I wonder if anyone has experienced this, my water is balanced, other hottub users don't have an itching problem, I don't have an itching problem other than on my central back area which is suspiciously in the area where the jets provide the most massage effect (and is the most difficult area to scratch ).

The tub is a new Hotspring relay with the salt system, been running it for a month as a test before I Aahsome purge, drain and refill in the next few days, I maintain chlorine above 3ppm, I shock after use with additional Sodium Hypochlorate 14% and use the dichlor to bleach method (CYA is at 50 from first fill having gone a tad too far with the dichlor).

I can measure fCl, tCl and CCl using my Pool Lab 2.0 and notice that CCl's range from 0.8 to 2.0 after a soak, so I then shock up to 10ppm chlorine which brings it down, but I haven't managed to get it below 0.8 CCl so far. I haven't used any other oxidisers other than bleach, should I try something to get the CCl to zero?

The itching is localised which makes me think it's something to do with the water jets, it could be just a sensitive back that I have or it could be the water pressure pitting my back with nasties or chlorine, the tub will be squeaky clean after the next drain, I had a break of about 16 months from hottubing from the last hottub before this new Relay and didn't have an issue before (the tub before was not water balanced as well as this one is), any thoughts or experiences from you guys ?

I have recently replaced the gas valve on my Hayward Heater. The solenoid just failed.

I cannot find any major literature on why these fail. This may be a dense question and I am asking more out of my own curiosity. This was a 4 year old valve. Any idea generally why these fail?

Do I have to empty water from filter before I remove clamps to readjust them? I have 2 clamps where I see drips and would prefer not to waste water but I also don't want to create more damage! Thanks!

Just thought I’d ask the other Brits where you’re all buying test kits etc from in case I’m missing a trick

G'day all,

I have purged and started with fresh water in my Hotspring Relay with Freshwater Salt System (1290L/350 Gallons), it's a new tub but the amount of gunk that Ahhsome pulled out is quite outstanding, highly recommended for anyone with a new tub to get squeaky clean.

I could do with some views on water chemistry, particularly LSI vs Hotspring recommended ranges, reading around it appears that the thinking on fixed ranges has moved on in the context of LSI/CSI for pools and spas, I also note that most recommendations for CH are way above the Hotspring recommended levels.

Hotspring have a recommended range for CH of 25-75ppm target 50ppm (presumably to reduce Salt system scaling), the tub came with a water softener (we have 500ppm CaCO3 tap water in these parts so it's needed), it also came with their magic Calcium remover bag. When the tub was initially filled on delivery the CH looked to be in range according to their test strip (I don't yet have the means to get a more accurate CH test so I am relying on the test strip). I regenerated the water softener, measured it's output for hardness and filled the tub, the CH now looks to be around 100ppm, so the softener appears to have run out of steam (or the water is harder than a month ago) on this fill.

Hotspring Salt range is 1500-2000ppm, target 1750.

I have balanced the water but not yet added salt, I am balancing to get LSI in range and the numbers are very close to Hotspring recommendations apart from CH, here are my numbers today:

Temp: 39 C
pH 7.5 (Ceiling is 8.2/8.3)
TA 85
CH 100
CL 10, initial shock
CYA 12 (aiming for 30 at next Dichlor addition), no Hotspring recommendation for CYA.
Salt 0
LSI -0.25 no Hotspring recommendation for LSI

I want to be lazy and contain pH by letting it freerise to it's ceiling (also based on latest thinking related to pH levels)

When I increase the CYA to 30ppm and CH stays at 100ppm and I add salt to 1600ppm and if I let the pH free rise to its ceiling of 8.2 the LSI will change to 0.19.
If I do the above but reduce CH to 50ppm (presumably by using their magic bag rather than dilute the water) the LSI is -0.11.

Given the above would LSI of -0.11 create less scaling on the salt generator than 0.19? Is there much difference in the context of Calcium scaling between these two LSI readings?

