New house, old pool, seems great but thought I'd check in

[tduffey]

Hi Everyone,

My family and I moved to a new house last year with an in ground pool. I had no idea what I was getting into and never thought I wanted a pool but now wonder how I lived without one. Knock on wood but so far everything seems to be going really well and so I thought I'd check in here and ask a question.

Our pool is kind of a funny egg shaped thing including the pool bottom. My guess is it's somewhere in the 15-18K gallon range but it's hard to tell exactly what math most of the calculators are using (Haven't seen an egg setting). It was probably built in the 70s or 80s so it's old but in pretty good shape. The pump is newer, no idea about the age of the sand filter and the heater is old but working fine. We inherited a bucket of BioGuard Silk Smart Sticks which I understand from reading here are not the most cost effective but have been working fine -- we keep 2 or 3 in the skimmer basket and the pump runs 24/7. I'm not opposed to changing what we're doing but so far it seems to be working well with minimal effort.

I purchased the test kit and have reliably read the following results:

pH: 7.5
FC: 5 (Was about 7 so I went from 3 chlorine sticks to 2)
CC: 0
TA: 110
CH: 300
CYA: 50-60

Having never had a pool before I don't really know what I'm doing but it seems like these are reasonable values, no?

Here's my actual question: The pool's waste line has a consistent drip. Sometimes I think that if I go inside and jiggle the filter's valve it stops but then I look later and it's dripping again. Is this normal? Should water be coming out the waste line when the pump valve is set to filter?

Oops, I have two questions. The pool used to have a light but from what I can tell was disabled some time ago including some of the electrical. How much work is it to get an old pool light going again and where can I find information about this?

Cheers,

Tom

 

[zea3]

Re: New house, old pool, seems great but thought I'd check i

The spider gasket on the filter's multi-port valve may need to be replaced to fix the leak. That is the usual suspect for that kind of leak.

You can use the Pool calculator to check and see if your pool chemistry is in range.

As far as the pool light goes, how easy it will be to fix depends on what went wrong in the first place. Is the light still in the niche?

 

[tduffey]

Re: New house, old pool, seems great but thought I'd check i

The light is not in the niche...it's just a hole in the pool wall now with no cover. I can tell from the old notes on our electric panel that there used to be a circuit for it but it's been repurposed.

Who do you call to come look at this sort of thing...pool guys or an electrician?

EDIT: Or, do those with experience with this sort of thing recommend steering clear? I don't really need a light, but it would be cool.

Tom

 

[scott.MI]

Re: New house, old pool, seems great but thought I'd check i

We inherited a bucket of BioGuard Silk Smart Sticks which I understand from reading here are not the most cost effective but have been working fine -- we keep 2 or 3 in the skimmer basket and the pump runs 24/7. I'm not opposed to changing what we're doing but so far it seems to be working well with minimal effort.

How big of a bucket and how full was it? Besides it not being "cost effective" It will continue to raise your CYA levels, which are at the highest they should be...some might say too high already. They will also continually lower your PH.

If it was a full 4 lb bucket, your CYA levels will rise by 15 (in a 18,000gallon pool)
or by 18 in a 15000 gallon pool....(bigger bucket bigger numbers) proceed with caution.

**Of course that all assumes what I found on the net was what you have**
ACTIVE INGREDIENT:
Trichloro-s-triazinetrione -93.9%
OTHER INGREDIENTS: - 6.1%
TOTAL INGREDIENTS: - 100.0%


***Not sure if you concerned with your electric consumption/saving money but 24/7 pump run time is usually not necessary for just normal filtration of a clean pool.

 

[tduffey]

Re: New house, old pool, seems great but thought I'd check i

It's actually the bigger 18LB bucket and we're on the second one. The previous owners were using the same stuff so it's probably been this way for a while but thanks for the CYA warning. I probably over-estimated the reading -- it's hard to tell when your mind knows there's a black dot down there and the water just looks kinda cloudy.

I would like to switch to the BBB method and run the filter less often so I guess that's the next step from here.

Tom

 

[harleysilo]

Re: New house, old pool, seems great but thought I'd check i

Welcome, I'd call electricians about the light.

I'd consider going with a SWG too.