Hi all, first time poster here. Wife and I bought a house in the fall and it came with an above ground pool, already closed up. Come the late winter/spring I noticed that the top rail is lifted up in a specific spot (it was actually lifted much more than in the pictures), might have been due to frost heave? There is a lot of ground water in that spot.

The other thing I noticed is that the two vertical uprights in that spot seems somewhat broken, one to the side of the deck, and one under the deck. The outer one (the one not under the deck) seems to be sort of hanging, secured somewhat by that support going diagonally into the ground. I was literally jiggle the bottom of that upright at the bottom. The one under the deck seems a bit more secure, but a part of it is sticking out of the ground on the bottom.

I'd like to fix this so it's ready for the summer. Other than these two spots, I don't see much else wrong with the pool. The cover was very weak and broke over the winter, causing a bunch of leaves to fall in. Someone else said the stress of that could contributed somewhat, I'm really not sure. Although I'd guess not, since it seems the previous owner already did some hacky stuff to fix that area once before. You can see that those two supports are attached above the spots they're supposed to be, and i'll note that piece of wood pushing on the vertical support under the deck seems to be bearing some sort of load.


Any and all help is greatly appreciated! I also have a video that shows all of this in greater detail, but I couldn't upload it here. Maybe I can upload that elsewhere and link it here.

Hello folks,
The spot is about halfway down past water line on wall. Carefully chipped out a 1/4" depth/ neat lines. 2" x 3" roughly.
I tried to patch it underwater last fall with no success. (patch would not stay/ dissolved)
EZ Patch 1FS

Have experience finishing concrete and using hand trowels/floats. Feel somewhat comfortable being able to install the patch.
Plan now is to drain down to expose to air and patch, let dry for a day or two, fill er back up.
Have separate pump that I can run - drain suction to water features to get some circulation during the drain down.

Any direction would be much appreciated.
Thank you.

Went “cheap” and replaced a Pentair tension control clamp for the cartridge filter with non-Pentair product. After 6 months, tried to remove and it appears that the bolt is rusted in the clamp. Tried lubricants but no luck. Any thoughts other than cutting it off?

Does anyone have experience with the CircuPool TOTALBalance pH Control System? 12k gal, no spa, SWG, plaster. This will be my second season with the pool after it was built. Spent last season constantly adding acid and never got the pH under 8. I was adding about a gallon of MA every 4-5 days and just don't want to deal with that again. All other chemistry levels were within normal limits all season. pH was the only issue. I understand plaster pools inherently have a higher pH until fully cured, but I'm tired of constantly dealing with liquid acid so I'm wondering if a CO2 system might be the answer. Thanks

As subject says white or gray ring for retro lights. Currently have metal silver/chrome ring around the lights. Pool is light brown diamond bright. Photo attached. Pool looks terrible right now. Returns are white when my daughter isn’t breaking them so I was thinking white.

Anyone have a CORE that can help me out? Mine is 5 years old now but I have a piece on mine that I think should be glued on but not certain. Also, I'm having trouble getting my housing to seal. My entire system was flooded by a historic flood back in February so but that was sealed up at the time. So maybe the O-rings are just worn out. For referenced on the part.

Hi, hoping someone can help me. I just got my TF-Pro kit and logged the results. I'm not sure what any of them mean and haven't yet figured out how to use the Pool Math calculator. Any assistance is appreciated.
I have a 24,000 gallon chlorine pool with vinyl lining. Here are my test results:

• PH seems to be 7.2
• Chlorine is higher than 5
• FC is 8.5
• CC is .5
• TC is 9
• CH is 50 ppm
• TA is 60
• CYA is 80

Appreciate if anyone can offer some guidance as to how my pool is doing and what it needs. Thanks!

Hi friends,

The solar cover we bought says to keep a MAX chlorine of 3 PPM. Lol. Do we just ignore that? My CYA is 50. Do all covers generally recommend something similar?

Also, I took three Chlorine samples and got different results. (7/9/10) I hadn't added chlorine since yesterday. What's the expected standard deviation on this test?

I just moved my controller from the pump to the porch today and followed the directions to the letter and BOOM it doesnt work UGGGG I have 12 volts at the controller but it wont even light up. I had to buy and new Control interface and figured it was a good time to move it. I plugged both the old one and the new one in and neither one is doing anything anyone have any ideas ?

We are building a SWG pool, and I have been consuming TFP's articles on pool maintenance. One of the things that caught my eye was this section from this SWG article:

"The two most common situations where damage has occurred are in indoor pools, where the FC level has been allowed to get way too high, and when you have one of the softer kinds of natural stone (sandstone, limestone, etc) above the water line, and the stone gets splashed regularly, for example in a waterfall. Even in these two situations, problems are rare."

We have this flagstone we have used on other parts of our outdoor patio, which we are planning on using on our water feature wall. I don't quite know exactly what type it is. It's some type of sandstone

Should we be concerned and use something else?

My former pool guy plumbed in my salt cell without adapting the pipes or valves, rather he just separated the pool return line and plumbed it in using 6 90 degree elbows. It's quite a mess, I can't even access the floor/wall valve below with its handle. What he built is not very well supported and oscillates slightly. I just upgraded from a 1.65 HP pump to a 2.7 HP pump & I am worried the new pump will blow that mess right off the system.

I have a shared heater for 2 separate bodies with 2 separate pumps, so that is the reason for the busy interchange of pipes.

I am thinking to raise the lower pool diverter valves above the spa piping and turning the waterfall diverter valve around180 degrees so the return off the salt cell can go directing into it thus eliminating the last 2 elbows. With the pool pipes higher, they can feed directly into the salt cell eliminating the first 2 elbows. Thus I will go from 6 to 2 elbows in that path.

I will replumb with all sweep elbows. I am going to clean up other pipes too; there had been an autofill that was essentially directly connected to the household water supply which I deleted and I am going to move the polaris feed off the wall return and place it at the pool filter exit. Also going to eliminate an elbow on the heater return by changing the pipe path.

I am thinking to replace both the waterfall diverter valve and the pool floor/wall diverter valve while I am doing all this. On the pool pipes, there are a couple small plugs from whatever was connected. I know there was the old school chlorinator with the black hose on one.

Is it trivial to plug main drains and start such a job? I don't want to empty my 35,000+ gallon pool into the pool room to save whatever it would cost to pay someone because a plug wasn't secured. I am not even opposed to paying, but in my area, good pool service is hard to come by. Thanks in advance.

My older Jandy Aquapure SWG setup is now connected to a 3rd party SWG cell and has worked flawlessly since I replaced the Jandy trisensor in May of 2024. Recently, however, It has stopped generating chlorine both standard and boost modes and shows error codes 172 ( Flow sensor service condition or flow sensor is unplugged ) and 185 ( Flow salinity sensor temperature probe error code ). The salt level is 25,500 (!), though a salt test strip is ok at 2-4000. The sensor indictator module still lights program A.

1) The sensor cord is plugged in, and there is water flow through the cell.

1. There are also some charred but intact spade junctions where the cell connects to the Aquapure pub via a cable (see photo). There is no voltage across these cables, but I suspect the Aquapure is in safety shut down.

If it were not for the apparent burned connectors, I would suspect another failed trisensor, but the suggestion of high current going through the Compupool SWG has me very nervous.

Any suggestions for diagnostics before I buy another trisensor?

Thanks, David - Dallas

I have someone at my house pressure washing today and my wife asked him about the black marks on the pool steps and if he could pressure wash them off. He said no but thought the black marks are from high copper levels.

I have not tested for copper in several years since I stopped going to the pool store for testing. I had used the Culater products before somewhat successfully after using copper algicide.

So how do you test for copper and also phosphates?

The cost of having a pool service open and close our pool is very expensive so I have decided to do it on my own. I watched the guys who opened and closed the pool a few times but still uncertain about one thing. The pool has a Paramount 6 port gear valve module and the pool service removed the top with the gears in it. Do I just place the head back on or is there something else I should do?

ajw22 said:

I have had pools with a Salt Water Chlorine Generator for 30 years in NJ. Only downside is getting about 12 40lbs bags of pool salt every year from Walmart for my pool opening. Once the salt is in the pool and the SWCG is generating chlorine there is little to do other then check the water chemistry weekly, confirm the cell is still generating, and tweak the % generation as the season changes.

You will find a good comparison of SWCG products at...

Compare and Review Saltwater Chlorine Generator Prices and Features | DSP

www.discountsaltpool.com

Lots of folks here like the Circupool products.

Circupool SWG - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Click to expand...

I thought the salt essentially stays in the pool, broken down to chlorine and sodium that recombines to sodium chloride. Why do you need to add that much salt every year?

Now am not sure whether to power wash, acid wash, or chlorine spray the plaster and then wash it down to the deep end submersible pump to clean the brown off. Our pool is in its 3rd year now and has been acid washed once before for plaster color issues.

My original plan was to just put some chlorine in a pump sprayer, spray the sides and bottom, then wash it down and pump out.

What are your thoughts?

I have my Aqualink controlling my Hayward heater right now via a 2 wire "fireman" connection. The Hayward is in "remote/BO" mode with SPA selected and the spa set temp a few degrees higher than what I would ever want. The Aqualink controls the temperature via it's inline probe, and cycles the heater as needed, meaning the Hayward never reaches it's set temperature. This all works as intended.

However...

I'm finding the stability of the temperature in the hot tub to be pretty shaky, especially in the 20 minutes or so after it's come to temperature. The Aqualink temp probe is 6 to 7 degrees warmer than the hot tub, though this variance gets better the longer things run. I've bumped the filter RPM up to 3500 from 2800 and that seems to make things a big better. I've maxed out the temperature compensation Aqualink allows (4 degrees, I believe). I don't know if there's a way to decrease the amount of time the Aqualink takes between cycles (I think it's 5 minutes by default?), but that might fix the issue, if it didn't hurt the equipment somehow. Does anyone know if this is possible/advisable?

I've thought about going to 3wire mode by moving the non-common AQUALINK heater wire from HAYWARD SPA terminal over to HAYWARD POOL terminal, and then wiring an spare AUX relay to connect the HAYWARD SPA to COMMON. In that way, the Aqualink heater function would still work, albeit via the HAYWARDs Pool set temp, for things like freeze protection. Then if I wanted to use the SPA, I'd have to flip on that AQUALINK AUX instead of turning on the AQUALINK HEATER, though I could probably hide that complexity (and filter RPM) behind a one touch button. In this way, it'd be the HAYWARD spa set temp managing the spa. I'd loose cool down after spa use if I did that, though my old setup never had that anyway. Anybody ever try this type of setup?

I have installed in my new build pool in Spain a Impertek sb pool liner which is a kind of geofabric for waterproofing pools. It is proving very problematic to finish the pool as nothing adheres to the liner as recommended by the manufacturer. I wondered if anyone here had experience with this type of liner as nothing is available on line, no reviews, nothing . Thanks

2nd Jandy 1400 cell in less than 4 years this one only about 1 1/2 years old throwing a 120 code but still producing bubbles on and off, even after cleaning. Connectors/pins look clean and great. This one was replaced under warranty, but the 3 years manufacture warranty expired last July 2024. Curious if Jandy direct would consider a replacement.

Dad was a pool guy in the Chicago suburbs in the 70’s. Had a 24’ above ground as a kid and a 20x40 10’ deep end diving pool as a teenager. Dad did everything himself but I was usually mowing when he was so I never learned.

Well, I’m learning now. Got a hot tub 3 years ago then we were able to shoe horn a 12x24’ oval Stealth pool in our very sloped back yard in Tennessee.

We really didn’t think we were going to be able to put. A pool in the back as our neighbor had a quarter of a million in their backyard pool. That said it is the opposite of ours. Loaded with a slide, fiberglass, auto cover, pool vacuum and all the bells and whistles on top of a huge tiered retaining wall. I don’t have any neighborly jealousy though I swear…. Ha!

That said our set up is perfect as it is the main things I wanted. 1. Small 2. Simple 3. Efficient (though there is room for improvement but the heat pumps is AWESOME).

We have a nice paver deck on the pool tier of our 3.5 tiered patio back yard. On the other side is a “stone wall” to the pavers.

The “stone wall” is a lumber frame with cement board and stone facia plastered on it. It looks nice but is a bit of a drop on the far side so we have a metal fence running right up to the pavers.

Our equipment is below the pool on the other side of the brick wall of our bottom patio tier. Great location in my opinion but I believe some people prefer the equipment above the pool.

My pump is an always running one with that clear vortex thing in the top, and I have a cartridge filter with an ozone system and a heat pump as well.

I keep the temp at 85 in the summer and 65 in the winter.

My treatment is based off testing at pool and spa depot and responding to those (no-weekly). My weekly regimen is appropriate dosage of peroxide, non-chlorine shock ($$), then I have an Algerian 2 I put in quarterly (16 oz), and a phosphate remover I use when I get in the 400’s.

I had battled algae before the Algerian 2 and I figured out how to vacuum 100% to waste so I don’t get my filter dirty.

I do have sediment collect in the bottom after a few days. Not sure what it is, May just be dirt /debri or dead organic material but I keep the phosphates low to 0 since I got the algae under control with the Algerian 2.

If I keep on this regimen I have crystal clear water, vacuum bi-weekly. No issues. If I get lazy I’m pretty good at getting it sorted quickly.

I keep a log of my chemical applications going back to September of last year as well as every water sample test result since install of the pool (started at 7am on a sloped yard and was filling it by 7pm). I got them a ton of pizzas and cervesas.

Looking forward to engaging in this forum. I come from reddit but that’s more to chuckle at the posts and trying to help folks out when I can about stuff I know. I’m not a Reddit troll, just a normal 40 y/o guy trying to keep his kids and wife happy and have a nice place to relax in after mowing the yard.

Cheers!

I’ll post some pics of the build.

Also, fun fact, I helped my neighbor dig his pool 3ft deeper on one end and vermiculite it and re-line it. In the spring time, and it rained most of the weekend it took us. Fun times (he lets me drink his good bourbon now, totally worth the backbreaking work).

Ok I will start it off with my Over The Top Chili. You’ve probably seen this on the internet. You cook the chili in a Dutch oven on a smoker with a 2lb loaf above the chili. As the meat cooks, it drips into the chili. Once the meat is at temp (about 2 hours) you break it up and mix it into the chili and then let the chili cook for another couple of hours.

I had thought it was a crazy recipe but decided to try and it was surprisingly good with a good smoke taste

I hate to start another mastertemp thread but I’m having issues. New to us pool. The heater would turn on and fire before but I never ran it long enough to tell if something was off. Anyway it ran for about 10 minutes then threw the code.

I bought a multimeter to test the temp sensor and it appears to be bad. I bought a cheap one on amazon and it gave the same reading and same code. I returned it and bought one from my local store and it too read unlimited ohms and didn’t work. What are the odds I got 2 bad sensors, or am I doing something wrong with my meter?

If I’m doing something wrong, is the control board the next step?

Hey TFPers,

I haven't seen many reviews for this anywhere apart so I thought I'd put in my 2 cents on this new skimmer robot. Paid for it with real money from Amazon and i'm definitely not a 'free product' marketing shill.

My situation:
Neigbour's 80+ year old maple tree looms over the fenceline so it's a source of branches, leaves, caterpillars, even poor squirrels into our pool. So I've been looking at skimmer bots for a while now to take care of the various waves of detritus that get into pool over the course of the summer. We get direct blazing sun on the pool only for about 4-5 hours per day, so solar-only models didn't really fit my situation. The Aiper Surfer was chargeable via DC *and* solar panels, so i thought I'd be the guinea pig for this thing since Amazon Prime's return policy gives me an out if it's terrible.

The good:
- DC charging! It charges from zero-ish to 100 in roughly 3 hours.
- Solar charging seems efficient. It charges while running, and I noticed that the battery % indicator in the app was going up even while it was doing laps around the pool
- The app-- great to have. Shows battery life, temperature of the water, and offers full manual controls. But it *could* be better. (see below)
- Connects to your wifi and bluetooth so you could theoretically control it from the comfort of your home while looking out the window
- Build of the robot seems pretty solid. The body is obviously plastic, but feels comparable to the plastic used on Maytronic robots.

Ok, could be better:
- The app! Wish it had start/stop scheduling (that would be easy to program in the existing app), or could be integrated into a smart home ecosystem like Alexa or Google home. It already has the wifi connection so this should be a no brainer.
- Object avoidance-- works for the most part. For the first few minutes it crashes into everything but the sensors eventually find their bearings and avoids most things. Gets caught on the ladder but eventually bumps itself free. Gets caught in the skimmer so I've created those pool noodle bars for its sensors to detect.
- When stopped, small bits of junk tend to float back out of the basket... But i understand that's a common problem across all skimmer bot.

The not so good:
- Unsure about the potential lifespan of this machine. Already experiencing a weird bug where I turn off the robot and it randomly turns itself back on to standby mode. Sent a note to Aiper and they think it's a circuit problem and will send a replacement. Great, but reduces the confidence on the longevity of the electronics beyond 1 season and the 1 yr warranty.

Am I keeping it? Not sure. I'm hoping there's a software update with basic scheduling at the very least. It does what it's supposed to do pretty well, but I also don't want to own a brick within a season's time if the electronics / non-replaceable battery are flakey.

Can anyone speak to the longevity of Aiper products?

(*AFAIK S1 and M1 models are different only by their colour. I have the S1.)

I've been using TFP method for 6 years now, with great results, and every year I fight against mustard Algae, but this year I'm stuck and not sure what else to do.

I opened my vinyl in ground pool on March 25th balanced the chemistry (7.2ph, 80ta, 20cyn), then SLAM'd and brushed 3x per day for about a week, the water was crystal clear, but I have mustard algae stains in the deep end and it continued to chew through the liquid chlorine. I then switched to Mustard Algae levels for a day and scrubbed the pool 4x that day, but that didn't kill it and the chlorine demand was still very high. I have been scrubbing the entire pool about 3-4x per day for the last 10 days, and adding at least 1 gallon per hour non-stop during the day to maintain mustard levels, but I'm not making any progress. For the last 2 days I've raised the FC to 30ppm and maintained it while scrubbing like crazy, still no progress and the Mustard Algae won't die.

Other steps taken:
- daily brush the inside of light niche housing
- used a funnel to pour 50/50 water / liquid chlorine down the electrical conduit that runs power to the light
- there is nothing else in the pool, and I'm keeping it totally clear of any debris
- switched to a new more firm brush and new pole

I know algaecides are not recommended by TFP, but I'm not sure what else to do and wondering if there's anything else out there that might kill the Algae.

At this point I've spent over $1500 on liquid chorine, and not sure what to do but fill the pool in with dirt just to end the Algae saga.

Specs on pool:
Nashville TN
30,000 gallon in-ground vinyl pool with Salt System and sand filter
7.2ph, 80ta, 20cyn, 3400ppm Salt
no other chemicals added other than liquid chlorine, soda ash, baking soda

Any tips / advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I know in general ORP + SWG is not a great combination, but I have the Hayward sense and dispense system on my pool so I want to make it more meaningful.

I've been told TC, FC, CYA, sunlight, etc all impact the readings, are there other things?

Ultimately I'm planning to measure these factor at common times through the day over the period of a month, and build a machine learning/AI model that will take some of them into account, to "predict" what FC is based on the ORP reading and other observations.

I have no idea if this will work or not - it's an experiment - but I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts.

Hi guys,

Long time no post. I suppose that's a good thing. I opened my pool to 8PPM of chlorine at around 50 degrees. The last couple of years, later in the season, I ended up with a weird situation where chlorine was being used at a more rapid rate than normal, and ended up with a short SLAM to bring things back in line. I thought I'd get ahead of it this year and just open with a SLAM. However, when I raised to SLAM level (16, because my CYA dropped to 40 over the winter - thought I'd SLAM before raising that to the normal 70), it has stayed there for 4 hours (actually tested at 18, slightly over, just now). If I do an OCLT tonight with water temp at 56 degrees, is it accurate? Does water temp affect that? Thanks as always for your wisdom! I'm ready to get this thing up to 85 and start swimming!

Wes

We bought this pool slide off of facebook marketplace without seeing close up pictures thinking it was fiberglass, but got it home and I would guess it's plastic. We were also told there were no cracks, but there are several. I'm attaching pictures.

The water line is also cut in most places.

Is there anything we can do to rehab this slide? Or is it not worth the time?

It will also need a new coat of paint or something on the top. Any suggestions?

Hello everyone,

I am rewiring our system from 120 to 240 volts (new Hayward VS pump and chemistry system going in). As far as I can tell, the T101P mechanical timer cannot be used to switch 240 volt circuits. I was wondering about this - although the timer motor needs to see 120 volts, can terminals 3 and 4 be used to switch a separate line/load? They are not referenced, so are probably redundant (standardized manufacture process for inclusion other models/features)

It looks like I instead need to deploy the T104M timer. (https://www.intermatic.com/Catalog/us/Products/Timer-Controls/Mechanical-Time-Switches/T104M).

Thank you and I hope everyone has had a great week.

Does anyone know of a product or any other idea to minimize algae buildup on the portion of rocks that are under the waterline? If doesn’t matter how much chlorine I put in the pool, as soon as high temps hit Dallas, these rocks become a nightmare. Meaning, literally the whole pool will be spotless with zero algae, but algae still will be embedded into these rocks. I literally have to brush them daily. And because they are so porous, it’s not simply a one or two pass brush with the wire brush, I have to be in the water and spend 10 minuetes on each section to get most of the algae off(but even then I literally can’t always get all of it). Sometimes I even use a chlorine puck to go over the rocks and then brush and I still can’t get it all.

I’m going to drain the pool a bit to put in a new light and I would love to be able to do something with this rock. Because it is the biggest beatdown ever. Because if I neglect it, that rock basically turns into just a slimey dark green pond on the rock.

I thought possibly of putting plaster over the rock, but I don’t know that it would even bond. I just need something that will prevent the algae from getting so embedded into the rock. I keep up with my pool brushing it daily,but having to spend an hour brushing the rock is just not fun.

My Jandy VS 1.65 horsepower pump has bit the dust - pool company says it's due to a corroded shaft. It's less than 7 years old. I'm considering the Circupool VS as a replacement. Circupool says to get the 3 horsepower model, but my pool company says that's too strong for my DE filter. First, how has the Circupool VS been holding up if you have one (or a Calimar which seems to be the same). Second, should I listen to the pool company and get a lower horsepower model?