I am considering leaving the pool up this year over winter. I have read a number of threads and got a grasp of the situation from a chemistry point of view but some questions remain re freezing.

I plan to drain the pool to below the lowest inlet/outlet. At each inlet and outlet I have shut off valves installed, should I remove the shut off valves from the pool or is leaving them "open" with the water drained below them sufficient? Here in the UK, some days of below freezing temperature are likely. Removing them would mean exposing an open hole I cut when installing them.

I have a hayward skimmer installed and im assuming I can leave that in place as long as the water is drained below it?

Thanks.

Just signed a contract to have a pool built in our back yard after property values have gone up with interest rates. We decided to stay put and make our on patch of grass greener. Back yard project is underway, we recently poured a 30x40 pad and have plans to build a Large back porch/Pavilion (30x40 on the pad. Construction should start in the next 6 weeks or less pending city permit approval.

Howdy y'all! I'm new to the forums and soon to be a new pool owner (in-ground salt). Our family lives about an hour east of Dallas in Greenville, TX. When I agreed with my wife to finally get a pool, I told her she would have to the be pool boy and I'll be the pool manager. I'm making my way through the pool school articles and already bought a test kit from TFTestKits.net. The articles are very informative and I just discovered the Wiki pages. I haven't yet dipped my toe into the forums. Admittedly, I'm a bit overwhelmed already by all the variables I have to keep in check (SWG %, pump run time, FC, TC, Alkalinity, CYA, pH, etc) but hopefully it's easy to manage. I am vehemently opposed to paying someone $200-300/month so I have no choice but to learn . I'm sure I'll be diving into the forums soon. Sorry for all the puns

Can anyone tell me the battery number that is used in the Truclear , is it a 1.5 volt or 3 volt battery, the keyboard will not respond to input and I would like to start by replacing the battery....

Thanks

Can you leave a plaster pool uncovered without water in it throughout the winter without it damaging the plaster? My plan is to replace the coping, tile and pool decking, along with reengineering plumbing, over the winter and I can't do that without leaving the pool empty. I did have a thought about covering the pool with the mesh cover, and then putting a house tarp over it , in order to protect the plaster from sunlight, if that is going to damage the finish over the winter. We will also be acid washing the pool and then polishing the plaster when finished. Will that bring back the original color of the plaster and remove the calcium buildup that has developed over the last 2-3 years?

Hey guys - wondering if you guys could help me figure out an issue I'm having with my pool regarding sand/dirt in the pool.

Right now, I have to vacuum it once a week, which I know doesn't sound terrible, but that week is me waiting until it gets bad enough to where I need to vacuum it. There will be bits of what I am thinking is sand spread throughout the pool the next day after vacuuming.

I vacuumed this past Saturday, then turned off the pump and closed the valves so I could take apart the sand filter as I figured I had a cracked lateral or a tear in the spider gasket on the multiport valve which was allowing sand to get back into the pool. By the time I got the sand filter torn apart, which took about a half hour, you could already see bits of sand had settled out over the bottom of the pool.

Upon closer inspection, it doesn't appear that there are any nicks/tears in the spider gasket, and the laterals all looked fine. cleaned everything up and put it all back together, and sure enough, the next morning the small accumulation of sand on the bottom of the pool had gotten a bit worse.

Any thoughts? Or is there something that I am missing? Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!

Prior to vacuuming picture below. I have the discharge jet pointed sideways to the pool gets a natural swirl, that's the reason for the debris accumulating in the middle:


This is a close up of the debris - it looks like a lot of dirt, but could just be the ripples in the water:


Close up of what looks like sand from the filter:


This is a half hour after vacuuming and I had taken the filter apart. You can already see how much sand/dirt has settled to the bottom since the pump wasn't running:


This is what the spider gasket looked like - looked fine to me, but not sure how those little bites of debris got underneath the gasket?


Inside of multiport valve:

We are building a pool and a separate raised spa that will be located 5 feet from our pool. We had planned on 2 separate systems so we could use the spa all winter and heat both the pool and spa to different temperatures at the same time during the spring and fall. However, due to the extra space required for a second system, our pool builder suggested we use a shared system (gas heater).
He said we could winterize our pool in October/November and keep just our spa open all winter by putting it in spa mode. Is this true? Are there any problems with doing this? Will winterizing our pool and putting our heater in spa mode prevent all water from going into the pool pipes? I am concerned about freezing pipes. We will be getting a generator for our spa in case the power goes out in the winter.
Are there any other issues I should be aware of with using a shared system where the spa is separate from the pool (so no overflow)?

