My reel for my solar cover scoots across the deck when I try to unroll the cover. Over the years, I prevented this by placing a bag of play sand on the legs at each end of the reel. The sand works great at keeping the reel in place. The issue is that the UV from the sun degrades the bag and it eventually splits and spills sand on the deck. Some of the solutions I've looked into. I could use a canvas bag to hold the sand but it will get wet and moldy and eventually rot.

I could use polypropylene bags that are used in flood control. Most of the ones I see have 1600 hours of UV protection but I see a lot of comments that they won't last that long. I know polypropylene is damaged easily by UV and it's the stabilizers in the product that protect it. I could use polyester canopy bags. Polyester also degrades in UV but many of them come with PVC coatings to help them last longer in the sun. I found a few nylon canopy bags that are UV resistant.

My preference is to use a bag to drape over the legs. The hard plastic coated canopy weights are less practical in how that would fit over the legs. I'm also not going the use cinder blocks or any type of metal weight.

Any recommendations or other ideas?

Hi,

We recently bought a house that has an above ground pool. It has been 10+ years since I have owned a pool.

The pool was not in operation during at least the 2024 season. I have no clue of how long the sand has been in the filter, so I am going to replace it. I have been reading that it would be beneficial to add Diatomaceous Earth.

The pool is a round 18 x 52". I believe I read on the filter that it requires 100 pounds of sand. How much Diatomaceous Earth would I add, and how do I add it?

Thank you so much!

Has anyone used any of the direct replacement units for the Intellichlor? Four years ago, I paid $800 for one; they are now around $1,200—crazy. I've looked at a couple of them, and the drawback is that they do not communicate with the system or the App. I'm thinking I can go out and look at the unit to save $400.

I would appreciate any feedback, and if you have used one nd liked it, the brand.

Hi, opening a green pool (now just cloudy no green) for the summer, Thanks guys this forum has been really helpful.
I got the TF-100, and have been testing diligently to maintain SLAM.

Now I haven't done much chemistry since I was 16, but I'm wondering is FAS-DPD method really the best we have in 2025?
It really seems odd how much of the solution you need to use for high FC values (25 in my case for shock level).
I have to use 50 drops every time I test, several times a day for the past 7 days.
I'm a electrical engineer so maybe its counter-intuitive, but I would assume if something has a higher concentration, it would be easier to measure. However it seems the higher the FC, the more chemicals it takes to measure.

Do we have better methods of detection? Perhaps like the diode PH tester I also got from the tftestkits website?

Hello friends! I'm really happy to be back for another season!

Pool was opened up last week and I've been working on getting all of my levels dialed in. One general question I had is, and I know there isn't a de facto rule because there are so many factors, but... Assuming that all of my levels are "perfect" and looking at my pool specs, what percentage of output should I set my SWG at just to "maintain"? I run my pump at 3200rpm beginning at 7AM for 3 hours, then at 2400rpm for 10 hours, and then at 1500rpm for 9 hours overnight. My SWG can be at 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, or 100% of output. I know that fluctuations will happen, but which output percentage would be a good start to maintain chlorine level, knowing that adjustments will still need to be made from time to time?

Thanks!

Not sure if this is normal or not. Did a full Ahhhsome purge about 3 weeks ago. Really cleaned up well. After about 48 hours and two wipe downs, there was no more gunk. Water was crystal clear, but I never had time to use the tub. The wife and I used the tub tonight and I pointed out how low the bubbles were and that is how they should look with fresh balanced water. We used the jets the entire time with no foam or bubbles. Got out, added my dichlor and 2oz of Aqua clarity with jets on high. Checked in 10 minutes later and the tub was bubbling like a bubble bath. scooped out what I could, let it sit for a bit and turned jets on again and I am back getting more bubbles.

Starting to regret using this as I wasn't having these bubbles before adding it. Is this normal? Will it go away?

I was trying to revive an old post but it wouldn't let me so here is my experience fixing the wheel skipping issue on a Proteus DX4.
I've seen a few posts about it but I figure I add my own to the archive!

I think the problem is sand getting stuck between the wheel and the white bearing mounted on the side. The sand becomes literal sandpaper and I'm talking 80 grit or more as it sanded the wheel to a paper thin wall as you can see in the photos. I replied on another post saying that it helps do a TIRE ROTATION when it first starts skipping to extend their life since it's generally the side with the gears that gets the most wear n tear.

