Hello everyone! My husband maintains our pool but the one issue that we have not resolved since we first installed is the Pentair bright white light our builder chose for our system. I see that we can purchase the color changing option for $500 each (we would need 2) which just is not in our budget right now. Has anyone found a lens cap that can fit on the 1.83” fitting then be able to manually change out the lenses to other colors? I am looking for options but I have not found anything. Any ideas? Thanks so much!

New motor: HSQ125 | Centurion Pro Pool Motor 48Y THP 1.25

Old motor:
See attached picture

Went out this morning and checked the cell panel only to see hot. That's a first. Flashing generating light and 'hot'. Cycled off to on and it cleared. Double checked the plates but they were pristine. Guess I need to keep an eye on it.
Edit. Hot warning back on when I came back home tonight. Flashing generating light and 'hot'.
Off back to auto reset it and stayed off. Readings with everything functioning normally.
3300
91
25.5
6.96
40p
AL-0
r 1.59
t15

Hello,

My scheduling programming on Pentair ControlPro doesn’t seem to control the Pentair Intelliflo Whisperflo VSD anymore.

I can only turn the pump on or off manually. It always worked before. The electricity went down a few days ago, maybe some kind of reset?

Settings on the ControlPro seem right (time, date, prog mode on filtration menu). It does control the PH device correctly, so maybe it’s a setting in the Intelllifo Whisperflo VSD?

Connection is okay, I see the connection symbol.

Why would I have not needed to add acid to my pool? My ph has been perfect. Last year I needed to add acid weekly which I thought was normal with a swg.

Hey everyone, I have not posted in quite a while but I wanted to share this bypass that I made yesterday. I originally purchased an Impresa bypass by a big online company and it arrived cracked. This brand felt really thin and cheap, not something that I felt could last long term. I ended up and sent it back and decided I will just pony up and pay for the original Pentair bypass from the same company but different seller (I am sure you'll know who I am talking about). This seller listed it as a Pentair product, even posted the original Pentair picture, linked it to Pentair's website etc. At over twice the price as the Impresa I was getting the original one right? Well once it arrived I was shocked to see I was sent the another Impresa from a different seller. At this point I was fed up. I sent it back and then decided to make my own. I took a chance and looked for 2" male unions online and compared the threads to my Pentair IC40 and took a gamble on ordering them once I felt I had the correct unions. These arrived yesterday and they were the correct part to make my bypass.

I found that my 7" miter saw along with an aluminum blade cut through the 2" PVC with no chipping and smooth as butter, way better than using a hacksaw. But if you do not have a miter and most people do not a hacksaw or PVC cutter will work just fine. As you will see this turned out very well and the total cost for me was just under $12.00. This was due to the fact that I had a piece of 2" schedule 40 PVC laying around from a previous project as well as the paint. If I did not have the 2" PVC and the paint then the total cost would have been more than the Impresa but a higher quality that should last for many years if not more since this is the same PVC used on all the pool plumbing. You will also have left over 2" PVC and paint for a future repairs, etc.

I purchase the male unions online at Leslies and being a pool perks member I received free shipping. No way you can go wrong here.

I have attached photos and if this helps out just one person I have done my job here.

So I've been trying to check my levels and the last week all of a sudden I'm getting no color change. I have a k-2006 which says if there's no color change keep adding more powder but I added a ton and it never changed. I added more chlorine and retried and it keeps refusing to turn pink.

Now my DPD powder is white, no clumps, not brown not purple, nothing. I got a new kit for this summer ( I checked the date when I got it) and it was working just fine no more than 10days ago. I store the kit inside our house. I took my water to Leslie's and the chlorine is at 2.8. our PH is high but I added soda ash a few days ago bc it was reading low which apparently was wrong too. This is my third year taking care of the pool thanks to this forum and I'm so confused. Everything online about bad powder says it changes to gray or purple if it's bad. So I'm confused if something else is out of whack and messing with it or it's bad?

I keep lowering my ph with muratic acid and it goes to 7.6 but then in the next day or 2 It's backup to 8 or higher. This is the first year. We have had a salt water pool. And I read that sometimes it's harder to keep the PH down salt water generators.
My cya is at 60 and I keep the fc at 7
My alkalinity is 80
What am I doing wrong?

