Hey, I have a Raypak 106a. It's the 105,000btu model. Brand new, received it a few days ago but had to wait on a regulator for my tank. Finally got the regulator(10.2-13WC regulator) and went to fire it up and wont even try to spark. Any ideas? I read on some forums its probably the rollout switch. Is there a way to jumper it just to diagnose it? Or any other ideas on the reason it won't even spark? I have the Funsicle sfx1500 pump feeding it(not the best pump I know).

Is it possible that adding muriatic acid and baking soda raises salt level in SWG hot tub?

Hi! I’m Alison from Naples, FL! Appreciate the knowledge and support as a pool owner.

I recently installed a new Hayward VSP super pump and a Circupool RJ60+ SWCG. I have both units running off of the pump's breaker. Its the original GE 20 amp GFCI. (23 year old breaker)
The idea there is that if the pump loses power, the SWCG also does and is therefore not relying solely on its flow switch to kill the chlorine generation. It's wired properly. 2 hot leads on the breaker go directly to the pump. White pigtail on the breaker goes to the Neutral busbar. Ground wire on the pump goes directly to the ground busbar. Bonding lug on the pump housing goes to the bonding 8 gauge wire at the pad. The pump runs 24/7. I had no issue for the first 9 days then yesterday that breaker tripped for what I am assuming is a ground fault trip because the current never went over 5 amps. No rain, weather was dry. So, that's a mystery. I have an amp clamp on the panel monitoring 24/7. So I know the voltage max/min and the current mx/min. The house main panel already has a Siemens FS140 SPD and the pool panel has an Intermatic PS3000 SPD. I reset the breaker and it has been running fine again for the past 24 hours. No more trips. Do these new VSP's generate any sort of issue that would cause false GFCI trips? Is there a recommended brand of breaker to use with this setup? I have never had a GFCI trip before with the old pump. So this has me concerned. My fear now is that when I go away on vacation, it will trip again and I'll come home to a swamp.

In the fall of 2021 my daughter moved into a home that had an above ground pool that had not been opened in at least three years. The property is at the base of a mountain with forest close to the house. The pool cover was ripped and there was a ton of debris in the pool, including tens of thousands of tadpoles. In the early summer of 2022, she asked if I could teach her how to clean-up and maintain the pool.

Once the ripped cover was removed, we scooped out 20 wheelbarrows of debris which included leaves, branches, at least one dead hawk and a few dead squirrels. Since the pool had not been opened in many years, the amount of chlorine it would take to clean it up was more expensive than a water replacement, so we drained the pool down to about 1 foot and continued to remove more debris. As the pool was filled we added enough chlorine to achieve 10 ppm chlorine, stirring the mess with a brush, till we had enough water to run the pump.

Once we got the level sufficient for the pump, we attempted to run the pump/filter, the pump ran but was very noisy and some of the piping was cracked. She didn't want to spend anymore money so we did some temporary repairs with epoxy putty (I claim it was bubblegum and baling wire), we slowed the leaks to acceptable range, but we were finally flowing water. At this point we added CYA to 30 ppm and started the balancing process, but we were still using 7-9 ppm of chlorine a day. The SLAM process continued and she was getting discouraged because it took almost three weeks to get the water clear enough to swim.

It was early August of 2022 till the water was clean,,,, still not TFP crystal clear, but she was happy.

Fast forward to this year, the winter cover was mainly intact, with about 1000 gallons of water on top of the cover, and still thousands of tadpoles on the cover. We expected to open the pool to a complete mess again.

But when the cover was pumped and removed this is what we found.

We replaced the leaking filter system and upgraded the electrical to add a timer and proper weather protection for the electrical system.

The process works, she now has a trouble free pool, it does require daily dosing of chlorine and periodic testing and brushing/vacuuming, but she can relax and enjoy what was a mosquito and frog infested pool, and it now qualifies as TFP clear, I'm so proud of her for following thru, and my granddaughter is loving having a pool in her backyard.

I've had this pool for seven years now. My frequency of vacuuming seems to continuously go up. Last year I thought I had an algae issue so I shocked it. Still had the problem. Shocked again and left it shocked for quite a while despite otherwise clear water and no overnight drop.... Same problem.

This year, same thing. I can vacuum one night come home the next night and vacuum and there is a clear and significant later if something on the bottom of the pool. Over the last weekend I vacuumed twice a day. Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night. By Sunday morning nothing on the bottom, clear water but I continued anyway. Come home Monday night.... Have to vacuum.

I run the pump 3 to 4 hours a day everyday. Filter seems to be working as if I vacuum twice a day it captures everything.

I am in the process of running lower PH because the bottom of the pool got a build up on it and was rough. That was not the case last year though.

All the other Numbers seem to be fine.

We do have a lot of trees around but this is not debris but a greenish layer of stuff that clearly looks like algae that just settles out.

Any idea what I should be looking at.... Really tired of vacuuming.

Thank you.

I recently hired a pool guy because I have been busy. He never uses shock and my water has never been so clear. I also never have algae anymore. Does anyone know the answer? It's a question because I thought shock was needed weekly. Thanks

Jumping in here as I'm new to the game. I have a hayward variable speed pump installed a year ago. Starting the journey of taking care of my pool. My psi in the filter is 10 psi when the motor is running at 70%.

Hello all,

This is about the fourth time this summer that we have found this lump of gray foam floating in our pool. We thought it was poop until we gloved up and opened it. It was the consistency of polyethylene foam, with the same kind of cell structure (pourous).

I'm not sure if it's a pool chemical balancing issue (chemecials are within range). It also seems to appear most often after a significant rain. I also know it is not an animal because I dropped my security camera down to ground level and it captures everything around the perimeter of the pool.

Key stats: vinyl liner, salt cell onground pool. Cartridge filter (1 year old). The only other problem are mineral staining on the pool stairs.

I have been trying to maintain chlorine for about three weeks, and I am on day two of the slam process. Prior to slam, I tested my pool regularly, and even after super chlorinate mode at 100%, along with two tablets. I was waking up each morning to 0.5 free chlorine. I am also part of a Facebook group called saltwater pools. Often times I see people comment. Why are you adding chlorine to your saltwater pool? Just put it on super chlorinate. Why do people question the chlorine/slam process on that Facebook group? Obviously as saltwater owners, we have tried everything..

Fiberglass saltwater pool. Recently added calcium and about a week later also shocked it after large party. We have been noticing an increase in what looks like sand settling on the tanning ledge and the steps mostly, but a little on bottom of pool in deeper end. What is this and what could be the cause and how do we fix (if we need to)?

Hi All,
My gunite pool is about 2 years old. Do I need to fill-in the gap between the tile and cover rail (if so, what is recommended) or is this something that I shouldn't worry about?

Also, thanks for helping keep the water clear!

Hey legends, I'm currently working in the pool industry in Central Australia in alice springs. We have a client who has a 12 month old, fiberglass pool. The client is using a Naked Oxi/ion system with an astral Ph monitoring and auto dosing system, cartridge filters and variable speed pumps for filtration and water features. The pool is a white gel coated fiberglass shell. When looking at the pool, water clarity is perfect and there is no sign of this gel on the walls or floor of the pool at all. When cleaning the robotic pool cleaner filters or skimmer basket with skimmer sock inside, this blue gel like substance is present. They have attempted vacuuming the entire pool to waste, water chemistry is perfect and no gel like clarifiers have been used. I have been in the industry for 10 years and have not seen this in a single pool in my career thus far.

Let me know if anyone has seen this or has any input?

Cheers,

I'm doing a Scaletec Plus treatment. My FC level is 0.5 so yesterday I added 18 oz of BioGuard Algae All 60 to prevent algae. This morning the pool is now cloudy and the water feels thick and a little sticky. Is this normal?

Getting a new error message E-08 on my Black & Decker Variable Speed Pump. The manual says under voltage fault. It keeps stopping and starting. Pump is only about a year old. Could it be with all the electric being used to run AC's in the area?

I recently had my autofill repaired and it seems my 360 spillover spa is no longer spilling over. I’m not sure what happened? I have attached a photos of my valves. I am a single woman with a fairly new pool and can’t keep calling my pool guy who I don’t think knows what he’s doing. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Living in Houston where my pool in August usually was 93-94F, I had tried all the aerating ideas from this pool cooling page and none yielded more than maybe 1F reduction.
Cooling A Pool - Further Reading

This year, because we wanted to reduce sun exposure for our baby in the pool, I bought 3 offset umbrellas (each square 10x10ft) for $200 each from Amazon which cover about 2/3 of the pool surface. (to weigh the umbrellas down I bought a bunch of 16x16 pavers from Home Depot)

Amazing side effect: The pool temperature has been 86-87F this entire summer! The pool finally feels refreshing in August!

Could one of the Admins add "Shading" to this page?

I am installing a sheer descent style water feature that needs 140 GPM to clear the deck into our pool. I thought I had done all my homework regarding total head calculations and performance curves. Using the Pentair Total Head Calculator, I calculated about 20 feet of head at 140 GPM using a dedicated 3" line and dedicated pump. For reference, I have a two 3" suction lines about 3' deep at the deep end of the pool, joined through a "T" (for safety), that then travel 120 feet through six 90 degree turns and two 45 degree turns and then back again to the water feature through about the same number of turns and distance. The water feature is about 4 feet above the water line, and currently I have the 3" pipe at that elevation just pointing towards the pool for testing with no water feature.

