New (old) house, new (old) pool

[zea3]

Sometimes people will turn on the hose and put it at one end of the pool while they vacuum to waste at the other end. You will be pulling more water out than what goes in, but it will take a little longer to drain down to the skimmer.

 

[lambo]

Call me a believer.

When I got home from work today I could see the bottom of my pool for the first time ever. It was amazing!

Immediately busted out the pool vac and realized that I could see all the dirt on the floor and madly vacuumed as much as I could before the skimmer went empty and I had to stop to let the pool level fill back up.

But let me tell you, this is fantastic. Hard to believe the water was black when I started on Sunday.

I hope to have some really great before and after shots by this weekend.

Thanks all for the amazing help!

 

[JasonLion]

Congratulations

We love to see pictures.

 

[Insomnix]

I am not sure if this has been addressed. When you had the picture of you valve gasket, the condition was very bad. This can be caused by a few things. Mainly, if there is an in-line chlorinator after the filter (where it should be) but no P-Trap or check valve between the valve and the device, when the pool shuts off, water usually settles in the pipes, leaving air, this allows the chlorine gas to travel back to the valve and cause this sort of swelling. The yellowish tint tells me this is what happened. This also will cause pitting in the spring and O-Rings that surround the valve stem making it hard to turn. When replacing O-Rings and gaskets it is best to put a little silicone on the Spider Gasket and non-petroleum based lubricant (such as Magic-Lube) on O-Rings. Vasoline will make the rings swell and break down. Other reasons that can cause this are Tablets in the skimmer or pump basket, which is a big NO-NO! This is one of the more common issues I dealt with in the field. Pump Seals and D.E. Grids / Sand Laterals were the other. You may want to see where the tablet feeder is and see if it needs a check valve or P-Trap. If this was addressed, I am sorry, but will keep an eye on the blog. And nice to see this site.

 

[lambo]

This was a shockingly awesome first post!

I do have a chlorinator but not sure if I have the check valve or p-trap. I don't use the chlorinator but it does have tabs in it. Instead I havethe chlorinator set to the lowest setting and use bleach per Pool School advice.

But perhaps I should take those tabs out to help ensure the life of the valve gasket.

Thanks for the awesome info Insomnix!

 

[Insomnix]

I was able to go back and look at the pictures. You have a Hayward in-line. the model is a CL-200. These O-Rings are attached to a channel under the lid. They swell or get hard and make it hard to open the device. It comes apart from the top of the lid under a circular tab with a large flat head or 3/4" nut driver. You will have to hold the inner piece when turning. This O-Ring is common. There are two styles. Standard rubber and Viton (Which costs more but is alot more chlorine reisistant. Looking at the pic, I do not see any kind of failsafe (check valve / P-Trap). looking at the picture, it looks like they did not leave much room for repair, and if you had to extend the pipe for a P-Trap you would proabably have to put a new 2" male adaptor in the MultiPort valve AND the chlorinator. Depending on the age and damage done to the valve, they are known for cracking when a new fitting is screwed in. Note the pump line to the filter has a union. So only one line would have to be changed if it were to crack. There is room however if you wanted to do this to bring the pipe OUT the valve to the ground before coming back up to the chlorinator. This would cause water to stay in the area behind and hinder chlorine from backing up. Two last resort things you can try if you want to cut the pipe is
1: You can use what is called an 'inside' pipe adaptor. This is made to fit the inner circumfrence of a 2" PVC SCH-40 pipe.
2: If you want to re-pipe it. If the valve starts to crack, pull the fitting out, remove all teflon and liquid teflon best you can and PVC glue the fitting in. Yes, it will never come out again, but may save from buying a new valve right now.
I will check back soon to see if you had any other questions.

 

[Insomnix]

In case you were curious as to what that line sticking up capped is for. Almost all pools had this put in for future upgrades. It usually goes to a "return" hole in the center of one of the long walls of the pool. This can be attached to a pressure side cleaner (Such as a Polaris 480) or converted to a suction line for a vacuum line dedicated for vacuuming the pool with a manual hose or a suction cleaner (Like a Baracudda.)

 

[lambo]

Insomnix - two quick questions:

1. Rather than go through the challenging and potentially risky installation of a ptrap, could I simply empty the chlorinator of tabs? I don't use the chlorinator at all, I use bleach. So to protect the valve gasket from chlorine gas, couldn't I chuck those tabs left by the previous owner?

2. For the return pipe, that explains a lot. I have two holes around the 1/2 way mark on each long side of the pool that seemed to do nothing. They must be connected to that pipe in some way. So to use that pipe with say a side cleaner or a dedicated vacuum, how would I do that? The pipe would have to be connected into the system, either before the pump for the vacuum application, or after the pump for the pressure cleaner, correct? How would that be done?

Thanks for the awesome additional info!

 

[Insomnix]

Progress already. Checked the strainer at the pump and sure enough, sight glass and plug for those two holes in the valve.


