Hi, I am looking for some advice on a new pool build in the Sacramento region of California. I will owner build this pool. I work in project management in construction already, and work from home the majority of the time, so I don't see any reason not to do it this way.

Here is a a little sketch to get an idea how everything will fit. We have some existing paving in the yard in the form of a 14' by 16' concrete patio, and the perimeter of the yard is landscaped. I would like to retain the patio (don't want to let the tail wag the dog though, if it makes sense to remove some or all of the paving for a better layout), add the pool, and add more paving. The basic design I have drawn is for a 12' by 20' pool. Still unsure of the depths we want in each end of the pool. This will not be a diving pool, but it would be nice for the kids to be able to jump into the deep end. Is 12 x 20 big enough? How far from the existing paving should I put the pool? I know I'll need room to excavate, etc.


I am looking for simplicity, reliability, and ease of maintenance.

From what I have gathered so far reading TFP, I should be looking at the following:
Oversized cartridge filter
Large variable speed pump (3 hp?)
SWCG 2x pool volume
Automation
Pentair seems to get the most recommendations from what I have seen. Though there are a lot of fans of other brands too. Can someone make some recommendations for which equipment to buy?

Not sure if I want a pool heater right off the bat, but I think it would be wise to plan for the ability to easily add one in the future. Not sure which direction I would go, heat pump vs solar vs gas.

For a pool our size, how many lights and a recommendation on brand? I'm thinking 2 would be enough. Not sure that we will use color change functions much at all, so if it significantly less expensive to just go with a single color, that would likely be the preference.

I don't think I need a main drain from what I have read. Seems like another pipe to potentially crack in the future. Just skimmers and returns. For skimmers, it seems like 2 is the right number for my pool, and they should be on the east and west sides of the pool since those are the directions the winds are typically blowing.

No water fall, features, jets, etc. Keeping it simple.

I see that DIYPoolsandSpas has multiple packages to choose from. A basic plans and engineering package appears to be $2000, or the full package including sub list, check lists, access to wholesale equipment, coaching, etc, comes to $4500. Homeowner Builder DIY Pool Installation Program. Also, Build Your Own Pool is another I am considering. They too have a complete package for the OB at $3500, which seems to be compatible with the full package from DIYpoolsandspas. DIYpoolsandspas has good ratings on Google, for what that's worth. BYOP, doesn't even show up as a rated business on Google. Should I go with one of these companies? Or just go straight to a landscape architect and engineer for the plans? Any recommendations of architects and engineers?

Not trying to reinvent the wheel here. Trying to keep it simple, and build on the knowledge of those on this site, learning from their best practices. Thanks in advance for the help! I have already learned a ton reading the pool school articles and a bunch a of OB threads.

Hey y'all we have drained our 20k in ground concrete pool to do some repairs and there are several places where I see this cap. I'm assuming it's a Hydrostatic Valve and if so, I would like to remove the valve so the pool doesn't float while we do patching and cleaning. Can someone confirm and if so is there a tool that I can get to remove it? Or is it simply turning clockwise? Thanks in Advance!

Hey, pool owner from Perth Western Australia.
Here to learn how better plan for seasonal changes, what is needed and when. That kinda thing.
Have a 40000 litre salt pool that is stable most of the time.
Its an older concrete tiled pool that has a liner on top.
We have an excellent pool shop not far away and their guidance has been so important.
But I have a few blanks to fill, like what test gear should I get over and above the basic set I'm running now. Because at the moment I dont have the data to make more informed decisions myself.

Looking forward to cruising the forum and getting to know the folks here.

Cheers,
Billy

The pool guys couldn't get my pumps to prime and said they're old and need replacing. I was able to prime the filter pump after they left, but not the waterfall.

I just inherited this pool last year so I don't know how old they are, but they do look old.

How can I tell if/when the pumps need to be replaced? Are there any risks to running it till it dies?

