new pool, no chemicals, faulty pump

[hurt5150]

So I purchased a "pool kit" on line and I have had problem after problem. I'm not in the habit of online bashing so I will not go further with company details.

My latest problem is this: I have a 24 foot round pool with no chemicals in it. It took me over 2 days to fill the pool and last evening it was finally full enough to turn on the pump and start adding chemicals which I was going to do following the pool school guide to seasonal/temp pools by using dichlor so that I could add CYA and chlorine for the first 4 days. Well, when we turned on the pump, it spews water from a ?? hex gasket per my husband (which was a pre assembled part). Of course, there is no one at the pool company I bought it from on Saturday evening. Of course, all the local pool stores are closed until Monday.

So, my options at this point are to try to manually stir in either plain bleach or the dichlor in a 13600 gallon bowl of water (Really?? like that is going to work..), do nothing, or drive literally 100 miles to the closest open pool store to purchase a pump. There has been at least some water in this pool since Thursday.

I would appreciate some recommendations and if the manually stir in option is what I should try to do, do I use plain bleach or dissolve the dichlor in a bucket first and then use that? It seems to me that the most effective way to stir in chemical in the giant bowl of water is to get several people in the pool and walk in circles. I realize that it isn't recommended to swim during "shock" process but what would be problem as long as we didn't get water near our eyes?

I appreciate the guidance

 

[Charlie_R]

Do you have a simple submersible (sump) pump? You can put that in the water, and direct the hose to circulate the water around the pool.

Can you post a pic of the offending part? Someone here might be able to help with that as well.

 

[GreatCanadian]

The sump pump idea will work. Use bleach and go get some pool stabilizer.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Use the liquid bleach and if you have a pool brush or a net you can use to stir the pool. You can also do the thing with several people walk/run in a circle to get the water moving then have them get out and drizzle the bleach in around the circumference of the pool. The water will keep moving long enough to mix it in a bit.

Post a picture of the leak in action and we may be able to offer a solution that will enable you to run the pump, at least temporarily.

 

[pwrstrk]

Yes. Get some chlorine in there at least and mix however you can.

Algae is waiting to set up shop !


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[GreatCanadian]

By the way what's your pool temperature? If it's still cold that's to you advantage.

 

[hurt5150]

well, my husband went out today and engineered a makeshift water diversion for the leak and turned the pump on and put the dichlor in the pool and let it run for an hour or so. Since I had a running pump I used the dichlor instead of plain bleach, hope I didn't mess it up. I am hoping to be able to run it for a few hours this afternoon, my husband is working on a little leak at the return jet area which hopefully is a simple fix (chances are not considering our luck with this endeavor).

We do not own a sump pump.

Pool temp this am was a brisk 72 degrees. At its warmest it was up to 78 yesterday.

We are mentally and physically exhausted from this pool set up. At this point I am wishing we had never bought a pool.

 

[pwrstrk]

Relax. Pretty soon you'll be loving it. The dichlor is fine to use for now cause it contains CYA.

I can't remember do you have one of our test kits?


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[hurt5150]

I do have the TF 100, I had plenty of time to wait for it to get here while I was previously waiting on a different replacement of a flawed part for this pool.

I tested the pH last night and it was 7.6, figured it was ok as the dichlor would likely drop it a bit anyway.

My next question is since I likely have a silent colony of algae-gators, do I do "day 2" of startup this evening with dichlor or do I wait till am? Since the chemicals aren't mixed probably enough at this point, I don't think that testing the pH and chlorine will be accurate anyway.

thanks for the advice

 

[pwrstrk]

Test and see what CC level is. Then go from there.


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[hurt5150]

here are my numbers, please let me know if they seem like they could be accurate as yesterday was the first time I have ever checked anything like this. I am a complete newbie to pool maintenance.
TA 350
CL 3-5
FC 0.5
CC 0
pH 7.2-7.5

That is after adding a little over 1.5 (1 lb ea) bags of Dichlor about 6 hours prior to testing.

The leak at the jet also required draining the pool below the level of the jet and my husband is continuing to work on it after two trips to the hardware store for who knows what. hopefully I will be able to add whatever chemicals you recommend before I go to bed and we can turn the leaky pump back on for an hour or so. I have dichlor "shock", trichlor pucks, a floating puck dispenser, 8.25% bleach, something for both increasing and decreasing pH that came with the kit, and some of the copper algae stuff, something that is for metals, and some wine. Oh wait, the wine is for me! I ordered the polyquat 60 on Friday from Amazon so hopefully it will come tomorrow or Tuesday (love that Prime!). Looks like I'm gonna need it....

I don't remember being this frustrated in my entire life. My husband is Mr Calm normally and he is at his wits end also. Still wishing I could return the entire thing and just start over.

 

[hurt5150]

It is amazing what a good nights sleep can do for a person's mood and outlook. Mr Calm has dug a ditch around the pump/filter area so the water squirting from the pump gasket is diverted away from the pool edge. I am regaining hopefulness and excitement that the fiasco project of 2013 is all going to turn out ok in the long run. The replacement pump should be here by Wednesday.

Although probably not operating at full capacity, we at least have some water circulating through and the water remains clear.

My chlorine level went from 14 this am to 3 this pm, it was sunny and I know my CYA is still not up to level. Since my CC was 0 last night, can I be reasonably assured that the big drop in chlorine was due to the effects of the sun and low CYA levels, or should I be concerned?

Thanks again for your guidance, I will eventually understand this and maybe even be able to help someone else some day.

(yes, I know I need to do the signature info on my pool equip but I just haven't got around to it yet. I've been very busy obsessing over the pool itself )