Also, in the spring/fall if I heat my spa to 100 degrees in spa mode and then switch to pool/spa mode will the temperature of my spa go down (does the cold pool water mix with the hot spa water in pool or pool/spa mode)? Is there any way I won’t have to heat my spa from 80 to 100 every time we want to use the spa. We will cover our pool with an autocover and our spa with a normal cover at night.
I assume I will need to keep our system in pool/spa mode at night to filter and circulate the pool and spa, so I will either have to heat both our pool and spa to 80 degrees through the night or not heat either at all during the night. Either way I assume it will drop my spa temperature a lot each night.

Do they make gas heaters/shared systems where you can heat the pool and spa to different temperatures at the same time?

Thank you in advance for any advice/answers you can give.

I had purchased an SR Smith ART-1004 Deck Mounted Stair Rail along with two AS-100B Pool 4" Bronze Anchor Sockets. In Late September 2022 these were installed by the pool installation company while pouring the concrete patio for my in-ground fiberglass pool. After the install, periodically, the handrail would get so loose it can be wiggle or just lifted out. On four occasions, the retaining bolts have had to be tightened. I later found that the handrail had probably not been fully seated into the anchor sockets, and the tightening had somewhat bent in one side of the stair rail mounting point.

After some discussion/advice on TFP I ordered the Pool Tool Company Handrail Stabilizing Plug (136-B). I ordered the B version as it is just a little bit smaller (0.025"), and given the distortion in the railing mounting area I thought they might fit better. I also ordered a Tailpipe Expander set to re-round the rail mounting feet.

It took a LONG TIME to get the plug from the store I ordered from - but I did finally get them.


Today I pulled the stair rail, used the Tail Pipe Expander tool to re-round the railing feet, and installed the Stabilizing Plug without much issue and re-installed the railing (Remembering this time to put on the collars BEFORE tightening the anchors). Everything seems firm and well anchored now.

I think I have this problem solved

Like why are the chemicals related to testing your pH red and the cholerine ones yellow? It seems like no matter the brand of your test kit or where you get your chemicals from the colors are always the same. Is there a reason everyone follows the same standards? Is it even a standard or does everyone just happen to do what everyone else does? Doesn't matter if its a fancy Taylor test kit or some generic thing from Walmart, they all follow the same color scheme.

First, let me admit that I am a first time pool owner and I have no idea what I am doing!! We purchased our pool from Family Leisure and it came with the PermaSalt system and chemicals that we needed for the season. I very quickly started having trouble keeping the water clear, so I started doing some research and ran across this wonderful site. I have learned so much but am still needing lots of help. Our water turned completely green a few weeks ago. I ordered one of the recommended water test kits and found out that the Ph and TA was too low as well as FC was registering at 0. So, I bought some Borax and because I don't know what I am doing, I put in a whole box (big mistake). I also immediately started adding liquid bleach twice a day to my water. Now the Ph is reading 8.0, TA is 150 and even though I am adding 2 gallons of liquid bleach every day I cannot get the FC level above a 0.2. The water is not green anymore but it is very cloudy. I also know that CYA is very important. I have order a bag of Water Conditioner and am awaiting it's arrival currently. Current CYA is around 30 from what I can tell. I am completely stressing out about my water knowing that I also need to be closing the pool for the winter very soon. Please help!

Hi all, have a 12x24 and after reading the forums I am stuck between emptying and storing or winterizing. Any suggestions, ideas, tips? Curious what other owners do in the north east as I am located in CT.

I don’t want the pool legs and supports to rust , but emptying and storing is also a lot of work and needs a lot of space to store in a safe place for the winter!

Thanks!

My brother, who closes his pool yearly, talked me into taking the leap closing mine this year. It is a 10,000 gallon fiberglass pool with 1 skimmer in the deep end, 2 drains in the deep end (each side), 2 returns in the shallow end, and a 3 way intake valve. We blew out all the lines and covered it yesterday but we were confused what this random plugged pipe.

My best guess is it is a suction release as the pump fills with air if unplugged while running but once we were done winterizing, we unplugged it and water started spilling out. Is this anything I should be concerned with? I do not have a pic of the inside and don't really want to unplug it again without being certain it's ok to do so but the inside has a round bronze, what looks to be a pop up/check valve at the base.

Any information on figuring out what this could be and if any additional steps for winterization need to be taken would be appreciated.

Hi all, it has rained but no more than a couple inches since I tested the CYA level about 2 weeks ago. The measured CYA level seems to have dropped from rounded up 80 to rounded up 60, or even 50 could be justified based on how closely you look. The only chemical addition to pool is a little bit of muriatic acid. It seems odd the measured CYA level has dropped this much (represents a 25% change in volume in the black dot tube). Both measurements were confirmed multiple times, and in fact the level was originally where it is now before I bumped it to about 80. Taylor test kit, fresh bottle of reagent, same bottle used last few weeks during 50 to 80 to 50/60.