I decided on the IntellifloXF VSF because the performance curves showed it supported higher GPM at lower head ranges (5-20 ft total head) than the IntelloFlo or IntelliFlo3.



When I started testing, I'm only getting 83 GPM at 3450 RPM which would equate to 90 ft total head on the graph which is WAY off from my calculation of 20 ft head. I tested at several speeds and got the following
750 RPM - 1 GPM
1500 RPM - 44 GPM
2350 RPM - 64 GPM
3110 RPM - 78 GPM
3450 RPM - 83 GPM

I actually have a second almost identical setup with a second pump for a second water feature and am getting about the same results.

I know that 240 ft of pipe with ~16 turns is a lot, but I thought a dedicated 3" pipe with the IntellifloXF VSF would have no problem getting 140 GPM or over. I'm wondering if something else is going on with "low" Total Head and possibly the pump having too little resistance to get the maximum GPM? The performance curve lines always seem to "end" to the lower right as the head gets lower and I'm wondering how the pump behaves if you go below the total head where they stop the lines.

If my calculations are off, my last resort is to relocate the pumps 10-15 feet from the suction and water feature, but that will be quite costly and difficult.

Also, I am trusting that the GPM reading on the pump is roughly accurate. I've purchased a flow meter but haven't had a chance to install it to confirm the readings.

Any thoughts?

Hey TFP'ers!

Just moved in to a house with a pool (details and equipment in signature). This is my first time owning a pool, and I want to maintain it myself and do it right, hence why I am here!

I have PoolMath installed and set up, and a TF test kit already on it's way in the mail. In the meantime though, I took a water sample to Leslie's to have it tested as a baseline. Here's the results:

FC: 0.18
pH: 8.1
TA: 80
CH: 206
CYA: 55

Temp: 90F
CSI: 0.32

As far as chemicals, I have 2 jugs of 20 Baume 31.45% and that's it at the moment. Would need to buy any other chemicals needed.

Questions that I have:
1.) what order should I remediate these in? Should I do pH first and then tackle the others?
2.) I measured my pool the best I could and estimated the volume to be 27k gallons. Is there a way to fine-tune this number as I go, perhaps using test results?
3.) Looks like the previous owner was using the Chlorine pucks. If I want to switch to liquid chlorine, should I do that after I get all of my levels remediated?

Thanks in advance for the help, I'm sure this is not the last time I will have questions!

Pool pic:

Well it’s over 5 yrs old and stopped working. I took power supply apart and I’m thinking it could be the transformer because I’m not getting anything on the secondary. 120v in but no reading on secondary which should be 24 vac. A new power supply is over $800 and I’m not 100% sure that’s the issue but prob is.

it’s a shame because not a whole lot of cycles used on this machine. Not sure how many but not more than few hundred.

it’s prob my fault…..I left it plugged in and we had a few thunderstorms since. I was always good about unplugging when not in use but life got busy n I noticed the other day and unplugged it. Went to clean pool this morning and nothing. The green ON but didn’t light up. I tried pushing the ON/ OFF a few times and no power to unit. Power to GFCI , nothing tripped.

I tried looking for the transformer online but I don’t get any specific results. I’d hate to just throw it out and pay a few $thousand for a new one but maybe my only option. I realize a new power supply is cheaper than an entire new robot but is it worth it to spend $800 for an older model pool cleaner?
Any advice?

My LSI:

Water temp 89
pH -I try to keep at 8.2
TA 65
Calcium 250
CYA 80
Salt 3500
Cl 2.5

LSI= .03

I have to add muriatic acid every day to keep the pH at a point to which gives a favorable LSI. Are there any other factors I could adjust so as not to have to keep adding the muriatic acid?

Hi Everyone,

So I have a legacy 30,000 gallon pool with 2 skimmers and 1 main drain. All 1.5 inch plumbing with Hayward DE 4820 filter, an old Jandy Lite 2 heater, and a chlorine tablet feeder.

Our existing two speed pump seems to be overheating on the high speed windings, probably due to a short. That is a Hayward SP2610x15, a little over 9 years old. We seldom used the low speed as we found the flow rate way too slow to keep the pool adequately chlorinated. A clean filter runs 18-20 psi and flow basically stops at 25 psi. Based upon a number of different approaches, we estimated roughly 60 TDH. To be frank, the low speed only had value on opening the pool and vacuuming up all the debris and sand that always seems to accumulate during winter (Loop Loc cover combined with high winds, pavers and sizable tree canopy).

We believe we get about 50GPM on a clean filter, so the pool water turns over every 10 hours on the high setting. We try to run it 5 hours overnight when we get cheaper electric rates. That seems to be adequate to keep the water quality and chlorine levels at decent levels.

