Vacation?

[Paulofhamilton]

Hi,

We purchased a house with an above ground pool. I've really appreciated the TFP system and have been using the TF100 testing kit. We have been using Bleach, borax and stabilizer. We're planning on being away from home for a little more than a week and I'm not sure how to plan for maintaining the pool. I've raised the CYA level to 50ppm, and my FC level is 6ppm, the Ph is about 7.7. during the first few weeks I was keeping the CYA level lower with a lower FC level, but thinking we'd be away and wanting the FC to remain in the pool I thought it would be better to kick it up, now in hindsight I'm not sure if that was a good idea.

Questions:
1) how to maintain some FC while I'm away, should I shock it way up so it will slowly come down? or should we purchase Chlorine Tablets. Tablets seem like a waste because we will probably have to buy many more than we will need, is that right or wrong?

2) should we put the pump on a timer so it runs a few hours every day? Is that advisable, or is there concerns about it running while we are away? The water level has been pretty stable but i could raise it up a little higher than normal to make sure it doesn't drop too low.

3) are there any other things I should be thinking about before leaving?

Thanks so much for your help!

Paul

 

[ckk81]

Shocking won't really help for long- it quickly comes down.

Having someone come throw some bleach in at specified amounts and intervals is your best bet.

You should put the pump on a timer to run periodically.

A floater with pucks will raise CYA, but if you can't have someone tend to the pool for you may be your only option.

 

[Alwayswantedapool]

I just did a 7 day vacation, shoved as many pucks as I could in a floater and tied it out in the middle of the pool. Filled up the pool so it covered up about 3/4 of the skimmer. Pump is on a timer so it ran regular schedule. Came back to a clear pool with a increase of 10 ppm cya. You can buy small qtys of tablets at walmart. Oh I also set skimmer and bottom drain to 50% so if the skimmer got stopped up could still pull from the bottom.

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk

 

[johnsjets]

I personally prefer not to have the pool on a timer for any period of time while it's unattended...unless a neighbor is available to check on things and can shut the system down in case of a malfunction. I have used the shock method before leaving on vacation and it has worked for me. If away much longer than a week, then I would simply cover the surface with my winterizing cover.

 

[Paulofhamilton]

Thank you for the advice everyone!

Paul