I'm not sure what this white foam is. It seems to appear when the VSP is in low mode. No one has been in the pool since Monday. It seems like when the VSP is at a higher speed, I'm not seeing it. I did brush the sides today, so maybe someone got something on my brush?

Hello, I am hoping someone in the group can help me with finding a power switch for my Aquapro 190 2hp pool pump. I’ve tried contacting Aquapro directly and they do not have it in stock. Pics attached

There’s a million posts on this topic and still a variety of opinions. Sorry for starting another one =(
I’m trying to figure out the best salt to buy to convert pool over. I am looking to purchase 400 lbs+ I do see this one posted frequently,
Should I be looking for a pool salt? There’s no clear pick since everyone has their opinions.
I want to go to SCP and see what salt they carry, unless anyone knows.

I have a Pentair 1.5 HP Model SF-N1-1-1/2A.
It is getting power, but it is not starting. I am hearing a clicking sound and the pump is getting hot. Which has me thinking it's shot. (It seems to be pretty old (Seen Below)

I believe it is time for a replacement, but was hoping to learn of any troubleshooting ideas before doing so.

It seems like these come in two pieces? Is the whole thing typically replaced? or is the front end of it (the pump) usually replaced?

It's been a bad week of storms here in Northern Virginia. This weekend, lightning struck a tree less than 40 feet from my equipment pad. The power went out, and even though my pump was not on at the time, I can't seem to get it started again. Thanks to other posters here, I used a multimeter to check voltage input and even tried the jumper trick suggested in the manual, all to no avail. There is an audible click, and I can hear the relay go off, but nothing is happening at the pump, and all voltages (DC and AC) check out. I'm going through the mental acceptance of the fact that I need to purchase a new pump or at least a motor and was wondering if anyone here had any success in reviving a pump post-electrical outage or even if they would recommend another/different pump as a replacement? For what it's worth, my original pump was a Jandy 2.7HP variable speed pump, Model VSPHP270AUT. The Jandy losses continue to pile up this year: new Salt cell sensor and now pump...

In the past 3.5 years my Pentair iChlor30 has been replaced once and is no longer under warranty. It needs replacing again and my husband doesn’t want to pay the money for the same one again. Any suggestions as to what would replace this one? There must be lesser brands available. We are planning to sell our house so don’t want to put a small fortune into replacement. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Just had pool resurface to pebble tec 2 months ago. They just started the salt system about 3 weeks ago. From start up to now in front of my lights at night there are thousands of what appears to be tiny tiny bubbles or something else flowing by in both the pool and the hot tub. I wasn’t sure if it was bubbles (still not sure) or debris. My local pool store recommended putting about a pound of D.E into my skimmer so that my new Hayward cartridge filter would catch small debris.

As soon as I dumped it in the skimmer cloudiness appears in my spa and then went away. Now every couple of hours my spa gets milky white then clears in 15 minutes for another few hours.

The thousands of specks are still there 4 days later and now I keep rinsing my cartridge filter to get the D.E out.

Thoughts on the DE issue and also the thousands of specks of something or bubbles?

I have met my water get out of balance and need to SLAM. Here are my current numbers. My thought is balance PH first, but not positive. In what order would you handle these?
FC 0
PH 8.54
TA 140
CYA -at 20 the dot was still pretty visible

platon20 said:

Actually our gunite is being put in today and the pool builder said the tile guy is coming tomorrow. I will need to clarify that again with him.

When I start watering the gunite for curing, is it going to mess up the freshly placed tile?

Click to expand...

Any issues this far?

When getting a new pool, there are several things one must buy to be ready for. Chemicals, digital testers, salt bags etc....

What is the "master list"

danpik said:

I use the aquadoor on my pool and never drain it down. All I do to winterize the plumbing is install the aquadoor cover and put a 1.5" plug in the return. (I obviously do drain all of the water from the pipes afterward).
I use a simple tarp like cover that uses a cable to tighten it to the sides of the pool. I float a plastic 55 gallon drum under the cover to help keep it above the water. During the fall months, I syphon off the water that collects on the cover to help with the fall leaves. Once the trees stop dropping leaves, I don't worry bout the water on top. 15 years like this and no problems so far.

Here is a mid winter shot of the pool...

Click to expand...

Does the water ever get behind the liner if you don't drain it?

I have a Latham mesh safety cover. I cannot find the recommended water level is at closing. I know I’m not supposed to drain too much because the water is support for the cover if there is a lot of snow. I thought I found the recommended level earlier this year, but now I can’t find it. Any help would be appreciated. I’m starting to get my stuff together to close the pool - probably first week in October. I’ve already stopped heating the pool and am just giving it time to cool off before I fully close it.

Thanks.

Hello!

We’re about to start a build for a 16x30 sport/play pool. 3’/6’/3’ style build.

I know we’re going to use the Intelliflo pump.

I think 1.5hp is plenty big enough, but, 3hp would run with less effort and be more efficient and quiet. Correct?

We have an old rectangular pool with two return jets, both on the opposite side of the skimmer - one in the shallow end and one in the deep end (direct opposite of skimmer). Which direction and at what angle should my return jets be pointing?

I have a new pool being installed, and the pool has two pentair micro brite led lights. I noticed a leak from the conduit from one of the lights, and upon further inspection I noticed another piece of pvc conduit seems to have not had the joint glued enough and is dripping water.

Should the lights be watertight not allowing water into the conduit? I am sure the water can somewhat be removed from the conduit when the one fitting is repaired.

It wouldn’t be an issue if the lights should be watertight and the conduit shouldn’t hold water.

Final question is the frost zone in my area is 4’ and the conduit follows on top of the concrete fitting about 38” below the pool walls. If this holds water won't it freeze and potentially break?

Thank you!

My pool is looking at me asking me what’s next?
Are there videos on what to do daily & weekly? I read through the laminated sheet that came with the kit along with the the other inserts. I have a mixed saltwater/ chlorine pool. Where do I find acceptable ranges for my type of pool? Is there a forum specifically for this? Sorry, newbie questions. I appreciate any direction!

Any Omnilogic experts here? I'm having an issue with an endless boot cycle

I am not sure what is going on with my unit. (installed 9 years ago)

We went away for the weekend. At some point the Omnilogic board stopped communicating with the network. Looked like a bad RJ45 cable based on my tester. I tried to find the break in the cable to repair it but no luck.

All I did was unplug the RJ45 cable, cut it where I thought the break was, installed a new plug and plugged it back in.

Now the OmniLogic is in an endless boot up. It just says "loading" on the screen. Resets. Loading...resets...loading..resets.

Not sure what would cause this. Not sure what to do now.

I did shut it off by the breaker a few times. Now I'm leaving the breaker off for an hour and will try flipping it on again to see what happens.

Maybe I can reinstall the latest firmware from USB? But I think I need to be able to get into the system to do that, which I cannot do now.

Hi all,

I have a pool that I've been running on TFP and it's been working great! I'm wanting to put in a SWCG, but I need to get past my wife's fears of it messing things up. Here are the major concerns:

1. I live in Texas. I understand certain Texas rocks can become fragile due to the salt water. How do I tell if my coping is sensitive to it? I currently have travertine but not a lot of information on where it's from.
2. Our pool is really enclosed by the house and the garage. Will the salt cause any rusting/issues? Basically imagine a square pool where three sides of it are closed in by the driveway/cars/garage and house. We're wrapping up a full house renovation, so this is a major concern that it won't ruin any of the new doors, etc we just put in.
3. Any other concerns I should be aware of so I don't unintentionally deal with an "i told you so!"?

Basically, i'd like to get rid of some of the administrative issues of adding chlorine every day and get to just adding acid.

Thanks in advance. You all are always helpful!
-Mark

Hello all, I have an Pentair IntelliChem system that I have an issue with. I do understand that most don't care for that system and I myself would never have one installed again, but its there now and I might as well try and utilize it. The system is now 4 years old. I do all the work on it myself and have made many repairs and changes, but I'm having an issue with my ORP side that I just can not figure out. If someone is familiar with the system and has some information, I would greatly appreciate the information.

Issue is- The ORP is not dispensing. Ive already checked the function of the pump, checked the lines, etc. Ive already verified that it is not anything to do with the tank. In fact, the tank doses fine when I do a manual dose.

However, on the panel it continues to stay on Monitoring Mode. When I do a manual dose, when its complete it will set a counter time of 46 min and when it reaches that time, instead of dosing, it goes right back to Monitoring. I have it dosing by Volume (has been for the last 4 years) and I change the amount of times and Ounces as needed. The ORP was showing HIGH at 823 (which sometimes happens in the morning and then comes back down eventually), but when it came back into range, it still was staying on Monitoring and not dosing (hasn't dosed in 4 days now unless I manually do it). I also did 4 Factory resets within those days.

