Lightning strike, waiting a week for repair

[Aquamar555]

Hi everyone, we had severe weather in GA yesterday and had a lightening strike which fried our surge protector on the pool (Intermatic Surge protector, which was installed 4/2020, just outside their 3 year warranty!). The panel will not turn on, nor pump and filter. The pool company cannot come for a week to inspect and fix. I started a claim with USAA, but in the meantime need to keep our pool balanced with no filtration, no salt cell, and no pump.

As of yesterday it was balanced FC 4, CC 0, salt 3500, ph 7.4, TA 60, borates ~50

Any ideas for keeping pool chemistry as level as possible? This AM we added 1 jug of bleach and brushed for 10mins.

We have a pool cover but are expecting more thunderstorms.

21000 gal vinyl pool with Pentair Intellichlor IC40 SWG, Intellichlor Power Center, Intermatic 2 circuit control panel Model PF1202T with Intermatic Surge Protector PS3000 installed a few years ago. Sand filter. Pentair Superflow VST installed spring 2022.

 

[jark87]

If it’s just the surge protector, have you considered replacing it yourself? Your breaker to the pool equipment is probably labeled, so you could turn that off and you’d be safe. As long as you can get the same model surge protector, just reinstall the new one in the same way the old one was wired up. I think they only have 3 wires. YouTube is also a great resource for things like this, at least for me.

If not, I’d keep adding liquid chlorine and brushing the pool, including walls, to stir it in. I wouldn’t worry about any other chemicals.

Good luck! Our house was struck by lightning the year after we built our pool. Luckily, the pool equipment was spared, but lots of household electronics were fried.

 

[Aquamar555]

Thanks Jark87, I think my husband ordered one from Amazon to replace the surge protector but reading the warranty info gave us pause that it should be installed by licensed person yady yady. Not sure if this was to happen again if they would cover because we installed? He thought the same...it shouldn't be hard to do. If anyone has had to go through claims or warranty without licensed electrician install that would be good to know.

Thanks for info about bleach!

 

[Bperry]

Hi everyone, we had severe weather in GA yesterday and had a lightening strike which fried our surge protector on the pool (Intermatic Surge protector, which was installed 4/2020, just outside their 3 year warranty!). The panel will not turn on, nor pump and filter. The pool company cannot come for a week to inspect and fix. I started a claim with USAA, but in the meantime need to keep our pool balanced with no filtration, no salt cell, and no pump.

As of yesterday it was balanced FC 4, CC 0, salt 3500, ph 7.4, TA 60, borates ~50

Any ideas for keeping pool chemistry as level as possible? This AM we added 1 jug of bleach and brushed for 10mins.

We have a pool cover but are expecting more thunderstorms.

21000 gal vinyl pool with Pentair Intellichlor IC40 SWG, Intellichlor Power Center, Intermatic 2 circuit control panel Model PF1202T with Intermatic Surge Protector PS3000 installed a few years ago. Sand filter. Pentair Superflow VST installed spring 2022.

Just check your CYA and make sure the FC stays above minimum for whatever CYA is at. Then keep it that way with liquid chlorine.

 

[Aquamar555]

Thanks BPerry! Sounds like consensus to not worry about other stuff besides FC.

 

[VinnyinNJ]

If you want to have water flow, get a submersible sump pump and some sump pump tubing and it will keep some of the water flowing. Try to get the flow to move as much water in a large area.

 

[BDY]

Lightning can come through power lines but also through the ground. Our lightning strike that fried our generator (ironic!) came up through the grounding rod and bypassed the surge protectors. It also came through the ATt line on house to get to switch and network gear while the UPS happily protected the power lines.

 

[Homebrewale]

Sump pump as already suggested. If you also have a robot cleaner, let it roam around the pool to get some water moving.

 

[Aquamar555]

Good idea for the sump pump! Will get to Home Depot tomorrow. We only have a Barracuda cleaner which relies on the pressure from the pump to move, so unfortunately don't have that option.

I guess I could go swimming to move the water around after brushing the sides...

 

[Aquamar555]

For anyone in this situation based on feedback for sump pump, all of the sump pump models indicate that they have oil in motor and are not recommended for pools because they release oil. So, we found the smartpond model waterfall pump from Lowes for about $169 max output 2000 GPH, no tubing or waterfall purchased and put it in the middle of the pool. We are making the assumption that there is less oil output since fish in ponds don't like that either. It is moving water ok. And it comes with a pumpshield mesh protector so the debris at the bottom doesn't get into the motor.