Hello,
My Hayward SP3400VSP with the OMNI controller on top is really starting to scream. It still pumps and moves the water great, but pretty sure my neighbours are going to complain soon. I'm guessing the bearings are going.

Not sure if I can order/buy replacement bearings? If this is a repair I can do, or if I am better off just buying a new pump?

With that said, do I only need to buy a new motor? Or does everything need to be replaced including the OMNI controller? Would you have a recommendation for the new pump? I have done some reading and the Ecostar Pump I currently have is not thought of too highly.

Thank you,
Kmac12

We just opened our pool to brown water. Late March, we got a snow storm here in NE which carried a bunch of dust from TX and NM and left behind a sheet of thick brown sediment everywhere after the brown snow melted. I’m assuming much went through our mesh cover. You can see remains on the pool coping we haven’t cleaned yet. Power washing all of our decking was already quite the job. Anyway, water temp is 56 degrees and FC at .5. Cya tested at 35 and PH at 7.4 so I started a slam adding liquid chlorine to slam level. I tested my FC a half hour later to make sure the LC and my measurements were good and then I tested again an hour after that and the level had dropped by 1 so I raised up again to slam level.

My question is, do I just slam like normal and proceed to brush and backwash? Is testing every hour and a half good or overkill. I can’t even see the bottom of the pool which has never happened before so it makes it hard to brush. Will the sand filter eventually filter this out? I also have our Aiper robot going and am going to see what the basket looks like when it’s done with its routine. Appreciate everyone’s time and advice.

History of my interest in this question:

1. I found that after 6 months my salt cell was full of calcium deposits.
2. After cleaning it I measured the Total Alkalinity (using TF-100) and found it to be 180
3. Over the course of 3 weeks I added acid daily to keep pH at 7.2 until the TA was down to 70

How did this work?

• My understanding is that the pH in my pool rises every day due to aeration (there is a spillover from a raised spa and the lower pool.) I have been led to believe that this happens because there is an equilibrium between carbonic acid and dissolved carbon dioxide. As dissolved carbon dioxide is removed due to aeration this equilibrium drives carbonic acid levels lower thus raising the pH.
• The pH in my pool goes back down when I add hydrochloric acid.
• Somehow (I don't quite understand the chemistry details...) the lower pH reacted with the TA reducing it over time.

Questions:

• General Pool Care: Now that I am "done" reducing the TA I am now maintaining my pool's pH at 7.8. Every 2-3 days after adjusting pH to 7.8 I measure it at 8.1/8.2 again. Does this mean that I am continuing to reduce the TA (though slower than I was at pH of 7.2) as a side effect of maintaining the ideal pH? Is this normal?
• Academic / Curiosity: If aeration raises pH by removing dissolved carbon dioxide and I lower pH by adding hydrochloric acid, then how does this not get out of control? I'm adding extra chloride ions and aeration is removing carbon dioxide. Won't I eventually run out of dissolved carbon dioxide / carbonic acid if there isn't anything replenishing them? Won't I eventually have a HUGE surplus of chloride ions unless there is some mechanism removing them? I'm sure I'm missing more elements of the chemistry at work here (presumably something to do with buffers?)

Hopefully someone can help me understand what I am missing from my understanding.
Thank you.

Long story short, I mowed over my power cord for my above ground pool. The pump is an intex SX3000 series, and has the GFCI plug on the male end. I'm trying to find a replacement cord, and am having trouble making sure i'm getting the right one. I'm not an electrician by any means, but I can replace parts just fine. I really just need to make sure I find a cord that is the right replacement. I don't even believe it has to have the GFCI end, as it's plugged into an outside outlet that is on a GFCI circuit (please correct me if i'm wrong,) but wouldn't mind having that if I could find one. Few questions:

Any idea how I can ensure I get the right cord?

This pump is 120v- so are the replacements on amazon pretty much universal as long as they meet that? If so, could I take the GFCI adapter from the old cord and put it on the new one if it doesn't come with one?

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide. I feel like this shouldn't be that complicated, but I'm dealing with electricity so I want to be safe.

Hi All - I haven’t updated my signature with pool size, equipment, and all other necessary things but I will eventually.

Anyhow, we’re having an issue with our heater, it’s a new Raypak Avia 404, that shuts off after roughly 10 min. The digital screen says two things:
Flue Extremely Low
and
High Flow Fault

I called Raypak yesterday and the tech that I spoke with said that those are indicators that the water flow through the heater is too high/fast for it to heat it properly.
He asked what pump size we have, told him it’s a 1.5 HP for an 18x36 pool.

He said to:
1. Install an external bypass with a ball valve to slow down the flow.
Or
2. Switch to a variable speed pump to slow down the flow.

I haven’t done either yet, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking that this is a large heater, why couldn’t it handle the flow from a 1.5 hp pump or even a larger pump.

I am new to pools, owned one since Feb. Pump pressure was consistently around 40psi. So I decided to clean the filter. Attached is what it looked like when I opened it up.
My pool company claim to have washed the filter in March.
My question: is could it have got that bad in six weeks?
Cheers

mandrade09 said:

I live in the woods in northeast MA and have plenty of wood. I am thinking of a wood fired swimming pool heater. I have a propane heater. But the price of propane and electricity these days is ridiculous.

Pool is inground 20x40 approx. 30k gallons. I have a solar cover as well.

Does anyone have any experience or familiarity with the below brands? Or does anyone want to share their experiences with wood fired heater?

The Only USA Made Wood Fired Burning Swimming Pool Water Heaters - The BEST Wood Fired Pool Heater available with the longest reputation

We build the highest quality wood burning pool heater in the world, with heavy duty type 304 and 316 stainless steel heat exchangers. Our wood fired pool heaters are the lowest cost option on the market to heat your swimming pool. Wood burning pool heaters, the perfect alternative to high...

www.warmwatersolutions.com

Wood Fired Swimming Pool Heaters - Wood Burning Water Stoves

Buy 100% 304L stainless steel internal and external wood fired heaters from Woodwaterstoves to keep your hot tub or pool warm in cold days.

www.woodwaterstoves.com

Megadome – Wood Stove Pools

Any insight is appreciated.

Matt

Click to expand...

Hello Matt,

If you're still around...I ordered a WarmWaterSolutions 120 last fall and received it this spring. I live in SE Pennsylvania. I have a firewood business so I have a lot of scrap to burn. I have a 23k gallon Kidney pool that is in direct sunlight. I had my liner replaced so I started with sub 60 degree water. I have burned the stove for 2 hours the first day and raised 13 degrees. I have burned an additional 8 hours and I'm now up a total of 18 degrees. I gain about 1 degree an hour of burn. I'm not sure about the folks below that are speaking in pounds of wood but I would guess I have burned less than 1/4 cord in those 20 hours. it's not something you need to burn all of the time but it will get you where you are going.

BTW: The family that owns WWS's is very nice and the product is second to none. Very impressive communication, crating, and delivery. I poured the pad myself and was able to do the hookup. The product includes everything you would want, including dual thermometers and a wood poker.

let me know if you have any questions. I'm very satisfied.

I am getting the “IF” error code and trying to figure out how to fix my Hayward gas heater. I took the gas valve off and the piece in the picture fell out of it. Any idea what it’s for?

Can anyone help me identify my above ground pool make/model? It's 30' round

I have an inline chlorinator. I believe it’s supposed to fill (at least somewhat) with water. It appears mine doesn’t fill at all. The water flows in, but maintains zero water level within the column. I tried increasing the flow and the pump speed but it didn’t change anything. How can I fix this?

Hi All! I have a HC3315 chlorinator and I’m trying to figure out if one of the protrusions at the bottom of the housing that keeps the filter screen in place is missing. I only have three protrusions so I believe the filter screen is not being held in place properly as it would be with four protrusions or Dots that extend up from the bottom of the housing. Can anyone tell me the correct number of protrusions that should exist at the bottom of the housing?

HI All ... It's a new season and I've got a question right out of the gate!

I opened the pool on Saturday and after runing my equipment through it's paces I found an issue. When going into spa mode, the actuator controlling the jets does nothing so I tried testing it with the dipstick and still, no response. However, I hear a faint clicking sound so I know there was some level of activity going on. So, upon removing the cover, I can see that the motor (spindle) turns without issue but doesnt seem to be engaging the underlying gears.

Could this be a micro switch issue? Something with the gear pack? ... I'd love to be able to repair the actuator rather than replace it but I;m not sure how to isolate the problem.

As always, any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Hello. I want to try Boric Acid this year. I have powder. The pool is crystal clear. Wanted to see if I have everything balanced properly or if I should adjust anything (especially pH or TA first)? Thanks!

Hi all - we've got our heat pump being installed shortly and taking the opportunity to upgrade to an IntelliCenter and IC40 replacing our existing non-Pentair chlorinator. The current chlorinator controller powers the pump on a schedule. All is good, albeit dumb. The IntelliCenter will obviously become the brain, including schedules, heat set point, calling for heat from the heater etc.

The new salt generator transformer in the IntelliCenter is wired into the filter pump relay's second load side as per the manual so that the pump and IC40 switch together.

