Hi, it is nice to be here. Im Looking for tips and problem solving.

Hi guys

Anyone have good or bad experience with these pumps (see link below). I have a 25,000 gal pool and looking at installing the Pentair 022056 which has been discontinued. Because of this, I can get it new for under $1500 and also get a $450 rebate from my utility company. Pentair says they would honor the full 3 year warranty if installed by a professional. I’m just worried about availability of parts moving forward. Seems like a smart purchase only if the parts are interchangeable with the newer intelliflo models. Thoughts?

My name is Chris I have been I the pool industry for 20+ years in Pennsylvania doing troubleshooting for pumps, filters, heaters, salt systems, and water issues both common and crazy

When I start my pool, the pump has no prime. It pumps and pumps, and just as the basket fills... the water level collapses, and water stops coming in. When it resets, it starts pumping water in, the level rises... and the same thing happens. I see no obvious sign of a leak. All leaf baskets are empty. I turned off the aerator and vacuum. What else could be the cause?

Last summer we were given these steps by neighbors who were redoing their liner and pool.

The lady said that the chemistry had damaged the paint on the railing, and they'd tossed the other one altogether.
(I bet they maintain the pool just how the store recommends, lol.)

Anyway, the paint is flaking and there seems to be some sort of corrosion or reaction. Both of which cause junk to float around in the pool.

Any ideas or recommendations for cleaning up/whitening the plastic a bit?

How about for repainting the railing?

Found a home we are looking to purchase and wanted to see what type of pool they have?

Hi, I have a Jandy diverter and one of the screw slots cracked from the outer side. (photos attached) I know snugged it just a bit too hard unfortunately.

Can this cause an air leak? Is there a way to fix it? I read super glue maybe or could a longer screw work on this?

Thank you!!

Chris

I have a residential 24 round above ground pool. What is your take on using hoses vs piping.

Hello, Thanks to all for such a helpful Forum
I've done a few searches on here and come to some conclusions.
Just taken over the pool.
It's spring here, there is sun every day. The pool has been running over winter but without swimmers.
There has been a weekly visit from a Pool Guy. I think just additions of all in one tabs for the winter.
There will be no immediate swimmers, but I'd like to use as soon as possible.

First I raised the alkalinity to to 80 and the ph is at 7.2 (both were very low)

my test strip shows
TH over 500
FC somewhere between 5 and 10
Bromine? quite high 6 or more (is this a false reading to to high chlorine levels?)
TC 10
CYA 100

There are black spots appearing on the tile grouting.

So I think I need to...
1 Reduce the CYA level to at most 60.
2 Shock the pool (and scrub) to kill the Blackspots.

Any advice appreciated..
- Will a chlorine shock reduce the CYA by any significant amount? or do i definitely need to replace some water?
- In the mean time; Should i just use liquid chlorine and keep the FC at least 8?

I have a Prowler 920 that won't fully pass the startup. It moves about 5' in the water and then shuts down. Out of the water it moves forward, back, and spins the impeller. I replaced the cable and it was no help. I took the motor unit apart to find a little water in the bottom of it. Then I blew water out of the impeller motor. Has anyone successfully repaired the impeller motor? I watched the youtube video with bearing fix, but not sure if will fix my issue.

Hi All,

I had a Fiberglass IG pool installed a few years ago and have been following TFP guidelines for balancing and levels have been easy to maintain since initial balance (Thank you!!). After opening the pool this spring I added liquid chlorine and had a momentary lapse in judgement and unfortunately added one pack of Bioguard Smart Shock. The pool initially cleared but shortly after has maintained a very light turquoise tint (only visible in deeper water) even though water is still perfectly clear. I took a picture but the turquoise didn't even register in the photo. No staining. I recently completed and passed an OCLT test so have ruled out algae. I took a sample to local pool store for copper testing and it came back indicating 0 ppm (although I understand these tests can be inaccurate).

A few questions:
- Would the amount of copper in one 1-pound pack of Bioguard shock (Product Information: 63.05% sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione 0.26 copper (metallic) 39% available chlorine pH...) be enough to cause this?
- Since the tinting is very light and appears to not be staining, can I manage this by small water adjustments and adding new tap water rather than a full no drain water exchange?
- If not copper, what else could possibly cause this?