Nice! Saved me $10 or so. But for the backwash outlet... does that need to be capped when I'm not using it? From what I can tell they used a discharge hose (can't find) connected to that black flared outlet and used a hose clamp to hold it on (which I found rusting in the strainer basket as well). So will that black flared backwash outlet leak when it is on another setting like Filter or Rinse?


I figured out how to open the DE filter - thankfully instructions were on the side (although they used 'insure' rather than 'ensure' and I flew into a brief grammar rage). Pics below show what I have to work with.






What is the pipe at the top with the sock on it? Ok, I know it isn't a sock, but what is it?



I'm particularly worried about those rusting rods and nuts. But I also have no idea why there is a pile of junk on top. Is that the DE material? The filter sat without the gauge or cap covering that hole on top, so who knows what ended up inside, but I was thankful that there only seemed to be one spider that moved in.

OK.. I came in this late.. The "Sock" at the top is to allow the air to bleed out from the air relief on top the filter. It also keeps the DE from going back in to the pool. When cleaning the grids, watch for any holes or broken ribs. If there are holes, the debris and powder will go back in the pool. Also, the rusted bolts are from the chlorinator. To properly clean the grids, you should completely dissassemble the unit. You will notice one grid is not as wide as the rest. Remember where this one goes. It's a puzzle to put back together, but not impossible.

As for the powder. It's DE Powder and the debris it filtered out. Twice a season, right before and right after, the filter should be opened, taken apart and cleaned. When adding media back to the filter, the rule is 1lb per 10 sq.ft. filter. That look like a Pentair (PacFac) Nautilus FNS 72. It could be a 60. The label on the side will be punched out for the size. And if you are curious, the 60 and 72 are the square feet of the filter. If you use a 1lb chlorine scoop, about 1-1/2 of these equals roughly one pund. If you have the 1-1/2 pound scoop.. each of those is about a pound. On normal backwashing, you won't ever get ALL the powder off the grids, but a little trick is to backwash, when the site glass goes clear, go to rinse for about 5 seconds (Remember to ALWAYS turn off the pump before moving the filter valve) than go back to BACKWASH again.. Do this a few times til backwash really is not very cloudy anymore in the site glass. That is the clear dome on the valve by the backwash line. You will also notice "Recirculate" and "Waste". Recirculate bypasses the filter and just circulates water. Waste will drain the water out the backwash/waste line. This does, however, come in handy if you have fine residue in the pool, like dead algae or fine chlorine reside for exampe, which will be an offwhite powder that when you run your hand by it, clouds up. Usually this is so small that the filter won't catch it, and when vacuuming the pool, you'll see it pushing back in to the pool from the return jets. If this happens, vacuum out the WASTE line. You will lose some water, but this is the only way to really get it out.

If you get a lot of leaves, try something like the "Jandy Leaf Master" These things are AWESOME for leaves.

 

[Insomnix]

Insomnix - two quick questions:

1. Rather than go through the challenging and potentially risky installation of a ptrap, could I simply empty the chlorinator of tabs? I don't use the chlorinator at all, I use bleach. So to protect the valve gasket from chlorine gas, couldn't I chuck those tabs left by the previous owner?

2. For the return pipe, that explains a lot. I have two holes around the 1/2 way mark on each long side of the pool that seemed to do nothing. They must be connected to that pipe in some way. So to use that pipe with say a side cleaner or a dedicated vacuum, how would I do that? The pipe would have to be connected into the system, either before the pump for the vacuum application, or after the pump for the pressure cleaner, correct? How would that be done?

Thanks for the awesome additional info!

1: Yep.. Remove the chlorine tablets, remove the gas. Easy enough. This would protect the equipment from now on. I would get the water professionally tested though for CyA levels. Everything else can be chemically adjusted, but Cyanuric Acid (Stabilizer) can build up in the pool if excessive tablets were used. Once in, it does not leave unless you lose water in the pool. I am talking a leak, not the normal 1-2" a week. I'd like to know the levels. Alkalinity, CyA, Calcium... If you have it. When CyA gets too high, it locks out the chlorine and stops it from working. You'd need more chlorine to achieve clear water, but even this can stop working.

2: Well, to have a dedicate vacuum, you'd have to tie it in to the pump suction. Jandy makes some nicec Teflon 3-Way valves that are nice quality. Then you could rotate a valve to select where to suck from. You could use a ball valve too if wanted but those tend to get tight over time. Jandy valves can be greased or just replace the internal parts. No re-piping. Now, for the line.. If they are BOTH connected, you'd have to plug one. Keep in mine, on SUCTION lines, if there are kids, you'd want to make sure that you close the line after vacuuming or it could be too much suction and could possible cause damage to a person that plays by it. PRESSURE cleaners. Again, one line would have to be plugged. The pressure line would feed a booster pump, which would tie in AFTER the filter. Again, make sure the filter has no broken grids. So that would feed the booster which would go to the line. Hope this helps.

 

[JesseWV]

Just a side note about putting up a fence, I bet it would look much better if you enclosed the entire concrete around the pool. You could have a few self closing/latching gates, one by the patio attached to the house and one by the pool house perhaps?