Buying home - includes swamp

[Jack Squat]

I'm closing on a house tomorrow morning, and it comes with a pool - although right now it looks more like a spot to drop a fishing line rather than a pool noodle.

Judging from the listing pictures, the pool was maintained last year - and I'm guessing that the PO closed the pool in the fall but never opened it come spring.

I know the first thing I'll want to do is get everything circulating and test the water. I guess my first question is how can I check to see if the returns are open if I'm unable to see them through the algae?

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Just try turning on the pump and see what happens with the water flow in the pump and the filter pressure. Don't do so for more than 30 seconds of so if you do not see any water movement.

 

[ckk81]

Post some pictures of the equipment and piping. Can help for diagnosis in the future.

 

[moonie]

As are we, congratulations, I was lucky enough to accidentally meet the woman selling the house during our pest inspection. She had the time wrong. She told me she had no idea how to take care of the pool and that her ex-husband always did it but when she asked him for help he said no and hung up on her. I gave her my number and said I was happy to help, good thing as she had me come out a week and a half ago and the pool had turned green. The SWG controller board had gone out so I ordered the $5 component to fix it and started SLAM. It cleared up the green quickly and got the controller board fixed and back in about 5 days later. Was there yesterday and the pool is beautiful. Do the pool school and follow the SLAM proceedure, it works.

 

[Jack Squat]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Just try turning on the pump and see what happens with the water flow in the pump and the filter pressure. Don't do so for more than 30 seconds of so if you do not see any water movement.

Will do. Assuming I should only need to prime/start the main pump and not the booster pump, correct?

Post some pictures of the equipment and piping. Can help for diagnosis in the future.

Here's the pictures I grabbed from my phone at the final walkthrough. I can post more tomorrow.

 

[borjis]

good equipment...I have that filter.


Looks like your bonding wire is attached at the motor...always good to see.

no need to fire the booster pump yet.

 

[Jack Squat]

OK, closing happened a little later than anticipated. Pool fired up fine, it looks like PO just turned off the pump at the end of the season and called it a day.

Here's my test results:
PH 8.2
TA 190
CH ~300. Test was more of a light purple than blue, is that right? Added more drops and didn't see additional color change.
CYA, FC, and CC were all zero.

Judging by pool math, I'll need to add 106 oz of MA, 107 oz of stabilizer, and 296 oz of chlorine, correct?

Does it matter that I add the MA first, or can I get some chlorine going while I run out to the store to pick up MA?

 

[Mr Bruce]

It would be better to get pH first, but if you are doing a SLAM at 20-30 CYA (assumed, after adding) it will drop below 10 quickly at first allowing for a pH test.

Buy a little more chlorine than you think you need.

e VVVVV He's right.

 

[jblizzle]

You can get 30ppm of CYA dissolving in a sock in front of the return jet and then add the MA to lower the pH. Confirm the pH 30 minutes later. Then start the SLAM process (assuming your CYA is at the 30ppm you targeted).

Try to scoop any debris out.

Post a picture of the pool water so we see the starting point.

 

[Isaac-1]

CYA is slightly acidic so will help a little on getting the pH in line, after that it sounds like SLAM time Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

I would also suggest you spend a little time reading pool school link in the upper right, in particular the ABC's section if you have not done so yet.

As to that pump and filter, it appears you have a Hayward single speed 1HP Super-Pump with a recently replaced aftermarket motor and a reasonably good sized Hayward sand filter. There is also a booster pump probably for a pressure side cleaner. It is a good basic setup, but a bit of a power hog, so you might consider replacing the motor with a 2 speed motor at some point, or possibly a small variable speed pump such as the Maxflo VS.

 

[Jack Squat]

Here's a picture of the pool

Water visibility doesn't seem too bad, all things considered . Gave it a good brushing, and tried to scoop up as much as I could. Didn't grab a lot, but there's not a lot of vegetation around the pool for stuff to get in, so I'm hopeful there's not too much in there.

Last tests I ran for today had
PH 7.2
FC 2
CC 5.5
CYA was still "zero", but it was cloudy, and I know it can take awhile for that to fully dissolve/distribute.

I added enough bleach to overshoot SLAM a bit, since I've been having issues keeping it up all day, and won't be back to the house until tomorrow afternoon.

Looks like the pressure gauge on the filter is busted. Stuck on 25 psi even when the pump is turned off. Should be easy enough to replace though.

Issac - You seem to be right, didn't even notice the Hayward sticker on the pump housing at first. I'll look into replacing it with something a little more utility-bill friendly. It's not wired into a timer either, so I'm going to look into getting one of those installed as well.

 

[jblizzle]

Get a new pressure gauge from tftestkits.net

 

[Jack Squat]

Get a new pressure gauge from tftestkits.net

Ordered.


Wife was able to stop by the house on her lunch break and get the following readings:
FC 2
CC 3
PH 6.8
CYA 20

Having her add enough bleach to get it back up to shock levels, as well as turning one of the return jets towards the surface to try and raise PH a bit since it looks like I overshot that one a little bit

After work today, I'll run all the tests, as well as scrub/dredge the pool again.

 

[Isaac-1]

If you replace the pump with one of the MaxFloVS pumps they have built in basic timers (there are 2 MaxFloVS pumps, well 3 if you count last years model) the base model is stand alone only and will not interface with automation systems or other devices (heaters, SWG, etc.) through relay connections.

 

[Jack Squat]

Forgot to write down my test results from right after work, but here's the most recent.

FC 3
CC 3
PH 7.0 (looked in-between 6.8 and 7.2)
TA 140
CH 275
CYA 20

Pressure gauge on the pump went up to 30...don't know if it's accurate, but I'm planning on just leaving it set to 'recirculate' until the new gauge comes in and I can double check since back washing didn't seem to do anything. Sound good?

Is that foam something to worry about? None of the bleach I picked up said splashless or scented, so I wasn't expecting it.

Edit: PSI is now reading ~32 on 'recirculate'. Could something be stuck in the line?