Current Test Levels:
FC 6 ppm
PH 7.6
TA 60
CYA 30 (working to increase after lowering water level a few times throughout the winter season)
CH ~100 (working to increase again after lowering water level throughout winter)
Salt cell has not been turned on as water temp is still a bit below 60F

Thanks!
Matt

Hi! My pool company winterized my pool last September, came back to open April 15. The water level was low…about a foot of water in the shallow end…is a 25,000 gallon pool. We refilled while waiting for them to come out and finish opening, and the water level has remained very stable. Any thoughts as to how this could have happened? The pool cover has rain vents, we don’t use this area frequently in the winter but did not notice pooling water. Liner is about 7 years old, we have a light and deep end ladder. Thanks!

Hi Georgia Newbie Here,

First time, soon to be pool owners here. We are in the contract signing phase but before we lock things in, I wanted to get some eyes on our pool on paper and make any changes to things we may or may not need to run our pool once all is said and done. Please tell us if something is missing or is overkill. So here are the specs so far:

Pool
Gallons: 24000

Shape
Roman/Grecian

Style
Modern/Traditional

Spa
Square Spillover
Dimension 7'
Area:
12" dam wall with 6 therapy jets

Rebar
4 bar bond beam with ½ inch steel; 3/8 inch rebar tied 12 inch on center each way throughout plus:
12 inch on center in transition slope by 20 feet length
12 inch on center in deep end coves
4 inch dobe blocks

Pipes
3 inch suction line;
3" inch suction line for all pump motors larger than 1.0 hp
2 inch return line
Heavy duty surface skimmer
Jandy Ball Valves
Spa Jets with adjustable eyeball fittings (spa only)
Hose bib at pad for draining pool
All circulation lines are under pressure test throughout construction

Shotcrete
6 sack pneumatically applied shotcrete
Floor shot first, rebound removed
All shotcrete is measured by a certified weighmaster

Electric
Breakers at pad included
110 volt GFI protected light circuit with outlet
220 volt pump circuit
Jandy Control System
Bonding as per N.E.C. Code
(3) Led Lighting

What's Making Things Tick
Jandy Stealth Series pump
High performance circulation pump 2 1/2 hp MULTI SPEED
Premier Salt Generator
Jandy C Series
460 sq.ft. Cartridge Filter
Heater: Jandy JXI 400,000 btu (spa)
Maintenance Kit includes;
Telescoping pole, Brush, Leaf Skimmer, Test Kit, Robotic Vacuum .
Anti-vortex main drain grate (DUAL)

The Pretty Stuff
Pebble Plaster
Travertine Coping
Baja Shelf with 3 bubblers
Paver Decking
Glass trim tile for safety

Side Note
Spa will have to be run on propane as our home is total electric.

Thank you for helping us out! We'll be sure to bring you along for the build process.

Happy new year!

I have an old Val-Mar in-ground hybrid pool (concrete bowl, fiberglass sides) that appears to be leaking somewhere in the side panels. This is typical for pools of this type/age, and according to the wiki article there are a few options I can pursue to fix it. I was wondering if there were any other Canucks on here with similar pools who had any luck refurbishing or converting to liner pools. I know of this thread already but there was no reply.

I just converted my pool to a salt water generator (thanks to this forum for advice and help). My pH has been maintained at 7.8 for quite a while before the conversion and I haven’t had any scaling or cloudiness. My family has sensitive skin and I really want the pH to be closer to 7.4 but 7.5 is okay. Does this Orenda screenshot look like a reasonable goal? I just took all the current measurements with a Taylor kit.

We moved into our house 2 weeks ago. It has a 20,000 gallon chlorine pool with a sand filter. I had the pool company remove the cover, remove plugs and turn on everything. While removing the mesh cover, they practically dumped everything that was on top of the cover into the pool . My poor Dolphin AC 30 sweeper can't keep up (clogging frequently). I bought my TFTest Kit pro. I don't know whether to focus on cleaning out all the debris or focus on chemistry first. I'm thinking let the chemistry start working while I'm working on getting all the stuff out of the pool. Should I drain a large portion of the water or let the CYA levels guide that decision? I can almost guarantee there is ZERO chlorine in this pool.

I used the TFP method for my pool many years ago and had crystal clear, low maintenance results. (see prior posts) I want to get back to that ASAP.