Dosing Frequency and Amount also changes on its own on both Acid and ORP as well. It has never done that before. It keeps dropping to 5 times at 45 oz/day from a higher setpoint I keep them at. Today I decided to change the probe out and put a new one in. Probe tests were showing "Good" with the one I changed out, but I decided to change it anyways. So now the new probe is showing LOW at 280. Now its hard to know which one is correct. Tomorrow I may just put the old one back in (currently sitting in buffer solution) just to see what it says again.

Thanks for any help provided

My pool has been sparkling since I adopted TFP as my only resource. Sunday night we had torrential rains and an area of my flower bed flooded over into the pool - mostly mulch and dirt. It has happened before but not this bad. We are figuring out the drainage issue but in the meantime, I can't get the water clear. Been running the sand filter 23 hours a day and the vacuum several times a day. Tested the water yesterday and numbers are perfect:
CYA: 60-65
FC: 4.5
CC: .5
PH: 7.7
TA: 70
CH: 225

These numbers are what I've found keep my pool perfectly clear, so I know the chemistry is ok. I'm afraid the particles are too fine for the sand filter to catch, and I know better than to use a clarifier. My questions:
1. The water is much better than it was Monday, so do you think it will clear up on its own if I continue what I'm doing?
2. Should I add DE to my filter? If so, how much? How? Do I just unscrew the top of the filter and drop it in?

Thanks for any guidance.

Have been going to the same pool store for 3 years for liquid chlorine refills and it has always been the same yellow color and a bit of a bleach smell.
Went to the store on Sunday to refill my 10L jug and when I went to put some in the water today noticed that it was clear (colorless) and odorless which I found unusual.

Going to check with the store tomorrow but thought I would ask if anyone has seen this before. Does this mean it is not fresh and been sitting around a long time?

After my slam at the end of July and first part of August I have been following TFP procedures for daily, weekly and monthly readings.

Daily my PH is always reading 8 and I am having to add 9.5-10 ounces of MA daily. My pool has a spa that has a spillover that runs the whole time the pump runs (9 hours a day to keep my FC where it needs to be) and I am guessing this is what is causing the PH to be so high every day. There is no way for me to turn this off either. I guess I am here just seeing if this is going to my my normal every day of adding MA? Today I actually just added MA before doing my readings and it was 7.6 like I want.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Today’s readings
FC - 9
CC - .5
PH - 7.6 after adding MA earlier
TA - 70
CH - 250
CSI = -0.30

Greetings.
I have had a persistent issue over the last few weeks which I have attributed to pollen, dust or dead algae based on information on this site (example: What is this brownish dust at the bottom of my clear pool? ). An extremely fine yellow-brown dust accumulates in the crevices of my vinyl liner, it does not adhere to walls, it shows no preference to sun or shade, and it does not proliferate in isolation. It also does not respond to shock treatment (my CC readings are zero both before and during shock). The sand filter is too coarse to extract this substance, and so the problem continues to worsen, as additional pollen accumulates on a daily basis, and anything I brush up simply goes through the filter and back out the jets.

I followed the directions of this article: Add DE to a Sand Filter , and paying no attention to the last line, slowly and incrementally added 3.5 cups FOOD-GRADE DE into my skimmer (which I had on hand). Noticing very little filter pressure change, I figured I'd better stop there and reevaluate. My problem got worse of course, because the DE went straight through the filter and made the pool significantly cloudier than before. So I now have at least two substances that my sand filter will not pick up.

I surmised that perhaps there's more difference in food-grade vs. pool-grade DE than simply the level of purity. I discovered other pool owners having made the same mistake that I did; e.g., Added food grade DE to sand filter .

It's my fault for not reading the last paragraph of the article critically. I'm aware that DE is an irritant and carcinogen, and skimmed over what seemed to be a cautionary note on handling the substance. The final sentence states "Gardening DE, while safer to handle, has not been heat treated and therefore is not suitable for use in pool filters". Firstly, "not suitable" (tucked at the end of the article) really doesn't capture the gravity of the situation. Secondly, there's no mention of "food grade" at all. Perhaps these are the same? I suggest amending the article to clearly delineate why it's "not suitable" in order to save future pool owners from similar anguish, a simple warning within the stepwise instructions themselves, perhaps.
Apologies for the long-winded drivel.

Anyway, I hesitate to ask, but: should I go out and buy some pool grade DE to try to get rid of the food grade DE?? And the pollen of course! It feels like the old lady who swallowed a spider to catch a fly...
Any other thoughts appreciated.
Thanks for reading.