So, I have a new theory for pool robots. It seems like the failure rate has gone up significantly in the last few years. My M500 is still going strong but it seems like an older generation of devices. My Aiper SE has failed twice already. Also for the most part when they are out of warranty they are fundamentally unrepairable. These are basically consumable throw away devices. This conclusion is based on anecdotal evidence and not real data but I am going with it.

So rather than fight it lets treat them as such.

The last item that sealed the deal is my Betta 2 is currently experiencing some issues. I bought the extended warranty from them, not the Assurion warranty. The unit is about 15 months old. So now, I can send it back to Betta be without the unit, have them repair it to some functional form (all at no cost to me), but it is still not new. They did offer for about $300 I could upgrade to their current unit. Had I bought the Assurion warranty for about the same price as the Betta warranty I would be getting my money back and could go buy whatever new robot I wanted. The turn around time is faster, cheaper, and I get a new robot.

From now on I will only buy robots where I can buy an Assurion extended warranty. Currently this limits me to Amazon, but I am hoping someone with a relationship with Marina can convince them to start offering these warranties.

I get a similar set of protection from the fancy credit cards but they typically only extend a year, and that is probably not enough.

I originally posted this in another thread regarding an AA treatment another TFP'er is going through but I felt it warranted it's own thread specifically.

If anyone is concerned their fill water or auto-fill water has Iron in it, you can do a 5-gallon white-bucket test with your water.

• Iron in water (without ANY chlorine) will be in a solution state, meaning it's invisible to the eye.
• Iron in water (with chlorine added) will go into a suspension state, meaning it's visible to the eye (caveat: assuming NO sequestrants are in the test water)

So fill up a white bucket with water (make sure there is NO chlorine yet in the water!), and take a picture of it. Then add in 1TBS of 12.5% chlorine and mix thoroughly. This will raise your FC levels to around 22-25PPM roughly which is SLAM level or higher for most people, which should force any iron in that water to come out of solution and go into suspension, turning the water an ugly yellow/brown (within an hour or so). If that happens, you KNOW you have Iron in your fill or auto-fill water.

Here's my side by side comparisons. One 5-gallon bucket that has iron in it, one 5-gallon bucket that doesn't have iron in it (because my dual Water Softener removed the iron through an ion exchange process).


From 8:55am
Left Bucket: Filled from Well, and passed through 4 13x52 iron filters.
Right Bucket: Filled from Well, and passed through 4 13x52 iron filters and through dual tank Water Softener





From 9:15am (20 mins later)
Left Bucket: Filled from Well, and passed through 4 13x52 iron filters, and 1TBS of 12.5% chlorine (mixed)
Right Bucket: Filled from Well, and passed through 4 13x52 iron filters and through dual tank Water Softener, and 1TBS of 12.5% chlorine (mixed)





From 9:55am (1 hour later)
Left Bucket: Filled from Well, and passed through 4 13x52 iron filters, and 1TBS of 12.5% chlorine (mixed)
Right Bucket: Filled from Well, and passed through 4 13x52 iron filters and through dual tank Water Softener, and 1TBS of 12.5% chlorine (mixed)




Note: The FC is 23PPM in the 2nd and 3rd picture, and STILL no changing of the color in the 5-gallon bucket that was filled through my Soft Water system. (yes, 23PPM, I verified/tested with my Taylor kit)

I know it's not scientific but, anyone that wants to check for Iron in their fill/auto-fill water, can EASILY do this and not have to pay for testing (and we also know LOTS of people "test' for Iron and get results of 0ppm even though they have Iron in their pool, proven from Vitamin-C testing on the stains they have!) So I feel this test is more accurate than some of the actual iron "testing" done by stores or labs and basically costs *nothing* ... If anyone thinks this iron-test isn't valid please add your input, I'm no science wizard and plenty of smarter people on TFP than I am.

Hope this helps some people.

EDIT: Crud, I can't remember if it was 1TBS or 1TSP that I added. Please note. In hindsight I'm thinking maybe it was a TSP (the smaller amount).
2ND EDIT: Clarifying I'm using a 5-gallon bucket.

