brand new pool owner, first time test results. Is this right?

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Those imperfections are minuscule and way within tolerance for colored plaster.

See if the PB will honor his warranty and let you maintain the water. Get it in writing...best of both worlds. You get NO benefit of them maintaining the pool except for warranty.
 
bmoreswim said:
Those imperfections are minuscule and way within tolerance for colored plaster.

See if the PB will honor his warranty and let you maintain the water. Get it in writing...best of both worlds. You get NO benefit of them maintaining the pool except for warranty.
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Yeah, I'm perfectly ok with minor cosmetic imperfections. I just want it to last more than 5 or 10 years!No response from PB today. I called their office and was told by the secretary they got my email. I'm probably going to have to have my wife keep an eye out for the service tech on Wednesday, call me at work, and then hand him her phone so I can talk to him. If they are not going to start balancing the water right away, I will ask if I can do it myself. Sadly this PB only warrants the plaster for one year anyway so maybe I should just take over regardless? Ironically, one of the "pluses" (we thought) with this builder was that he offered 2 two months of service while the others offered just one.

I think I've read just about every thread and article on this site by OnBalance and others related to plaster problems and am sufficiently freaked out =). Despite all, the plaster looks good for now and continues to feel smooth. Hoping for the best. Thanks for the input and support all! I'll update when I get more info.

Sean
 
MarianParoo said:
Have you taken any new test readings you'd like to share?
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I don't believe that anything's been added to the pool since last week Wednesday, before I started this thread, so I sort of thought there would be no change. I was wrong. (shows how much I have to learn!). Help me understand if these numbers are better or worse? 2nd time test results:*

*couple of errors on my part: I forgot to rinse the cylinder with pool water after rinsing it with tap water between 1 or 2 tests. And I forgot to let the pool water warm to room temp (per the extended test kit instructions) before adding R-0013 for the CYA test. Not sure how much that'll effect results.

OTO Chlorine: <0.5 (same as last time. test sample still mostly colorless despite trichlor pucks floating in dispenser all week. I opened the vanes on the dispenser all the way a few days ago too.) Pool water is @ 50 degrees so I don't know if that slows the dissolving?

PH: 6.8! (was <4.5 before) color was identical (to my eye) with the bottom color of the chart. This is improvement, right? I guess the new plaster is doing its thing...
FC (FAS-DPD): 1? (I had it at 1.5 last time. Like before, test tube might have had very slight pink tinge that was definitely not there after two drops of R-0871)
CC: 0 (same)
TA: 18? (last time spot was only partially obscured with tube filled completely. This time spot disappeared with water just above "20" line- almost but not quite to top.)

Still nothing from PB today (just secretary saying she's waiting for an answer from him). I'm going to have my wife keep an eye out for the service guy tomorrow (Wed) and call me so I can talk to him. If he's not going to start balancing it tomorrow I will ask PB about taking over myself. plaster and equipment warranty is only 1 year anyway. What do you all think?
 
okay, no communication from PB himself, but I was able to talk to his service guy when he was here today (unfortunately just over the phone since I was at work). The bad news is he says he has not added any calcium. He said in this area they don't typically need to add calcium since the fill water has enough on its own. I tried to explain that I tested the fill water CH versus the pool water and there was a significant difference (75 vs 375), but he just repeated what he said earlier. I wasn't going to argue the point with him over the phone. After all, I know next to nothing while he services pools for a living. Makes me think I should test my fill water again. On the plus side, it doesn't sound like they're still doing an acid start-up. He said he added acid last week (which was hours before my first test results) because the PH was really high. He said he wasn't going to need to add acid today because they PH was ok, which is consistent with the PH level I got during my second tests last night. I suspect they are trying to keep it balanced but simply adding overly large amounts of chemicals to last a full 7 days 'til they make it back.

I get that my PB is unusually bad at staying in touch and responding to questions/concerns, but despite that- I'm wondering how other PB's handle startup appropriately with only one service visit a week? Maybe it's just the PB's in my area, but every quote we got included at least a month of initial service, and I don't imagine any of them would have been here more than once a week. How do TFPers handle start-up in these situations? Apparently I have about 4 more weeks of included service.I don't feel good about just letting them continue to do (or not do) their thing. My thought is to just take over completely myself, OR to sort of "supplement" their service by adding what I think the pool needs mid-week and still let them come and check up on me once a week for the next month. There wasn't anything in my contract or based on what they told me that said I must stay way from my pool for 8 weeks. I didn't test the water tonight because I was out late and I figured I'll give it a day to mix since he was just here this afternoon. I'm planning to test tomorrow evening and will update then.
 
Most people do not know about TFP so they just blindly let the PB "take care of their" pool. They get the weekly service like you are seeing-put LOTS of stuff in the pool and hope it lasts for the week.

I would do as you are saying-----do what your pool needs and let they supplement what you are doing. YOU are the one that has to live with the pool and it's care or lack of so...............

Kim
 
Hi Sean. So,sorry you're dealing with this. You said you think the pool guy knows more than you because they do this all the time... Don't count on that. You are educating yourself and are worried and for good reason. And, since you've only got a 1 year warranty on the finish, I'd go ahead and end the pool service, or lack there of. I know it's not my pool, it's yours but that's what I'd do.

Keep us updated.
 
Thank you all for your input. It's super helpful! Now that I need chemicals, here's an easier question: Is it OK to get the muriatic acid from my local Lowe's? I know not to buy their bleach since they store it outside, but I'm wondering is acid more stable? My local store keeps their acid outside too.
 

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Take over care yourself. Having two people take care of the same pool is not wise at best. Having them do it for an extra month is less wise. Forget about the fact that you once considered that a benefit, you're wiser now.

