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CovingtonPoolGuy

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Dec 20, 2016
34
Covington, LA
Hello, I recently joined TFP thanks to a recomendation from Woody99. I recently purchased a home with an in ground pool in Covington, Louisiana. This is my first pool and I have no experience maintaining a pool. We currently have someone doing this for us, but I would like to learn how to care for the pool myself. I would appreciate any information you are willing to share.

Thank you,
Aaron
 
HI! You are going to LOVE how your water looks after we get through with it! Your wallet will love how fat it is once you are able to fire the pool service LOL

Your first step is to get your own test kit. Look in my siggy below for the one I think is the best bang for the buck as it has more of the regents for the tests we do most often.

Here is the corner stone page for TFP. It is the hows and whys of what we do around here. Everything we share here is science based and tested in thousands of pools each day! Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you WILL come up with! We love to help!

Kim:kim:
 
I have a lot of questions, but I won't hit y'all with them at once. I literally have nothing other than a nice extendable pole and a skimmer. Other than the test kit what should I buy to get started? Should I go to a home improvement store or a pool store to get the essentials?

Thanks,
Aaron
 
If we successfully keep you out of all pool $tores, we will have done our job :) They might have some nice pool toys and spare parts that can be helpful, but their testing and recommendations are taught to them by the pool chemical companies, so your interests are not likely to be well-served. I know that sounds a bit odd, but we see problems arising from pool $tore advice time after time after time.

Order the test kit right away and only buy and add chemicals when needed based on what you learn from the testing. Over the next few days, if I were you, I'd let the pool service carry on while learning TFPC. You'll then be well-armed to take it over. Chemicals to have on hand will depend on the way your pool is chlorinated (the future using TFPC will be either salt water chlorination or chlorinating liquid).

You could also take a look at the link in my signature "Read before posting" which has some good tips for how to get the best advice here. One will be to add your own signature that describes your pool.
 
I just read KimKats link, that was my headache for the night. Scary stuff if you don't know what you're doing. I have to calculate how many gallons my pool is. I know it has a vinyl liner, a sand filter, and an inline chlorinator. Other than that I have a lot to learn.

Enough for tonight, I'll continue reading tomorrow.

Thank you for the help!
 
Welcome Aaron! I was new to pools and pool maintenance until this year, so it can be a little intimidating for a while, but you will get comfortable doing it and will have a great looking pool as a result.

As mention, follow the "read before posting" section and post as much detail as possible about your pool and its equipment. This definitely helps others provide better suggestions and information. You can post pictures as well if you need help identifying items (include shots if available of the labels).

As for what you need, part of this depends upon how much $ you want to spend and/or effort you want to do. Yes, a good test kit is #1, as without valid readings, all the rest is just guess work. You do need to clean your pool. So you can do this with a net, but other options are a vacuum attached to suction to pump/filter, up to a intelligent robotic cleaner which has its own internal basket (which is what I use). Price can be a big difference.

Again, welcome and do not get discouraged, just start reading and you'll be happy with the results.
 
Sorry for the headache. It IS a lot of info BUT we can and will break it down for you. Here are some baby steps for you:

-order a test kit today please

-Look around your area for liquid chlorine. Some Pool $tores sell it. You put a deposit down on their yellow jugs. Most of the time the chlorine is 11%. IF you do not have one that will be easy for you to get to about every other week then look at getting generic bleach (NO smells or splashless-just plain bleach) from Walmart or Target. It should list the % at 8.5%. Check the date code as you don't want it older than 3 months. We have found Lowes and Home Depot have "old" bleach so that would not be a good source. They also tend to keep it outside in the hot and sun which degrades the bleach.

Does that feel doable for now?

When you have your test kit let us know. We have a couple of tips to help with some of the tests.

:hug: we understand where you are. I HAVE been there!

Kim:kim:
 
Thanks KimKat! I didn't mean to imply that you gave me a headache, I hate acronyms. Looking into getting a test kit ASAP. Until last night I was under the belief that a vacuum system was the most important thing I needed to get. After reading here I now see that it's the test kit and chemicals are the number one thing. I'll let y'all know once I have a test kit in hand.

On to reading GaryT58's link.

THANK YOU!
 

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You can buy a cheap manual vacuum at Lowes but the test kit needs to be ordered. Without the test kit you would not be able to take complete control of your pool when you are ready.

Yeah the acronyms.....TFP has ruined the adult version of cya for me lol

Kim:kim:
 
A Taylor K-2006C test kit has been ordered, should be here in a couple days. Hopefully my signature shows up on this post, I will be maintain it as i gather the necessary information.

The pressure gauge on our system is a rusted glob that hasn't worked in a very long time. After reading up in Pool School, I learned the importance of this gauge. I'm looking to replace this quickly to get a base line reading and maintain the system. Can I purchase any pressure gauge at a home store, or is the gauge dependent on the pump and filter system I have?

Thank you,
Aaron
 
CovingtonPoolGuy said:
A Taylor K-2006C test kit has been ordered, should be here in a couple days. Hopefully my signature shows up on this post, I will be maintain it as i gather the necessary information.

The pressure gauge on our system is a rusted glob that hasn't worked in a very long time. After reading up in Pool School, I learned the importance of this gauge. I'm looking to replace this quickly to get a base line reading and maintain the system. Can I purchase any pressure gauge at a home store, or is the gauge dependent on the pump and filter system I have?

Thank you,
Aaron
Click to expand...

You can, but just order the gauge from tftestkits.net Better quality and not a lot more money.
 
Moving along great!

Now for pool size. Go up to the top of this page. See Pool Math? Open it and look towards the middle. You will see where you can put in pool size and it will do the math for you. Once you get your test kit we will be able to fine tune your gallons.

Kim:kim:
 

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