Newbie help please!

[mjj047s]

Hello pool boys and girls. Great forum. Been learning a lot.

I recently 'fired' my pool service. A couple little things kept adding up and the kicker was when they left my pool gate unlocked two weeks in a row. I have a 4 year old that's a little more important than the pool service guy...so that's that.

I'm taking a stab at it myself. Right now it's pretty balanced still. I live in Florida, so it's cold and pretty mild to maintain.

I bought an Automatic Pool Cleaner (Baracuda G3 W03000). I don't have any trees over the pool, so i get minimal debris.

I just need help hooking it up. Do I turn off the skimmer line AND the main line? Or just the skimmer ? (then slowly turn it back on to get the proper flow...)
I have a dedicated port. I plan to keep it in there daily. Pics attached. Thanks in advance.

 

[poolkid]

Good luck on the maintenance! You're in good hands with this forum.

As far as the valve settings for the G3, I recommend turning the main drain off completely. A suction cleaner is basically a roving main drain, so there's really no need to open up the pool's drain. Also, occasionally I've seen suction cleaners stick to the MD if it's open.

With the MD fully off, open the dedicated suction line 100%, and then control the speed of the G3 with the skimmer valve. If you have the skimmer open 100% and the G3 is still going too fast (a rare occurrence), then you could start opening the MD line to slow it down.

I've been building and remodeling pools for the past few years with no main drains installed. I've never had a problem with poor flow or water clarity issues on drain-less pools. As long as you've got a suction cleaner, you're good to go.


Steve

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome to the forum Mj!

Taking this over yourself isn't going to be hard and you may find it very rewarding. I would strongly encourage you to arm yourself with the most important tool you'll need...knowledge. A great place to start with that is the ABC's of Pool Chemistry that can be found in Pool School.

You'll also have to have a good kit to do it right. You can find link in my signature to all that, so please check it out. We enjoy helping folks who want to learn this themselves, so don't hesitate to come back with questions if you have any. Good Luck!

 

[mjj047s]

Gentleman - thanks for the help. Pool cleaner working like a charm! Haven't seen my pool this clean in a while (and at half the 'pool service' price).
Trying to absorb as much knowledge as I can. This site is great, and it's rewarding and humbling to know that people care just because they share the same interests.

 

[Patrick_B]

Thanks for the kind words, and glad you are enjoying it here. Stick around and enjoy the forum.