BTW- I had the best PB ever for startup. He added the acid for an acid startup and then it was all mine. Perfect.
 
bmoreswim said:
Take over care yourself. Having two people take care of the same pool is not wise at best. Having them do it for an extra month is less wise. Forget about the fact that you once considered that a benefit, you're wiser now.

BTW- I had the best PB ever for startup. He added the acid for an acid startup and then it was all mine. Perfect.
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Makes sense to me. I'm going to call the PB and "offer" to take over myself. I ran a new set of tests tonight:
FC: .7 (just the OTO test this time) I'm actually within the color range on the test tube, for the first time. Yay!
PH: 7.9
TA: 40
CH: 300
CYA: 15? (<20- spot was barely visible with tube full)

Questions:
- should I continue to use trichlor pucks for now while the plaster's curing since they help lower PH, or make the switch to bleach immediately?
- PoolMath says to add 345 oz (21.5 lbs!) of baking soda to reach the recommended level of "100-120+" whereas the "Recommended Levels" page in Pool School says 70-90+ for plaster with no SWG. Why the discrepancy? I have the PoolMath page set to use TFP recommended levels. Should I just shoot for 70? That would still require 173 oz (10.8 lbs) of baking soda. I'm thinking maybe start with a 5 lb bag and see where that gets me?
-Another discrepancy between PoolMath w/ TFP goals and Pool School: PoolMath says FC recommended range is 1-5. Pool school: 3-7. Which do I use?
-CH. seems to be right where it should be. (probably at the expense of my plaster). I retested my fill water tonight and got a level of 100. Too bad I can't add a bunch of calcium chloride and have it "infuse" back into the plaster :)
-CYA: I was thinking I would shoot initially for 30 which is at the bottom end of the recommended range. Looks like I might have to go to the local pool supply store for this one. At least I go armed with my newly acquired TFP knowledge, thanks to you all.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions.
 
There is a spot on the bottom of Pool Math where you can change it to TFP. See if that helps with the difference.

I would get the TA up. Do it SLOWLY. Add some, wait a day, retest, add if/as needed to get you to the lower end of the range.

The pucks are okay for now. Just keep a real close eye on your CYA. THAT is the main thing about the pucks.

Kim
 
Update: I ran all over town last night getting what I needed (INSANE price differences between different stores for the same product! for example, 4 lbs of CYA was $15 at Home Depot, $18 at Lowes, and $26 at Leslies!) Last night I added 5 lbs of baking soda to the pool. This morning I added muriatic acid (poured slowly near a deep-end return) and a sock-full of CYA to the skimmer basket. I'll update when I retest tonight or tomorrow morning. Looking forward to seeing some positive changes!

While I wait for those chemicals take effect, I thought I'd give some attention to my pump settings and would love some input. I've searched the forum and read lots of threads on pump run times and run speeds, but still have some questions. I was told not to start a new thread even though this is unrelated. Hope that's ok.

My setup (all Pentair): 3 HP Intelliflow VS pump. Controls are an EasyTouch panel and QuickTouch II remote. We have one water feature which consists of two "deck jets" which are installed not in the deck but rather in the vertical face of the raised bond beam above the waterline tile at the deep end. Automatic sweep is a suction-side The Pool Cleaner (2 wheel).

Current settings: the PB set it up to run 6 hours daily (6 am to noon), with three of those hours at 1750 rpms and three hours (8-11 am) at 2450 rpms. The lower setting is just for circulation (circuit is named "pool" on the EasyTouch panel and remote). The higher setting is for the cleaner, with the circuit named "cleaner" on the panel and remote. The "water feature" circuit is set to 2200 rpms and isn't on a schedule but has an actuator valve triggered by the QuickTouch remote (or from the panel too I guess). I was cycling through the "settings" on the panel and noticed also that the "priming" pump setting is set to "1000" for speed and "0" for time.

The only setting I'm confident is appropriate is the one for the water feature. I know this because it was set higher and the jets were shooting water clear past the length of the pool and decking into the dirt 40 feet away during priming. I asked PB to turn it down and now they shoot out a much more reasonable 8' or so. So I'm guessing that the right speed for the water feature is just personal preference depending on how we want it to look and sound. As to other settings, here are my questions:

-How low can I go for simple circulation? I had adjusted the lower pump speed down to 1350 rpms and the PB turned it back up to 1750. I want to take full advantage of the energy saving benefits of a VSP. At 1350 there was still consistent and substantial water pressure coming from all 4 returns. Any reason why I can't lower it even if it means longer run times?

-For those of you that use The Pool Cleaner, what speed do you run it at? At 1750 rpms in my pool, it still sucks but the wheels barely turn. At 2450 it moves around the floor at a decent pace, but doesn't climb the walls. Is it supposed to climb the walls? I think I'd rather just brush the walls once a week by hand than waste a bunch of energy trying to run it high speed.

-More general question about automatic sweeps. Do most people leave them in the pool 24/7? Or drop them in once or twice a week for an hour or two? Does it depend on the season and use of the pool? Right now the pool is not being used and gets hardly any debris since we haven't landscaped our backyard yet (new home). I want to take advantage of the convenience offered, but I also don't want to have to replace parts or the whole thing in just a season or two.

-Does the "priming" setting on the pump need to be changed? Or do these modern pumps do that automatically?

-Any issue with changing the schedule so the pump runs in the evening instead of the morning? I'll typically be testing in the evening so that's when I'll want to add chemicals. I was thinking an optimal set-up might be half the run time in the evening when I'll be testing/adding, and the other half 12 hours later the next morning.

I think that's probably enough questions to throw out there for now =). Thanks for your input!

Sean
 

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