We moved into a beautiful new house in february with an inground pool. 18 x 36, vinyl liner, sand filter, hayward natural gas heater, mesh cover. I've never done anything with pools before, but I love to research and try things myself (and I'm cheap). I took the cover off nice and early, not knowing what I'd find and wanting to leave myself plenty of time to work on it. Glad I did. Have had a few issues so far:
1. Motor on pump was frozen. I had hoped it was a stuck impeller...not so lucky. I replaced the whole pump with a Hayward Super II pump. Used the same horse power...1 hp.
2. Pool wasn't closed with a gizmo in the skimmer line, so the plug on that line was a pain to get up. Especially with my hand submerged in really cold green water. There were two caps down there, turns out the one I could get open was a drain. It worked out okay as it drained the water just below the skimmer. I could now see the plug and not put my hand in the Titanic water, so I was able to get that removed.
3. The liner had come unattached in 7 different areas around the pool. The largest was over two feet in length. This has been the biggest headache, but the most satisfying to finally be done fixing. I did some reading, called the local pool shop, and got an idea of how to fix it. I poured boiling water over the liner, used rubber gloves (learned the hard way) and stretched the liner back up to pop it into place. The key was having plenty of hot water and keeping the liner temp up high enough to stretch. I also bought some "liner lock" from InTheSwim and it worked wonderfully after I popped it back in to keep it there. Easy to install, and hopefully will prevent further issues. In the big spots, the design on the liner isn't perfectly horizontal any more, but it is good enough for me.
Next step...fill the pool back up over the skimmer, test the water, turn on the pump and shock it. I love this site so far, as I've learned a lot. Got the good Taylor test kit, and I think it will come in handy. I'm guessing the CYA will be zero after three summers with no chemicals added. Since it is cold, do I need to bring CYA up before shocking, or can I do that later?
Hopefully equipment is now running, and my attention now turns to chemisty!
1. Motor on pump was frozen. I had hoped it was a stuck impeller...not so lucky. I replaced the whole pump with a Hayward Super II pump. Used the same horse power...1 hp.
2. Pool wasn't closed with a gizmo in the skimmer line, so the plug on that line was a pain to get up. Especially with my hand submerged in really cold green water. There were two caps down there, turns out the one I could get open was a drain. It worked out okay as it drained the water just below the skimmer. I could now see the plug and not put my hand in the Titanic water, so I was able to get that removed.
3. The liner had come unattached in 7 different areas around the pool. The largest was over two feet in length. This has been the biggest headache, but the most satisfying to finally be done fixing. I did some reading, called the local pool shop, and got an idea of how to fix it. I poured boiling water over the liner, used rubber gloves (learned the hard way) and stretched the liner back up to pop it into place. The key was having plenty of hot water and keeping the liner temp up high enough to stretch. I also bought some "liner lock" from InTheSwim and it worked wonderfully after I popped it back in to keep it there. Easy to install, and hopefully will prevent further issues. In the big spots, the design on the liner isn't perfectly horizontal any more, but it is good enough for me.
Next step...fill the pool back up over the skimmer, test the water, turn on the pump and shock it. I love this site so far, as I've learned a lot. Got the good Taylor test kit, and I think it will come in handy. I'm guessing the CYA will be zero after three summers with no chemicals added. Since it is cold, do I need to bring CYA up before shocking, or can I do that later?
Hopefully equipment is now running, and my attention now turns to chemisty!
Welcome to TFP! I agree with Bama above..and recommend testing all of your levels as soon as you get your kit!