The heat pump is going to have to have a longer daily runtime than the chlorinator to maintain the desired heat. How does the IC40/IntelliCenter/etc prevent over chlorination if the heater needs the filter pump on for hours longer than needed for chlorination?

Does the IC40 have smarts that sets the output to 0% once a desired chlorination level is reached? Or do you need to wire the teh transformer on its own relay and program the schedules together so that the chlorinator is powered during the filtration phase, but off during other pump activities like heat?

Bumping this. I have a Jandy 2.7hp VSP and when running at 2400 RPMs it's basically fully primed with only a few microscopic bubbles here and there.

However, from 5pm to 9am I have it run at 1400 RPMs and the bubble grows slowly overnight so much so that it does stay primed, but the air bubble ultimately encompasses basically the whole translucent dome.

When it switches back to the 2400 RPM level at 9am, it eliminates that air bubble within like 5-10 minutes tops and operates full of water again. My nearest return also lets out a steady stream of very small bubbles after a while of operating at 1400 RPMs. Basically, once the bubble in the pump gets big enough (after a few hours).

This is all while I bypass the heater. When I have the water go to/through the heater, it doesn't get quite as fully filled with water in my pump at 2400 or 1400 RPMs as it does when I bypass.

Anything to be concerned about? I've tried saran wrapping and the hose trick on the lid, pump drains, and gasket leading into the pump; none of which seem to make much of a difference.

I am getting bubbles on the returns to me pool on low speeds. I see air in strainer basket when running low speeds. I'm assuming that's my reason for bubbles in the returns. Is this normal behavior on the Hayward vsp pump?

I inherited a pool with a safety cover and we put the cover on only when we close the pool for the winter. I get a lot of pine needles falling into our yard over the seasons that seem to still end up getting into the pool under the safety cover. My question is if it's a thing to put a normal cover beneath or on top of the safety cover when closing the pool to keep debris out? And if there are any suggestions on how to do so?

Thanks!

Hi, I have a 3 tier waterfall and have gone through a few leak repairs.
- Crack in the base was repaired with quikrete and then painted over w/ pond shield. The pond shield started peeling off 2 years later, but the quikrete lasted.
- Two foot length crack in the wall of the bottom pool was fixed using quikrete also, but that only lasted two years.
- We also have chunks/layers chipping away from the top pool that I assume will eventually create a huge issue.

We aren't in a place to get this fixed professionally, but we are pretty handy.
I'm tempted to just lay down an entire new layer of plaster/concrete on top of the old but making sure no water gets in-between the old and new is probably hard.
Any suggestions on how to tackle this waterfall project?

Also, our concrete deck has a long crack that runs the width of the deck (12ft) and it's also rough from the salt water and general age of the entire build (built by previous owners in 2002). What do folks put down to protect the deck from degrading further?
Thanks so much for any advice you have.
I've attached pictures.

Looking to bond my above ground pool. Because it is all resin except the shell, I have read on this site that you only need to connect to the seem. So I will run the copper line from the seem to the equipment and branch off and connect the pump, heater and anode. Correct?

Two questions.

1. Do I still need to loop around the pool? (Guessing I don’t because there is no other place to connect to the pool, only the seem)
2. Do I need to connect the bonding copper wire to a copper rod that’s in the ground?

Ordinarily, when opening the pool, I manually vacuum all the silt and debris to waste and get the pool clean and balanced before using the robot. It's a miserable job that takes hours, so this year I decided (because I'm an idiot, a lazy idiot) not to do the usual manual vacuuming when opening up the pool, and instead I just netted out some of the big debris (leaves, piles of worms) and then put the robot (a Dolphin SX20, same as S100/E20 I think) in to clean it up for me.

That might have been a mistake. For one thing, it very quickly got clogged up with fine silt (this was with the regular basket, not the fine one). Worse, all kinds of debris is now sprouting out from every opening and even the joins between the plastic exterior panels - evidently crud and debris has got everywhere inside the thing once its basket got clogged - and I can't clean it out. I did briefly put it back in the pool and it seemed to still work OK but of course the water was still pretty bad so took it out again (and now attempting to clean up the pool the 'traditional' way!)

Anyway, I guess I know now that using the robot for the initial clean up is a bad idea.

But do you think (one I've got the pool clean) when the robot goes back in, the clean water will flush out the debris from inside the machine? Anyone else had this happen?

This is my 3rd summer with the pool (2 winters). Could my filter gasket have already gone bad? It's leaking a lot from behind the band clamp. I took the gasket out, cleaned it, re-lubed it, re-set it. I always give it little whacks as I tighten it. It is my understanding that helps to set it properly. I can't see anything physically wrong with it. It's not dried up, or brittle at all. I have a replacement gasket on the way tomorrow, but since the current one looks fine to me, I'm doubtful that it will solve my problem. What else could it be?

I've never struggled with low CH. Lately for the last couple of weeks I'm reading 150. This pool has always been on the high side 250-300+ usually. Plaster pool about 13 years old. Everything else is close to normal for me anyway. this mornings results TFTtest with new chemistry.

FC 5 ppm
PH 8.2 (before adding acid)
TA. 130
CH 150
CYA 70
Temp 86
Salt 2600 Taylor test

What can cause low CH? It's been a fairly dry and cool winter/spring here(South Fl). With the heater keeping the water at 85 I've had more evaporation than I'm used to. Was convinced I had a leak until I passed a bucket test. So have had to add more water than usual. Rain usually keeps this pretty full.
I'm not even sure what to add to bring it up.
As I was writing this I decided to test my tap water. 50. That could be the problem.

So, I'm going to be adding a new outlet(fresh cut hole in liner etc.) to my pool, its a funsicle 14 x 42 with the skimmer pump, converted the skimmer pump to just a skimmer and have purchased a intex sand filter pump and chlorinator. I will be doing the pvc plumbing and also it will have a manual vac as well as the intex zx100, Might even be adding a second inlet aswell, can anyone be kind enough to tell me which fittings I'd need? Yes I know seems overkill for a small above ground. Don't ask, I blame the wife x.x, hence the username. Haha.

I noticed something orangey-brown on the walls of the pool and on the seat carved into the deep end. (just on a small section of the wall near the seat and on the seat) It was barely noticeable, but when I brushed it it went away. Is this mustard algae? If I do a chlorine loss test tonight and it checks out and the orangey stuff doesn't return, am I okay? Or should I go ahead and shock the pool now just in case? Thanks!

FC 7
Ph 7.8
TA 60
CYA 50
CH 240

Cleaning filters and noticed water is coming out of the area circled. Something to be concerened about? My pressure is low but I do think Im due for a new pump.

Hello,

I opened up my pool and turned on the pump. As soon as the pressure built up, the plumbing broke off from the yellow rubber piece in the images. I was able to put a plug in the opening of the jet to stop the water from draining.

I am fairly handy and have an idea of what I should do, however I am not even sure this was installed correctly. Is the rubber boot (so to speak)even the correct way to put this on? The plumbing was glued into the rubber boot. Rubber boot was slipped onto the outside return jet piece and held on by a metal screwed in clamp.

How should I fix this? Same way, but with a PVC union piece and the rubber glued back onto a new piece and reinstalled?

I had a new piece for the outside return that I can use. Images to show what I am working with. This is a 32 x 16 Semi Above Ground Doughboy Pool.

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Hey everyone, I purchased a "new" PX300 off ebay and it came with a safety capacitor(I googled the numbers on it). Has anyone used something like this? I googled pictures of similar transformers and they don't have it. My new pool lights are 12v.

I thought I would post my impressions of the Instapark betta and my experience with it. The beta does an excellent job cleaning the pool, it is the only skimmer I found on the market that has a very large container for collecting debris. I get a lot of pineneedles in my pool and this feature was the main selling point for me. The beta also comes with a remote control that you can drive the robot around manually with, and provides a convenient means to retrieve it from the pool, and to spot clean. It has a total of five different modes, which are indicated by the LEDs on the back of the unit. In it’s autonomous mode, the LEDs on the back blink blue. When the robot is being controlled with the remote control the LEDs are solid blue. When the robot is running low on power the LEDs will turn red. If robot experiences a fault or a jammed basket, the LEDs alternate between red and blue. When it is completely out of batteries it enters a sleep mode and no LED lights will display on the unit. The batteries seem to last a long time, as it can run all day and all night. However you cannot charge the unit with an outlet. It can only charge via the sun. What I have discovered is that if I run the robot a full day then let it run all night and if the next day is cloudy the robot will run out of power. This will require that the robot charges in the sun all day before it can run it again. Because of this, I choose not to run it at night, and it always seems to have enough power to run several overcast days in a row. This isn’t unique to the betta though as other solar skim bots are designed the same way. I wish that it had the option to charge it via an outlet.