Thanks!
Matt

I'm new to this group. My husband was a member and couldn't say enough great things about this group. He passed away January 18th. We joked about the pool being his but in all honesty, it was "Chuck's pool". He understood all the chemicals and had the patience to keep it running and beautiful. It is a fiberglass, beach entry pool. I just opened it up (well paid 700.00 to have a local pool company open it up). Chuck would be rolling over in his grave if he wasn't cremated. I have to laugh as opposed to crying all the time. It is very comical that I am "stuck" with his pool and never learned from the expert. My pool is cloudy and the pollen here in NC is absolutely off the chain right now. It is a salt water pool and right now the chlorine is reading low and the pH is high. I'm so lost without my sweet Chuck. I would appreciate all the advice and guidance this great group of pool owners can give. Thanks in advance! Ronda
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Evening all,

I have an Aqua trol RJ with a T-Cell-5 salt cell. I bought the pool used and it is roughly 4-4.5 yrs old. The SWG worked fine when we installed the pool a few months ago, however when the kids were swimming they said it seemed very salty. I went to the control unit to see what the ppm was and it said 0. After reading online I removed the cell and could see though it, I tried to reset the average salt, and examined the control board for any signs of fault or short. Everything looks good but I still cannot get it to read ppm. I ran though the display and it was reading the temp of the water at 76*F, salt was 0ppm, cell voltage 30.2, cell amperage .08, 82p for the dial, instant salt -0ppm, AL-7, and r1.47. Being an automation specialist and a background in instrumentation and electrical, I am curious to know where the salt probe is and how can I test it. I would also like to know how to test the cell and the board to determine which is actually bad. I don’t think my local pool store can test the cell.

My flow switch just went bad, and I ordered another one that'll arrive tomorrow. Is it OK to wire it closed until the new one comes in? I realize the danger of having the cell running without water flow, but the salt system is timed to only run with the pump, so the risk is low.

Trying to identify what these two valves or knobs in the picture are for? The white one has monthly marking on it. The black one just say lock and unlock. My filter system is Hayward DE6020. I am not able find the backwash rinse or filter valve.

Inground, 20 x 40 vinyl pool, 20,000 gal. Hayward Super Pump, 1.0 HP, sand filter. System is 40+ years old! Filter pressure has been decreasing for some time to around 11PSI. I have (duh) routinely used tablets in skimmer in the past. Wonder if impeller could have been degraded what with age of system and my bad practices..........

Hi All,

Had a Dolphin Active 20 / S200 for 2.5 years before motor failure. Instead of throwing $400+ at a new motor assembly I'm considering a $500 Aiper S1 / N1 from a big box store because they offer an extra year or 2 service plan for ~$100 more. Any thoughts on whether their plans, which kick in after 2 year Aiper factory warranty expires, are worth the paper their printed on?

Thanks!

I am trying to buy and install one of each of these:
Pentair Part #602226 50' 120V Warm White Spa Intellibrite Architectural Series Light
Pentair Part #602190 50' 120V Warm White Pool Intellibrite Architectural Series Light

I've been to five different local suppliers and they all say it is "out of stock" Any idea why? What should I use instead?

I have a 19 year old pool and trying to replace halogen bulb Pentair in the spa and an incandescent bulb Pentair in the main pool.

Any help appreciated! Thanks

I'm going to add a heater/chiller to our Houston pool since it is July 1st and already getting uncomfortably warm. I'm looking at either an AquaCal HeatWave Superquiet Icebreaker SQ166R or a Jandy VersaTemp JRT3000R. I'm leaning towards the AquaCal heater/chiller but wanted to know if there were any strong recommendations one way or the other. I have a Jandy/iAqualink system, but the guy doing the work said they could tie either one into the controller or set it up as a standalone. The Jandy is slightly higher BTU at 130,000 vs 126,000 for the AquaCal and has a slightly higher COP of 5.8 vs. 5.6 but AquaCal seems to have a really good track record on their heat pumps. We'll use the heating some, but I'm installing it primarily for the chiller during the summer. Is it a mistake to get a combo heater/chiller vs. just a chiller or is the chiller performance on a combo unit just as good?

Picked this up last week, the price is now up to $50.



It works well but the cost keeps going up and up. Are there cheaper options to accomplish the same thing? I've never bought anything but what the pool store has sold me for CYA so not sure what to get elsewhere.

I just pulled my multiport valve off to do a deep clean of the sand filter and when I pulled it up this piece was stuck on the stand pipe. Is this why I'm getting sand out of my filter when I back wash?

Test

I have an old sand filter from a previous pool and just purchased a new pool and a new filter comes with it. Would it be possible and useful to put both filters in line for better results.

Hello,

My Mastertemp 400 is not firing up when asked to do so via Intellicanter. All the lights light up and the code displayed is r02 for about 2-3 seconds then it goes blank with no heater activity (see attached pic). If I manually push pool or spa on the heater panel, it fires up and heats for a minute or 2 before completely shutting down with no error codes. I've replaced the stack flue sensor and high limit switch.

Any thoughts on where to start troubleshooting?