As a separate note, we have higher than 2.5ppm Phosphates in the tap water here, so I treat that separately to get into the Hotspring range of under 150ppb (although I will start a separate thread for Phosphate removal as I am sure to have questions ).

As usual, thanks for your thoughts

Hi,

This past week I’ve been dealing with a couple of issues with my Pentair Easytouch system and the 011018 pump.

The scheduling of the Easytouch seems to be malfunctioning: whenever I change the start or end time of a schedule while it’s running, the schedules randomly turn off afer a few hours. However if I adjust the schedule before it starts, everything works fine. While troubleshooting I found an Easytouch motherboard for $400, which I think is a good price, thinking I might need to replace it. But since adjusting the schedule before it starts works, I’m not planning on replacing it for now.

Also my Pentair 010018 Pump started making a loud squealing noise. Not always, but intermittently. After reading in this forum it seems that pump replacement might be the best option. However, before I replace it I want to use the current pump for as long as possible. I found that the discontinued VS 011028 pump could be a drop-in replacement, but I can’t find it at a reasonable price. The next option I’m considering is the Intelliflo 3 VSF. From my research, it looks like for it to work with all features my Easytouch needs to be on firmware version 2.16. Currently I’m on 2.13, but the motherboard I purchased is at 2.18. I still have time to return it, should I keep it for when I replace the pump, or is there a better plan? I don’t know how difficult it is to update the firmware of the Easytouch. I don’t have screen logic and I’m not planning on putting it in, unless I really need to or makes sense for the price.

I have the pump on 24/7 at 1700 RPMs, with 5 hours at mid day at 2700, I’ll reduce the 5 hours to 2, in hopes to elongate its life.

Any advice or suggestions will be as always appreciated!

Thanks!
Roger

Our MasterTemp model 460805 is 15 years old. I took the manifold apart to remove a piece of plastic lodged in there and discoverd my heater does not have a thermal regulator.

Was the thermal regulator optional in 2010 or did I just forget to put one in during setup in June 2010?

Is there a way to control the relays on the i/o board when using the external control programs? The only settings i see are speed/flow percentage settings... would be nice if it is possible... right now there is a 4 way air switch that turns the pump pump on and off by cutting the power, because i am using the relays to turn on the heat pump and the 1/2 hp pump where the heat pump is connected to. If i use the digital input than the only option is to cut the power of the heat pump completely, but i am not sure if that is a good thing to do ( i guess not)

Hello,
I will be redoing my pool plumbing to install a heater.
Does this setup make sense? I'm new to this, so I would need some advice.
I read that the check valve should be at least 12 inches away from the heater's "water out" port.
The blue line is the water into the 3-way and the red line is back to the pool.
Thank you! : )

Hi I have a 30000 gallon pool the old liner has been removed and they have a well point going and 4 sump pumps but can’t stop the ground water in 4 holes in the bottom. The pool company says they aren’t coming back until it dries. I don’t see this happening. Is there something I can do to stop the leak through the holes

The title is pretty self-explanatory here. I had my water tested at Leslie’s at my copper is at 1.6, which even TFP says is too high. The article I read said that the only way to remove copper permanently is to drain and refill, but I also have a well and I’m worried that is contributing to the copper levels. Leslie’s recommendation is either drain and refill or a “no metal” chemical.

Does the “no metal” actually work to reduce levels? Should I just bite the bullet and drain/ refill?

Hello! This is our second summer with our above ground 15x30 oval pool. Last year we kind of got #poolstored with the chemicals that came with the pool package, and knowing nothing, we just kept using them. The chemicals seemed rather pricey and when we went on vacation we started growing algae and never got it back under control. Most of the summer I didn't even check the water with the strips because it was crystal clear with our chemical schedule. I know we can do better and TFP looks like an amazing resource. Can't wait to get a test kit and open the pool!

I'd like to change mine but am afraid it will wipe out all the settings and configurations? I have never changed it before but likely need to. I also have the 9-volt changed with fresh battery already in place.

