Best way to clean really dirty pool

[Ironchef]

My pool received a lot of dirt blown in from some landscaping I did over the winter and is BROWN. Since the water level is unusually low, I was planning to drain the pool and scrub it clean. Does anyone have some pitfalls to avoid? It is an inground pool with a hopper style plastic liner 16/32 ft.

Thanks for your help

 

[Charlie_R]

you should not drain a vinyl lined pool completely, unless you are replacing the liner. You will need to keep at least a foot of water in the shallow end.

Personally, I'd vacuum to filter, and take the hit on frequent backwashes, with deep cleaning every couple of days.

 

[Richard320]

Since you have no objection to using a lot of water... Why not just turn the multiport to waste and vacuum the stuff out and be done with it? Unless you have a floor drain that you can isolate. In that case, sweep the dirt towards the drain and run the mud out the waste pipe.

But don't empty the pool completely! Leave a foot in the shallow end.

 

[zea3]

+1 on what Charlie_R and Richard320 have said. Vacuum the dirt to waste, brush the pool daily so any remaining dirt can be caught by the filter. Vinyl liners shrink and loose elasticity when they are allowed to dry out, so do not let the water level stay low for an extended period of time.

 

[Ironchef]

Thanks everyone. I was going to leave some water in the pool. The plan is to do the cleaning and water removal late on the day or very early in the morning. Is there any special cleaning produce you would recommend?

 

[Casey]

You're going to ruin your liner if you go against the advice you've been provided and drain the pool past the shallow end. It is going to unseat itself in the middle of the night just like it would in broad day light! You want to clean the pool? SLAM it with the pool full and run the filter like everyone else does. If you drain all the water, thinking nothing will happen, you'll have to call a pool store to reset your liner. The choice is yours.

 

[Ironchef]

My problem is that I cannot vacuum to waste nonstop because the output would flow onto my neighbors lawn. Could modify the output to go into the street or direct it to the drainage ditch in the back. I was going to syphon to the ditch originally we the believe that the filter could not handle this dirt. Sorry to bother you again but the decision has to be made by Thursday .

 

[Richard320]

My problem is that I cannot vacuum to waste nonstop because the output would flow onto my neighbors lawn. Could modify the output to go into the street or direct it to the drainage ditch in the back. I was going to syphon to the ditch originally we the believe that the filter could not handle this dirt. Sorry to bother you again but the decision has to be made by Thursday .

Sure! All you need is a long enough backwash hose hooked to the waste port. Does your filter have a waste port with a hose barb, and maybe a hose on it, or did someone hard plumb it?

 

[Smykowski]

The other option is to run the filter and vacuum it all out. You will use significantly less water than vacuum to waste or a drain/refill, but it will obviously take a whole lot more time. I personally don't like to dump water overboard - plus my yard is the lowest of everyone around, so I turn into the swamp - so I'd opt for the latter. You just need to decide what's more important/expensive, the water or your time.