Hi all! I’ve potentially lost yet another board due to a strong thunderstorm last night. Definitely some electrical burn near power output. What is the best way to protect against this? I have a GFI circuit breaker but not sure if that protects against everything? It definitely didn’t protect against this. Thoughts?

It is hot and the pool i'm supposed to get in and cool off is green. CYA 148. Good bye Trichlor Tabs!!!!

I installed my swg (hayward) and vsp (pentair whisperflow) last season. 1300 rpms kept the flow switch happy until I closed it up (3 months of runtime)

This season, when I opened in April, 1300 was getting low flow so I bumped it up to 1500.

Today, low flow again. I bumped it to 2000 for the moment and the switch is happy again.

Thoughts? Is this common?

Setup is a vertical cell with fflow switch on the horizontal run preceding the vertical turn. Has well over 12” straight run before the flow switch.

Greetings fellow pool peeps! I have a question for you about Calcium. I live near the mountains in hot AZ and we have very hard water. Like out of the tap reading 500 CH. So obviously, even with a fresh fill, my CH is already going to be high. I did a partial drain last fall to get it back down.
I’m not having issues with chemistry, etc, but today did a measure and my CH is at 875. It’s way too hot to drain again right now but once it cools down, I’ll likely do it again. Sigh. Seems like an every few month thing. In my attempt to not waste the deserts most valuable resource, I want to ask the pros. At what level of CH is it considered really bad- like harmful to my equipment bad- that I should act and drain?

Thanks!
Kim

Hi I was wondering if there's any professionals here that have done this in the past. I have 8 in aluminum pool coping attached to a steel wall in-ground pool and I can't seem to find how to remove them or adjust them any help is appreciated here is a pic of the end of one of the pieces

Looking to add some stools to our pool and just seeing if anyone has these and, if so, thoughts? I was also wondering if you could fill with salt vs sand? My only other concern would be how they would hold up and if it would be difficult or affect the longevity (the handling and moving) to pull out when closing since they would be a bit heavy filled. They are quite pricey but if I thought they would last, I’d definitely pull the trigger.

Hi everyone,

Something is wrong with my pool cleaner. I replaced the power cord as I had critters eat through the line; however, I connected the new power supply yesterday, and everything worked great for 1/2 a cycle. This morning, I took it apart again and the internal 3 prongs connected with the gasket seem to be corroded. So I spent all this $ and something is still wrong. What could he the problem? Thanks for any help you all can advise.

We had a problem earlier with the pump on our in ground pool losing prime when the solar cover was on. We cut out areas around intakes and problem solved. Now it’s happening again. We’ve checked water level, filter baskets, bought a new gasket, and checked that all unions are tight. Pump runs fine once we add water to it, but loses prime over night. Any suggestions on more trouble shooting?

After years of trying to figure this out, i dived in deeper this year to hopefully get to the bottom of this. As stated this happens every year. I look and it seems like sand that is coming out of my filter and settleing to the bottom. Kept trying to repair filter to no avail. This year i bought a robo cleaner that does not use the filter to clean. In the cleaner i noticed alot of white and blue specs build up. I stopped using the NST tablets in my floater and am using liquid chlorine now. It keeps coming back though. I finally went under water with a turkey baster and sucked it up manually and put it in clear cup to see it. When I put it in cup its all cloudy because of the suction of the water and powder mixing in the baster. It eventually settles to the bottom of the cup. White powder. I don't use shock any more as well. it looks like that but it will not dissolve no matter how much i brush it. it keeps coming back. can almost see it coming through the filter when I turn it on. Been having this every year happening but my assumption it was sand was incorrect. Does anyone have any suggestions. I keep using my robo cleaner not attached to the filter to try and get it out a little at a time. But it does keep coming back through the filter. I am new to this forum and wasn't sure where to post this.

i'm finding the (new) morning ritual of skimming the pool and cleaning the basket a relaxing way to start the day and collect your thoughts.

but the pool has also sprung a leak, help!

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the help over the years, I’ve never actually had to post before but I couldn’t find this issue in the threads.

I woke up this morning to my pool pump not running. I went out to the control system and the display is just displaying 4 arrows and nothing else. I’ve power cycled the system multiple times but no new behavior.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Just moved in and Need help understanding my valves. If I close the spa inlet my spa overflows into the pool for the waterfall but I don't want it overflowing all the time rising my ph. If I find a good balance with the pool inlet and spa inlet so the spa stays full but doesn't overflow, when the pump shuts off the spa drains into the pool causing the pool water to rise and drain out the overfill. So my water is constantly draining when pump shuts off and therefore my salt and calcium is constantly being lowered. I have a automatic fill. Should I just raise the float?

Two Part Question:

So, when they opened up the pool, they set up the timer to 12 hours. I read online that 8-12 hours is ok. My pool has not had many issues and all I do is add liquid chlorine to PPM in accordance with CYA level. The chemistry has been good since I opened it in the middle of May. I also use a Dolphin 3X a week and that has it's own filter per se. I have a Century UST1152 PUMP. If I reduce it to 8 hours from 12 hours is that sufficient?

Right now I have a mesh safety/winter cover, one of the companies that I got a quote from for opening said I need to replace the safety cover, but the company I hired did not mention anything. I guess I can wait and not replace, but if do replace the cost to close will be complementary (closing with filter cleaning is about $700 in North NJ) and they use some vendor in the area that has a decent product (Kayden). I have no idea how old the cover is. Here is a photo. Does it still look ok?

Thanks

My pool has a separate hot tub that is levelled above to create a waterfall. It's maybe 7 ft in diameter. It has had cracks in the past. Both times, the builder repaired it. The first time was a total concrete re-work because the original concrete crumbled. The second time, it was patched.

Now, there's a new leak. It's in the pipe from one of the turbo-clean floor cleaners. However, the area around the seat has a hollow sound when tapped (as if there's no ground underneath it) and there are multiple "rebound cracks." This is a term my leak guy used, not sure if it's a legit term. The builder refuses to work on it (the pool is 14 years old, but I do have 15 year warranty on the shotcrete). Not to mention, it has already been repaired twice by them. He was "nice" enough to give us the number of a guy that does this.

With that long winded intro, I am wondering if anyone has had to deal with something like this. My concern is more the ground underneath the hot tub and what this is going to cost. He's supposed to come see it next week, but I would like to be prepared with what to expect.

Any and all info appreciated.

Hello,
my original thread from the spring discussed some options for wiring my pump and SWG to a single relay so the SWG would only run while there is flow. Easy enough....
However, i've realized that i probably want to run on two schedules (the IntelliConnect only allows for a single schedule per relay).
How could i wire the loads so that they could operate on both relays? just a simple pig tail?
I would just need to ensure that the scheduling does not overlap to turn both relays on at the same time correct?

IntelliConnect Install Guide


Thanks,
-Philip

I'm in the process of finalizing a quote for replacement of my entire patio (currently brick - going to poured) and pool deck. Looking for input on poured vs prefab coping.

Pros and Cons, price differences. Long term maintenance concerns etc. This is an old(er) kidney shaped pool @18'x35'.

We have a waterfall spilling from the spa into the pool. When the pump is on, water leaks around the lip, and down the sides. Also, there are a couple of areas where water is coming thru the rocks below.

I’m looking for recommendations on materials to use.

I’m planning on purchasing some pool foam to fill in the gaps in the rocks, but I also wanted to run a bead of silicone down the side of the stone spout/spillway (or whatever it’s called).

No leaking apparent when the pump is off, so it looks like it has to be a problem with the stone work.

Plaster pool, I believe built around 1990, right now I have it mid-refurb, emptied, some piping dug up, waiting for weather to get down to double digit temperatures and a dry week for scrubbing and epoxy painting. Suddenly I've got 30 days to finish. Around 5 years ago I replaced the waterline tiling and must have messed up the grout because lately it's softening and releasing fine powder into the water. I'd planned to grind it out and redo it but with 30 days in Florida in July/August, that just isn't going to happen. I feel kind of done screwing with this anyway so my thought is to scrape and refill just the very soft grout areas, epoxy paint right over it and the tiling and be done with the tiling for good, painting right up to the lip/rim. Does that seem like a reasonable fix for dying grout? Should I expect trouble from the waterline being over epoxy vs. glazed tile?

I have 30 days because the insurance man showed up and said my pool is unusable and the fact that it is unusable because I'm in the middle of performing maintenance is not acceptable. They are apparently desperate to drop people going into hurricane season. My carrier options here are severely limited.

Other option is to re-assemble the piping and fill in all the digging I've already done, fill it back up ugly, call the inspector back out, and start completely over, but I really don't want to do that.

We had a storm during the night and about an 8 hour power outage... I did not have time to check pool before I left for work this morning.

This afternoon pump not running and display shows, 'set time of day" and will not respond to to any button pushes.
Anything I can do to possibly repair this ?
Maybe the board has gone bad?

The valve keeps going into the Red right when I turn on the pool pump. How to fix that?

I have a 1980's hybrid pool that will need some renovations in the coming years. Should I be aware of the water table when draining it? Any advice for safely keeping my pool empty for a few weeks?

Has anyone have any experience with KoolYourPool aerator?

www.koolyourpool.com

I'm in Austin, TX and this summer is killing our pool water temp... The water temp regularly exceeds 90F.

