going on vacation

[pakrh8r]

I tried searching for this first but came up with so many results and didn't see one that matched my question, though I did not look through all 187 pages of results. I will be leaving for vacation soon and will be gone for 2 weeks. I started using the BBB method about a month ago and have turned off my chlorinator. I will have my brother checking in on the house but he does not have a pool and doesn't know anything about maintaining one. My CYA is about 65 and I'm worried about having it increase if I turn it back on while I'm gone. My FC is 6 (following the recomendations on poolcalculator.com) and pH is currently at 7.5. What are my best options for keeping the pool in check while I am gone? Should I just turn the chlorinator on low (like 1/8) and hope for the best or should I try to instruct my brother on testing with my new TF100 kit and adding chemicals as appropriate? Something else?
Thanks.

 

[jblizzle]

2 weeks is a long time and your CYA is already too high.

What has your normal schedule been as far as chlorine addition? How often will your brother be stopping by?
If you raise the FC up to shock level (and put a cover on if you have it), and then are able to tell him to add ##oz or bleach every #days, you may come home to a clear pool.

 

[Isaac-1]

It depends on how often your brother will be there checking on it, if every 2 or 3 days I would suggest estimating your current daily bleach use, and leave bleach jugs marked with the date they should be added to the pool out for him. That way all he has to do is dump and go. You may come back to low or high chlorine levels, but with luck it will be in the right ballpark and nothing will be growing.

Ike

 

[FUBAR]

You know I was about to search this when I'm stumbled onto this thread. Not to derail, but for someone like me who uses 8% bleach to chlorinate their pool, if I'm gone for a week and nobody is able to check the pool should I raise the pool to shock level and toss in a couple chlorine tablets or?


9,400 gallon AG Vinyl, 1/2hp - Sand Filter, Fresh water, Solar Water Heater, BBB Method

 

[jblizzle]

If your CYA is not already too high ... raising to shock level, covering and/or adding pucks in a floater is about as good as you can do.

 

[Isaac-1]

In general the approach of raise FC and add a couple of trichlor pucks to a floater will work for a 7-8 day trip, much longer than that and you tend to start to have problems

 

[ping]

How about this idea, raise it to shock level add pucks in the chlorinator and cover it if possible. When you get home dump some of the water to lower the CYA as it could use some lowering anyways.

 

[FUBAR]

If your CYA is not already too high ... raising to shock level, covering and/or adding pucks in a floater is about as good as you can do.

In general the approach of raise FC and add a couple of trichlor pucks to a floater will work for a 7-8 day trip, much longer than that and you tend to start to have problems

CYA is 45. Thanks for the advice. That should do me well for the week's vacation in July.


9,400 gallon AG Vinyl, 1/2hp - Sand Filter, Fresh water, Solar Water Heater, BBB Method

 

[BoDarville]

Here are even more ideas: Vacation.

 

[techguy]

If you are going in July, you have some time to get your CYA down (drain and fill?) to a point where a week or two of floater (with CYA) will put you back where you want to be when you return.

I am going to Disneyland tomorrow night and I am using a floater this week to get it dialed in for my trip. I started with the recommended number of holes in the disposable floater (4 holes) and have added several more (up 8 right now) to get my FC levels correct each day. My CYA was 20 when I started and now it is 30. I expect it will be 40-50 when I get home. I am going to bring it to shock before I leave. It will get a small of use while I am gone.

 

[pakrh8r]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. What I ended up doing was having him come over before I left and going through all of the tests with him. He performed them all great and recorded all of the results for me. When I returned the pool was still sparking clean and I didn't really have to do much to it. If only he mowed my lawn for me .

 

[DanielP]

Wouldn't putting the winter cover on help a lot to reduce chlorine loss from the sun?

 

[Ronald U.]

I had pet care person add bleach daily. After 2 weeks pool was clean but pH high. Fairly easy. Want to say I love this system and forum, learning a lot and don't miss scraping off algae! Thanks.

 

[Husky25]

Maybe there should be a "How to" for going out of town for varying lengths of time (Maybe there is and I didn't see it ?), It's relatively easy to search for threads, but it appears to be a fairly regular occurrence.

Personally, I am taking two days this weekend and 5 days at the end of July and don't have anyone to watch my pool for me. This weekend is nothing. I'll get the water up to the high end of my FC range on Friday and test again on Sunday morning. The trip to Pittsburgh in a couple weeks is a different story.

My plan is to see if my father still has a floater this weekend (he now has an in-line chlorinator, If not I'll go to OSJL), get some pucks (either from him or just buy a small bucket for just these occasions), throw a couple, two, tree in the floater and call it a day. I'm not too worried about CYA because I'm around 30 as I type and want to boost it marginally anyway. Plus, I do a partial drain at closing, again just before the first freeze in late October/early November (typically coincides with raking leaves), and one more time in March when the ice has melted. I bought a Loop-Loc safety cover last year, which lets rain through. No more 12 hour Spring fills with the garden hose.

Anything else you can think of? I don't have a solar cover, so that is out and I'm erring against adding polyquat 60, but I'm interested to hear what you all have to say.