Is it really possible that my green swamp only needs 3 1/2 cups of chlorine to clear it up? Fc level .5 cya 30

Just checking in on how you guys like this system so far? I can't find much info online about it, what information does the bare system display on the app without the future addons. Does it have ability to control VSP, and does it use the same replacement cell as the regular core 55? Thanks!

Having an entire remodel done and they suggested adding concrete to top of spa wall to bring it up even with the deck elevation. This will be an approximately 4" tall and 7" wide addition. Should they be using some fiberglass rebar at the top or to side of the existing wall to help secure or is that even possible? I'm concerned about just having a floating piece of concrete there without any mechanical adhesion. I believe they plan on building the form and pouring without any rebar.

I've seen a few discussions of this idea, so I thought I'd share my wacky project (mods move if I picked the wrong spot).

I have a 23k gallon in ground vinyl liner pool with a Circupool salt generator. I love it.
One of the things I love about it is the Autocover I added. It keeps my kids safe, keeps the heat in, keeps the sun off the pool, and keeps junk out of the pool. I leave it closed except when we are actually swimming.
The autocover also keeps rain out of the pool. Although this makes chemical maintenance simpler (no dilution), it also means that I have to add water from a hose to make up for evaporation.

The water from my hose is hard. Like 100+ppm hard. This means that, over time, the hardness in the pool slowly goes up. I'm over 400ppm now. I have so much calcium in the water that it precipitates out as flakes that the pool robot vacuums up.

This is probably bad for things.

The last time this happened, I did a water exchange. I was nervous about draining the pool, so I pumped water in and out at the same time from opposite ends of the pool.
This is expensive. Due to mixing, I have to pump out (and replace) far more water than I actually want to exchange. Plus, the water I am putting in is hard anyway.

My genius(???) solution was to use a water softener instead. I would get a softener, put it on a wheeled base, attach a little 5gpm pump I have, and pump all the pool water through the softener. It would replace the calcium with salt, which is fine since I can deal with another several hundred ppm of salt in the pool (that already has several thousand ppm).
Once the calcium is removed, I can keep the softener around just to pipe the hose through when I need to add water to the pool.

After a bunch of comparisons, I bought a Whirlpool WHEC46, which was $600 at Lowe's. I put it on piece of plywood, added some casters and wheeled it over to the pool. I didn't want metal fittings on the hoses running to the pool, so I used irrigation hose (which is also cheaper). Several fittings convert from the 1/2" NPT on the pump to the irrigation hose and the 1" NPT fittings on the water softener.



Plugged it in, set up the water softener, and turned on the pump. It's running!


There are still some details to work out.

1. I need a longer drain hose so that the softener can live under my deck (which has a "ceiling" with a water collection system) -- this will keep the rain and (most of) the sun off of it.
2. I will eventually need to see about winterizing the unit.
3. I'm doing this at the start of the year since I read that chlorine can damage the resin beads... but there's still 7ppm of chlorine in the pool (I guess I overdid my boost at the end of the year).

My drop test this morning said 400ppm of calcium. I'll check it every day and see.

I’ve completed repairing my cracked top pool stair by attaching new treads that I scribed to each existing stair and beveled to fit. Each stair surface was sanded with 60 grit as well as the bottom of each tread to promote better adhesion. I used Pettit marine silicone sealant / adhesive for the mating surfaces and made the bead around each tread with one of their UV resistant silicones. Both are below waterline rated, so hopefully it will hold up well. The tread itself is Timbertech Advanced PVC, which is their full PVC product, so no worries about swelling or rotting. I went with a fascia board dimension so each tread could be a single piece, and at only 1/2” thick, would more easily conform to the step shape and minimize the change in stair rise. I also drilled several holes before starting and filled the void behind the stairs as much as I could, which worked out to 400lbs of sand. Now in the process of refilling the pool and getting everything balanced again.

I'm repairing a polaris booster pump and curious if the o ring for the volute is the same for both new and old models. I believe the volute is part # P5.

I've been reading for a couple weeks trying to see if I have the methods straight. 18kG SW vinyl pool. We have a guy coming to open, mostly because hooking up the heater and plumbing stuff is beyond me for year 1.

