Last season we replaced the laterals and sand in our Heyward filter. We replaced the failed SWG as well and proceeded to SLAM to clear pool after struggling with no SWG. After TWO weeks at SLAM and pool remaining cloudy (as in still couldn't see bottom of deep end), we took the multiport valve back off thinking we may have reinstalled something incorrectly. We didn't see anything wrong with spider gasket or any other assembly so we put it back together; However, something must have been wrong because it started filtering noticeably different in less than 24 hours after being taken apart and put back on and had no further issues the rest of the season. Asking this because it seems like the filter is not filtering properly again. Wondering if there is a common error I'm overlooking before I start buying replacement parts

Hi all, the CH is at 220. Trouble free suggest maintaining 250+. The chlorox bag advises 175-225. What should I do? Thanks

StevoB said:

Hello All,
I am in need of a new pump for the upcoming season. My old pump was a Hayward Power Max, 1.5hp, single speed. The pool is above ground, 33' round ~33,000 gallons.
I had no problem with the Hayward for quite a few years until it started screaming and just gave up. Ran it maybe 12 hours per day. The line to the pump is 120ac on a 20amp.
I need some help as I know I am getting to the point of analysis paralysis. I would like to put in a vs pump to reduce the costs, electric is insane here, but the vs pumps all seem to be made for inground pools. Can I use an in ground pump?
Another item is that I would like to install a small solar system this spring. This of course raises the question of having enough flow.

Overall, I am happy with a 1.5hp provided it can run the pool and the solar system. I would also love to knock some of those electric costs.

Pray tell, what are your thoughts? Really appreciate it.

Steve

Click to expand...

I'm going to just go ahead and change my 1.5 hp single speed motor with a V.S motor. I know my pump is a 56J, so I'm going to buy a V.S motor that will bolt onto my pump. Im looking forward to see if a V.S motor is all the hype.

Ok while dealing with the draining & refilling I’m taking a look at everything else.

As I mentioned before, we bought the house in foreclosure with a swampy pool and all equipment stolen so not knowing pools at all, we got the Pentair VS pump & C&C 420 & installed it and then filled & enjoyed it for 12 years.

mostly good experience with a few hiccups over the years. So while I’ve been goin over washing/stain removal/cleaning issues, plus finding this forum has me questioning plumbing.

There were two lines coming out of the ground together and one line farther away. The farther one away was the return line, one was suction from skimmer. The other we didn’t know what it was. We asked around and were told we could just cap it off and not use it.

So as I look at it today with a drain king in hand, I verified main drain line to rear skimmer is unobstructed, but I’ve never seen it actually do anything…. I’ve swam to the bottom with skimmer running before but felt no suction at all but idk if that’s how it normally is? So someone doesn’t get ‘sucked” into the line somehow? But

There is one open threaded hole in the side, so I’m guessing that’s the other end of what we capped off & haven’t ever used. Is that for like a vacuum attachment pool cleaner? But I have no clue how that would be connected to the plumbing we have?

I’m seeing if that’s likely correct and if it wouldn’t be too hard to hook it up now that I know more about pools at this point.

Also what’s the purpose of the main, if it doesn’t seem to create water movement?

Enclosed pic shows the capped line and the other is going to the Pentair VS pump. There are no valves on this setup.

Thanks for all the help and knowledge you’ve all shared already.

Anyone ever had calcium hardner not get hot? I just opened a new bag and mixed it with pool water in the same proportion i usually do, 1lb with half of a 5 gallon bucket and it didn't warm up. Also, typically after i stir for about 5 minutes the water is cloudy and this batch was clear. Any ideas? The Calcium Chloride looks like normal - white flakes. Pool water is 79F.

Curious if you've done a foam party and how it went. I have a similar spouse request LOL. Trying to decide if the fun is worth the work to cleanup afterwards. Situation : all adults, no kids, no glass, not a spring break club fest but more adult Funtime.

Hello all, I am in the process of learning the ropes on maintaining a pool. I have a small yard , so I have 15ft x48 bestway. It seems to work well for me, but I am trying to avoid it being a headache. Keeping my fingers crossed and trying to learn.

Hello,

I have had a little bit of spare time and decided to do something with the odd bits and pieces that I had laying around.

The physical and logical layouts are quite messy, and I have left parts in that could be useful for other functions. I also still working on it when time allows.