Hello I'm purchased a home in Dec '24. As a Pisces and originally being from Nola, I wanted to be near a body of water. In central, rural Mississippi this house has a pool. Wasn't looking for one, it came with the house. Lol Never thought of owning a pool, so here I am with no clue what to do or where to start. And a pool boy is out of my budget. I'm ready to not put on my big girl panties (they are soooo comfy), but my itty-bitty, teenie-weenie, yellow, polka-dot bikini and learn.

Good morning,
First time pool owner from Ontario, Canada. We moved into our new place at the end of August 2024 so really didn’t have much time to get used to our new pool. It was less than 3 years old when we purchased the house so all of the equipment is “as new” although the previous owners were not necessarily the most “handy” or up on maintenance. Does not appear anything has been damaged or abused and a professional company did our closing at the end of the season. Looking forward to our first full summer with a pool!

I came across HTH Super Shock at Costco. They’re granules but cal hypo and don’t contain CYA. Are those safe to use or does anyone have any experience with it?

I had a pool installed last summer. My wife really wanted salt water. We did it, but now I’m regretting doing it as I see so many people whose pool has rusted after 3 years of use.
I really don’t want to be replacing the pool after such a short while.

Should I look at switching it to back regular chlorine system in the spring?

Getting a new VS pump to replace single speed. I'm making an assumption that running the pump at slower speeds will have lower pressure reading at the DE filter.
I'm curious how will I know when it's time to backwash?
I'm going to guess I pick a pump speed and us that speed and pressure as the reference point?
The pump will be a Pentair VSF3.
Can I use some of the flow and power readings from the pump to judge when the filter needs cleaning?

I have a used raypak206a. I have cleaned out the burners and have a new pilot light on. The pilot is lit and burning but I can’t get the burners to light. Any help?

Well, it finally happened. I didn't actually expect my current pump to last as long as it did. I bought an Xtremepower dual speed 1.5HP pump when we first put up our pool. It's possibly the cheapest no name brand pump but I will say it got us through and worked extremely well, money well worth it. That is until this morning.

Now, my current setup is breaker box -> gfci outlet -> timer -> pump/salt cell. I finally fixed up a few leaks and o-rings in my plumbing and was filling the pool yesterday. This morning I turned the timer to "on" and turned the pump to "low" and nothing happened. I immediately noticed that the salt cell didn't have power either. The GFCI outlet was tripped, so I reset it and immediately it tripped again. I opened the connection area of the pump and pulled off the red (positive) wire, plugged the timer back into the gfci outlet and turned the timer on, and the salt cell was getting power. Turned the timer off again, plug the red (positive) back into the pump, plug the timer back into the gfci outlet, and immediately tripped again (even with the timer turned off). Super curious how this trips the gfci outlet when the timer (which the power flows through) is turned off?

As a quick remedy I purchased a new wire whip and replaced the conduit and wire from timer to pump. Same thing, trips immediately even with timer off. Therefore, my conclusion is the pump is shot. I have not pulled it off the pad and opened it up yet. But I will be doing this in hopes that I can make a quick/cheap repair and keep it as a backup. FYI: I did not take the pump inside during winters, I unscrewed all the unions and connections to pump/filter and left them on the pad. I also noted water in the conduit from timer to pump as the conduit was never properly screwed into the pump opening. I can only assume snow/water got inside the pump and miraculously it lasted as many years as it did.

I already know, I should've done better about this. I can make excuses, perhaps it was a "let's test it and fix it later" and later never comes, but that doesn't fix the problem now.

The 2 speed pump that died successfully activated the salt cell on the low speed until the filter became dirty enough to impede the flow of water enough. Once the filter has been cleaned the low speed activated the salt cell again.

Now, the same pump is still pretty cheap, around $150ish. I checked out a few cheaper variable speed pumps that can have 3-4 speed selections, with an Xtremepower variable actually having some adjustable ranges. I'm not totally turned off the brand. True variable speed pumps are unfortunately out of my budget (have to recoup vacation money). Is a variable speed pump going to make that much difference to me, or is a 2 speed still the best option since the low speed already worked best for my situation? I'd rather not spend more than necessary, but if an upgrade is worth it I'll consider spending the extra.

To note, I have a couple solar panels but the connections are leaking as o-rings went missing and the connector knobs broke off. They aren't connected and the low speed barely worked to push the water through them. I'm undecided about fixing/replacing them, not sure they made much of a difference.