So my question is, should I even consider a variable speed pump for a replacement or just swap out the motor for the same model. That probably runs $400 vs $1500 or so for VSP. The old motor is 1600 watts at high speed and our electric rate is about 20cts per KWH.

My Pentair pump (new 2018) is tripping the dedicated Pentair GFCI breaker. This first happened a week ago after an electrical storm in our area. I was able to reset the breaker and operated the pump without issue for several days, and found the breaker tripped again yesterday. The breaker would not reset (trips immediately). The contractor who installed my pool & equipment in 2019 suggested that the breaker might be faulty, so I replaced the Pentair with 40A dipole with the same model with no change in results. My pool contractor believes that the 4-year-old Pentair pump is likely the issue and suggests replacing it (BTW, the model is Pentair P/N 011056), mfg. date 12/2018. My question for the kind experts here is -- are there other potential causes of the breaker trip other than the pump? Any troubleshooting suggestions prior to committing to a pricey pump replacement? Pool = 15,000 Gal+spa/heater; SWG. Thank you!

I wasn't sure where to post this question. My plaster is about 7 weeks old, I have been extremely careful with it and within the last few days added a chlorine float. The float is a decorative float (solar cell enclosed globe light) and unbeknownst to me there are 4 exit holes on the bottom of the float. Anyway, the float got trapped on my top step and left a mark. Any ideas how I can get rid of this?

I tried uploading but the system stated the photo was too large. New item by Robert W

Hi all,

Looking for some help, guidance and advice on what I should be doing. You will find my specs in my signature but I am 20k plaster pool on a SWG in North Carolina. I test every three days using the taylor test kit. My most recent results are

Free Chlorine: 5.2 (ran super chlorinate late last week) I try to keep it in the 3's
PH: 7.8
Alk: 70
Calcium Hardness: 350
CYA 70
Water Temp : 85
Salt: 3100

That gives me a CSI of -.05 which is great except the pool school guy gave me different ranges for chemicals.
He suggests PH in the 7.4-7.6 range. If I go to 7.4 my CSI drops to -.42 (image below)
He also suggests Alkalinity in the 80-120 range. I know from reading just to let it settle and keep it above 50. If I let it drop to 50 with a 7.4ph and keep other chems the same, that drops my CSI to -.65.
Finally, he suggests calcium hardness from 200-400 while pool math says 250-650. Any specific reason as to why the huge delta between suggestions?

In short, it seems that TFP suggestions somewhat counter each other. If I keep my alkalinity low, my CSI soars.

And finally, I keep getting this white stuff settling at the bottom of the shallow end of my pool. I'm guessing its coming from a jet that points in that direction. I pulled my salt cell and its clean, so not sure if its scale breaking off somewhere or what.

Well we just filled our pool yesterday, and we're losing about 2" of water per day. They are coming in about an hour to turn it on, but I'm already trying to troubleshoot.

One area I'm immediatley concerened about is the skimmer. Attached are pictures. The access is on so tight I can't even open it, and then when I look in I see an uncut PVC pipe.

Is this skimmer not fully installed? Could that be a cause of the leak?

We purchased a intex above ground pool and started to fill but it is not round .

So I have an above-ground pool. I have a new sand pump hooked to it. I got a box of shock at Walmart and have been shocking it weekly and have had a beautiful pool. On the night of July 4 after everyone was finished swimming, I dumped a bag of shock and went to bed. I would up to green all over the bottom of my pool! As I was reading trying to find out what I did wrong, I found out I had used Advanced 2 shock (flock?) and I now have flocculant on the bottom of the pool. I read vacuum. I have vacuumed and it just stirs up and makes green water and then settled to the bottom overnight. What do I do?? I am at a loss.

I'm here in Texas, just outside of Killeen.
Any locals?

So my FC will not stabilize. Had it tested and it was .14. CYA was also super low at 5. Followed Leslie’s instructions and shocked it and added their instant conditioner. FC came up some and of course stabilizer takes awhile to show impact. Decided to follow SLAM directions from here and added a gallon of liquid chlorine last night which brought it up to about 3. But by this morning it is back to zero basically.

So something is eating my chlorine. So my question is if I need stabilizer to help maintain the FC but it takes so long for the added stabilizer to show up on a test, then how do I know how much of each to add to SLAM it. If my CYA is basically nothing per my Taylor test, then won’t FC just keep getting burnt off until I get my CYA up? But if takes a week to register on the test then I have to wait a week to accurately SLAM the pool?

Thanks for any help! We don’t a have a leak but it’s hot here so will need to add an inch of water to the pool today if it doesn’t rain this afternoon.