I started with a single phase 550w pool pump and an intex sand filter with SWG unit attached. The following has been added, with the help of the Siemens Logo 8.3 unit and logic:

- VFD control of the pump motor.
- Currently keeping a constant pressure via PI controller to the VFD (just to get to grips with how it works).
- Heat pump control via contactor.
- Web access and control to the Logo.
- MODBUS monitoring.
- E-stop.
- Auto/manual modes.
- Schedules for the pump and heatpump.
- Running hour tracking of both the pump and heatpump.

In progress:
- Control of the Intex SWG. (Relay)
- Addition of a temperature probe. (Analogue Input)
- Control via MODBUS. (TCP)
- Pump dry-run protection. (Pressure Logic)
- Integration with electric billing to run the pump and heatpump at the cheapest slot each day. (Home Assistant automation and Flag in Logic)
- Fixing the heatpump. (Went on hold, heat exchanger needs hot plastic welding)

Learning curves:
- Running the VFD backwards causes the impeller to unscrew and jam. This was accidental and due to mis-wiring. Somehow this did not damage the ceramic seal.
- VFD fuse was too small so it popped.
- Using Loctite 577 on stainless steel or plastic requires SF 7649 activator otherwise it takes a long time to cure.
- Some Intex pumps that have PSC motors can be VFD controlled.

It works.

The pump was using 550w previously but now I can notch it down to 175w.

The VFD is an AT-1 from Amazon, which is supposed to be single phase in to three phase out. However, there is a setting which enables you to use it on single phase PSC motors after removing the capacitor. An analogue output from the Logo then connects to an input on the VFD.

I will collect photos and screenshots of the current mess, and add them to this thread.

Tony

Hello,

Just upgraded my ancient IntelliTouch i9 with a brand new IntelliCenter Upgrade Kit (mfg date of 6/22). My setup is hardwired ethernet. I have confirmed I'm connected to the internet, Internet test passed. In fact, the hardware upgraded to the latest firmware over ethernet and i'm running 1.064. I'm able to connect to the IntelliCenter "locally" using my iPhoen with the IntelliCenter2 App but I am not able to connect to it "remotely".

However, when I try to create new account, the systems times out repeatedly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi All,
Apologies if I am in the wrong section. I noticed the pool water would go down when the pump was in use. So I did all the normal checks but then noticed a dam area between the spa and pool in the corner. We re -sealed the bridge area and it seems this has helped a bit but not completely stopped the water from forming. Hoping to get some ideas on the possibility. I do not believe there are any connecting pipes under. We bought the house around 3 years ago. Grateful for any help.

I had a old JVA actuator, it was sticking so I replaced it with a new one. New one turns 180 without any problem.

However, the old one used to make continuous low tone clicking sound, as if there is a mechanical timer in it. It is not the motor spinning.

The new one surprisingly does it too. I have two JVAs, the other one doesn't make that sound.

And more surprisingly, when I turn all the pool power off from the main breakers, it continues clicking probably because of the electric left on the capacitor in it. Can it be the minor adjustment needed in the control switches in it?

Any ideas?

Prob a dumb question. But what temp can algae grown in a covered pool where the water temp is COLD? I can’t tell u how cold bc I can’t find the thermometer but COLD

This post is about switching from sand filter to a cartridge filter. Let's get some preliminaries out of the way. I've owed two pools since 1996 with sand filters so I'm quite knowledgeable on their operation. I am familiar with cartridge filters even though I've never owned one. I'm not trying to solve a filtering problem. The sand filter works just fine. I'm trying to solve or at least possibly prepare to solve an issue with the backflush water.

I bought this house with a pool that has a sand filter installed. The previous owner hard piped the backflush outlet to the property line at the back of the lot. Behind my house is unmaintained wood HOA land. It is steeply sloped away from my back yard. Below my property is the town's storm water runoff for the neighborhood. The pipe exit is around 4 to 5 foot in diameter. During a rain storm, it sound like a river flowing behind my house. Even though they dumped large rocks at the exit of the pipe, the water flow is slowly eroding the water runoff creek bed. It's cut about a 10 foot deep ditch into the wooded area. I have a good feeling that it won't be many years before the town addresses the issue.

When I backflush, the water volume out the 2" pipe is cutting its own little ditch into the hillside. The backflush water runs directly into the outflow from the stormwater pipe. I have this feeling that the town will not be happy to see backflush being dumped into the woods. Also I'm an HOA board member. It probably doesn't look good that I'm dumping my pool water on the HOA land.