Other tests: FC 8.5, CC zero, ph 7.7, TA 50, Calcium 550. I am now going to reduce FC because i dont need it this high if CYA is in the 50 ish range.

I do use two pool robots, Dolphin E70 and a solar powered skimmer. Not sure if these robots could interact with the stabilizer.

Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

This is a very rough 2D sketch. Reading on this forum it is recommended to have two skimmers with one opposite the prevailing wind and one opposite that (as I read it, let me know if I'm misreading it). In our yard, the wind is always East to West or West to East. The deep end of the pool is in the E-W / W-E wind tunnel and the shallow end receives little wind due to the house side and neighbors house.

Does it matter if both skimmers are in the deep end?

Using the pool math app I want to increase my TA from 37 to 70 by adding baking soda. Next, Increase CH to 350 from 186 by adding calcium chloride. Do I need to turn off the SWG while adding the baking soda and calcium chloride?

We have cold winters but left it up last winter without too much trouble. But our closing cover got pretty torn up.

What does everyone use?
- We can still use our cover but it has holes in it, problem??
- We’ve wondered if a regular tarp is good enough?
- Some on here mentioned auto covers?

Also wondering if it’s necessary to drain below outlet holes or can I just plug them and keep the pool full??

Do you all suggest the winter balls?

Last question?!! Is a pillow necessary? Ours popped after a week last winter

Thanks for any input

Howdy,

Have a quote for an AA IFCS and when asking the PB about it vs others they state Pentair bought AA and they can quote Pentair if desired. The questions are; Is there a difference between the two systems if they are the same owner? One a better quality or is it all all just name recognition?

I've searched the forum and have read the pro vs con and I'm stuck on and IFCS.

Grew up cleaning a vinyl pool (under a 60' cherry tree) in the 70s and any pool I build will have all the automation possible.

Hello,
Pool inheritor/owner of 6-7 years here. I have never worried much about CSI in my pool since it's vinyl but I do have an SWG. Is a below -.6 CSI likely to cause problems in my pool? It says no problem for vinyl unless a CSI of > .6 .

My most recent battery is:

FC 4 CC .5 (need to vacuum)
pH 7.4
TA 60
CH 80
CYA 60
Salt 3400

Hi,

I'm a newbie with this automatic control via Wi-Fi thing. Prior system was Zodiac Z4. The installation by a pool shop went very well, but while looking for a pump serial number, I managed to press an on/off button on the pump which turned it off. Pressing the button again did nothing. When I used the iAqualink app, it showed the pump to be on, and toggling it just caused a relay to flip in the control box. Nothing happened at the pump. When I called the pool shop, they said the connection between iAqualink and the Pentair Intelliflow3 VSF was broken and they would have to set it up again. No big problem, I hope, except they wouldn't tell me how to do it myself. Is there an easy fix, or at least a reasonable one, to reestablish the connection? I have no problem waiting a few days for the pool guys to show up, but it would be nice if I can improve my own pool survival skills just in case.

Hi everyone my pool is scheduled for install in 3 weeks or so...lots of info on this sight glad I found it. Any other CT members here?

I have a Hayward DE filter (EC65A) and I feel no resistance on the handle when I try to bump it. This is a first in our 5 years as pool owner. Closing the pool on October 11th. Can I fix this on my own?

Hello all,

Not sure if anyone has been down this path before, but I am thinking we need to replace our Hydraulic Power Pack for our Aquamatic Hydramatic Pool Cover. I was looking at the part online and I can't believe that it is running about $3k. Link to Part Well, I guess I can believe it; it is a pool part.

The motor trips the break randomly and nothing in tracing back the power indicates any other trip point. It seems to get really hot and I am thinking that is what ends up tripping the breaker. It is 21 years old and probably time for a replacement anyway, but there is the problem. If I were to only replace the electric motor it would be about $600 but the rust on the hydraulic assemble is probably going lead to a replacement to that as well. Has anybody gone down the path of looking at alternatives? I mean an electric motor and hydraulic power pack for any other use would be a lot cheaper.

Just wondering if anyone would have any thoughts or experience doing something else.

Thank you in advance!

Rick

Following my slam, trying to bring my cya from 40 to 80. I’ve added 2.5 1gal bottles of instant conditioner, and its only up to 50. The conditioner adds were two days ago. However, the fluid in the bottles had obviously settled a ton. I mixed them up, but it was still chunky when poured into the pool.