Thanks!!

With the WhisperFlo VST I programmed three speeds. One is for 3,000 RPM for when I run my vac.
I have an open button on the Panel in the No.6 position. From the Names List I chose to rename this to ""Bottom Cleaning".
From the speed setting I chose the Circuit "Bottom Cleaning"
So when I press this button No.6, the pump speeds up as it should.
Trouble is, sometimes the controller turns on No. 6 without me pressing the button No.6
I only want to be able to activate button No.6 manually, but it seems something else is activating it?

Hi,
We are new pool owners and I have been working to get things figured out. I've been reading all I can and I feel more and more confused, but that's how my mind works sometimes.

Upon opening the pool we were seeing some algae and I am just trying to get it ready so I can learn to maintain it this first year. I want to do a proper SLAM treatment so I bought a Taylor K-2006C test kit as recommended.

I am having a hard time understanding the FAS-DPD test procedure.
The first thing I am not understanding is the difference between the 1 drop = 0.2 PPM, use 25 ml sample vs the 1 drop = 0.5 PPM, use a 10ml sample.

Can someone put into Simple terms how to proceed with this test. Is there someplace on the site that gives simpler instructions?

Thank you very much!
Danny

So I am in the last stage of my 12X8 plunge pool project.

Plaster crew out today to get the bond coat applied and prepped for plaster. Tomorrow mornings temps are going to be around 30F so they want to push the actual plaster install to Thursday where the lows that morning should be about 10-15F higher with a high of almost 60F.

We will get the pool filled immediately after finishing on Thursday (they anticipate to be done before lunch time) in which I estimate it should take me about 8-8.5 Hours of hose dumping water to fill the 2600-2800 gallon pool.

So by 7-8PM on Thursday I will officially have a filled completed pool. The NPT start up card they provided me might as well be in Swahili. I know nothing about maintaining pools pertaining to PH, alkalinity, calcium, etc. I do plan to brush per recommended schedule and just ordered that via Amazon.

Main questions here….
-How crucial is it for my “pool guy” who will maintain my pool week to week to get out here on Friday before the weekend?
-Does he need to start dumping chemicals in immediately to maintain the PH, alkalinity, calcium, etc?
-We are supposed to get about 1-2 inches of dumping rain on Friday. Is this going to screw up anything with filling the pool literally the day before?


Apologize for the ignorance here, I know nothing and just trying to gain some knowledge. More importantly, we’re in the last stretch of this build and I don’t wanna F anything up

Thanks in advance

Hi
I bought a house with a neglected horse pool . Also has no filter . I'm very lost and hope I can make this pool work for horses .
I'm a widow and now kicking myself for not paying better attention to what my husband actually was doing ,when maintaining tractors and things !
I'm a bit overwhelmed but I have faith ! I look forward to a clear pool one day and actually seeing the bottom !

Hi, I have similar issue. It seems complicated for me to fix the existing board, and I have tried to purchase a VFD with a booster to convert 110V/220V input to 3 phases 380V output like Frequency Converter Vfd 110v To 380v 0.4kw 0.75kw 1.5kw 2.2kw 3kw 4kw 60hz 50hz Frequency Converter Variable Frequency Drive - Buy Vfd 110v To 380v 0.4kw 0.75kw 1.5kw 2.2kw 3kw 4kw 60hz 50hz Frequency Converter Variable Frequency Drive Product on Alibaba.com.

I am struggling to find the right VFD. I have purchased on that did not work because I think the pump motor is a PMSM motor (permanent magnets). Has anyone tried that, and does anyone has insights on the type of motor that is used in the century pump? Thanks for your help!

Am entering my fourth season with our pool (third season during which I've maintained the pool myself).

Despite (mostly) following TFP practices and testing my water several times a week, I tend to struggle with algae growth whenever my water temps are in the upper 70s or higher. Last season, I was able to mostly keep algae at bay with weekly brushing and monthly treatments of Chlorox Pool & Spa Algaecide % Clarifier, which would reliably clear up the pool overnight with a single one-gallon application.

My pool gets partial sun and is surrounded by lots of vegetation. I do cover it from early November through early February, which keeps it mostly leaf-free. I believe the plaster is original to the 29-year-old pool. It looks very presentable but is of course rougher than newer plaster would be. I don't believe this should matter as long as chlorine levels are sufficiently high, but probably makes regular brushing more important than it would otherwise be.

This season I'd really like to get to the bottom of the issue and wean off the algaecide treatments. I'm currently partway through a SLAM (passed OCLT but still at 1ppm CCs).