Water still looks clear when I peek, but it's a leaf cover so I'm expecting some debris at the bottom. Below is my understanding of the steps. Anyone willing to take a look and see if this sounds right?

Hook everything up and remove cover.
Vacuum
SLAM level of liquid bleach (test for chlorine before?)
Add salt (2/3 amount I estimate to start)
Brush everything
leave on the pump but turn off the SWG for 24 hours (saw this was recommended after adding salt?)
Test salt- adjust if needed
turn on SWG
continue vacuuming/scrubbing
Test levels again and see if I'm burning up chlorine
If chlorine is looking decent use sock method to add CYA

If the pool was never green or anything do I have to get up at the crack of dawn for an overnight test?

Once the chlorine levels come down from SLAM and pool is clear I'm good to swim right?

Lastly pool guy comes in the AM and it looks like the salt cell could use a cleaning- would they normally do that as part of opening the pool or should I try to tackle this in the AM while everything is disconnected?

I had a small leak coming off of the seal plate on my Sta-Rite Dura-Glas pump, so I replaced the shaft seal. My seal plate is old. It's probably the original. One of the threaded inserts was sticking out which caused the seal plate to be uneven. When I started it up, I heard the impeller scraping on the diffuser. After taking it back apart,I found a couple shavings from the impeller. There are no gouges, and it still feels smooth. Is the tolerance between the impeller and diffuser important? Should I replace the impeller? It's only a few months old so I feel bad replacing it.

Hello, my cartridge filter is leaking at the top where the clamp (locking ring) holds the lid onto the housing. Water is leaking at the hinge points of the clamp. This has been an intermittent problem since I moved into this property and inherited the pool. In the past 2 months it has leaked some days, while other days not at all. Sometimes when have I reattached the lid and locking ring, the leaking stopped. But yesterday and today I cannot get it to stop leaking quite a lot of water. I am having to top up the pool it has leaked so much. Any advice most appreciated. (I have added photos now; thanks for the suggestion @PoolStored . I do not know what the model number is. It looks old and the previous owner was not the person who installed it.)

I've had my Dolphin Active 30 for about 2.5 years (purchased from Marina). It has been a great pool cleaner up until it stopped working completely. I checked the impeller and that was completely clear of obstructions.

When I press the power button on the power supply, it he power ring and the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi light both flash blue and turn off immediately. That's it. Would love to know what steps I could take to figure out what the issue is.

I’ve been open for a week now and water temp with heater got up to 75-80. I usually just use liquid chlorine first couple of weeks because outside temps are in 70s but we had 2 mid 80s so kids wanted to hit the water. With that I decided to start up SWCG. Since FC already 5-6 with liquid I kept SWCG in 25% range for last 2 days.

Now the confusing thing is the difference between SWCG screen is more than the usually 300-400 between my liquid test. For instance screen keeps reading 3000-3100 while k-1766 with new reagent is reading 2400. Am I too far off? Should I just ignore panel and follow my tested result? SWG was inspected before my opening and completely clear as I usually am and it’s only 4 years old this year.

I tend to over think some of these things but just wanted to get some thoughts.

I started the slam process yesterday bcs the pool was turning a little green and recently have noticed some yellowish stuff on the walls and corners that easily brushes off.

Some background. I’m in central Texas and we just went through our yearly pollen bloom where literally everything outdoors is covered in a fine yellow powder. Keeping the pool clean and debris free is a daily challenge around this time of year. I have to clean out fully packed skimmers (tree pollen debris) twice a day for a couple of weeks. Glad we are past that now!

Also this pool is severely affected by ASR. This is likely our last season with it. We have cracks everywhere, hot tub hasn’t been able to hold water for two years. Just trying to keep the pool going for at least one more summer for my kids.

I’m following the SLAM protocol page. Removed debris. Brushed everything. Etc.

When I started yesterday:
Chorine was 0.
CC was also 0.
pH 7.5
CYA 50.

Per the calculator sLAM level for chlorine was 20.