Coming off a slam and slowing my Fc to naturally float down. I do need to balance the chemistry tonight but my testing this morning is ;
FC is at 22 ppm down from 31-33 during the slam.
Cc is zero
CYA is at 80.
The PH is 8
The rest were ok before the Slam and I don’t think they matter much until my FC floats down to about 11ish.

My kids will be out this weekend. Is this FC level ok to swim in? I am thin I read you can swim in slam levels and I this is below that level.

I Plan to swap some water to lower Cya a bit so I can drop my FC levels.

I have a Jandy pool system that I have been disappointed with for some time now. I would like to replace the whole thing, but don't want to get a new system that is not compatible with other components. I do most of the work myself. My pump has pretty much bit the dust and needs to be replaced. I cannot find a Jandy stealth pump anywhere. Is Jandy out of business? Also my saltwater generator is also on the fritz. Is there any recommendations for a system that is dependable, available parts, etc. I would like a controller that is compatible with other equipment. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hey everyone I seem to have an algae problem that literally sprung up on me. I have had my chemicals balanced all summer with no issues and then all of a sudden boom I have algae. I am always very diligent about maintenance when it comes to my pool so I was baffled to see that I had an algae bloom.

Pool Specs:
Bestway Oval Above Ground Pool: 17x10x42
1hp Aquastrong Pump
12 inch intex sand filter
Hard Plumbed

Long story short after a few years my intex pump died and I replaced it with a larger pump. I knew that going this route that the filter was more than likely going to be too small for the pump and therefore I may have issues with filtration. I do not have an in depth testing kit just a basic kit that tests the ph and the chlorine levels. When this bloom started I triple shocked the pool and brushed the pool. 48 hours after shocking I vacuumed the pool and the water is still green. My chlorine levels are through the roof and my ph level is super high at the moment. My take is that after all this time my filter has finally failed and is no longer filtering correctly due to the power of the pump possibly breaking something in the filter. Just needing some insight here could it be my filter? Everything else seems to be working fine. I have good circulation and plenty of chlorine in the pool, but the algae just doesn't die. I am guessing my filter is no longer filtering correctly. Also, I took apart my sand filter and the laterals looked fine. The only thing I noticed was my sand level was super low so I added sand to it. If I did need a new filter would a 19inch be sufficient? Thanks for all of your advice!

I have done the SLAM process twice now this season. I have read the article on Mustard Algae... "Mustard algae is a particularly persistent kind of algae, that appears to go away when you SLAM the pool normally, only to reappear as soon as you come back down to normal chlorine levels." This seems to be what is happening in my pool. I began the MA process after my second SLAM.

Couple of questions: Seems like my FC levels drifted down during the MA process, at times it was difficult to maintain, but I always added more liquid chlorine. Since it hasn't always stayed at 19 for CYA of 30, should I extend the 24 hour period?

My test results this morning are: FC 23.5, CC .0, pH 8, TA 120, CH 250, CYA 30. Which brings my CSI to .55. Should I bring the pH down or wait until I'm done with the 24 hour period? My pH during most of the 24 hour period has been at a level within range... I have a few more hours left of the 24 hours. I'm still seeing slight algae drifts on the stairs and some in the deep end. Is this dead MA? I don't want to take any chances of this coming back... this stuff is a PITA! Especially since we have a short season here in Minnesota... and this season, I've been battling algae issues for half the season!

I appreciate your advice!

Edit: Since the my intellicenter thread and this one got merged, I'll put the intro/description of the construction thread up in this post (repeated below):

I'm a new member...but wanted to share the photos from our build! We own a small farm (2.4ac) on Vancouver Island (Canada). We decided to have an in-ground pool built in part of our field. It will be a 38x16 pool with a sun ledge on stairs. It's a steel frame with vinyl liner. Our pool builder picked all the equipment with the exception that I wanted an IntelliCenter so I could have a bit more automation control. Pool will be heated (propane) and will have a automatic cover (Coverstar) installed.

We got on the list with our builder in March 2022 (with an expected started in 2023). Engaged with a designer in fall 2022 to start planning the whole project. We finalized a design in early 2023, submitted permits to the municipality which finally got approved in May. We broke ground June 16. We are hoping to get the liner installed in September (weather permitting) - but if the liner doesn't arrive (or the weather doesn't cooperate) then we may have to wait until Spring 2024 for the liner.