I have had several issues with the product and I am on my third unit. The good news though is that the company is very responsive and when you have a problem they will ship you out a new one immediately. They also are constantly making updates to their robots and I am hopeful that they will eventually resolve the reliability issues myself and other owners have reported experiencing. There are at least three different versions of this robot that I am aware of at the time of this post. The first version of the robot apparently was having issues with their motors and they would not recommend the robots for use in salt water pools. The motors were rusting and seizing up apparently. The first one I received was the first version that was released for use for salt water pools and I have never experienced any issues with the motors on my previous two robots. The issue my first robot had was that it seemed to have gotten stuck in it’s error mode. When I would power on the robot all it would do is blink blue then red. Instapark sent me a new unit to replace it with. This robot seemed to do better and had its programming updated. The first robot seemed like it would just swim along in the pool full speed until it hit a wall. The new robot would slow down and turn before it would hit the wall. It also seems to do a better job avoiding objects in the pool. The issue that I eventually had with this robot was that it started swimming around in circles, which was a common problem on the first generation of robots due to the motors freezing up. That didn’t seem to be the case with this one though. I noticed that the robot would stop spinning in circles if it took up rather violent whack into the side of the pool. When it would start swimming in circles, I could give it a whack or two around it’s sensors and it would correct the issue for several days. The other issue it seemed to have, was it would go into its error mode when it would stubbornly try to fight the currents from the return jets. Instead of turning around to avoid going headlong into the current, it would eventually just give up and would enter into its error mode and start to flash blue and red. When this would happen I would have to turn it off and on again or just wait 20 minutes as the robot restarts itself 20 minutes after experiencing a fault. I have received my third robot last night, and I’ve yet to use it because it needs to charge. This new robot seems to be a different revision, because it has a much smaller power button then all of the previous ones. I’m not sure what the reasoning is for this but it does indicate to me that the company is making changes to the hardware of the robot on a fairly consistent basis. The newest revision as of the date of this post has a smaller button and red propellors. I will update this thread when I have more experience with this new robot. I am hopeful that this one doesn’t experience any issues, as when it’s working correctly it does a wonderful job and keeps my pool free of all the pine needles that I experience every time I have a massive storm. It does an excellent job keeping the pool clean. If it didn’t have the issues that I have experienced, I would be more than happy with it, and would highly recommend it to anyone.

I wanted to share my experience with saltcellsupply.com to allow people to judge for themselves if they should enter into business with this company.

Abbreviated Timeline:
May 2023 - The cells of my Jacuzzi SWG started to fail, and finding a replacement was difficult at best. I came across saltcellsupply.com, and in a helpful email exchange with them, they recommended that their salt cell replacement would function well. I decided to buy the generic replacement because it was based by a generous 5-year warranty. I installed the cell, and it worked great.

March 2025 - The replacement cell began to fail in the same way that the old one did. I verified the salt ppm and cleaned the cell, but it continued to display a low salt error.
I reached out reached out to the company using their online form explaining the situation.
Two days passed with no answer.
I reached out again via the online form.
Two days passed with no answer.
I looked up the two-year-old email thread, and I replied to that email explaining the situation.
Two days passed with no answer.
I found an email on their website, and I emailed them with that address.
Two days passed with no answer.
I used one of my different email accounts and emailed their listed address asking a question about the differences between the performance of the generic and OEM cells.
I received a reply within 40 minutes. (I sent the email about 10 pm in the Mountain Time Zone.)
I replied to that email with my cell situation.
Two days passed with no answer.
I emailed them back expressing my displeasure and explained that I will have to share this experience.
Two days passed with no answer.
I tried another online form on their website.
It has been a couple of weeks, and I still have not had any contact from the company about my inquiries into their warranty.

I can't see how this does not illustrate poor communication at best and deceptive business practices at worst. Has anyone else experienced something similar with this company? Or, have people had luck in receiving any level of customer service? If so, what is the secret?

At this point, given the seemingly lack of availability of replacement cells for my system, I am looking to replacing the whole SWG.

Just opening our pool for the season. After cleaning the pool (dirt and algae) over the last several days and adding chlorine (testing 2/day), the water is looking clear, however the CYA is too low to show up on tests. I’ve been adding Cyanuric acid 16oz at a time (sock method) and after adding it 3 times, I have noticed the testing water is yellow. I’ve ordered new R-0013 test drops, thinking the chemical might have gone bad. Until that arrives on Saturday is there something else that I can check? I haven’t done the full testing because the Ph and CYA was off, but I know not to address the ph until the CYA balanced…. So just hold off on all testing and Chlorine and Cyanuric acid addition until the new solutions arrive?

Historically the only issues we typically have needed to address are algae, chlorine and low CYA. The PH etc are typically always ok.

My gut say
1. Get cya balanced after new solutions arrive
2. Do full testing and correct as needed.