Hi All,
My wife and I said for years we would not like to have a pool, and then we had kids and realized how great a pool would be. We moved into a place in November 2012 with a recently redone kidney pool. I think the pool has been there since the 70s, but about a year before we bought it they did a beautiful rehab of the backyard, including pebble on the pool, all new tile and pavers, etc. We have really really enjoyed the pool, and my kids can't get enough of it.
I'm an engineer and I've been learning about pool chemistry, equipment, etc (primarily from TFPC!) and I've been increasingly annoyed with the pool service that we inherited from the previous owners. I finally got really frustrated and fired them yesterday -- My test strips have been showing things out of balance for months, and repeated communications with the pool guy got me no where. Finally I ordered an FAS-DPD, and also took a bottle of water to Leslie's for testing.
FC was 10, PH was off the scale low (yellow), TA was 20, CYA was 30, Salt was 2500. I know that some of the underground piping is copper, and a really hope that the water wasn't acidic enough to cause permanent harm. I ordered some copper (and iron) test strips as well. Its all in balance now, and I bought 17 boxes of 20 mule team borax for this weekend!
One other question I have -- the pool service uses a leaf vacuum that they attach to the hose that normally runs my Polaris 280, and they go around and clean up the bottom of the pool. They also do a little bit of spot brushing, and thats it. I've never seen them brush down the whole pool. Most of the comments on this site indicate we really should be brushing once a week. I ordered a good brush, but I have a feeling I'm going to get lazy and let it go longer than weekly. Anyone have a strong feeling on that?
Anyway, thanks all for being great. It feels like we all really need to stick together, with so much pool store and pool product companies spreading misinformation. Have fun swimming!
My wife and I said for years we would not like to have a pool, and then we had kids and realized how great a pool would be. We moved into a place in November 2012 with a recently redone kidney pool. I think the pool has been there since the 70s, but about a year before we bought it they did a beautiful rehab of the backyard, including pebble on the pool, all new tile and pavers, etc. We have really really enjoyed the pool, and my kids can't get enough of it.
I'm an engineer and I've been learning about pool chemistry, equipment, etc (primarily from TFPC!) and I've been increasingly annoyed with the pool service that we inherited from the previous owners. I finally got really frustrated and fired them yesterday -- My test strips have been showing things out of balance for months, and repeated communications with the pool guy got me no where. Finally I ordered an FAS-DPD, and also took a bottle of water to Leslie's for testing.
FC was 10, PH was off the scale low (yellow), TA was 20, CYA was 30, Salt was 2500. I know that some of the underground piping is copper, and a really hope that the water wasn't acidic enough to cause permanent harm. I ordered some copper (and iron) test strips as well. Its all in balance now, and I bought 17 boxes of 20 mule team borax for this weekend!
One other question I have -- the pool service uses a leaf vacuum that they attach to the hose that normally runs my Polaris 280, and they go around and clean up the bottom of the pool. They also do a little bit of spot brushing, and thats it. I've never seen them brush down the whole pool. Most of the comments on this site indicate we really should be brushing once a week. I ordered a good brush, but I have a feeling I'm going to get lazy and let it go longer than weekly. Anyone have a strong feeling on that?
Anyway, thanks all for being great. It feels like we all really need to stick together, with so much pool store and pool product companies spreading misinformation. Have fun swimming!
