I have a IG 18' x 36' L-Shaped pool. Equipment was a Hayward Super Pump II, Sta-Rite System 3 Cart filter, hayward offline cholorinator.
Pool is approx 15 years old. Previous owner never did any maintenance to it except chemicals, but pool always ran fine, had great flow. When i purchased house approx 8 years ago, i bought and changed the 2 cartridges in filter.
Pool never gave me issues until last year. Turned out chlorinator was bad (or at least i was told by pool tech) and purchased a new one, same model. All year, seemed chlorine readings were low and had to constantly scrub and shock to not get algae.
This year, when i opened pool, could not get any suction into filter. Found a crack in the union between return and filter. Called pool tech to replace. After replacement, he still could not get any sustained suction, and said it was something else......after a day of troubleshooting , determined that the pool pump was failing and not producing enough power to pull. Replaced it with a Hayward Super Pump VS.
Now it gets fun:
They leave, and i come home from work to find a giant mess...all the garbage they left around the filter, old parts, and it leaking in 2 places (filter skimmer enclosure and chlorinator). I fixed the loose o-ring from the enclosure and started the filter. It looked like much less pressure coming out of the return jets and one out of the two skimmers looked like there wasnt even any suction. The PSI at the time on my filter was 15. I opened and cleaned out filter, psi went down to 11 and skimmer started to pull, but still, to my untrained eye, didnt look and feel like my return jets in pool were as strong as before.
Tested the water at pool store, all levels were within range (according to them) but no Chlorine readings. They told me i needed to shock. I told them that i had been, using 4 gallons of liquid and some bags as well after. They told me to do it again. I did again with 4 gallons, and an hour later, ZERO readings on chlorine.
I called pool guy to come back, since chlorinator was still leaking and i was concerned about water pressure. He comes back with manager, tells me my pressure is good. When he opened the chlorinator, he came screaming out that i had too many pucks in the chlorinator and that i had too much chlorine in the pool?!?!?! There were 8 pucks in the unit, which i have always had and never had an issue. Went online and read up about the unit, and disassembled everything. Turns out i was sold the unit with the input and output valves reversed
At this point, i remembered hearing about this site Read up on pool issues, read up on CYA and the effect it has on chlorine. My pool was reading at 100 CYA. I then emptied around 3/4 of pool and refilled it. Bought 15 bottles of clorox 8.5 and started to SLAM. Took all the way until the 15th bottle until the readings were consistent overnight.
Now, pool is SLOWLY clearing up....still adding bleach manually as necessary, but still very green. I started to scrub it but still very green and cloudy as well.
My real question at this point is, how do i figure out of my pump is performing as it should? To my eye, it doesnt seem as strong as before. In the past, i remember my filter readings starting out at 15psi and i wouldnt notice and degrading of performance until it was approx 10psi higher, around 25. Now, after cleaning the filter, i get to around 11pst, and as soon as it hits 15, low pressure and one skimmer doesnt seem to pull strong at all.
There doesnt seem to be any leaks anywhere (filter/pump/etc)
What in the heck do I do now?
Pool is approx 15 years old. Previous owner never did any maintenance to it except chemicals, but pool always ran fine, had great flow. When i purchased house approx 8 years ago, i bought and changed the 2 cartridges in filter.
Pool never gave me issues until last year. Turned out chlorinator was bad (or at least i was told by pool tech) and purchased a new one, same model. All year, seemed chlorine readings were low and had to constantly scrub and shock to not get algae.
This year, when i opened pool, could not get any suction into filter. Found a crack in the union between return and filter. Called pool tech to replace. After replacement, he still could not get any sustained suction, and said it was something else......after a day of troubleshooting , determined that the pool pump was failing and not producing enough power to pull. Replaced it with a Hayward Super Pump VS.
Now it gets fun:
They leave, and i come home from work to find a giant mess...all the garbage they left around the filter, old parts, and it leaking in 2 places (filter skimmer enclosure and chlorinator). I fixed the loose o-ring from the enclosure and started the filter. It looked like much less pressure coming out of the return jets and one out of the two skimmers looked like there wasnt even any suction. The PSI at the time on my filter was 15. I opened and cleaned out filter, psi went down to 11 and skimmer started to pull, but still, to my untrained eye, didnt look and feel like my return jets in pool were as strong as before.
Tested the water at pool store, all levels were within range (according to them) but no Chlorine readings. They told me i needed to shock. I told them that i had been, using 4 gallons of liquid and some bags as well after. They told me to do it again. I did again with 4 gallons, and an hour later, ZERO readings on chlorine.
I called pool guy to come back, since chlorinator was still leaking and i was concerned about water pressure. He comes back with manager, tells me my pressure is good. When he opened the chlorinator, he came screaming out that i had too many pucks in the chlorinator and that i had too much chlorine in the pool?!?!?! There were 8 pucks in the unit, which i have always had and never had an issue. Went online and read up about the unit, and disassembled everything. Turns out i was sold the unit with the input and output valves reversed
At this point, i remembered hearing about this site Read up on pool issues, read up on CYA and the effect it has on chlorine. My pool was reading at 100 CYA. I then emptied around 3/4 of pool and refilled it. Bought 15 bottles of clorox 8.5 and started to SLAM. Took all the way until the 15th bottle until the readings were consistent overnight.
Now, pool is SLOWLY clearing up....still adding bleach manually as necessary, but still very green. I started to scrub it but still very green and cloudy as well.
My real question at this point is, how do i figure out of my pump is performing as it should? To my eye, it doesnt seem as strong as before. In the past, i remember my filter readings starting out at 15psi and i wouldnt notice and degrading of performance until it was approx 10psi higher, around 25. Now, after cleaning the filter, i get to around 11pst, and as soon as it hits 15, low pressure and one skimmer doesnt seem to pull strong at all.
There doesnt seem to be any leaks anywhere (filter/pump/etc)
What in the heck do I do now?