I bought a home with and inground pool......

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Shiney69rr

0
Apr 10, 2010
14
am I getting nowhere fast. I kindly hope this room of pool gurus can enlighten me on my quest to create a healthy pool. I took vinyl cover off the pool that was basically hanging in the pool all winter (Long Island NY) and it was green like this font and smelled like fish. I put in 9 bags of shock and 1 gallon of algae killer. and it began to get lighter. I also pulled out 2 garbage pails of leaves and assorted bugs.

Here are the problems I have encountered that I am confused about.

1- I turned on the sand filter in filter mode to test and it was running at 45 psi immediately so I shut it down only to notice that the psi in the off position was reading 27 psi. My 1st question is this a broken gauge or is it calibrated to begin at 27 psi? The gauge can only go up to 45 psi on the dial.

2- I then put the unit into backwash to lower the pressure by doing a cleaning and when I began to backwash, once the pump primed and the water was moving nicely in the unit the backwash began to spit out of the hole on the unit label "waste". I turned off the motor and attached a garden hose to the sand pump and began the backwash function again. This time the backwash was coming out in a solid flow through the garden hose and I left it one for about 2 minutes. I turned the pump off and then went to the other side of my pool fence and notice a bubbling of the grass due to water rising from the ground from the point that directly lines up with the pool system. The amount of water in my opinion was significant. Is this normal or a broken pipe and if normal why bother to have a waste connection spot on the sand filter if it is coming out of the piping underneath the ground?
3- With a gas heater attached to this system can I assume that even if you don't turn the heater on you must always have the flow of water open to the unit in order to function correctly and more importantly to back wash and rinse properly of else the pool wont clean out its junk?

Thank you for your time!
Regards
Shiney :)

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Your gauge sounds broke. Its relatively cheap and easy to replace.

Water gushing up out of the ground is NEVER a good thing.

Sounds like you got freeze damage.

After you get mechanical squared away, may I suggest you hit the "pool school" link and read up on the BBB method and go stock up on some Clorox. Specifically you might want to read the section on "shocking" which is a process and not a single dumping of chemicals in the pool. I mean this advice in the gentlest way possible and I am sorry if it came across wrong.
 
I can't quite see how the pipes that connect to the heater are connected to everything else, but assuming it is a normal setup, then yes, both valves over by the heater need to be open for the system to work.
 
Welcome to TFP!

As Lershac mentioned, you can easily replace the gauge. You need one that you can depend on.

Before you add any more chemicals, you need to make sure that your equipment is all functioning and circulating things. It does in fact sound like your waste line that is buried underground is in need of repair. It is also quite common to have a buried waste line off of a sand filter. During the build, the line was probably plumbed to drain into the sewer line.

So first, scoop as much debris as you can out of the pool. Then, make sure that all of your equipment is in working order and get the water circulating. Then you can begin the process of shocking your pool. Be sure to read the "Defeating Algae" section in Pool School.

Getting a good test kit at this time will pay dividends. A TF-100 kit (link in my signature) will do well for you. You will need to test the water once everything is running because the results of those tests will determine how much chlorine you will need to add and so forth. Don't buy any more algaecide. You don't need it.

There you have it. Just let us know what questions you have as they arise. You'll be swimming soon enough!
 
Looks to me like the site glass is missing from the multiport valve. Its that hole just to the bottom left of the pressure guage. Is this where you screwed in the hose? On a backwash, water would gush out of that hole. Looks like your backwash line is buried and dumps over/under then fence. If there is no site glass, water will pour out both holes. The water you saw over the fence is normal if this is the backwash line. Whats not normal is the hole you put the hose in. There is a little threaded site glass that goes in there so that you can observe the cleanliness of the water duyring flushing. That needs to be replaced.

Another thing you should do is to clear all of that grass and vegitiatation from around the equipment pad.
 
It should be fairly easy to pick up a replacement sight glass at a pool store or internet parts shop. All you need is the model number of the multi-port valve. Or, you might be able to find it somewhere around the property. Take a look inside the pump strainer basket and also places in the house where they might have stored pool parts for the winter.

257WbyMag is right, get all the equipment running properly before working on adding chemicals.
 
Good advice from all. So far I have done the following.
1- Cut the wild plants down to a crew cut style.
2- inserted a sight glass in the slot that the waste was flowing out of on the back wash.
3- bought a replacement psi gauge that is now running at 10-15 psi when on.
4- replaced a broken pvc fitting thanks to my son stepping on it. Easily fixed due to Home Depot being on the ball and helping recreate the part and teaching me about purple primer.

now i have all the water running throught the pipes and heater and even realized that the heater drain valv was removed form the winter. I turned on the power to the heater and it was in service mode with a PRS (pressure warning) I found a drain plug that belonged in the heater and it then began to read the pressure and the service light went away. Now I have a SPK warning ( means the pilot light needs to be be lit.)

thanks for all the input.

I have a Raypack rv2100 digital water heater.( see pics above) Does anyone have any advice for this unit?
 

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