Hi,


New to the forum. Have read lots of good info the past few weeks and have finally decided to start a thread.

Looking to get an in ground pool installed. I live in the suburbs of Chicago. (Long Grove, Illinois)

15x39 (possibly 18x40 if gunite).

I have a high water table. Very high water table. I know this from tests and my local septic contractor. It is confirmed.

My options are FG from Latham Corinthian 16 or same design in gunite.

Price for the FG is 100K. Price for the gunite is 160K.

I am not saying money is not a factor, but it is NOT primary factor. I would say longevity with high water table being the main reason for going one way or another.

Am I annoyed the difference is so large? I would say yes because if it was close I would go gunite. Still not for sure, but decision I believe to be way easier!

Just looking for everyones thoughts? Obviously people from this region would be great, but I welcome all comments and appreciate each one!



Excited either way I go!

Hello from turner maine, avid pool guy here willing to help when and where I can and also looking for help with automation, have a 24’ round pool and have had it for 5 years

I have always used hydrochloric acid to lower the PH, but it seems like everyone is using sulphuric acid for this.
Is there any specific reason for this. Is SA better than HA?

The reason I use HA is, that we always have it at home and I can get it at the local supermarket - SA can only be found in home-improvement stores and similar.

I totally forgot to introduce myself - just bumped in and started loading questions on you
I am F, 46 and living in Denmark with my SO and 3 sons (11, 17 and 19)

Being from Scandinavia, we don't have a large pool tradition here. When I grew up, only "the rich ones" had pools. Always IG, typically 8-shaped.
The rest of us got a new paddling pool for the garden every summer.

As the years have passed, pools have become more common, but mostly Intex-type. 95% of all owners empty them each fall and store them in the shed.

And 98% maintain them by "dump and pray", following test strips and guides saying 1-3 ppm FC.
I was one of them until last summer, when I discovered TFP.
I don't have access to the correct testing kits, so I go by my photometer and common sense........

Hi, we have a 2hp Pentair fixed speed pump that runs our sheer descents. I noticed a week ago that the pump is no longer kicking on when scheduled.

The pump has run for 3 years without issue and the control system shows it should be on (Intellicenter).

No breakers are tripped. I do see there is a bit of corrosion on the top cover, but it appears to still be sealing. Any suggestions how best to troubleshoot?

I started off with a previous post thinking I had DE at the bottom of my pool. Now I don't believe it was.

Folks in here suggested mustard algae, as did the guys who built my pool. I did both the SLAM process and the algaecide method ( I know, go ahead and yell). The suspected "algae" never turned brown as it was supposed to. Nevertheless, I vacuumed to waste and then used the robot. I still go out every day and see collections of this dirt in great quantities trapped in corners and wrinkles. Today after my robot picked it up, I did a bit more analysis. Attached is a picture. It's the consistency of beach sand (coarse).Shown is several ounces in a coffee cup.

The fatalist in me is now suspecting an underground pipe leak letting this material in. I'm contemplating having someone run a camera down the pipes.
Pool is crystal clear (never cloudy) and the residue just sits on the bottom. I don't see anything too coarse in the skimmer or skimmer socks. Here's some chemistry from today for the record.:

FC- 4
TC- 4
CC- 0
pH- 8.1
Hardness- 163
Alkalinity- 104
CYA- 33
Copper- .4 (Dang algaecide, lesson learned)
Phosphates- 1230
Salt- 3300

Greetings;

So, I'm in need of a second pool pump for my juacuzzi. I currently have a Pentair Intelliflo VSF, connected to their ScreenLogic or whatever it is called. It can control only one pump.

Ran across this new Black and Decker 3HP pump, which is significantly cheaper that another VSF.

Has anyone tried to hack the controller yet, so maybe it can be remote controlled?

The manual gives a hint that the keypad is communicating with the pump via a 5 wire cable:
E-16—Communication Link between the HMI and Motor Control has been Lost: Check the jacketed wire on the back side of the keypad inside the drive top cover. Ensure that the 5 pin connector is properly plugged into the socket and that there is no damage to the cable.
That would indicate a communication protocol of some sort...

Cheers.

I'm new to the forum. Thanks in advance for feedback.
I'm building a new pool 20' x 40' (Cross Section and CAD image attached) and would appreciate the experience of the forum with a few questions.

• Is slope of 1:7 ok for the sports end of the pool (left side)?
• Is 11' on either side of center enough length for the sports side of pool (volleyball / basketball)?
• Is 1:22 slope reasonable for the shallow end (right side)?

If needed, I could go a little bit longer (couple of feet) if it would made an substantial improvement.

