Post Mistakes You Made Before TFPC

Jump to latest Follow Reply
ThinkPad

ThinkPad

0
Jul 8, 2014
227
East Coast
I thought I should start a thread where you can post the mistake(s) and/or problem(s) that occurred which caused you to look into Trouble Free Pool Care.

An example would be mine. Mine was nothing compared to what others have. My issue was that we would put in two of the standard 2.5 gallon pool chlorine jugs to four of those jugs in our pool every week, just to have algae growing by the end of the week. We were fortunate enough to just have basic mustard algae which can be easily brushed off.

Every week we would raise the FC to 50-100 ppm, then get in the pool the following day, or sometimes even later that day. We had no idea about any of this. I should mention that we also stored our vented chlorine containers in direct sunlight all day every day. We also poured the chlorine in the pool in full sunlight, also. We occasionally would use a single trichlor tablet and rarely a bag of dichlor shock.

It was as simple as raising the CYA level for me. I was originally given this advice by a helpful employee at Ace Hardware before discovering TFP. My local Ace has never recommended for me to buy an expensive product like I find at Leslies. The employee at Ace even had me buy the cheapest tablet there without me asking.
 
Good thread to start !
I can honestly say I've made no mistakes as when I first got the pool it was TFPC from the get go. I got the pool in the fall and did a quick google search on pool maintenance and it led me to this forum. Pool was installed the next spring. Had an entire winter to read and read and read some more !! I've never been pool stored, don't know what all that fuss is about LOL !! So this is the only way I know.
Sorry for not having any nightmare problems to post. I'm glad I don't !! ?
 
Too high CYA (no idea just how high). Pool store told me to drain a inch or two of water and refill and it should be fine! My liner cracked all over the bottom and all of the water rushed out taking quite a bit of the under sand with it. I sold the pool frame and all of the equipment.

Husband missed the pool. I told him I would NEVER set foot in a pool store again. He found TFP. I ordered the test kit BEFORE I ordered the pool to make sure I could do and understand the tests! It was fun and easy!

We BOTH love our TFP!

Kim
 
Still a newbie but opened this spring to green pool, the ole pool store sold me $300 of stuff...25 lbs powdered chlorine which I attempted to dissolve before dumping in which faded my liner, 25 lbs ALK up, 25 lbs Calcium along w a big bottle of Algaecide....dumped in all of it within a few hours......took 3 weeks to clear up pool somewhat. Then 2 pucks directly in filter, 2 lbs power powder plus each week.......it would look nice for awhile. I knew there had to be a better way ... Thank god for google and TFP.....only thing I battle now is metal stains from the Algaecide I'm sure
 
I did things backwards. Bought and installed the pool and "maintenance system" before learning anything about a pool. :oops: The pool store proclaimed the ease of this system. A couple days after the installation, I googled to find information about anything to do with pools.

That's when I found TFP and learned the "maintenance free system" that I had chosen was a copper/silver ion system. :roll: So I shut it off and started learning the TFP way and have never looked back! I haven't had a problem with the pool so far.

Then I read a lot of stories about how much some have spent at pool stores and still not have a clear pool. So I decided I would become a TFP supporter because this site has, I'm sure, prevented problems rather than having to fix problems!

:whoot:
 
Biggest mistake for me was Baquacil. Used it for 2 seasons. Hated it. Went to the pool store to ask about converting. They sold me a bucket of pucks and something else, don't even know what it was. They just said to put it in and add a couple pucks every day, I should be converted by the end of the summer. Thought to myself there has got to be a better way. Got home and got on google and found this site. Followed the procedure for converting a baqaucil pool and it only took a little over a week. Have been following advice on this forum ever since.
 
It took us almost 18 years of using Baquacil before I found TFP and learned about pool chemistry. By far the biggest mistake I've done!

Guess I'm a slow learner......
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
If your buying an older home with a pool, pay for a more detailed pool inspection..ie, chlorinator equipment, lights, leak test, etc. I paid for home and basic pool inspection but now wish I had spent more on detailed pool inspection from an actual pool company. At a minimum, I could have negotiated for some kind of credit towards getting things fixed if I had known about the issues beforehand.
 
Before TFP, lots of CYA! When 1 bag of dichlor per week didn't cut it I added 2. I also had a floating chlorinator full of tabs, then added a second. By the 3rd year I had consistently murky water and was feeding it 6-8 tabs and 2 bags of dichlor a week! I switch to cal-hypo for a while, (didn't know I was switching types of chlorine, just knew the stuff at Wally World was cheaper!) Found TFP after a clerk at Leslie's told me about using baking soda to adjust pH. I googled it because I didn't trust him. That led me to TFP!

Since TFP, me being lazy! I had some difficult personal issues to deal with and let it go swampy on me a couple of times, but I was able to bring it back from swamp to swimmable without difficulty each time.
 
I started searching before our pool was officially ours. Neighbor was tired of it being either green or milky, and no pool store she talked to could tell her why, just sold her a huge pile of chemicals. For a 15' Intex? Really? All the crud they had her putting into it, it would have been cheaper to drain and refill once a week.

We replaced the liner because of the damage caused by the chemical soup. Yes, it can happen. Pool floor was very brittle. You can see that in some of the pics I've posted, it's hanging on the fence. I used that to store our sand when I dug out to sink the pool into the ground. Enough rain has washed the crud out of it, and it is now a bit more flexible, but still not good.

Pool has never gone green since we've had it. Thanks to the TFPC method!
 
Hired a PB and believed what he told me. Not until I was VERY unhappy with what was going on during the build did I finally sign up and start paying a lot of attention.

I wasnt looking for water maintenance info, but I was frantic for construction and equipment operation advice and how things "work" Long story short, I finally signed up.
So glad I did too or I would eventually have posted another "pool store" saga.
 
Pucks, pucks, and more pucks. In the skimmer basket. Algaecide, pH up, pH down, alkalinity up, metal free, phosFree, heaven only knows what else. In nearly twenty years of pool ownership, had never taken the filter apart and totally cleaned it until this spring (we're on our second filter in that amount of time, but maybe the first one would still be alive and kicking if we had cleaned it. I didn't even know you could). Not carefully measuring DE (used pool store recommendation of 1 pound coffee can to scoop, only DE weighs less than coffee). Not testing carefully with a good kit. We've never opened in the spring to clean water, always a swamp. Never knew you could vacuum to waste.

I'm sure there were more things I did wrong, and probably even more that I'm STILL doing wrong, but that's why I read, read, read.
 
A few of my mistakes started since last year. Bought the house with 0 pool knowledge and closed the pool too late. My wife and I closed in early Sept. and thought "Let's use the pool as much as we can before it gets cold." What a mistake! Before we knew it, it was Oct. and it was just constant leaves, leaves, leaves in the pool. Just settling into the house with a 7 month old baby was hard enough, so the pool never got the attention it deserved. Pool turned green and off to the pool store I went. For 2 weeks, I bought a boat load of pool store chems that didn't do anything. Struggled to keep the pool leaf free and cleaned it as much as I could. Eventually hired a pool company to close the pool while it was still light green. It was over the winter that I lurked on this site to learn all about TFPC. This year I opened my pool myself and have maintained a clean sparkly pool all season long thus far. If a newb like me can do it, anybody can!
 
Not putting in an automatic cover when we installed the pool. We have four live oak trees that are constantly dropping something. I told my husband I would give up all the extras to have a rectangular pool with a cover because I knew who would be doing the maintenance. Needless to say, I lost the battle and guess who's doing the maintenance?! Thank goodness for TFPC!!
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply