Contract signed!
(Total price is mid $90’s which is in line with other bids)


Pool Size ………………………… 40' x 18' 6"
Pool Area ………………………… 595 Square Feet
Pool Shape ………………………… Free Form
Pool Perimeter ………………………… 106 Linear Feet at the Waterline
Pool Depth ………………………… 3' 6" x 5'-6' [to water depth]
Spa ………………………… Deluxe Spa Package 18" Raised; Outside finished in spilt face travertine; Contoured Seats; Roll Edge; Reverse Vanishing Edge spillway finished in Glass/Mosaic Tile ($12 Allowance)
Spa Perimeter ………………………… 28 Linear Feet
Plaster Finish ………………………… Pebble Sheen Level 1
Filtering System ………………………… Hayward Cartridge Filter by Hayward 525
Filter Pump ………………………… Hayward Variable Speed Pump
Booster Pump ………………………… TriStar by Hayward High Performance Pumps 2 HP
Cleaning System ………………………… None (homeowner to purchase robot)
Heater ………………………… 500,000 BTU Hayward H- Series Low NOX Induced Draft Heater
Air Blower ………………………… Hayward Blower 1 HP
Coping ………………………… Cross Cut Travertine 3cm Paver (shell beach)
Waterline Facing ………………………… Glass/Mosaic Tile ($12 Allowance)
Pool steps ………………………… custom to plan
Pool bench ………………………… custom to plan
Sun shelf ………………………… custom to plan
Skimmers ………………………… 2 Hayward automatic Skimmers
Pool returns ………………………… 6 directional (included eyeball fittings)
From PB: 2.5" Suction from pool to equipment schedule 40 pvc; 2" from equipment to pool schedule 40 pvc
Sanitization ………………………… Hayward T-cell-15
Controls ………………………… Hayward Omni Logic(does not include remotes) iPhone/iPad compatible; download Hayward App
Equipment foundation ………………………… Concrete
Steel reinforcement ………………………… 4 - 1/2" bar bond beam
Floor and walls 8" O.K. with 3/8" rebar
Drain System ………………………… Deck Drain Pipe (4" PVC) to the front curb with pop up
………………………… 8 Area Drain Grates (4" sir)
Maintenance equipment ………………………… 8' - 16' telescoping pole, 35' vacuum, net, brush, etc.…

Visual Feature 1 ………………………… 22' of 12" Raised Beam Wall finished in Spilt Face Travertine; 11' of 6" Raised Beam
Wall finished in Spilt Face Travertine; backside finished in Spilt Face Travertine

Visual Feature 2 ………………………… Three (3) 18" Sheer Descents

Visual Feature 3 ………………………… Finger Ledge

Visual Feature 4 ………………………… One (1) Bubble Jets

Visual Feature 5 ………………………… Spa Spillway

Decking ………………………… Total New Decking 1134 Square feet Finished in Sun Decking Straight;

Existing Decking ………………………… Capping Existing Decking -Capping 188 Square Feet in Sun Decking Straight;

Lighting …………………………………. pool: Two (2) Hayward LED Color Logic Pool Low Voltage Lights

…………………………………. spa: One (1) Hayward LED Color Logic Spa Low Voltage

Unsure if we want to add an additional light in pool. Cost will be $800

Sod ………………………………………………Replace damaged sod due to installation
Landscaping and Sprinklers ………………………… Repair damaged Sprinklers due to excavation
Fence ………………………… Reinstall Fence used for excavation
Sleeves ………………………… Umbrella sleeves
Misc. ………………………… Fill Line
Misc. ………………………… Gas Fire Pit 5' diameter x 18" Raised finished in Spilt Face Travertine Manuel Lite; includes lava rocks, stainless steel fire ring; risers, key
Equipment Location ………………………… All Electrical and Gas Lines and Hookups to the Equipment is included; Client is
responsible to call and upgrade the Gas Meter with CenterPoint once the pool is complete, Typical cost is $350 for this service; Equipment Pad is located on the same side of the yard as the Electrical and Gas Meter

Cleaning Equipment:
8’-16’ telescoping pole, vacuum head, 35’ hose, plastic wall brush, leaf net, 2 in 1 test kit.

Plumbing and Electrical:
All pressurized pool plumbing around pool and at equipment run with Sch. 40 PVC pipe. Gas supply to pool equipment performed by Contractor. Where a backwash line is required it will be run to a sanitary sewer with a p-trap. Electrical to equipment and Lighting performed by Contractor.

I've searched for the answer to this question but can not find it. I've been reading the "SHOCK YOUR POOL" article and it mentions shock level - quote: Add enough chlorine to bring FC up to shock level (or a little higher). BUT this article does not describe or give a link, to figure out what the shock level of chlorine (bleach in our case) would be for my pool. I know I'm aiming for between 3-5ppm on a daily basis. But what am I aiming for during a shock event? I added 31oz of bleach a few hours ago (to bring FC from .5 to 4ppm in my 4,240 gal. vinyl lined pool w/ SWG), as suggested by the "Pool Calculator". But my understanding is that that is a recommendation to get me to the 3-5ppm... is that also the Shock Level? Or is the shock level a LOT more chlorine than normal (as I've been thinking)? Thank in advance. ~ Doug

We have chosen to go with a 42x30x20 foot vinyl lagoon pool. We were unaware until recently 48 inch walls were an option so we're probably going to stick with the 42 inch. I'm not super excited about 3 feet of water, but it will benefit our preteen daughters one of whom may not even see 5 feet tall when grown.

My question: Is it better to have a very gradual slope or a steep slope? The pb said we can play with the slope and stretch it from the usual 3 feet of length for every 1 foot of drop. I do NOT want 18+ feet of 3 foot depth nor do I want a massive amount of 6 foot depth. A neighbor with a pool said it is better to go with a very steep slope since gradual slopes are useless, but I know how slippery vinyl slopes are so I'm not keen on that. I don't see how a gradual slope is useless, but having never owned an IGP I'm not sure what to do.

Hi there. Tonight after putting in chlorine, the cap to our Chlorinator (pentair) blew off. Sounded like a bomb went off, and just blew the cap apart. The top flew up and over into the next door neighbor’s backyard. We bled the line as we always do when we turned it back on. Any thoughts on the cause and how to avoid this happening again?

Please know there are new intellicenters. Pentair has not trained technicians about newer connections. You do not need the power adapter module. You use the tan ethernet cord. but you dont use some of the other connectors they included in the package. Their install literature is not accurate. I talking about wireless connection. I went through 3 technicians, pd two of them, and they had not clue. The first install person did not install ethernet, and ALL of them insisted we needed the $500 adapter. WRONG WRONG WRONG. (sorry can you hear my month long frustration). don't hesitate to reach out. I can save you hours of. headaches. I know all there is to know now about intellicenter and programing it as well. I might go to work for Pentair at this point.

I'm not sure if it's only me, but my hubby is COMPLETELY oblivious when it comes to our pool "Oasis". I literally do everything for our pool. I'm the "to-go" guru for our pool. He just sits and watches and enjoys the results of our Oasis. He's looking forward to cranking up the heat and going for a quick swim... or a long one...once I'm done balancing things out in our pool. I'm honestly annoyed at this. I would like to just not take care of my pool at all and have him swim in a swamp forest for a while to get him "interested" in taking care of Oasis. I'm tempted, but I have little ones and they'll be sooooo upset. Ugh.... Love him but darn....what a pain.

Since I've found different, though similar, sources of information and have been asked about this in multiple posts, I thought I would consolidate some information on the safety of using borates in a pool (or spa).

It started with information in this report where the most reasonable number for the highest No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) was 8.8 mg/kg/day (note that borates are meaured in units of Boron so this is milligrams of Boron per kilogram of body weight). The main adverse effect was seen in male dogs (at 29 mg/kg/day) some of whom had smaller testicles at higher borates levels after long-term (daily) exposure to higher borates levels. So to be safe, dogs should be trained not to drink every day from a pool using borates (one liter of 50 ppm Borate water drunk by a 22 pound dog is 5 mg/kg/day).

I then ran into this EPA report (see also this EPA report) that also quotes the 8.8 mg/kg/day as an NOAEL limit, but they use a factor of 100 Margin of Exposure (MOE) to be extra safe for humans (i.e. assuming that humans might be more sensitive than dogs since no direct toxicity tests were done on humans). Pool doses above 360 ppm Borates [EDIT] actually it's 52-53 ppm [END-EDIT] exceeded the margin of exposure limit for 7-10 year old swimmers assuming they accidentally drink 2 ml per day [EDIT] actually 38 ml (around 2-1/2 tablespoons) per day at 52-53 ppm [END-EDIT]. At 50 ppm Borates, [EDIT] an infant [END-EDIT] would have to drink 14 ml (about 1 tablespoon) per day of pool water. With no margin of exposure, this would be around 1.5 quarts per day. [EDIT] This assumes an 8 kg (17.6 pound) infant such as a 6-month old boy or 8-month old girl; a 7-year old weighs more like 23 kg (around 50 pounds) so could tolerate about three times as much, 38 ml per day or around 2-1/2 tablespoons every day and remember that this is with a safety margin of 100; with no margin of exposure it's over a gallon per day. [END-EDIT]

So are borates safe? It's all relative. There was no significant dermal (skin absorption) risk so it really comes down to regular drinking of pool water (one day or two means little; the studies on [EDIT] first noticeable effects [END-EDIT] were long-term daily doses). Even then, the risk is low, but if either a dog or a child were to drink significant quantities of pool water every day, then it would be better to keep them away from the pool water. The Borates do not bio-accumulate; they are naturally found in the environment and in some foods so the body does deal with them up to a point. It's higher regular doses that overwhelm the body's ability to remove it that are a problem.

[EDIT] Also note that Boric Acid is often used in eye wash solutions at 1-2% (1750 - 3500 ppm) so should not be irritating to the eye in pools. Also, the video link in the next post may not work anymore so one can use this link instead to learn how borates kill insects but at low concentrations are not a problem for humans. [END-EDIT] [EDIT] The boron content of some foods is listed in this link. Note that the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) in these tables is around 0.4 mg/kg/day (which is also quoted here) so is higher than the 0.088 used by the EPA for pool exposure for humans. [END-EDIT] [EDIT] For toxicity, LD₅₀ oral toxicity (where 50% of subjects are killed) is 3450 mg/kg for male rats and >631 mg/kg for beagle dogs. Note that plain table salt has oral toxicity of 3000 mg/kg for rats so is similar to concentrated borate products. [END-EDIT]

[EDIT] Europe does not sell boron products such as borax or boric acid for consumer use in concentrated form as with Borax for laundry or boric acid as an insecticide. The reason is that the European Commission (EC) looked at essentially the same data as the EPA, but have different labeling requirements where the chronic effects data already referred to in the dog and rat studies showed developmental/reproductive issues at the observed effect levels (the EC uses 9.6 mg/kg/day as the NOAEL so no observed adverse effects). This link gives more detail and this link shows the required labeling. Interestingly, some cosmetic products may contain boron chemicals at < 5.5% concentration and are not required to have "Toxic to reproduction, category 1B" labeling. This makes no sense since it basically says that you can use the product on your skin, but you can't use a concentrated product (near 100% boric acid) that when added to pools dilutes to 50 ppm (0.005%) so is 1100 times less concentrated. Yes, there should be handling warnings for concentrated product, but its use is not in concentrated form. Unfortunately, no manufacturer that I am aware of is offering borax or boric acid to consumers because they want to avoid labeling they believe would result in virtually zero sales. [END-EDIT]

Richard

I've seen threads like "what 1 thing would you have done different or what 1 thing could you not live without" but I wanted to capture all of the things I wish I knew or gave more consideration to before our build in hopes of helping others. While TFP helped me a ton along the way, I was less educated than I thought.

Let me add that we are very happy with our finished pool and our choices, but this has been my obsession for 6+ months so I have a lot of opinions. Next time will be different! If there is a next time

Here are the things I wish I gave more thought to:

Pool Builder - I went against my gut and didn't choose the owner we meshed with the best. We went with local references based our decision on the quality of their builds. Big mistake! As much as can be put on plans for permitting, if you really want to have your influence on the build and the essentials of design, it is a much more fluid process than we expected. Working with our PB on our preferences and desired changes was a nightmare. Advice: GO WITH YOUR GUT AND THE OWNER YOU CAN SEE YOURSELF INVITING OVER FOR A SWIM. OBVIOUSLY STILL ENSURE QUALITY OF WORK THROUGH VISITING POOLS AND REFERENCES.

Size - this was one area where TFP and my research convinced me we needed a bigger pool. I tend to agree with the "no one wishes they had a smaller pool", but we could have gone smaller and been just as happy. We started at 15x30 and now have a 17.5x34 pool (before a 7x11 sunshelf). Our pool is big by our area's standards. Advice: SELECT A SIZE THAT WORKS FOR YOUR FAMILY (NOW AND LATER) AND FITS YOUR HOME/NEIGHBORHOOD

Depth/sports or play pool style and size - We went with 3.5'/5'/4' sports pool. We love the style but this puts much of the pool between 4 and 5 feet. You will see mixed reviews on this site, but I believe that's an odd depth. We really only have 2' of 3.5' depth as the slopes start almost immediately. I wish we had more of a flat shallow end, even if it meant a steeper slope. This is all driven by how long your pool is. If we went 40+ feet long, we would have had more flexibility. Advice: CONSIDER ALL DEPTHS OF YOUR POOL AND REVIEW THE PB'S SLOPE/DEPTH PROFILE PLANS BEFORE DIG.

Steps -We only have 3 steps to our 3.5' shallow end. That means our risers are 12", the max allowable by code. We are young and active and they are fine for us but they are less accommodating for others - elders and young children. Also, our step widths are 18" for the 1st step and 12" for all others. Having them a little wider for the second step and beyond would make them more usable for seating. Advice: GO WITH A 3.5' SHALLOW END AND CONSIDER 4 STEPS WITH 10" RISERS

Sunshelf depth - we were convinced by the PB to go with a 6" standard depth so it could fit with our first step. We were told that this is the appropriate depth to have the bubblers work as desired, which was not the case at all. In hindsight we should have pushed harder for the desired 9-10" depth and added a step into the shelf. Advice: STICK TO YOUR GUNS AS TO YOUR DESIRED DEPTH

Feature Pump - if you have any water features, GO WITH A FEATURE PUMP. it's cheap in the grand scheme of your build and will make everything so much more flexible to use.

Plumbing - I didn't know enough about pool plumbing when we started and relied on the PB as the expert. We didn't think to go over how we expected to use the pool. Specifically, we don't want the spa spillover on all the time and would also like the spa to be able to retain heated water while we use the pool with water circulation to the returns and suction to the skimmer. Both of these desired methods of use require a different plumbing setup. Advice: INVEST IN RESEARCHING HOW POOL PLUMBING WORKS, REVIEW YOUR PLANS, AND DISCUSS YOUR METHODS OF USE WITH YOUR PB

Lighting - TFP was very helpful here to think about best light placement. One thing that I think was unnecessary was moving our shelf globrite to the side of our shelf to avoid the light in the eyes of spa users directly across the pool. It turns out they are not that bright and having the light on the side doesn't distribute the light evenly across our shelf. In hindsight we should have kept it centered pointed away from the house. Advice: DONT OVERTHINK LIGHTING UNLESS YOU ARE AN AVID OLYMPIC SWIMMER OR HAVE SENSITIVE EYES. ALSO IF ADDING AUTOMATION, PUT POOL, SHELF, AND SPA LIGHTS ON SEPARATE SWITCHES FOR MORE CONTROL.

Marker tile - If you are using marker tile on steps, benches and/or shelfs, be sure to discuss if grout is going to be used, and if so, what color. Be sure it will blend into your finish color. If possible, leave them ungrouted and use the finish to fill in the tile voids for a consistent finish look. This was such a small detail we overlooked but was the biggest mistake we made. Our PB used dark grey grout on subway style marker tile and we have a white based plaster. It looks like our tiles have dirt and mold in between each tile in a brand new pool. We are actually having our PB refinish our pool, partially because of this issue. Advice: DISCUSS GROUT SELECTION WITH PB. YOUR SPA AND MARKER GROUT DOESNT NEED TO MATCH.

Detailed design choices - We either overlooked a lot of the specifics or the PB didn't consult with us on our preferences. For example, tile grout, number of steps, bubbler location, bubbler plumbing/control, exact equipment pad location, etc. Advice: GO OVER ALL OF THE DETAILS WITH YOUR PB. ALL OF THEM!

Other thoughts:
- GET A REAL OVERFLOW LINE (IN THE SIDE OT THE POOL WALL) THAT ACTUALLY DRAINS SOMEWHERE

- ADD THE AUTOFILL FEATURE IF YOU ARE IN AN AREA THAT WILL EXPERIENCE A LOT OF EVAPORATION

- GET AUTOMATION AND THE APP TO CONTROL FROM YOUR PHONE OR TABLET. ITS SO EASY!

- IF YOU ARE BUILDING A SPA, BUILD A TRI JET SEAT AND CONSIDER JETS FOR YOUR LEGS.

- WE CONSIDERED A BLOWER FOR THE SPA AND DECIDED AGAINST IT. IT HAS PLENTY OF BUBBLES AND PRESSURE WITH 8 JETS ON A ~70 FOOT PLUMBING RUN. NO NEED FOR IT AS WE HAVE 3 VENTURI JETS.

- SLIGHTLY CONTRASTING COPING WOULD HAVE PROBABLY LOOKED NICER THAN BLENDING WITH OUR DECK

- CONTRASTING WATERLINE TILE WOULD HAVE PROBABLY LOOKED BETTER BUT MAY HAVE BEEN HARDER TO MAINTAIN. We matched our waterline tile to our decking for an infinity look. The lighter color picks up all of the debris, bugs, etc at the waterline. But on the positive side, calcium and water marks don't show as easily.







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Going to start my thread with pictures from our journey so far since we are almost at the end if the construction phase. I will add pics in small groups, with descriptions. This is a 22,000 gallon salt water pool being built in East Texas on the side of a hill. We are having to build up a good amount of dirt to level everything out, and then have a concrete pad poured. Will start adding pics now. May take me a little time to add all the pics.

Here is a photo album of our recent pool construction if anyone is interested, details in my sig.

Pool Build 2018 | Flickr

My wife has been wanting solar pool heating for more than a decade, but our roof space is severely limited with PV panels occupying most of it.

During COVID we installed a free-standing insulated alumawood patio cover to give us an outdoor entertaining area.



I then got several opinions on installing pool solar on this patio cover. I found a few companies that would do it, but they said I effectivity waved and warranty by putting the panels on a flat surface. While it doesn't freeze often in sunny SoCal, once it's enough to destroy pool solar panels that aren't drained. Without a slope to the roof, draining is difficult and involves forced air.

After some searching I got in touch with Ken Wright with H2ot Sun industries. While he is in Canada, Ecosolar out of Upland California distributes for him in the U.S.

Of particular interest to me was his ballasted flat roof system:

My initial call to Ken confirmed that his system was exactly what I needed for the following reasons:
1) Ballasted system means no roof penetrations.
2) Elevated headers with flexible fin tubing means only the headers have to be drained for the winter. Water left in the flexible tubes is fine since they can expand without breaking.
3) Custom lengths means I could fill the entire surface instead of sticking to premade sizes.
4) Ken offers full support for DIY systems. He provided almost everything I needed to install the system and has a complete manual that walks through the installation step-by-step. Plus he designed the system with ballast placement and cross bars for uplift support. The heavier/longer parts of the ballasted system are purchased locally at The Home Depot.

I went with 15 1'x30' panels. The panels were premade for me.
Here are some snaps of the install from beginning to end:








My pool was at 68' two weeks ago, and now with 450 square feet of h2ot sun pool heaters I am hitting 85' every day.

Overall Ken's customer support and DIY help aids are superb! Not to mention Austin in Upland's meticulous packaging of all the items.

I am quite pleased with the outcome. If you can plumb PVC sprinklers, you can plumb a pool solar system!

Who is the moron who decided to replace all the plumbing and do a better job this time, since she has to do something about her trashed sand filter anyway? Yeah, that would be me. Daughter is home this weekend so I finally have some help to get the filter situation dealt with.

Taking a cool down break - it is insane outside and the pool water is too hot even for me - about 96! I drained below skimmer and return so I could finally replace the glued together nightmare (read my build thread for that dramedy) which meant the sun didn’t have to work as hard on the remaining water. I swear, if it starts to boil, I’m throwing in some lobsters.

Hi All, I thought I would post this because I searched and searched and could not find the answer. I emailed Stonescapes to get the correct information and noticed there were a few posts with the wrong info on here. Since I am just now in the process of having a pool built, I figured others were too and were searching for similar information, so here it is. Puerto Rico blend is the addition of iridescent glass beads and touch of glass is the addition of colored beads. For example if you wanted Aqua Blue Touch of Glass, you would have blue glass beads added, if you wanted salt and pepper touch of glass, you would have black glass beads added. Puerto Rico blend is just adding iridescent beads, (no particular color) Hope that helps. This gives the same affect as abalone shells.

Got the TFT test kit in today and ran the test. Results are below, from what Ive read looks like I need to drain some water to get the CYA down before I do anything. I am looking to go to a SWG this year and want to get the chemistry right before I do. Currently I am using a auto chlorinator with tabs...

FC- 2.5
pH-4.5
TA-0
CH-675
CYA-200
CSI- -1.00

Pool pumps did not run yesterday so I went to check out what it might be, finding the low voltage circuit breaker tripped for the relays.
Reset it and it tripped again.
Checked & tested breakers and found the Main Filter Pump breaker would not trip when I pushed the ground fault test button. So that is the 1st part I need.
Did not explain the low voltage issue.
Tried switching two of the low voltage circuit breakers to see if it was bad. It was not, the breaker I switched to tripped the same.

I suspect my Transformer might be toast. We had a pretty bad electrical storm a couple of days back. It was working afterwards, but it may have taken a surge.

My transformer model is a Pentair 521082.
I noticed in an old 2018 thread someone had to replace one of these and the replacement ended up being a different part number.
The replacement part number was never mentioned.
Any suggestions on locating the 'right' replacement? I have found a Pentair 521233 that 'looks' like the one, but it does not have anything that says it is a replacement for my part.
Odd think is when I zoom in on the picture of the listing it has my part number on the transformer. (link attached)

Folks I've stumbled upon something that I now believe is more common.

Twice this week, and 5 times this season (maybe more), a deluge of rain hit during my SWGs 12 hour self check and it tripped the low salt alarm. Had I not caught it, I would have lost 12 hours of production until the next self check.

I've been paying closer attention this year as my first full season with the new pool and that's the only reason I've noticed. Last year I set the SWG to 60% in June and the FC was great whenever I checked so I didn't pay much more attention than that. It could have happened just as often but a few days or a week later the FC had built back up and went undetected.

I did not know this could be a thing, especially for those of us running 24/7.

While not an everyday thing, alls it takes is a heavy rain at the wrong moment. Given enough chances, it can hit a few times a season.

And it's a perfect example why I run hot.

Hello,

I pride myself on a lot of research before asking questions but I haven't really been able to answer the question that I have. I purchased a bestway pool and I have picked a location where I want to put it.

I'm trying to determine how big of a foundation that I need to dig for the pool and legs.

I haven't opened the box to get the instructions but I found a pdf online that I believe is the same unit. It wasn't very useful. I've read most of these threads on intex. I found this post, but it's for distance between the supports. However I'm looking for how far out from the pool base will the supports extend. So if the pool is 22x12, do I need a 24x14 area dug out?

Here is the PDF snaps and the pool. The blue markers are the distance that I'm looking for. Unless it is clearly listed there and is 52" based on sketchy diagram but I'm not reading it that way.

Cheers.

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

So rather than fight it lets treat them as such.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers, and (soon enough) party on everybody!

I believe I'm seen some interest for a Home Assistant Intellicenter integration on other topics therefore this post.

I just released a Home Assistant integration for Intellicenter and, though I've been testing thoroughly on my own pool, there are many features that I haven't been able to test against.
In no particular order:
- different types of lights (I have Intellibrite for which I was able to support light effects). I can tell from the GetCircuitType response some of them support dimming and I have no idea how the intensity is encoded ('USE' parameter hopefully).
- chemistry system
- different heater configuration (I have a gas heater shared between pool and spa)
- and I'm sure a few more that I am not even aware of
Would love to have additional testers and/or internal configurations of more "extreme" setups that I have.
Integration code can be found on GitHub.

Thanks for the help/interest.

I didn’t want to jinx it, but now I have delivery confirmed for tomorrow…..
Being frustrated with not having a proper testing kit, I took the plunge and ordered one from the Big US
The K-2006 cannot be shipped overseas, so I went for the K-2009 instead (without the TA and CH reagents), but with additional R-0013 (16 oz) and R-0871 (2 oz)
Even for legal imports, there is a risk of additional import taxes (which could be sky-high), but according to my son, when ordering from Amazon import taxes are included. Something I didn’t know when placing the order, but that explains the fast shipment.
So from tomorrow, I can have exact knowledge of my values and work towards a really TFP
K-2009

No problem here, just a lesson, or maybe more of a PSA.

Was on vacation for 8 days and came back to still TFP clear water and FC still above target. I raised to SLAM before I left for insurance in case the SWCG or pump went out from loss of power or whatever - we had a lot of storms.

Decided I should give things a thorough brushing and also move stairs and brush behind them. Then I recalled that early in season I needed to get the stairs in for a family gathering but most of my bleach bottles filled w quikrete were developing large cracks and only had 2 empties on hand that I could refill, which wasn't quite enough. No problem, when I replaced my pool last year the guy tossed in a bunch of random freebies which included a clear container to fill with sand and weigh down a ladder. Grabbed that, filled it up and kind of forgot about it.... until last night when I decided I should inspect in addition to brushing.

Wow! And gross!

If I wasn't running hot, who knows what I may have come home to?

Dig day is finally here. Been lurking on this forum for years. Thanks to everyone that has helped me along the way. I hope my signature has all my details. Did I post the picture correctly?

Out of the country starting Friday for about 7 days.

A friend is coming by to clean and skim the pool when we are away. Don't want to involve him in testing etc the two or three times he comes, so I may just put the SWCG setting to where it'll continue to increase my FC overtime and when I get back, I'll either turn off the SWCG and let it drift or curse that I'll have to SLAM lol

I will preface this thread…I handle 95% of the pool things. Chemistry, adding stuff, etc. I’m slightly obsessive over it, and don't really want him to learn

Yesterday, my husband took some water out of the pool (we had very heavy rain here) when I wasn’t home. I got home after dark, and left pretty early this morning again. Got home today, took the dogs out and had a heart attack. The water was LOW. LOW LOW. I immediately thought we had a leak in the liner. Went to go out to the pump, and he never turned the valve off of waste. So as soon as the timed clicked on this morning, the pool was draining the whole time

Please say a prayer for our well pump as I try to at least get it to the skimmer line! At least I’ll have a good jab to use on him for a whilllllleeeeee. Ha!

History
2021 pool school in the spring, pool turned over to us, chemicals good all season

2022 FC consistently low (0.5, 0.1, 0.8, etc)
Total chlorine was below 1.0 during this time as well but also fluctuated.
Phosphates started to increase
Pool store says add 36 gallons of chlorine to break chlorine lock and lower phosphates.

Phosphates increase more and FC and TC sit at 15

Present day
FC and TC at 15
Phosphates increasing (even higher than last season)
7/3 FC & TC at 15, PH 7.4, phosphate 2067
7/6 FC & TC at 15, PH 7.2, phosphate 2170

Total alkalinity, calcium hardness; optimizer all low. CYA at 150.

Pool store says make sure pool is uncovered to burn off chlorine. Also, don’t worry about the other numbers because when the chlorine is high they won’t measure correctly.

I ask what to do to lower the chlorine they say add Chem-Out. I leave, didn’t buy anything. Irritated I was told last year to dump all the liquid chlorine in and now it’s too high.

This all brings me here as we recently discovered the site. The pool is crystal clear. It looks beautiful. No irritation on skin or eyes. Outside temperature has been keeping it around 80 degrees with the heater off. The filter run at 80% 7am-9pm and then 50% overnight. We have an automatic chlorinator and a new frogger pack was installed when pool store opened the pool this season. We have a Hayward heater, a Hayward Swimclear multi element cartridge filter and a Hayward TriStar Pump.

Please help. We are so tired of spinning our wheels and spending our money. If more info is needed please let me know and I’ll edit to add. Thank you sooo much TFP!!

Sometimes it is fun to see how gross people’s Pools become over winter. Here’s some encouraging photos from my opening this past weekend.



Opened the pool Saturday, April 20. Gross. Never had algae this bad. I assume two major contributing factors: A new pool cover that was not as dense of a weave as my previous unit, allowing a lot of dust debris and sunlight in. And last winter I closed the pool myself for the first time. I did not use any algecide at closing.

I started by vacuuming to waste to get up as much muck as I could and just get it out of the system. Then a lot of brushing. I ran to the store to pick up 12.5 % liquid chlorine and started slamming Saturday evening. Here we are 24 hours later, Sunday April 21:



And here we are today, 48 hours later, Monday April 22:



Water is still in the mid 50’s so we won’t be swimming anytime soon, but maybe by this weekend the water will clear up and I can let the chlorine levels drop.

My skimmer basket floats out of the skimmer basket opening when the pump stops.
I currently use two tie-wraps sticking out of the sides in a loop to catch under the skimmer ledge. Is there a weight I should be placing in the basket to keep it down?. What would the weight be made of? The dealer (Leslie's) said they all float. If the basket does not seat itself the weir door can not move down when the pump starts. Seems like a bad design to not have some sort of latch.

The back story:
In May 2016 we bought a Bestway 16'x42" above ground pool. We live in the central valley of California and our soil is called Sandylome. It just means we have a lot of sand in the soil. This can be a good thing and bad. But I digress. We put the pool up after leveling the ground. We had a slope of 1 foot to dig out. Using a line level staked down on the high side we measured the low side and that gave us how deep we were going to have to dig the high side down. Luckily it was only 1 foot at the deepest end. We set the pavers using the 2x4, stake, and level method. Our pool was level to 1/4 of an inch. I got all the information from this awesome site on how to do this by the way.
Now fast forward to June and the pool was up and we were swimming. The only regret I had was not digging the sod back 2 feet around the pool because our bionic Nut and Bermuda grass grew sideways and under the pool then up through the gorilla pad, tarp, trap and then the liner. I was patching grass holes in the liner the next summer. Not a big deal just more work removing the grass 2ft back after the pool was already up. The next hurdle came the second season. There are pocket gophers in this area and for some reason they love my yard. The first year they never dig by the pool well that changed in year 2. They dug under the pool. You could feel thier runs on the pool floor. The weight of the pool did collapse the tunnels but they dug under 2 of the legs which caused the pool to start leaning. Then they decided to move to the side that had less pressure due to the leaning pool and went to town on the liner seam. You can probably guess what happened next...yep they split the seam and now the pool was toast. Seems like a book for only 2 seasons of swimming but you loyal readers deserve the whole story.
This brings us to the current situation today. Wife wants something like the picture below. So I have embarked an this insane trek to give it to her lol. Wish me luck as I will continue to post my journey.

Recently I fixed my pool's auto-fill so I no longer have any iron being added to the pool (How to test for Iron without sending out water to testing lab or pool store! (pics included)) , but I was curious if I still had some iron in the pool water from the last 3 months that was still lingering around. I've drained a bit of pool water lately (maybe 6,000 of my 36,000 gallons?) to get rid of some of the sequestered iron and some CH as well.

Normally I keep FC around 4-6 or so, and decided to try to make my pool turn nuclear green with some added chlorine. I like to call it nuclear green because the water is still super clear and it just reminds me of some kind of weird nuclear waste water.

Now on to the fun stuff...

I can go from super-clear blue to super-clear green by bumping up my FC from 4-6 to 14. It only takes a couple of hours (maybe 4, IIRC?) for the water to change that drastically. Keep in mind, I'm not doing this with 1 pump, I had 3 separate pumps running (1 at 2750rpm, 1 at 1050rpm, and 1 at 1550rpm) to keep water circulating really well during this test.


IMPORTANT NOTE: The main pool and the overflow basin are 2 different shades/colors in each picture because I started my experiment/testing the overflow basin about an HOUR ahead of the main pool. (I wasn't going to proceed with the main pool if I didn't see the results I -expected- with the smaller overflow basin). So every pic you see here, the overflow basin will have a "head start", hence the difference in colors between the two bodies of water.

In short, I just used a very small amount of AA to neutralize -some- of the FC and ran 3 pumps to circulate and move the water.

This is the the water color in the beginning, once FC hit about 14.5.



1 Hour Later after adding in a bit of AA...



1 Hour Later with circulation (no more AA being added)...


1 Hour Later with circulation (no more AA being added)...


1 Hour 30 Minutes Later with circulation (no more AA being added)...


2.5 Hours later with circulation (no more AA being added)...


Basically about 7 hours total of water circulation, and an FC drop from 14 down to about 5. So this shows that I still have some iron in my pool.

In a span of about 12 hours, I went from clear-blue, to clear-green, to clear-blue again. Anyways, just thought it might be fun to share with others.! (iron sucks, heh)