Put in chlorine and it resulted in chlorine level of 32. Kept it above 20 all day (only had to add once). And had no chlorine loss overnight.

Water was cloudy and could still see a little yellow in a couple of spots this morning. Brushed it. Vacuumed some new tree debris off the bottom and ran the robot vac.

But now there is a fine debris all over the bottom of the pool. Kind of powder like but you can’t feel it. It’s kind of a tan color. I assume this is dead algae? When we brushed this morning it stirred up and made the water cloudier.

My pool vac (robot) does NOT pick this up. We can see evidence of this stuff in the pool skimmer socks. My biggest question is how to get this out of my pool? Am I expecting all of this to go through the filter?

Interested in this Confer Curve step system, including the add-on. Does anyone know if it will work in the short end of my pool? I'm worried that the curve of the oval will keep it from being flat against the wall. Any experience with this? Thanks!

Hi everyone. First time posting to TFP but I’ve learned a ton from the forums, so first, a thanks to all the participants. Second, I’m not sure if I should be starting my own thread or tagging SlipperyPete’s. I have a very similar issue with my MasterTemp 400 but let me know if I should move to my own thread.

My heater goes through the ignition cycle, blower starts and igniter clicks (three cycles) with gas smell, but no ignition. Service heater light comes on but no error LEDs under the control board light up. I’ve torn the heater apart a few times in the past (and now wish I’d just replaced it) to swap the heat exchanger pot last year and this month swapped the heat exchanger and control board. I’ve got so much sunk cost in the repairs now it makes no sense to replace, but I’m at a loss for the current issue. I’ve replaced the igniter and tested the replacement at 130 ohms at ~78 degrees. I’ve read conflicting posts about whether that means Amazon sent me a bad igniter, but I got one ignition yesterday only to repeat the backfire (?) process that had me calling the pool man. The pool man had me replacing the heat exchanger due to a slow crack/leak that he blamed for the ignition issue ($1,000 later, I think he was wrong). I’m at a loss at this point. I will say, when I took apart the heat exchanger pot the flame holder (the cylindrical piece not the cone) was in rusty/rough shape from the previous water in the pot. Before I replace that simply due to rust and drop another $200 into this guy, I thought I’d post here for any other advice. Thanks again all.

Enjoy as I briefly share my concrete pond return to a beautiful pool by following the guidance of TFP. (I'm not even one of the experts here, and I was just blessed to inherit this pool at the end of last summer (no it did not look like this then, but it was not sparkling either). Thankfully, I found TFP quickly in my search then and have been grateful for all the awesome folks and material here. Yes, it can feel a bit overwhelming at first, and yes, this will be my first battle with a swamp... but I'm confident this will end in my favor - so if you're new and feeling unsure, feel free to follow this little thread--it's meant to boost confidence, encourage, and demonstrate what goes on here at TFP! If I mess up at some point, you'll see me shoot up a flare and call in support, and you'll see great folks virtually jump into the muck with me.

With the right knowledge and some diligence, this pool will be opened and sparkling without all the craziness and costs of excess chemicals, trips to the pool store, or even pool service. Oh yes, there will be a good bit of regular old liquid chlorine...bottles and bottles of it. But that's pennies on the dollar compared to the endless cycle I could end up with if not following the principles here. The real challenge and enemy will be time - I was unfortunately unable to begin this Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. So I'm stuck with this one day before the weekly grind returns. Challenge accepted.

Here are my initial pics (a valiant effort will be made to transport all creatures big or small to a habitat of their choice):

I know this thread is a year old but I have the same problem but I don't have an Intelliflo pump. How do I know whether the com port is good? I'll replace the antenna set if necessary but I'd hate to do that and then have to replace the main board too.

Sorry - this was originally in another thread. So, I have no lights on the receiving antenna and no Intelliflo pump. Do you think this is a com port or an antenna problem and how do I check?

Long story short. Cover had a hole in it so we didn’t cover this winter because they couldn’t get us a cover made in time. Should I drain and refill or slam. I’m thinking slam but curious what yall think