Hi everyone. It is still a few months away here in Chicago, but we already got the estimate from the pool company for opening, maintaining and closing the pool. We bought our house last year and continued the maintenance from the pool building company for the remainder of the season. Opening and closing this year will be about $3K, 26 weeks of weekly maintenance will be another $3K. Now opening and closing seems worth it, they took a few hours last year to close the pool with 6 guys and a bunch of equipment I don't even have.
I was thinking about outsourcing the maintenance for another year and give myself a chance to learn more about the pool this year. But for $3K I can probably get a pretty nice pool robot, test kit and other equipment and still come out ahead (if I don't mess it up myself of course). Now it seems you guys are great with getting the chemicals right and I am not too worried about that, but I don't know anything about pumps, heaters, automated pool covers etc. and I am afraid I am not equipped for that. Any advice that can help me make an informed decision would be very welcome.

Few questions:

• Since I have a SWG, should I get a TF salt test kit, or take the regular one and add some strips (I read on the pool school strips should be fine, but then why do they have the specific salt kit?)
• Would a pool robot indeed be a good purchase? I don't mind spending some time on it, but of course also want to make my life as easy as possible
• Any other equipment I should look at? We have a brush and a leaf skimmer, not sure what else I would need

I think my profile is pretty complete, although I know I have the right brands, I could not find the specific type for my SWG for instance.

Thanks everyone, and looking forward to our first full season as pool owners!

We have a salt pool and started noticing salt flakes on the Baja shelf about a year after the pool was built. Our pool guy installed a Jandy energy filter right after the salt cell as a solution, but I’m not sure about this. Is this a legitimate use of an energy filter? From everything I’ve read, energy filters are usually installed before your main filtration system, not after.

Presently I’m having an issue with a large amount of carpenter bees drinking from my above ground pool. At first it was just a few but as the summer progressed there are so many. The pool is constantly filled with them. They are not boring on my property I’m just the water source. Any suggestions on how to get them to move on? Next summer we will do preventative measure before we open. The males do not sting but the females do when provoked.I have two family members highly allergic so it’s an issue.

I’ve used the scumbug in the past, but the price is so high for basically a sponge. So on I searched for a better product.

Curious is anyone has used a product such as:
Oil Absorbents, with 3 lb. Oil Removal Capacity


Definitely on the larger size for a skimmer, but could be potentially modified and split in half.

In the first draft of pool plumbing design. I know the PB is supposed to do this, but I want to get ahead and make sure all the functionality I want is there. This is for a pool with a spa. There's a dedicated spa loop.

Functionality Required:
1. Spa heat only
2. Pool heat only
3. Spa and Pool Heat
4. Turn on/off deck jets
5. Turn on/off bubblers
6. Turn on/off pressure side vac
7. Spa to pool spillway on/off
8. Filter spa while spa in use (want to be able to replenish FC)

Three types of valves in this diagram. "|O|" is a non automated on/off valve. The two triangles are an on/off automated valve, and the three triangles are an automated three way.

Appreciate suggestions/feedback.

Hello,

I have a 18,000 gallon pool and a 360 degree raised spa with spill over that share a single pump. Even when I run my pump at 100% (3450 rpm - 56 GPM) all the sides of my spa do not spill over. This is with the valve open 80% to the spa and 20% to the pool main body.

Would the Francis equation be valid here? Based on this equation I would need 67 GPM just to have the spa functioning properly which is way more than my pump can handle. The pump is also dual purposed to circulate my pool main body.

I have:

• Pentair Intelliflo-XF 3HP variable peed pump
• Spa has 42 LF of negative edge with 360 degree spillover
• Spa has a single 2" return

My questions are:

1. How much flow is required to return to the spa to get 1/8" head spill over on all sides?
2. Do I need to increase the size of my pump or add an additional one just for the spa?
3. Should I be concerned about circulation in my pool main body?

Thank you!

We are just opening the pool now as we needed a new pump. Just had a Hayward maxflo vs 500 installed. When the pump was installed the pool was a swamp - very dark green / black in deep end. Pool company dropped 6 pucks in our skimmer (not sure what they are). FC is down to 10 from 25 a couple of days ago. CC is at 1. PH has dropped to under 6.8 (down from off the charts a couple of days ago) and TA is at 20. Can’t test CYA waiting for more test chemical. Pool is getting to a lighter green yet still can’t see bottom. Before I start dumping chemicals and $ into the pool looking for advise on what to do from here. Looking for a speedy clearing process. We put an older cartridge filter in as we always do at start up- will hose it off later as it it surely gunked up.
Thanks!

Hello to all.

I'm electric engineer and in the pool business, mostly automation and variable speed pumps. Lot of experience in troubleshooting controllers, motors, salt generators.