach was we'll pay for opening, after that, if you want to use it, you have to maintain it. I did all the opening and repairing of equipment, they paid for the parts and supplies. It worked out great for all parties. My long term goal is to buy the place from them so I have a vested interest.

I certainly hope the readings look good and we can keep your pool going in the right direction. :)
 
kimkats said:
You can test PH when the FC is at 9. It is not valid if the FC is 10 or more.

You DO want him to test the PH when the FC falls below 10 to make sure it not too low.

Low PH can cause MAJOR problems with equipment.

You are doing a great job! Wonderful that they are all trying to do it the right way.

Do you think your Pool boy will come to TFP and ask questions or at least read?

Kim
Click to expand...

So back to testing ph when 9 or below to ensure its not going nuts. Got it.
(It would have good company with me right now!)

I gather he has been reading bits and pieces but, much as I did in the beginning, skimming the info sometimes allows things to be missed. That's why I'm having him send me the info - we double check each other.

He wasn't keen on the TFP idea. But I did receive a text last night leading me to think he might turn into a believer after all. :)
 

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You just don't want to drop under your SLAM level. Being somewhat over is fine. When you get to trying the overnight test (OCLT), just be sure you actually measure the FC level after the final night time addition of bleach - you need that measured (not just estimated) value to compare to when it comes time to take your morning reading.
 
So if our SLAM level is 15, and we come in at 14.8 at 8pm, keep things up for another 24 hours and do OCLT tomorrow night?

Or if we fall just shy, can we add another bit of bleach, wait 30 minutes, test for FC, and use that number against tomorrow morning's test?
 
I would go ahead with the OCLT at 14, 14.5, etc. There is not a magic line that is at exactly 15.0

p.s. having said that I would prefer to see the FC at 15 15.5 or even 16.0 for the OCLT
 
Last edited:
pabeader said:
I have just read through the whole thread. I must tell you that I am on the other side of this one. I am a tenant who decided to take control of a bad pool and make it better. Boy is my landlord happy with me!! The pool is not perfect by any means. It was left bad and open for many years. But the water is clean, clear to the bottom and is great to swim in. I have some work to do to remove metals. I know this. Pool School has told me how to fix it. I am just waiting for the season and the finances to do it.

In answer to your question. At this point it's very simple. Test, input into PoolMath, add to get back to required FC. Wait and hour or two. Repeat. Continue until the drop between testing is small. Testing and adding can then be stretched out to three or four hours. Eventually FC will hold between tests. You really don't want to test less then 4 times a day. That is usually only suggested in cases where there is no other option. The more you can test and add, the faster a SLAM usually progresses.
Click to expand...

And as pabeader knows with me, I am the same. I rented this property 2 months ago where the "pool guy" was included in the lease. He was worthless and the pool began to suffer. I rented this home specifically due to the location AND pool so I want to ensure that I get to enjoy it!

After I started noticing algae growing in the creases, I oredered refills for my test kit. I took my own readings and there was NO chlorine in the pool, NO CYA either. This pool sits in sun all day long in Cali.

You can find my thread but let's just say my findings over the last week (including a filter that was never serviced) have led to the firing of the pool guy and me taking over since I take better care of it.

My point is that your tenants may not always be the type to let a pool go to waste if they use it and may have a viable interest in maintaining which has taken me very little time out of my day to do it and our pool is gorgeous :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Saturday 8pm:
FC - 15.2
CC - .4

Had not yet seen Isaac-1 post, so we gave it a go.


Sunday morning (9:30am?)
FC - 12.8 ppm;
CC - .6 ppm;
overnight loss was 2.4 ppm;

Adding 121 oz of bleach.

Appears pool guy didn't test until 9:30 am. Will figure out something for that.
 
That moment . . .
When your pool guy tells you he now realizes he has been using too much indicator samples in the test water . . .

And you've been through 20 jugs of 121 oz of 8.25% bleach. YIKES!

He was not leveling off the powder spoon, and instead was using a "heaping" spoon-full.

His tests on Tues @ 4pm:
FC 14.6
CC .6

Pool store test:
FC - 9.72
CC - 0

He added 95 oz of 85% bleach.

8pm results as should have been with
FC- 11.2
CC- .2

Added 242 oz of 85% bleach.

If THAT isn't frustrating, I don't know what is . . .
 
Isaac-1 said:
one heaping spoon of R0870 powder is fine, in fact at SLAM level is safer than using a level spoon as this is used in excess for the test, drop counting mistake is another issue
Click to expand...
+1

The instructions in my K2006 say two "dippers", or until the sample turns pink. When I first got the kit I read that and said "what the *&@$ is a dipper" LOL

I got all hung up on getting exactly level scoops, but then I was reading here how most just use a heaping scoop so I did a little test. I took two FC readings from the same sample. First test with 2 "dippers", second test with a somewhat overfilled scoop (not really heaping). I did this 3 times and all tests were within +/- 0.5ppm, good enough for me

A speedstir helps tremendously with counting drops.

Dom
 

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