Click to expand...

IntelliCenter post:

We have an IntelliCenter with Load Center for our pool install. The electrician is coming in next week to start running the electrical to the equipment room. Are there any reasons we *shouldn't* just use the IntelliCenter Load Center *as* the sub-panel from the house? Our pool builder doesn't use these (but I insisted) - and the electrician hasn't installed one. So his standard setup would be a feed from the house to the equipment room to a sub-panel that feeds the pump, gas heater, pool lights etc. He plans to run a 50a from the house panel out to the equipment room.

Given that the load-center can act as a sub-panel for non-pool items (like some additional plugs around the pool and landscape lighting) - should we just use that to save some money? Or are there benefits to just having a proper sub-panel between the house and the IntelliCenter (or drawbacks to just using the IntelliCenter)? I read in the manual that it's limited to 10 additional single-pole circuits. Which would be fine for what we are planning.

There are numerous posts on here about frequent failures for the Hayward Colorlogic 4.0 color-changing LED lights. My pool's Colorlogic light lasted around 7 years of very light usage before finally failing which seems pretty good! However, the pricetag for a direct Hayward replacement was ~$900. I decided to try the Florida Sunseeker "Pooltone Standard 16 Color LED Pool Light" which currently runs between $500-$600. I was curious to see if pool lights were one of those situations where "you get what you pay for" or whether Hayward was ridiculously overpriced. I was also unable to find any reviews, so I am posting this to help others that may find themselves in the similar situation of replacing a Colorlogic 4.0.

First off, the FL Sunseeker website promises fast shipping and they definitely shipped same day via 2-day FedEx from FL to NY. This was far faster than I expected. Off to a good start! The light arrived in good shape and was well-packaged.

When comparing the Sunseeker Pooltone to the Colorlogic unit, I noticed a few immediate differences:

• The Pooltone uses a metal enclosure where the Colorlogic is mostly plastic. In terms of fitment into a niche, the plastic is superior as it is molded which allows for a very precise fit into the niche.
• The power cable on the Pooltone is slightly thinner than the Colorlogic. The thinner Pooltone cord was a lot easier for me to snake through the conduit and I doubt the conductor was any thinner. Both cables seemed very adequate for a 50' run of 120V AC to a 35W LED light.
• The Pooltone has a domed shape that appears to house a regular style lightbulb, whereas the Colorlogic is a very flat shape without a servicable bulb. It may be possible to replace just the bulb in the Pooltone upon failure but I'd have to check with the manufacturer to be sure.

I ran into several unexpected problems during the install that were all able to be overcome or ignored. Here they are:

1) The Pooltone enclosure appears to be made of a coated/plated ferrous material (i.e. iron or steel) rather than a quality stainless steel. If you set this directly on your concrete, you can expect to scratch it. I noticed a few scratches that had immediately began to rust when exposed to salt pool water. It's a little troubling to have rust already forming on a housing that will be submerged in a salt water pool. I wonder how long before a hole rusts all the way through it? I chose to ignore this for now.


2) A clamp holds together the 2 parts of the light housing (bezel with backshell). The clamp screw protruded out to the very edge of the fixture and caused some rubbing on the niche during install. This made it hard to get it properly aligned into the niche on install. Consequently, I cut off most of the screw to help with clearance. This step may not have been 100% necessary as I was also struggling with the power cable slack & the next issue below. It is possible I just got confused.


3) The Pooltone did not fit properly into the same niche that the Colorlogic 4.0 fit into. Specifically, if I had the Pooltone unit low enough in the niche for the bottom "catch tab" to be in place, then the Pooltone mounting screw hole was too low to mount into the niche. If I lined up the mounting hole of the Pooltone with the niche mount screw, the Pooltone would sit just a little too high for the bottom catch tab to be in place. This meant the bottom of the Pooltone was able to swing freely outwards out of the niche. To solve this, I drilled a new hole in the Pooltone flange about 0.25" higher. This ensured everything lined up perfectly by allowing the Pooltone to sit low enough for the bottom catch tab while allowing you to screw in the single top mounting screw.


