Another Newbie

[WildeKurt]

We bought a house last fall with a pool. It's been covered since last fall. I plan to start opening it this weekend. So I'm sure I'll have quite a few more questions. For now I was wondering about my circulation system.

I have a 1HP Hayward pump feeding a sand filter that is then piped to an inline chlorinator (Hayward again). From there the piping goes into the ground. Branching off that, though is a smaller line feeding a 3/4 HP pump whose output also goes into the ground. Is this some kind of booster pump? The main pump is fed from a breaker (no timer). The second pump is fed from a switch (again no timer). I presume the previous owner either ran the pump(s) all the time or cycled them on and off manually. Why is there a booster pump? I'm pretty sure I'll be adding a timer pretty soon.

Next question regards testing kits. The previous owner left a new HTH testing kit. The box says it tests for total chlorine, (is this free chloring?), bromine, pH, total alkalinity, total hardness and cyanuric acid. Is this enough or should I get something else. I see that this site recommends others. I was hoping to get away with what I have for a bit and maybe supplementing it for any other tests I may need. I'm still trying to get my head around all these acronyms here so I appoligize for my ignorance.

Thanks for any help.

BTW, I'll add more info to my signature when I find out more about what I have.

 

[JasonLion]

The booster pump is there to power a pressure side cleaner. There is presumably a special port somewhere on the wall of the pool that you plug the cleaner into. The booster pump should only be turned on while the main pump is running and is only useful for powering a pool cleaner designed to be used with a booster pump.

FC is free chlorine. CC is combined chlorine. TC is total chlorine. TC = FC + CC.

The HTH kit is a good very basic kit. It is enough to use in a pinch, but you really want a FAS-DPD chlorine test that will measure FC and CC up to high levels. The HTH kit is an OTO chlorine test that only measures TC up to 5. Also, HTH uses less expensive versions of the various other tests that are not as reliable as the tests in the fancier kits.

 

[duraleigh]

Hey, Kurt,

Welcome to the forum :lol:

 

[WildeKurt]

How about if I supplement what I have with a chlorine test kit. About $26 I think.

 

[Bama Rambler]

You could just buy the Fas-DPD kit but you'd be better off getting the entire kit. Then you'll have all the tests that you need. It looks like a lot of money but it really isn't, especially when you figure how much you won't spend at the Pool Store because of good test numbers.