I bought the Marina's pool spa and patio Wheel Kit and the gear drive motor.
I should've also purchased the active brush gear but it wasn't too bad so I'll get on my next order. The tracks are a bit stiff but still ok and it still climbs up the walls so I'm gonna hold off on that too. That will definitely be the next repair.



Old wheel sanded down so thin that you can even bend it by hand.

and the new wheel and bearing!


Anyways, $40 later including shipping and its up and running once again! Hope this helps anyone out there.

As previously mentioned, some of our pool equipment was under water for a period of time for Hurricane Helene.

I have not tried to turn on the propane heater again since this happened as someone said it might be dangerous. I'm not exactly sure where I heard that but I think we're either getting to the point where I'd like to either replace this thing or try to turn it on and see if it works. It was older anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work. However, if we could get another year out of it.....

I'm just not sure who told me it might be unsafe to try and turn on a flooded propane heater and whether that's any different than any other piece of electrical equipment.

I'd made a post on the "Let's see your water..." thread, and I didn't want it to turn that thread into a discussion that was too focused on my pool, so I made this complimentary thread.

I don't think there's anything too crazy going on, but sharing in case others recognize a pattern and want to share their experience.

Quick (very) recap for those not wanting to read the other thread: My pool, after opening, looked pretty clear, but lots of sand/silt on the bottom. After I started adding water and vacuuming, etc, it got quite cloudy. My water was not too bad (levels-wise), and I had it in spec withing about 24 hours. Meanwhile, the cloudiness ... wasn't getting better very quickly. I think it was around day 4 that I decided to add some DE, but I added garden-variety DE (meaning, literally for gardens, not pools), which worked about as poorly as those of you in-the-know would expect. For those of you not in the know, make sure you don't do that; instead, read How to add DE to a sand filter. So, several cycles of backwashing and filtering later, and then adding the right type of DE, things are gradually getting better. It was almost 'decent' this morning before I went and did some manual vacuuming and then turned the robot loose. Post-robot, it's somewhat cloudy again (my robot, even with my custom-made 80-micron basket, does no good whatsoever with the sand we have out here). I knew the robot wouldn't collect it, but if I let it kick up the dust, maybe the filter will get some/a lot of it.

I am still a bit baffled why I had this problem at all, this year. It's not happened to me before. Hence, I will do an OCLT tonight just to be sure there's no organics in the pool.

For a few days, I toyed with converting to cartridge filter, but I just spent money (actually toward the end of last season, but swimming-wise, just 2-3 months ago) converting to SWG, and I'm reluctant to spend another bucket of money just yet.

I've been reading up on the failure modes of sand filters that have suffered winter damage.

• Cracked casing - nope. No leaks, doesn't really have anything to do with my problem anyway.
• Damaged Laterals - Don't think so. I am gradually getting the sand out of the pool. Not seeing plumes of sand from the return jet. Now I think of it though, I did on that first day... maybe I can't totally rule this out yet.
• Damaged multiport valve - Don't think so. I do have a slight leak into the waste port, but very small, and it's not new this year. (I mean, my waste hose will accumulate a few cups of water between backwashes). I think if I had a real problem here, it would take the form of allowing water to bypass the filter, and if that were the case, I'd see plumes of white DE when I add it to the skimmer (or shortly after, rather.) That's not happening.

So... I think my filter is probably free of damage, though it may benefit from me washing the sand a bit, and being sure there are no channels. But again, no evidence of water bypassing the filtration (which I guess is what channeling would allow).

When I manually vacuumed earlier I noticed that when I was calling it done (as in, I was done, not the job!) had very little suction. I'd had a sock on my skimmer and it was quite clogged with what appeared as a fine brown sludge. Could easily have been fine sand and DE, but I suppose it could also be a muck of dead organics. After rinsing that out and putting it back, I noticed the back pressure on my filter was higher than usual, so I backwashed the filter again. Between the two steps, I think I got a lot of junk out of the pool, and I expect it will look much better tomorrow.

At this point, I think I'm just dealing with a surplus of very fine sand and the wrong DE that I added several days back. I haven't yet re-added the right DE since today's backwash. I may do that in a bit, or just let it idle for the day.

I feel like letting my suction side crawler (Wanda the whale) is the best way to deal with this, but she's not doing a good job of moving around the pool lately. I've got my eye on a Zodiac MX8 Elite, but, again, rather not spend the money I have some new feet for Wanda on the way - maybe that'll breathe new life into her!

Well Amazon just delivered it.

It came in a box, in box, in a box. Got the Russian dolls unpacked and here it is.

The pool builder left us a hose with a brush on one end that connects to the telescoping pole we use to brush the sides. But the hose doesn't connect to the port on the side of the inground pool. Both appear to be the same size. I originally thought that the suction would keep it in place but it doesn't. The pool company suggested connecting the hose inside the skimmer (but couldn't explain why we have a vacuum port). Is there some kind of adapter that would make this work?

Hi,
My GPM for my pump was highly inefficient according to everyone I talked to, and upon doing research found that switching from 90 degree elbows to 90 degree SWEEP elbows should help, and re-plumbing to eliminate unnecessary 90 degree turns would also help. Before I began to re-do the plumbing, I counted 20 90 degree elbows. So today I ripped out all of my above ground plumbing and streamlined it, ended up with 13 - 90 degree SWEEP elbows and 2 - 90 degree elbows (I eliminated 5 elbows completely). As soon as I open up the pool in the next couple of weeks, I'll let you know how much more efficient the plumbing is. I have documented the number of Watts per GPM before I made the changes. I'll run the same test, hopefully it takes less Watts to run the same GPM. Any thoughts if this will work? I've attached the new plumbing photos.

Hello, I have an above ground pool which I have been closing / opening for the past 7 years without issue. I drop the water level below the intake and cover the pool with a winter cover, take off the cover in the spring etc. The pool and liner were installed about 7 years ago.

This year upon taking off the winter cover I was left with a giant doughnut shaped Ice block and no water in the pool. There is obviously a hole in the bottom or very close to, based off what parts of the pool I can see I cannot locate any holes. I have been told that without any water in the pool the walls will collapse and this will be come a later issue. Currently the ice I'm sure is providing some support.

Do I just need to cut the liner away while the ice is still in the pool. I also have no experience in installing a pool or liner but fairly DYI handy.

Looking for some help on how to approach this?

Thanks

This was me a few months back: Stubborn Pool Ladder

I eventually got the ladder removed but it was completely destroyed. The anchors are ok though.

I think what the last person commented is what happened. I tightened the anchor wedge in too tight and it got out of round and wedged in there.

So here we are, I bought a new ladder and I'm in the process of opening the pool. This is year 4 of operating this pool and every time I remove the ladder big chunks of earth come out with it, stuck in the end of the tubes. I'm wondering if this contributed to the old ladder sinking too far, which is why I tightened the anchors.

I'm thinking about putting something down in the holes to act as a support for the pool ladder so the anchor wedges aren't carrying the whole load. I thought about pouring quick crete in it, but that could quickly become a disaster for this rookie. I could just backfill with more dirt but it would likely just come out when I remove the ladder in the fall. Putting some rock in there is what I was thinking. There's this fine rock that I used for a support base when I built a retaining wall. When it gets settled it doesn't move. I was considering this. Or drainage rock that also doesn't shift much.

Also I was thinking about this for the end of the tube. I was hoping to find a cap to prevent dirt from getting in the tube, but this also doubles as strengthening the tube against the anchor wedge. Tool, Pool Tool, Handrail Stabilizing Plug, Carbon Fiber, 1.875"

Thoughts?

TIA

I’m running my SWG and can’t get keep the chlorine above 1ppm, even when I run super chlorinate. Chemistry is generally good but have high Calcium Hardness at around 700ppm (hard water, replacing the water slowly). Not sure what I’m doing but I can’t see how the chlorine is getting eaten so quickly if it is being produced.

TA 75
FC 1
CC 0
PH 7.8
CYA 50
CH 700
Salt 3650
Water temp 80
Borates 25

Cell is cleaned

Thanks in advance for help

My wife has been managing a slam on the pool and hot tub. She knows what she's doing with testing and adding chlorine.

Over the past few days, she's been testing chlorine multiple times a day and adding as needed, but we've been having trouble getting through the slam.

Over the past 24 hours, she's had to add a lot of chlorine to stay above slam levels in the spa. But when I got home tonight and did the test (multiple times including with reagents that I just bought), the FC is above 80! She had no reading even close to this. We were even able to confirm though our cameras the rough amount of the last chlorine added and there shouldn't be this big of a spike (from 20 to the 80+ I measured).

The slam on the pool is consistent between my measures and hers and is progressing as planned. It's only the spa that's an issue.

We did have 5 kids in the spa for a few hours on Thursday evening.

Is there such a thing as chlorine being locked up somehow and then all of a sudden showing up? Is it possible to get a high reading based on any other factors?

The chlorine was just purchased from the local pool shop and is the refillable liquid type.

What should be my next course of action? Should I be draining and refilling to lower FC quickly? Are there any other things that could go wrong?

I've been managing the pool over the past couple of years and very comfortable with testing and adding chemicals.

The control panel on my Pentair Mastertemp400 heater has stopped getting power. I’ve read other post trying to fix this myself, but I’m at a point where I don’t know what to check next. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

My system is about 15 years old and it’s a Pentair Easytouch control panel connected to a Mastertemp400 heater. We use the heater several times a week and it has been working fine for the last couple of years. I know that I have to have the spa on for the heater to get power. When I press the ‘spa’ button I no longer see “HEATER” displayed on my easy touch control panel and no lights light up on the heaters control panel.

Here is what I’ve done so far:

I checked the voltages on the heater and I’m getting 220VAC input and 28VAC out of the transformer. I checked the plugs to the control board and the 4-pin connector at J7 has 28VAC and the 5-pin connector at J1 has 0VAC (brd_vac.jpg attached). At this point I thought the control board was bad so I replaced it. The issue remained. Still no power. Next, I checked the wire between the easytouch control panel (J19) and the heaters firemans switch. I used a multimeter with audible continuity and verified that each screw post on J19 had continuity to the firemans switch post and they were not shorted together (fsw.jpg attached). What do I check next? I’m out of ideas.

Thanks,
-Mike

Howdy TFP,

I am looking for advice on the attached test results. I opened my pool recently and my pH is 7.2 and TA is 30. Apparently the last time I measured TA was last summer and it was 50 at the time so has come down some. TFP recommends a TA of at least 50 so I am wondering if I should go ahead and raise it back up? I think I asked this last season when it was 50 as I was worried that was too low and some folks said to leave it alone since it was stable so that's where my confusion lies.

Also, you'll notice I measure borates as I added boric acid last season. I've lost around 20ppm since adding it last year and I want to bring it back up to 50ppm, will that potentially lower my pH and TA further?

Finally, I'd like to try a treatment of Ahh-some as my pool is very old and I've never tried it before. I am curious what kind of gunk it might clean out of the pipes. My water stays pretty clear but am curious if I would notice any change in clarity after a treatment. The instructions for it however state to adjust pH to 7.4-7.8 and TA to 80-120ppm. Presumably I should make those adjustments first?

Thanks,
Mike

New pool owner doing my opening for the first time. Using the TFP system added 4 gallons of liquid chlorine to my 10,000 gallon pool about 30hrs ago running pump the whole time to bring up my chlorine levels. Cartridge filter is new and was cleaned at 24hrs.

Still have green hue to water. Here’s my numbers from the TFP calculator using a Taylor K-2006 test kit. I’ve ordered a bromide test since my Taylor K-2006 kit doesn’t test for that. Not sure how to test for borate as shown on the TFP table.

What does the group recommend as next steps as pool maintenance is 100% new to me.

Hello everyone. Thanks for being a resource that gives me some hope… ha!

I have had a Sundance spa for 5 years. Every year I reopen in spring with fresh city water, filters, etc following a cleaning purge cycle of the water from winter. Next I typically add hardness, ph, alk, and chlorine and everything is good to go.

This year has been a totally different experience. I have now emptied and refilled twice with similar results. Everything is out of whack, and it seems the biggest issue is my local pool store says my phosphates are 958ppb and I have high metals (image included). The report says I need tons of new chemicals to fix $$$ and I just don’t know what to do and have lost confidence… pretty overwhelming.

Any advice? Thank you.

We are first time pool owners and are struggling to completely clear our pool. I’m working on going through Pool School but I wanted to see if anyone could help with our current situation.

Is this dead algae or living algae? We had a pool service come out yesterday and within hours there were some cloudy build ups in the shallow and deep end. Now this is what our pool looks like this morning.

Any advice on how to completely clear it?

Hi Everyone,
I reset the memory on my iAqualink 2 to reprogram it but I must have missed something as I now don't know where the sheer decent is connected to. I cannot see any obvious actuator that controls that either.

Any thoughts?

Matt

I know they have sales on systems all the time, but do they ever put cells on sale? Black Friday maybe? My Edge-40 cell may be coming to an end (only 3 years), so I thought I'd buy a new one as a back up. It's still producing, so I can wait. I'll have low salt blinking one week, and clean cell another, but no matter what I do they both won't go out. As long as my FC is above 5 I don't worry about it. And I may go to the Edge-25 cell to save some bucks, since the 40 is only set at 2-3 LEDs.

I’m having an issue where I get sand particles by my pool stairs but no where really else that I notice.

A few years ago I emptied my sand filter to verify the lateral and i couldn’t find a hole but I decided to check again and show it to a professional.

The top of the filter had a bit of pollen, but the bottom really had a lot, pic attached.

Would this have affected my sand filter performance? And is there something I can do to better prevent this?

Could it be why I’m having these issue or is there something else I can check?

This is a 20+ year old pool that was installed by the previous owner. I have owned it for 11 years. Bottom of pool looks to be pool-krete while the walls are steel, I believe.

Liner and pool lights are both leaking. I had an electrician who specializes in pools assess the situation yesterday--and he informed me that fixing or replacing the lights would be cost-prohibitive (would require us to break open the concrete to understand how the lighting system was wired up). He suggested there is not a quick fix for the leakage that is occurring from the lights.

At this point in time--I am getting ready to sign a contract with the local Pool company to replace the liner, heater, pump, and pool cover. I am uncertain if we will need to cover the lights or if I can possibly get one of them working. However, bottom line, is the pool will be empty for a while until we can get the installation moving. I expect it won't be until the end of May--at the earliest.

The pool company suggests I completetly drain the pool until then. They told me this will not be an issue--however, this is different than I have learned / been led to believe in the past.

Any advice from the experienced pool owners in this forum?

Hello I am in the process of replacing all the plumbing to my in ground pool. I have a pool company doing the actual skimmers and jets and I am going to run all the pipes and replumb the pump and filter. When I start laying my pipe in trenches do you recommend gravel or sand underneath the pipes to give them support? Or just the material that was dug out of the hole? My 2nd question is when I thread a male adapter into the return jets, should I use thread sealant or silicon or both? I have seen multiple answers. Thanks for any help.

First time posting but i've been following the methods here for a couple years now and have always had good results, until now.

Two weeks ago today i uncovered my pool and found a dark green, almost black swamp. I've been bringing the pool to slam level (cya 60 so slam level 24) at least 3 times a day since then, every 2 hours on days i don't work, and daily brushing and vacuuming. After 2 days it was a very light green but it hasn't gotten any better after that. It's using about a quart of chlorine a day now to stay at slam level, when i first started it was about 2 gallons a day. I'm wondering if i should keep on with the slam or should i give up on that and drain and refill. It would have cost less if i would have just done that in the beginning.

Trying to hook up the low voltage control line for an intelliflo to an easy touch. The J20 port on the board is already filled with a wire that goes back to the other control board. Do I double up the connections? Or do I need to use 'COM1' or 'COM2' on the rear board? They appear to be identical and go the the same chip on the board

We are looking at getting a stand alone cleaner for our pool. It's a free form, 5 foot max depth, sun shelf, and up to now has been manually cleaned.

I have been considering a Dolphin, like the M400 (or equivalent) but don't want to spend that much unless it's money well spent.

We do have a lot of trees around and although not directly overhead, there is a lot of debris that comes in the spring and fall. Need something that will pick up leaves, acorns, tassels, etc.

I want to make sure we spend enough to get a good cleaner but not overspend without improvements in cleaning ability or life of product.

What are some of your personal experiences with cleaners regarding brand, price, cleaning ability and life of product? I don't want to keep cleaning manually but at the same time, don't want to underspend or overspend to get a good cleaner.

Thanks,

Hey all,

Were starting to decorate the accent wall on our pool. We had our first pot tip over and make a mess in it, so we're looking at options to secure these pots (plastic pots) to the concrete deck and prevent tip over.


Yes, we've considered using fake plants instead but we're leaving that as a last resort, we really want to give a fair shot to live plants on the accent wall. I've tried rocks, pavers inside the pot and other weighted options, no luck. Planter is 15in wide.

What options do I have if I want to go this route? Is it worth it to drill on the concrete and anchor the plastic pot to the deck? Kinda want to avoid drilling a hole on the deck, but Ill do it if its the only option. Any way to attach it somehow to the tile on the side? or to the screen enclosure aluminum frame behind it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

V