Once the issues above were dealt with, the Pooltone sat nicely in the niche and worked properly. The Pooltone LED light is just as bright and dynamic as the Colorlogic 4.0:


Overall, I am happy with the Sunseeker Pooltone product. At this point, I don't regret the purchase and feel that it was a decent budget option. I'm not sure why I ran into issues with mounting the Pooltone into the niche. I suppose it is possible my niche is not compatible with the Pooltone light. I was unable to find the part# for my niche. My logic is that if the Pooltone can replace the Colorlogic in a variety of niches, then it should be able to replace the Colorlogic in my niche. Who knows!

Let me know if you have any questions, and I'd be happy to try and answer.

I imagined my first post here on these forums would be more technical than this, but here goes:

I just bought my first test kit, a K-2006C and am curious about a funky smell... is it just the new kits plastic components off gassing or could something in there have spilled, and is it a problem?

None of the reagents look as if they are missing any volume, the kit seems clean... is this just new plastic smell that will pass in a few days (it's fairly potent) or is it likely some chemical leaking out that I should store in the garage? All things equal id prefer to store the test kit in conditioned air space and not the garage, but would be fine to let it offgas in there if that's what's going on.

Thanks in advance!

Good morning everyone. We had a big storm come through last night causing a power outage and when the power came back on I could not start the pump from the easy touch control panel. Also I was not able to connect through screen logic. On the pump screen I can control the pump manually and it works fine. Other components in the easy touch are also working, just not the pump. I have gone into the pump settings on the easy touch and it shows not connected. Is it possible the power outage blew out the COM port on my control board? I'm trying to figure out how to diagnose this so any guidance is appreciated. Thank you

I have an inline chlorinator that I don't use that has a flow meter. I just had an aquacal heatpump/chiller installed that needs a 30-70gpm flow rate. I was hoping to use this flow meter to tell me how much I actually have pushing through. I can't read it though! I can barely see the numbers and I don't really understand them. It looks like one side tops out at 100gpm and the other at 12gpm but the increments in between are in .25. So confused! Please help me understand the flow based on this meter.

hi. i'm beginning to doubt the chlorine production of my ichlor 30. so i'm running a test using my hot tub (400gals). according to the Pool Math calculator, if i run the SWG for 1 hour at 100%, the FC should raise by 12. if it only raised by 3 (25% effective), does this mean it's going bad? thanks all

Hi There! First post as I’m somewhat baffled but always appreciate the info here at TFP forums so thought I give it a shot. I think I know the answer but wanted the experts to weigh in.

Recently my combined chlorine has gone from 0 to 3 and I’m not sure why. Water is clear, bright, no debris, algae or any other signs of concern. Not even a smell but it is an outdoor pool. My only conclusion is that there is a potential algae bloom I cannot see but I don’t believe this would create such a high CC. The weather here has turned from relatively mild to blistering hot in short order. Going from the 90’s to over 110. Filter is clean, pool is brushed, maintain chlorine levels in accordance with CYA level. Alkalinity is relatively low but the pool is less than 2 years old

I believe the solution is to SLAM and I have a Taylor FAS-DPD kit on the way. I’ve been adding liquid 12.5% and running the filter essentially non stop to aerate and and better oxidize and it seems to be coming down slightly, but it’s been 3 days now without much change.

Should I continue on as is or SLAM over the weekend? Water balance below

Taylor K2005
PH 7.6
FC 8
CC 3
CYA 50
TA 70
CH 300

Nice to meet everybody here. First pool ever for us; we have 3 months of maintenance as part of the build contract. After that, well, that's the reason I'm here now Maybe we can do it.

Gunite, 16x25, combined pool / 8x8 spa, maybe 12-13 K USG total, salt water with chlorine generator, autofill with water from our whole-house water softener. It's a loitering/party pool, so we claim it's not a pool, but a Roman Bath. It's also a way to lower body core temperature when 3-digit weather strikes. 3' deep shallow end, down to 5 1/2' for the deep end.

Pentair equipment, and I'm climbing my way through Pentair's fine print. It seems there's a logic board, and most peripherals of consequence attach to an RS485 bus. Bus discipline for RS485 is either daisy chain or repeater/duplicator for Y connection splits BUT grrr... there is always that common-mode ground problem. 4-wire Pentair's connection feeds carry A wire, B wire, ground and +15V.

