how to drain pool?

[pistolet929]

Hi, newbe here, my CH is very high, 1500. According to pool calulator I need to replace 82% of the water. But how do I drain the pool? I purchased a forclosue, no documentation on the pump and contols.

House has septic system, no access to storm drain, or sewer system.

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: Probably the best bet would be to post a couple of pics of your equipment. Pull back far enough so we can see where all the pipes go and then get close ups if you think you need to.

 

[dmanb2b]

Welcome to TFP! Ditto to what Duraleigh advised, we are here to help. Could you confrim how you tested for CH?

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

Hi, newbe here, my CH is very high, 1500. According to pool calulator I need to replace 82% of the water. But how do I drain the pool? I purchased a forclosue, no documentation on the pump and contols.

House has septic system, no access to storm drain, or sewer system.

Solid advice in the other responses. You should also post your location and more info about the yard - do you have anywhere you could pump the water to on the yard? If you are worried about the impact of the chemicals we'd need more details on the chemistry and your vegetation.

 

[pistolet929]

I am located in CA about an hour north of San Diego. My home is situated on 2AC, I do have space to dump water on the ground. I have about 1/2 AC adjacent to pump house that is not landscaped, just raw land. I used the TF100 test kit to measure the CH. I will post pictures of my pump set up this afternoon.

Thank you for your quick responce.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

I am located in CA about an hour north of San Diego. My home is situated on 2AC, I do have space to dump water on the ground. I have about 1/2 AC adjacent to pump house that is not landscaped, just raw land. I used the TF100 test kit to measure the CH.

1 Hour - in traffic or just in general? If traffic then Del Mar or La Jolla might be an hour - I love that area. If not then maybe Temecula or north of Oceanside?

Excellent. Depending on the type of filter you have you may have the option to use WASTE or BACKWASH settings and a discharge hose to take water out of the pool. There may be challenges with that due to the design of the layout or the types of suction you have on the pool. Do you know how many skimmers and drains you have?

One more complication is that draining a large amount from the pool can cause problems depending on the water table. We can discuss details as you get your information posted in the thread. You may need to check with local pool companies and county extension office to see what the water table is and how much of a concern it is. Most of the western states that are dry have no issue with this but it's worth checking.

I will post pictures of my pump set up this afternoon.

In the meantime as you gather info you may want to update your signature and location in your profile. If you put this info in there you can avoid repetition of these kinds of questions. The signature info is located inside the "Before you post" topic in Pool School. Also - one thing that it may not say in that topic is that signatures are supposed to be no more than 5 lines tall.

Thank you for your quick responce.

You are most welcome. Many of us were brand new ourselves when we found this place. We had the same kinds of questions and learned quickly that this place has a lot of great people and good information to share.

 

[Richard320]

I am located in CA about an hour north of San Diego. My home is situated on 2AC, I do have space to dump water on the ground. I have about 1/2 AC adjacent to pump house that is not landscaped, just raw land. I used the TF100 test kit to measure the CH. I will post pictures of my pump set up this afternoon.

Thank you for your quick responce.

Are you using well water to refill?

You are one of the lucky few to be in an area served by a Reverse Osmosis company. It might be a viable option for you, especially if (and it's likely) you have high CH fill water. Plus there's no danger of floating the pool. http://www.poolservicestech.com/

 

[Rocco]

I also have been thinking about draining my pool. I have an in ground gunite pool.
When the pool is full you have pressure from inside the pool pushing out and pressure from outside the pool pushing in. As you drain the water the pressure from inside the pool begins to go away but the pressure from the outside stays constant. This is where the most risk is posed. As you pool can actually be raised out of the ground or floated. As mentioned in an earlier post the water table (or water in the ground) is what is causing the outside pressure.

Here is a nice thread on this board about the issue:
empty-pools-hydrostatic-pressure-t2364.html

So when planning on draining the pool you would want to do so while the ground is dry and there has been no rain for a while (recommended time would have to come from those who are more knowledgeable in this are). Also make sure to not drain the pool near or uphill from the pool.

Another item to look into is if your pool has a hydrostatic valve, and it is in good condition and not clogged . This valve lets water that is in the ground into the pool, this helps reduce the outside pressure.

Most hydrostatic valves are located in the main drain.

As for actually draining the pool, it has been recommended to rent a submersible pump ($60 from Home Depot) for the day and let it do the work instead of your pump.

Hope this helps.

 

[pistolet929]

Wow I had no idea, you could float a pool. Question, we are serviced by Rancho CA water district. I know the measure there wells evey month. Would this be a good source of the water table height?

And you are correct that is 1 hour with out traffic.

 

[Richard320]

Wow I had no idea, you could float a pool. Question, we are serviced by Rancho CA water district. I know the measure there wells evey month. Would this be a good source of the water table height?

And you are correct that is 1 hour with out traffic.

They might know, yes.

It looks like they are serious about water conservation, with tiered rates and all that. It looks like you can apply for a variance to refill the pool every five years. http://ca-ranchowater.civicplus.com/index.aspx?NID=226 Be sure you do, if you decide to drain. I'd certainly crunch the numbers and figure out what it will cost to refill it versus having reverse osmosis done. You're not all that far from Escondido, where the R/O company is.