Thanks
Bill

We have a 3 year old saltwater pool. In May our IC40 intellichlor went out. Had our pool guy come out to diagnose and told us to buy a new one. Hubby installed it and it's been turning on ok, however, the green cell light has never turned on. The flow and salt levels are green. Is there something we missed when setting it up or did we get a faulty chloinator? It's producing zero chlorine. Thanks in advance.

I have some stains on my PebbleTec that began last summer and are increasing in numbers THIS summer. It's been suggested to try Jack's Magic Stain ID Kit. I read reviews on this product and there are a lot of good reviews and results, but some people said it actually CAUSED some stains in their pool that they did not previously have. So obviously now I am a bit hesitant to try it.

Has anyone actually tried this product and what were YOUR results? Did it CAUSE any staining?

This is what I’ve been vacuuming up yesterday and today (nylon stocking in vacuum hose)
The white stuff turns in to very fine chalky dust when dry.
Dead algae……? Or……..?

What’s up y’all. Been having a pool since 2021 and pool pump broke. Trying to overhaul motor and lookin’ for help. Giddy up!

We are strongly considering putting a pool for the family (3 elementary aged kids) and talked with one company on design and concepts. I have lived in a home with a pool, so I am in the process of learning as much as I can about the process. I hope to use this thread for questions and to document/show progress. First off, lots of questions:

We like the unique design and natural look of Biodesign pools. We looked at a home with one installed, but I am struggling to find much relevant to the this type of pool construction on forums. Does anyone have any thoughts or resources on these types of pools? Any positive or negative experiences?

We have a concept drawn up below with rough estimates on size to show a 10k gallon pool w/ 527 ft2 surface area. This includes one water feature, no spa, and it will be a chlorine + mineral water pool (this is what biodesign uses). We are torn on the layout. The current version, shown below, has the deep end in the middle of the pool. This would allow the kids to play valley ball or some other games across the pool. The other option would be to have a traditional layout with the deeper at the end of the pool, opposite of the beach. Current "deep" is only 5 ft. Anyone have preferences on layout and depths based on how their pool gets used?

I am going to ask for specifics equipment models, but as a starting point, this was listed under "standard pool equipment" in the contract:
Main Pump: Pentair Variable Speed 3hp Pump
Filter: Pentair Commercial Sand with Glass – sized for pool
Blower: 1 HP Blower
Cleaner: BTW 600 Robot Cleaner
Control Box: Pentair Automation – Easytouch 4
Remotes: Iphone or Android
Sanitizers: Inline chlorinator and mineral cartridge

Any thoughts on design, equipment, or technical specs.

Hello everyone,
I have an intex Krystal Clear sand filter and I am running into some issues when trying to backwash. ill be honest our pool got decently dirty this off season. When we got the pump up and running everything was working great. The problem is when I go to backwash it there is barely any pressure coming out of the drain port. When I rinse the sand there is a lot of water coming out and when I filter there is good pressure coming out of the return port in the pool. I only loose pressure when I backwash. When the pump is in "filter" my pressure gage is only showing in the line right between yellow and green. any ideas as to why when I backwash there is barely any water coming out of the drain port?

Thanks all!

I've been using a 12mil clear solar cover for the last two years, and based on my records, I think it adds about 5deg F to the pool temperature in the steady state during swim season. Due to pandemic, I also haven't been away from home for more than two days during swim season.

I was wondering if I take the cover off while I'm out of town and let trichlor pucks do their thing, when I get back in town and put the cover back on, how long does it take to reach steady state heating? Is it next day effect? or does it take a couple of days?

I've always been too afraid of losing heat to conduct the obvious experiment myself

Hello everyone!

My name is Jim,. I am originally from Upstate NY, had a vinyl liner pool for 20 years, relocated to FL in 2021.

I now have a 14 x 28 in ground pool with sun shelf and jacuzzi, gunite with diamond coat, water from hose filled 3 weeks ago, saline generator on x 1 week.

So far so good, but I am having issue with ph 9 per meter, and at least 8.4 per test strip. I am still brushing pool surfaces as often asI can.

Any advice about ph ?

Jim

Hello from Wappingers Falls, NY in the beautiful Hudson Valley. I am new here and looking for advice on an older in-ground pool.

Earlier this week I finally had enough of the garbage pool store replacement baskets that are in my skimmers. Both of them were cracked and dealing with the hairnet "skimmer socks" was annoying since they had a metal bar to contend with. Plus the old ones kept floating! Despite my best efforts, tons of junk made it past them (due to the floating) and would end up in my pump basket and filter. I saw someone mention the Val-Pak skimmer baskets on here a couple of weeks ago and decided to give them a shot.