Greetings,

My pool is 9 years old and I am considering adding a SWG system. When it was built, the pool builder was anti SWG, he was old school. The pool has been fairly trouble free as pools go, but dealing with liquid chlorine has always been a pain. The amount of plastic jugs and the constant fiddling with a liquidator (hoses, valves and connectors wear out constantly) has led me to find a better way.

Enter SWG. My question is this safe for the stone in my pool. The coping around the pool and the spa, are Texas Blue Lueder, which is a soft limestone. The waterfalls, that run several times a day are also from natural texas stone, presumably some kind of limestone.

So with this type of natural stonework, is it safe to convert to SWG or should I continue to work with liquid chlorine?

Images for reference

Typically manufacturing gets cheaper as better, more efficient processes are discovered and technology improves.

1. Does that hold true for pricing of pool plumbing parts?
2. Has your plumbing parts become cheaper over time or is that part now way more expensive than what it was even if adjusted for inflation?

I've been a small-time landlord (1-2 properties) for most of the past decade, and it's generally been a positive experience. We're considering purchasing an additional single-family rental property within the next 6-12 months.

In the areas where we're looking (Spring Branch, Westchase, and the Energy Corridor in Houston), at least 25% or so of homes have pools, so including homes with pools in the search does open up additional options. Before getting our own pool and learning the TFP best practices, I never would've considered a rental property with a pool. But maintenance-wise, I think I could handle it. I could always go with a pool service, but as long as I added a SWG and got a property within ~10 mins of home or work, I could probably handle weekly maintenance on my own.

I haven't checked into insurance yet...FWIW, a pool made a negligible impact on homeowners insurance for our own house, but don't know if this would be the case for a rental.

Any rental-with-pool owners on the forum? Is this a terrible idea? On the other hand - if you have rentals with and without pools, do you find the properties with pools rent quicker? (our current rental is one of the only houses on its street with no pool, and feedback from prospective buyers and tenants in the past was that they liked the house but wished it had a pool). Of course this last question is something market-specific that I'd discuss with our realtor, but also interested in the experience of those on this forum.

Have an OLD (prob 30 yrs) Pentair pool light that quit working. First thought it might be the transformer so replaced controls with new Intermatic box. Still no go FYI, have 2 LED pool lights; one is working fine. When I check voltage at the fixture's socket I do get 12V, but when I screw in a bulb - NOTHING. Have tested bulbs and they are fine. NO CLUE Thanks for the help.

Add-on. Suspecting the fixture due to its age but no clue if these go bad. Will have to splice it since wires are "stuck." Can I use a 120V fixture with a 12V transformer and a 12V LED?

Hi Everyone,
I’m new here and thankful I found this website. I live in Arizona. I moved here about 2 years ago. I bought a house with a pool, but have only ever used a pool service. I know nothing about the upkeep of the pool.
About a month ago something smelled like dead fish by the skimmer area. Upon further investigation I found a huge foam looking type growth and got a tool to scrape it off. It was disgusting. See picture #1. I notified the pool company and they had no idea.
Fast forward a few weeks and this evening I notice the growth form white stuff is returning. See picture #2.
I’m wondering if there is crack in the cement and something is oozing out. Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

This gunite pool has two returns (circled in red) and one skimmer on the far side. Pump is a one-speed and return strength is very strong. The eyeball on the back return near the steps is pointed down 45 degrees and straight ahead towards the far wall. The eyeball on the left sidewall return is pointed down 45 degrees and pointed as much as possible towards the skimmer (but really towards the right front corner). But as you can see in the picture, debris accumulates along the left side of the pool, particularly in left back corner. (If I open up main drain, leaves will accumulate there too.) What is the right way to position the returns to ensure best possible circulation and skimmer pickup? Thanks!

New pool completed 3 weeks ago.

I noticed a weird thing going one with my smaller pump used for the sheer descents.

Unlike my main pump which holds water to top even when pump is off, this smaller pump starts to slowly drain down and I see air bubbles coming out from one side of the pipe. It's like 1 bubble every 10 seconds or so and the water drains down past that pipe and to the bottom, maybe 4 inches of water remains in pump when it's all said and done . I believe it's the suction side of pump where the bubbles are coming from.

Pump is higher than the pool but not sure that matters as my larger main pump doesnt drain down and it sits higher than pool as well.
I asked the chemical start up guy 2 days ago at the final pool school orientation and he said as long as it primes up, your good. Me, I am thinking it's some sort of leak as I've had some bad (VERY) bad luck with this pool build/builder.

Any ideas folks? Pic below, I have a video but it seems too large to post. Thank you.