Hi there! We purchased a home in October with an 11,000 gallon inground fiberglass pool. The previous owners seemed to rely pretty heavily on trichlor pucks - when the pool was opened, we found the CYA was 129. We partially drained the pool and refilled, and our CYA levels are within normal limits now. We obviously don't want to do that again anytime soon, so I'm going to stay away from trichlor pucks. I've been using liquid chlorine, but I can't imagine I'll want to pour some in every single day. I already know that using unstabilized pucks in the automatic chlorinator is a no-no (could go boom), so I won't be doing that.

My question is: is it okay to switch to unstabilized chlorine pucks and use them in a floater to help keep chlorine levels up and slightly minimize liquid chlorine? Would that cause any bad reaction? Additionally, a lot of the unstabilized chlorine pucks I see say to only put these in the skimmer - what's best practice? Skimmer or floater?

I recognize that unstabilized chlorine pucks will increase calcium hardness which is fine for me currently, because our calcium is low. Also open to recommendations on recommended calcium hardness levels and if they differ for fiberglass pools.

Thank you! I'm a newbie here, so I appreciate the help.

New pool and chemistry is good with CSI of 0.05.

I’ve read some threads on efflorescence and I think this looks like it to me, but wanted to ask here. It sounds like most recommend dilute MA?

The PB plans to use a tile cleaner (GLB TLC), which does have HCl in it (but looks like at a low concentration). It also contains sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid and a substance to make it stick better to tile before it gets wiped off. Is this product safe to put into the pool? Other recommendations?
Thanks!

I’m in the process of a water exchange. I have had an iron issue for a couple of years. I deduced that the iron was from using Clorox salt. I did a water exchange at the beginning of 2024 in and out method and basing my calculations on the amount of water going in and out and the size of my pool.

When I thought the exchange was complete, I started the pool up and tested for salt and it was at 800 ppm. I thought this was a small amount and probably wouldn’t matter. However, I still had a problem with staining, although it had improved. When I added salt I used Morton Pool Salt. So, I’m not sure if the problem was the residual salt or the Morton salt.

Right now, I’m using my salt level to determine if the exchange is complete. After 3 days of 24 hours of exchange, my salt level is 400 ppm. My question is: Can I actually get the level to zero?

I’m really ready to enjoy the pool this summer.

I am moving into a home with a pool, and have booked with a company to open it on May 8.

I am trying to prepare myself. I highly doubt that I will be lucky enough to have a crystal clear pool after opening it. It has a mesh safety cover on, and I can’t see what the water is like.

The previous tenants did not leave many accessories or tools. I’d like to know what I need…

I have a TFPro salt kit coming. I bought a wide brush.

I saw a skimmer net, a hose and a triangular vacuum head. Not sure what condition they’re in. Is this good enough (assuming that I probably have a lot to vacuum up?) or should I buy something else?

Would a robot vac be efficient in vacuuming the pool after opening? I’m looking at the Aiper S1.

I’ve attached a photo. Can someone tell me if this is set up to be able to backwash or vacuum to waste?

I'm chasing a problem with my SWG that started a couple weeks ago. Added salt one evening, the next morning got the no power warning on the SWG . Checked the 20Amp fuse, it was blown. Figured some new salt must have got in the cel and overloaded the circuits. Replaced the fuse, everything was fine. For a few days. Then I noticed the water temp was reading about 10 degrees high,and the salt was reading lower than actual (Taylor salt test). Did the research, figured the cel/thermistor is going bad (the T-15 is less than 3 years old btw).So I did the clean the cel and check for any debris but it looked fine. Then magically everything was back to normal. Temps were fine, salt was within 200 of actual, great. Then yesterday I check LOW SALT, Temp 115 ! (Water is really 85). Must be the cel so I Check the resistance across the correct pins on the cable. 7.68kΩ. According to the chart that's pretty close to the actual temp. Unless I'm reading it incorrectly. So what's wrong ? The Voltage and Amps seem to be close to spec. But my Salt is now reading about 1000ppm low. As tested it's 3200. My chemistry is a little bit old 12/24 exp. but it's been fairly accurate (I think). Fearing it may be the board I changed the Cel type to T-9. It now reads the salt accurately but the Temp is still way off. What am I missing ? these are the readings I got this morning.
Can the thermistor be bad but still read Ω close to normal? or is it something else?