For the above reasons, I'm thinking about switching to a cartridge filter since I would eliminate backflushing. If I do think this is the solution, I have to consider if I want to be proactive and do it now or reactive when the town makes me do it. That may never happen but with the current erosion situation, I think it may be in the next few years. As for different solutions on where to dump the water from the current sand filter, I thought of two. One is to run the backflush to the sewer cleanout in the front yard. That would be a long run to that cleanout and I'm not sure the town would like that either. The other is to remove the hard pipe and just use a backflush hose to dump it on the yard. That really doesn't help much. I'm on a cul-de-sac so my lot is more wide than deep. It's only about 8 foot from the pool to the fence line. Not much yard to spread out the water runoff which would still end up running down the hill to the stormwater runoff area.

If you read this far, would you opt to switch to a cartridge filter? If so, what cartridge filter would you recommend? It shouldn't be hard to fit one in the space now occupied by the sand filter. The current pool equipment my pool has is in my signature. The pump will be replaced sometime in the future since I want to go to a larger one to run the system at even less rpm. I think I've decided to wait until the current one dies but it wouldn't take much for me to change my mind since I don't like the current one.

Today I learned that you can program your pda based system via the web interface if you have an iAquaLink antenna. I discovered this after I disconnected my pda as it wasn’t connecting to the receiver. Apologies if this was known-I was under the assumption that it could not program.

It’s not perfect-as I can’t seem to get my spa lights programmed to Jandy watercolors. But it’ll do until I can find a new pcb board.

Things I’ve been able to do: set pump speed, schedule, set aqua pure, assign jva, name aux among other things.

My journey to automation was using the VSF3 to control lights and a salt cell. At some point it became too cold and I added the Intellichem. I have 2 water features I manually turn valves with. Long story short, I outgrew my 2 relays on the I/O board which served me well for months.

I just installed an Intellicenter. Simple question - can those I/O board relays not be used now? I can still access the VSF via the App, but it says it’s under automation control.

I see no options in the Intellicenter to address the relays via that RS485 comm link to the pump. Is it simply not possible?

Greetings all -

First off, let me express my deep gratitude for the generous and knowledgeable folks here. A couple years ago we bought a house with a large old pool (sand filter) that hadn't been used in awhile and I spent a lot of time browsing this forum as I got up to speed on maintenance, cleaning, chemicals, etc.

I'm now on top of all that, but we are faced with a pretty severe leak problem now and I have no pool experts in the area I can trust (we live in a very rural area of the deep South) so this place is kinda my last resort for figuring out what my options are.

Basically we have a couple of areas where the fiberglass walls have separated from the gunite floor due to a lot of soil movement behind the walls. I tried sealing it with a polyurethane seal that was mentioned here , but once filled the seal was broken by the expanding wall.

I'm trying to get a sense of where I can go from here. Is a liner an option? Should I try a more aggressive approach with the sealant? Is there any hope at all for our big old weird pool? (it's about 40 years old evidently and very large and oddly shaped).

I've attached pics. Happy to post more if that would be helpful, and very appreciative of any insight or thoughts y'all might have.

-Chris

Hi

Just went through our first Fall and Winter with our pool. South Louisiana, so we don’t close for winter, but we do have about 30 oak trees in our yard. As you can imagine it was a constant battle keeping the dolphin, betta, skimmer basket, pump basket and bottom of the pool free of leaves. All the baskets are stained from the leaves and after cleaning the cartridge filters today they are awful looking. They’re still in good shape, a year old.

Is this staining going to be an issue? Any advice?

Please help a good add for pump and motor. They left may years ago and just today the motor blew its electrical. We can say 24000 gal pool and 60 ft DE filter and salt water just last year, if some whatever adds to the list. I have limited unfortunately I can now the great forums and many tutorials for TFP because had a stroke just three December. But I'd sure what when ever I can and get started. Thanks.

Been looking at the B&D and Calimar VS 1.5hp pumps. They look identical except color. B&D is more expensive yet comes with 5yr warranty compared to 1yr for Calimar.

I have a 18k gallon fiberglass with 3 returns and 1 suction. 250# Sand Filter, 250btu heater. 1.5” pool plumbing.

Has anyone had any long term experience with either?

Hi,
We had someone come out and take a look at our gunite pool/spa because it seems the plaster has significant flaking, though it does not seem to be peeling from the concrete. They of course said I needed a replaster, and I'm inclined to agree just by looking at it but i figured I'd check here for a second opinion of sorts. We would redo both the spa (pictured) and the pool for a number of reasons, not the least of which is aesthetics - the plaster is very discolored (the blue under the chipped pieces was the original color), and we want the pool and spa to match, but if the spa is having this issue, I have to imagine the pool isn't far behind. We were also going to go with quartz plaster since from what I've read and been told, it lasts longer.