One oddity of the pool is that the right and left natural stone waterfalls were built very differently, almost like they were built by different crews or one crew who was learning as they went. The left waterfall is designed so that it traps almost no water. After the waterfalls are switched off, any water will drain down into the pool within an hour or less. However, the right waterfall has multiple deep basins that can trap water for days or more before it fully evaporates. These basins tend to get pretty grungy as shown in the photo - I cleaned them last year just before covering the pool and they're already nasty again.

I run the waterfalls for 5 minutes daily and sometimes for 30+ minutes. In consideration of their condition - would this likely be enough to contribute to algae growth / elevated chlorine demand in the pool as a whole?

I'm going to try leaving the waterfalls off for a few weeks and see if that makes any difference - but am curious if this behavior is a common issue with "basin-type" water features..

Looking for a air bleeder screen for a C&C 420 cartridge filter.
This the old style with a tapered piece of PVC and the screen is just a push fit
it is non threaded. Anybody happen to know a part # or will I need to replace the Air bleed assembly?

This is the second season for my saltwater pool. The pool was opened today and the water is clear. I ran the filter for several hours and vacuumed before testing. Here are my current readings:
Temp 56 degrees
ph 10.4 (measured with new C-600 meter)
Salinity 2790 ppm
Free Chlorine 0.5 ppm
Combined Chloramines 0 ppm
Calcium hardness 300 ppm
Total Alkalinity 140 ppm
CYA 65 ppm
I have been using PoolMath since last year. My question is when making changes, what order should these values be addressed?
My chlorine generator is not generating chlorine. I was previously told it wouldn't work at temperatures below 65 degrees. I assume I will need to get some liquid chlorine to use until the water warms up.

New to the world of pool ownership. My partner and I I purchased an older home with a fiberglass in ground pool (33 k gallons~).

Context:
When we moved in late last summer the previous owner was using biguinide, however, due to excessive algae problems my partner switched to chlorine prior to closing the pool over winter.
We recently had a major storm and flood which came just short of entirely filling the pool cover. We pumped this out, and re-evaluated the possibility of an early opening for pool.

My partner prepped, and we filled the pool, backwashed, rinsed, etc. and decided to allow the filter to run over night. In the morning everything looked great, so the filter was turned off.

I checked on the pool about 6 hours later to find the water level to just above the drains.

(Other caveats: pressure gauge is at a baseline reading of 25 when off. When it was on it was running about 35. )

There were no signs of where the water drained, all around the house and near the backwash area.

The previous forum on this subject gave a lot to consider, but no new posts in over 10 years.
Hoping this isn’t a shout into the void!

Hi - We are about 10 days in from having new Pebble Sheen installed. When we add chemicals (acid, chlorine) how long should we let the pump run for? I have had it on continuously the first week but have now gone to a regular pump schedule. We do add the chemicals at separate times. Just need to know how long pump needs to run after adding them. Thx!

Hi all, I have an Easytouch 8 on a pool/spa combo. Includes waterfall multi-speeds, skim/sweep etc automation.

Since we acquired the pool, I’ve maintained just about everything including adding valves to add new features, replacing salt gen, de filters, pumps and motors. My last challenge is figuring out why the waterfall comes on in spillway mode. Note waterfall pump is separate from the pool circulation pump. I figure that there must be either a setup in Easytouch to do this but I’ve been unable to discover. Could be wired but likely in comfort.

Thanks in advance
Harold

I’ve been looking for any documentation on flow and pressure loss for the Hayward W3HP21405T and can’t find it. I can find it for the Raypak 8550, which is the other heat pump under consideration. Does Hayward publish this data? Thx

Hello,

Couple issues with opening pool this year:
1. The cover has been torn bad this past winter. Just wondering what my options are, a quick call to my nearby pool cover company quoted me at 6k just based on photos and measurement of it. I went to amazon saw this:
Not exactly matching the original cover shape, but it big enough to cover the pool entirely. See pics of the broken cover and the pool shape.

2. I'd like to change the sand in the filter as it didn't run as efficient last season. I've had a pool company did it for me about 8-10 years ago. It seems to be an easy diy project. Do I cut and redo the pipes, or can I save it all and just open the control valve up? (maybe have the wife hold it up while i move it out (twist the tank?) to replace the sand. ) Also, I'd appreciate links to suggest what kind of sand I need to purchase to replace it. Picture of the filter attached.

Thank you all as always.