We closed on our house Friday and we are now the owners of a new pool. To prepare for owning a pool I have been studying what is required to maintain a pool. I found this site from the Youtube channel "Swimming Pool Tips, Reviews & How To -MrDgvb". When he was mentioning the BBB method. I thought I should check it out and did a bit of research into your new/old methods of pool care. My grandfather owned a pool growing up after talking with him a bit I realized he used the same methods this forum champions and I never remember being told "no, you can't swim this weekend because Grampie has a green pool". So I have already taken step one and Purchased a Taylor K2006(which will arrive tuesday). I will likely purchase the refill FAS/DPD from TFTestKits in the future.
So onto my pool.
The previous owner CLAIMED as of Thursday the pool was in balance and was good to swim in. During the walk through on Friday you could just barely make out the third step. He had no timer on the filter so I doubt it was being run regularly. Also he tossed the vacuum hose because it was cracked, he rarely used it because he had a PoolBlaster Max...which the charging cord is missing(house sat vacant about 6 months). There was also no brush, I guess the saving grace is it had a decent net and pole.
The Pool is obviously green and I dumped 2 gallons of 8.25% bleach in today assuming the pool had no chlorine(it smelled like a swamp), and I left the pump running. I understand I need to SLAM the pool but I want to wait until I can properly measure everything. I plan to add another gallon tomorrow maybe two if the cheap OTO tester from Wal-Mart reads 0 on chlorine again.
The current physical problems with the pool, in the disclosure it was worded as "The Vinyl liner is near the end of its life and will require replacement soon" visually the liner has pulled from its track in a couple of places and looks faded but the pool is maintaining its water level so I can assume there are no tear's(can't see the bottom see green above). I was planning on sourcing a liner this year and possibly replacing it at opening next year unless I feel it isn't necessary. I have a suction side Air leak(a good amount of bubbles coming from return jets but pump doesn't lose prime after being run for 3 hours...I babysat it) at the recommendation of the pool school(I think) I poured water over the pump strainer lid and the bubbles went away. I am sourcing a new gasket now I prefer to buy local if I can so I will check out the pool store that claims they stock Hayward parts, BUT I will not bring a water sample. Also I already mentioned the vacuum hose my only question about that is how long of a hose should I get? I don't want to walk into the pool store and buy just what they recommend, but again I would rather support my local economy then Amazon...if it can be helped. I will also grab a brush that is safe for a vinyl wall when I am there.
My biggest problem right now that I have no idea what to do about it, my dog decided he had to jump into the pool and then proceeded to panic when he had no idea how to get out but somehow he cracked the top step of the fiberglass stairs once I showed him where to go(he is older and I know he has fallen down stairs before and was scared to go down them for 2 weeks so I doubt he will try it again anytime soon). How do I Fix this and can I do it while I wait for my other equipment?
I understand you will want samples once my test kit arrives and I will post them. Here are some initial pictures I took They are rather large so I will just post links to them.
Return Jet with air bubbles
Cracked Step
The Green Monster!
Thank you for any help you can give me I have already learned A LOT and I already warned my wife we are probably going to go through about 20+ Gallons of bleach to get this safe to swim in(her only question was will it be safe adding that much I told her the bleach is like bullets once it kills something its used up and we have to reload with more!)
TLDR:
Green Pool - Will SLAM when my test kit arrives
Vacuum Hose - How Long?
Cracked Step - Can I fix and how?
Suction side leak - I think I got a handle on that.
Tim
PS: Sorry for the wall of text I just wanted to keep everything consolidated into one thread.
So onto my pool.
The previous owner CLAIMED as of Thursday the pool was in balance and was good to swim in. During the walk through on Friday you could just barely make out the third step. He had no timer on the filter so I doubt it was being run regularly. Also he tossed the vacuum hose because it was cracked, he rarely used it because he had a PoolBlaster Max...which the charging cord is missing(house sat vacant about 6 months). There was also no brush, I guess the saving grace is it had a decent net and pole.
The Pool is obviously green and I dumped 2 gallons of 8.25% bleach in today assuming the pool had no chlorine(it smelled like a swamp), and I left the pump running. I understand I need to SLAM the pool but I want to wait until I can properly measure everything. I plan to add another gallon tomorrow maybe two if the cheap OTO tester from Wal-Mart reads 0 on chlorine again.
The current physical problems with the pool, in the disclosure it was worded as "The Vinyl liner is near the end of its life and will require replacement soon" visually the liner has pulled from its track in a couple of places and looks faded but the pool is maintaining its water level so I can assume there are no tear's(can't see the bottom see green above). I was planning on sourcing a liner this year and possibly replacing it at opening next year unless I feel it isn't necessary. I have a suction side Air leak(a good amount of bubbles coming from return jets but pump doesn't lose prime after being run for 3 hours...I babysat it) at the recommendation of the pool school(I think) I poured water over the pump strainer lid and the bubbles went away. I am sourcing a new gasket now I prefer to buy local if I can so I will check out the pool store that claims they stock Hayward parts, BUT I will not bring a water sample. Also I already mentioned the vacuum hose my only question about that is how long of a hose should I get? I don't want to walk into the pool store and buy just what they recommend, but again I would rather support my local economy then Amazon...if it can be helped. I will also grab a brush that is safe for a vinyl wall when I am there.
My biggest problem right now that I have no idea what to do about it, my dog decided he had to jump into the pool and then proceeded to panic when he had no idea how to get out but somehow he cracked the top step of the fiberglass stairs once I showed him where to go(he is older and I know he has fallen down stairs before and was scared to go down them for 2 weeks so I doubt he will try it again anytime soon). How do I Fix this and can I do it while I wait for my other equipment?
I understand you will want samples once my test kit arrives and I will post them. Here are some initial pictures I took They are rather large so I will just post links to them.
Return Jet with air bubbles
Cracked Step
The Green Monster!
Thank you for any help you can give me I have already learned A LOT and I already warned my wife we are probably going to go through about 20+ Gallons of bleach to get this safe to swim in(her only question was will it be safe adding that much I told her the bleach is like bullets once it kills something its used up and we have to reload with more!)
TLDR:
Green Pool - Will SLAM when my test kit arrives
Vacuum Hose - How Long?
Cracked Step - Can I fix and how?
Suction side leak - I think I got a handle on that.
Tim
PS: Sorry for the wall of text I just wanted to keep everything consolidated into one thread.
.... Delmar here.