My other concern is that this pool is less than 5 years old which seems a very short time to have issues like this. I'm in the north east and haven't covered it in the winter. I'm pretty good at keeping up with chemicals, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I have definitely lapsed for a few weeks in checking them. If not covering it is a contributing factor, I'm not opposed to adding one for the winter. However there are other pools in the neighborhood that aren't covered, which have been there longer than ours, and I haven't heard of this issue with theirs.

I'm half hoping this is just a bad batch/mix or poor application by the original installer, who is not the same company we had come out. I'm not in love with having to do this, but it's a bit easier to swallow if I know it's not going to happen again in 5 years!

Thanks in advance for information or advice, regarding both the immediate issue and the future!

I need to swap out my old 3/4hp Hayward single speed pump and I was looking at getting a VS speed pump. I am currently wired for 120v so I would need to run new wiring/breakers to accommodate 240v as it looks like VS pumps are all 240v(not the end of the world). I also am not sure how I would shut off power to my saltwater chlorinator with a VS pump. currently I just have a mechanical timer with the dial that starts and stops power to both my pump and salt cell. I hear VS needs constant power and have their own timer on the pump itself so I'm not sure how to make that work with my salt system timer. I do have the flow sensor that should turn off the salt chlorinator with no flow but I have heard not to rely on those. lastly, I have a waterfall that runs of the same pump, so the jets, return and waterfall are all on same pump. I am concerned that when I want to turn down the RPMs on a VS pump for energy efficiency it would also make the waterfall have less desirable flow rates. and if so maybe I should just stick with a single speed pump.

Just looking for thoughts on if I should stick with single speed pump in my situation or if anyone still feels like a VS might be worth it

I have about a 22k inground pool with waterfall at the deep end. Thanks everyone

Hey all, I'm looking to upgrade to a VS pump. Setup in my signature. Current pump is this ancient Century USQ1102, single speed 1hp, hooked up to 240v.
Plumbing is 2 inches but my cartridge filter is only 90sf. I don't want to upgrade that if possible, but y'all let me know if a bigger filter is a must.

We use the pool only a few times a year so my budget is $2000. Any other pump that fits the bill?

Pinch a penny quote

• Jandy VS Flopro 1.65hp $1375
• Install $125

Local pool guy quote

• Source my own pump, he recommends the usual Pentair/Jandy/Hayward
• He'll install for $250

Leslie's quote

• Pentair Superflo VST $1500
• Jacuzzi VS 1.65hp $975
• Install $350

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starting with the heater its a RP2100 its an older model 405a I believe i wish this newer control boards cam with better instructions but changing a few wires around and newer smaller 3 wire sensor should be up and running here shortly . i used to beable to find the newer boards with the wire harness only harness I see is almost 500 bucks lol yeah NO

220 volts. Doesn't it matter which wire goes to which terminal. I have a multimeter but don't know much about how to use it.

Hello, my AGP intex pool liner is starting to tear and become unseated around the return jet. The pool is 8 years old. Anyone know of a way to fix this? Or is it time for a new pool.

Thanks

Anyone have any info on these types of water features?

curious as to what might work best as a high/depth ratio for the steps to get the best effects?

also curious as to how they compare GPM wise a sheer descent type water feature?

I guess i could build out a prototype to test, but thought i'd ask here to see if anyone had done similar

New (of course). We bought our home sight unseen during the pandemic and moved cross country about 4 years ago. A few months after we moved in we accidentally flooded the basement because we drained the pool into the culvert while it was full. That was fun. Then we found the filter (last year) was rigged all incorrectly inside and likely had never had a sand replacement. No pressure gauge. Ugh. That's all fixed now. Now, we are in the process of choosing a new liner --- a rough decision!

I just purchased a Hayward wall skimmer to upgrade our Intex XTR 9'x18' pool. I'm looking to mount the skimmer as high as possible to not lose water depth. My thoughts were to position the skimmer high enough on the wall that the 3 screws at the top of the skimmer would be through the bonded seam near the top rail. But the actual cutout would not be in the seam area, just below. I would mark the screw hole location with a sharpie and then use a hot nail to melt the pilot hole to the screw size. Do you think this would risk a blowout of the seam?