I suppose that if you share the ground, the +15V power can be independent from the panel feed?

But I guess this is not the place to ask this or other Pentair automation related questions =:O -- which is the right place, please?

Anyway, here we go: another total n00b on board.

Cheers, and (soon enough) party on everybody!

After reading several posts I’m pretty sure I have iron stains in my pool. I’m going to try citric acid and a metal sequestrant. But, I don’t want to lower my chlorine. It’s a little bit high right now. But, I’m not sure how much product to buy. I know I’ll need more sequestrant with the chlorine high. But, I have no idea how much or what’s the best brand to get. Help, please.

In my opinion, the velcro closing system the Pentair Racer uses is a horrible design. After a very short time, the velcro has so much debris stuck to it that I cannot get a good seal. As a result,, the top of the bag opens up and everything the Racer sucks up is blown right out of the top of the bag, back into the pool. The replacement bag from Pentair is very pricey so I'm reluctant to spend that much on a new bag with the same design flaw. Has anyone found a good replacement bag that works with the Pentair Racer that does NOT use velcro? Maybe a drawstring design or zipper? Looking for suggestions. TIA

Hello!

I decided to try Green to Blue II. A friend that had owned pools for a long time highly recommended it. My pool this summer has been really clear and lovely. However, three weeks ago my robot, Pentair Prowler 920, died. I thought it was working and was throwing it in the pool and leaving and then coming back to fish it out after a few hours. The robot was really working for 2 minutes and then stopping. Too late (when the pool started to go just slightly green), I noted that the robot was not doing it's job. I raised the chlorine levels and tested often to try and keep things at bay, but the algae quickly moves in. I get a large amount of debris in the pool due to trees next to the pool, wind blowing, etc.

Fast forward to my question. Noted that Green to Blue II is a flocculant. I followed the instructions...set the pool to recirculate, etc. But, now it looks like the floc has simply captured the algae at the bottom. The top of the pool is clear and there is sludge on the bottom that immediately clouds up if touched. I am keeping the pool up to SLAM levels at this point, and yesterday vacuumed to waste (with a shop vac) a huge amount of gross yellow/brown water from the bottom. Today the pool looks slightly better.

Is this the best course of action? Keep SLAMMing? And should I go ahead and start filtering the pool or keep it off to make sure all the floc is out first. I put it at recirculate right now after bringing the chlorine back up to get things mixing. Also, note to self that you cannot vacuum out floc with a robot. Arg. Never using floc again.

CYA: 40
FC: 25
ph: 7.2

I've searched and read everything I can find on TFP about cloudy pools after phosphate removal. Yes, first lesson was "don't do that." I sort-of did it to myself, and asked the pool store what I could do because my numbers were 4000+ ppm on phosphate. ( I found TFP after my pool store visit and subsequent effects. ) So, I dumped 1 qt. of BioGuard zero phos into the skimmer. ( Probably, the second mistake I made as I will not pour anything into the skimmer again. ) Bottle says that water will cloud up, but should clear over the next two days. Well, I'm going into the fourth week of cloudy water. I started a SLAM two days ago. Yes, I understand it is a process and may take a week.

Notes about pool if they did not appear in my signature: Indoor pool, 30,000 gal, vinyl, SWG.
Latest test results:
FC = 20
CYA = 50
PH = 7.4
TA = 140
CH = 225
NaCl = 3500

I am just asking if I am going in the right direction. I am holding FC at 20 ( CYA = 50 ). My OCLT is = 1 or less.

Any suggestions to bond the separation is much appreciated. I have researched how these liners are seamed at the top. I have 3 places of separation where the liner folds over the top rail and back onto itself. This is only my second season having this pool which I am still making payments on. Please send any suggestions.

Is Marina Pool and Spa still a good place to purchase robot? I emailed them yesterday morning and still have not heard back.

I have Dolphin Advantage, similar to E20, Dx3, etc.

After much searching and reading, I figured out how to set my Dolphin Advantage into Automation mode by hold down the Schedule button for 10+ seconds, then pressing Power On button, then unplugging.

Just one question, in order to make the robot go on the next time, do I have to first turn off the smart plug, then turn it back on.

Thanks,
Jeff