Any reason why my cya would not increase more than it has? Pretty sure it has responded faster than this previously.

Measuring cya via the visual dot method in my k-2006 kit.

Thanks

Hi all - lurker for a while and finally mustered up the courage to create an account! Looking to build a pool/spa and hardscape/landscape our backyard.

Contemplating OB but also talking to a few large PBs here - specifically design/build firms. I’ve spoken to at least seven firms and all of them require design fees, with most of them requiring four digit sum before even setting foot on my property. I suppose it’s a sellers market now still!

Thank you again for having me here.

I've always torn down and stored my Intex or now Coleman (Bestway) AGPs in the past, but I see so many people here saying they just winterize, so think I'm going to go that route starting this year. Found this blog post on here

I have a few questions
1) Does that blog cover everything?
2) Air pillows, good to get or another thing pool supplies stores sell just to make a buck?
3) Are winter pool covers different than the solid pool covers that come including with pools? I have one from my old Intex that's the same size as the Coleman, so wondering if that will work or if I need a special winter cover.
4) Anyone had good results with the "winter closing kit" options you see advertised all the time? The ease of one box with everything I need and no headache is very appealing

Thanks for the help and feedback.

My wife and I have been pool owners for the last 4 years. We absolutely love it, and it is the place to come for the kids and grandkids, We are getting a little older now, so it can become quite a chore. I look forward to learning everything I can to make it as simple as it can be. I will try to help you as well when I can. Glad to be here.

I'm looking for some guidance on any potential upgrade paths from my existing Jandy RS6 automation setup - whether there are in-place upgrades for this particular system or something entirely new. The system itself has been fairly trouble-free, though the PDA I have that is working seems to be dying a slow death. I would prefer something that interfaces with a smart phone. I will be replacing my pump in the very near future with a variable speed unit (Pentair Intelliflow), so the ability to control that would be idea - not certain my current RS4 setup can do that without some kind of upgrade or update.

My setup is a pool/spa combo, heater, pool/spa lights, vac booster and main pump. Ideally I'd love to be able to trigger landscape lighting with the system as well.

Last but not least, I'd really prefer something I can do DIY, if possible. I hadn't planned to make any changes anytime soon, but with the impending need for a new VS pump, I'd like to at least consider a new setup. I'm very knowledgeable about my current pool setup, comfortable and competent with safe electrical work, a tech nerd in general and a fairly accomplished DIY guy - so installing something like this doesn't really phase me too much outside the potential costs.

Appreciate your feedback!

I guess it had to happen eventually... it seems like Hayward T-15 is dying. Unit states "Low Salt", but when checked via 1766 testing shows 4600ppm. Shame on me for just adding bags of salt without recognizing a problem immediately. I replaced my cartridges (unrelated, it was time after 5yrs) today and cleaned SWG as well. No change. Diagnostic on positive side shows 1000-1500ppm, but negative side is 2800ppm. My FC looks good still, but I'm concerned that SWG may not run when needed. So I changed it to a T-9 in settings, increased operating % and now its 4100ppm. With the 500ppm Hayward tolerance, I think I may get a little more out of this cell operating as a T-9.... its a little over 5 years old. Installed with new pool in July 2018.

Any feedback or suggestions why I should not go in this direction, please let me know.
Thanks!

first time pool owner and new to the forum.. following my pool store testing (Leslies.) i went ahead and did a partial drain and fill yesterday to lower cya level .. went from 120 to 102 with a 12 inch drain.

Should I do another foot tonight to bring it down under 100 or just leave it as is.. ive seen in other places that cya of 150 is still ok.. its really only a concern when i gets to 200 plus.. thanks.. hope that explains what iam asking..

I successfully closed by myself.

I vacuumed the pool this morning.

Tested the water and shocked the pool.

I did not buy into the algaecide this year. Just not using it.

Started to drain water off via backwash/rinse/ waste and using 2 sump pumps.

Disconnected the pipe from filter and blew the line as much as I could. I then reversed it and suctiononed the line. Poured antifreeze down skimmer hole and added the gizmo. Went back to pump and removed manifold and SWG. Loosened fittings at heater and blew heater out.

Blew all return lines and capped. So here's my helper... I cut a pool noodle to shove one end in the vac hose and the other in the return line so I could cap while it was still blowing. Worked so well!!!



The only line I cannot blow is the slide line, I suction it and add a gallon of antifreeze to every line.

I finally covered it all by myself.


I pulled the plugs on the pump and put all my eyeball fittings in the pump basket. I started at 10am was finished by 3pm. I'll clean the filter this weekend.