This week we purchased the Circupool SI45

[Jonette2]

Hi,
I am kinda new to this forum, even tho I did post some things last summer. We had a terrible summer,spent thousands on chemical, had terrible algae blooms. It was a bad time. Really only got to swim about half the season. We had a pecan tree hanging over the pool, we just bought the house at the beginning of that season.

Over this winter, we have rid our yard and pool of that trashy tree. It dumped massive amounts of pecan garbage into the pool. Leaves, seed pods and pecans. We will see lots more sun on that pool this summer and a lot less green trash. So hopefully that will help.

We spent thousands last season,trying to keep the pool clear. I'm pretty sure most went down the drain. We listened to pool stores too much. I had just started lurking here and asking questions.

This week we purchased the Circupool SI45 from Discount Salt Pools. It arrived today. We are going to make a run of it.

One question. Our pool is Gunite, will it help if we repaint it? We are worried some of the algae spores may still be in the pores of the gunite.

The pool has been drained half way all winter. Since it has stopped being so cold, my husband has been working on getting it drained the rest of the way. We are taking this opportunity to check the floor drain and work on the light.

Is there anything else we should do to get the season off to a good start? Is there a way we can check our other pipes to make sure they are in good shape and no breaks?

I asked a lot of questions, I know. Hopefully someone will see it in their heart to help me along.

Thanks very much

 

[RobbieH]

Paint is not a good option for pools, honestly.

You can have someone like American Leak Detection check your pipes for you, and it won't matter if the pool is full or not. They will charge you around $400 to do the whole job.

 

[Rocco]

First you want to be extremely careful draining the pool. Once drained or even partially drained the pool can actually pop out of the ground due to ground water. This is called floating a pool.
If you have already drained the pool you want to remove the cover from the main drain(s) and look for a hole that might have a plug screwed into it and unscrew this plug. This is normally an open pipe that goes into the ground and will let any water that is under the ground pushing your pool up to drain into the pool. There may also be a valve that does this automatically for you called a Hydrostatic relief valve.

If you are unable to identify any of these I would recommend using a post digger and digging a hole as deep your pool to see if it fills up with any water.

As mentioned above by RobbieH painting your pool is not a very good option. Even though the paint is designed for pools and to be under water they only last for a few years 3 - 5 before they start to flake and peel off. At that point you will need to repaint again and again. If I were to paint my pool myself it would cost around $600 and even more if you hired someone.

If you are concerned with staining and your pool is already empty your best bet in my opinion is to have the pool acid washed. Probably at the same cost or even less than painting it. They basically spray a mixture on the pool surface that will eat away the top layer of plaster and stains. Of course this can only be done a certain number of times before the plaster becomes too thin.

In my in ground plaster pool my stains were cause by calcium buildup that was stained brown due to dirty water during the winter months and when the house was empty after a foreclosure.

The good thing about learning how to do things the way this site instructs you to is that by knowing and understanding what is going on with your pool you should never have to worry about algae and staining again. And of course all the money you will save by staying out of the pool store.

 

[Smykowski]

Is there anything that leads you to believe you have a leak? Is the water level dropping on it's own? Or are you just assuming there's a problem based on prior condition?

If there's any algae in the pool, SLAMing it will take care of it. Maintaining proper chemistry will keep it away. I'm not sure algae is a reason to be contemplating redoing the finish of the pool. Unless there's other issues with its condition.

 

[Jonette2]

Thanks for comments,btw.

My husband doesn't think there's a leak, I do. I may be over worrying,because I can't see the underground pipes. I am just thinking that some of the issues we had last season, may be due to circulation inefficencies. Since we are new owners, I feel we should take this opportunity to check the lines before we refill the pool. We fought with priming problems. It would take at least ten attempts to prime the pump each time. Losing prime was very easy. We cannot run the pool pump system on a timer because the prime won't stay when the system is shut down. When we bought the house we had never dealt with a pool before so we didn't really know what to look for. We did have it inspected, but since we had little knowledge, I wonder how well the inspection really was. The inspector simply said it was operational. I know my typing style is bad, but I'm just trying to remember everything from last year. We had a very difficult time keeping the chlorine level up where it needed to be last season. We would get it raised to where it needed to be and it would plummet back down very fast.Just need to have a better year this time.

 

[Smykowski]

Ok, that helps.

All of your chlorine issues sound like they are the result of never having a clean pool in the first place. If you SLAM it properly and maintain the balance we suggest, that problem will go away.

As for the losing prime, there may be a leak, but not necessarily one that would cause the pool to drain. It's more likely a leak at the pump somewhere, either an o-ring or a fitting.

I am definitely not a leak expert, but based on what you've described, I don't know if there's a leak in the pool you have to worry about. Unless the pool won't hold water, and the water level is visibly dropping, I don't think that's the problem. Please wait for more opinions before doing much more, though.

 

[Smykowski]

Also, can you clarify what you were talking about in your first post? Was the pool drained halfway as part of the closing process?

 

[Jonette2]

Yes the pool was drained half way at closing.

 

[woodyp]

Is your pump/pool pad "up hill" from the pool itself any?

 

[Patrick_B]

I would strongly suggest a check valve Just upstream (meaning just before) of your pump suction to prevent loss of prime.

 

[timerguy]

Thanks for comments,btw.

My husband doesn't think there's a leak, I do. I may be over worrying,because I can't see the underground pipes. I am just thinking that some of the issues we had last season, may be due to circulation inefficencies. Since we are new owners, I feel we should take this opportunity to check the lines before we refill the pool. We fought with priming problems. It would take at least ten attempts to prime the pump each time. Losing prime was very easy. We cannot run the pool pump system on a timer because the prime won't stay when the system is shut down. When we bought the house we had never dealt with a pool before so we didn't really know what to look for. We did have it inspected, but since we had little knowledge, I wonder how well the inspection really was. The inspector simply said it was operational. I know my typing style is bad, but I'm just trying to remember everything from last year. We had a very difficult time keeping the chlorine level up where it needed to be last season. We would get it raised to where it needed to be and it would plummet back down very fast.Just need to have a better year this time.

You're going to be tied to your pump. The Si-45 won't run without water flow. One of the reasons I bought the Si-45 was the capability on not being tied to the pool and worrying about not having enough chlorine in the pool. A leak in the pool isn't going to cause the pump to lose prime unless there isn't enough water in the pool to pump.

 

[Jonette2]

Yes the pump is uphill from the pool. I would say the pump is at least 2 FEET above the water level when the pool is full. The skimmer is about 30 FEET from the pump. We do not currently have a check valve. We never thought about that. We are now. Thanks

 

[jblizzle]

I would not think 2 feet is enough to worry about and require a check valve.

 

[Jonette2]

We replaced the shaft seal last summer and we replaced the lid on the pump housing and a new O ring for the lid also.

 

[Chadthenurse]

We replaced the shaft seal last summer and we replaced the lid on the pump housing and a new O ring for the lid also.

Jonette2,

What is your opinion of the Circupool SI45? Are you having any issues with algae blooms? I have a similar issue and thinking about the circupool RJ or SI45. Would like to hear about your experiences. Thanks a bunch!