What a difference! These things are practically bulletproof compared to the cheap, thin wall junk. The old ones may have been made of tissue paper, comparatively. Amazon did a really bang up job shipping these.. they included them in a shipment with a big case of Red Bull. Fortunately, these baskets are so robust, they made the trip over with no problem. Any other ones would have been reduced a pile of broken plastic.

They do NOT have a stupid metal bar handle, instead they have a handle formed into the side of the basket, making it a breeze to use hairnets. They are also weighted, and already seem to be doing a much better job at not floating. Initial impressions are very positive and I can't wait to see how they hold up. Made in USA too! For anyone else with the Pentair/Pac-Fab Bermuda skimmers, the part number is V22-110.

My pool was a mess that I unknowingly created before I read on this site. I done a AA treatment then drained half the pool, refilled, and beginning to get my cya and chlorine levels back to normal. My PH, Alk, & salt look decent now, but pool is currently very cloudy. My main question is should I use the SWG to bring it back up, or use LC to bring it up then turn on the SWG? I have added purple stuff and poly 60. Any other suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

PH 7.4
Alk 91
FC .10
CYA 20

I have a Hot Spring Spa, Prodigy, Model H, Serial Number H3E1249. It appears to be leaking from somewhere behind the drain valve. It looks similar to this.



My particular spa has one drain at the lowest part of the tub. There are two drains on my spa, located underneath the maintenance panel. One has a lever on the valve body, while the other does not. The one with the lever, somewhere behind it is leaking. Any tips on how to fix the leak?

I looked online for example:

Hot Spring Spas 30592 Drain Valve, Hose Shut-Off

To see if I could find a diagram for my spa of this part and what it is connected to. Under specifications, none of the diagrams seem to match my spa. But this is my closest one.



Part 10 and 11, I'm not able to locate on my spa.

Because it seems to be leaking from behind the vale, I think the valve is closing properly. Anyways, I was thinking of untwisting the drain valve with the handle from the tube adapter, putting new tape around it and seeing if that helps. The valve itself seems already pretty tight. I'm not able to loosen it or tighten it by hand. There are wrench flats on it, but I'm not sure what size socket I need. I would assume some sort of special one, with a cut out for the handle. Not sure where to get such a socket, but I presume it would be a specialty one.



It's in a recessed cutout at the bottom of the spa, so channel lock pliers would not help, not enough clearance. The only thing I could think of is a socket. If successful in removing the valve (if I ever find the right tool), I would be unsure how much torque to tighten the thing back down in place with. Anyone know? I would use a torque wrench.

If retaping the valve does not work, then I would presume it's leaking from somewhere else, further back. How do I troubleshoot or investigate further to attempt to fix this issue? How would I access the rest of the parts in the drain system to look for where it's leaking? I'm learning to be a mechanic, so jack stands, floor jacks, wrenches, so forth I have plenty. Not sure if I would have to access the rest of the drain system from beneath the spa? If so, I wouldn't be sure how to safely jack and support the spa in the air safely.

Thanks for any help or tips on how to fix a leaking spa that is leaking in the drain system somewhere.

Also, I might add, that this spa hasn't been used for awhile, and it came with our house when we bought it, so the history is unknown to us. However, it's an indoor spa. I do live in an area that gets below freezing typically in the winter. It sits in a room with no heat, however there's heat inside of the house that the room is in that presumably was always heated, because people were living in it, so I doubt anything could have frozen causing damage.

Sorry for another white flakes thread. First time owner of salt pool. My numbers are below. Getting a lot of white flakes from the salt cell. Just bought this house and the salt cell is a year old. I have acid washed it. My pool guy says the plates are bad and need a new salt cell. However it still makes chlorine just fine and I have not seen any other threads attributing white flakes to a bad cell. I have added about 5 gallons of acid to bring the pH and TA down. Any info is much appreciated!

Water temp 80
Chlorine 5
pH 7.4
TA 150
Calcium 320
Cya 75
Salt 3600

Hello TFP community, this is the pic of my pool inlet return. The fitting was missing when I first got the house and pool. I put a 1” pvc elbow which doesn’t screw in properly, but stays put and of course sticks out from the wall. The female thread is a tad larger than a 1” and yet 1-1/4” doesn’t fit. Not sure what will fit. Also noticed the two tabs for screws.
Has anyone come across a return like this? Any advice for me, what part or kit to get the return proper again (eg. Put an eyeball or something there)?
Thank you in advance! Any thought/pointer is greatly appreciated.

Hello all. I just joined the forum and have some questions. I have not yet purchased a test kit so I can only provide what my latest pool store results were.
Adjusted Alkalinity: 56.2
PH: 7.5
FC: 2
Calcium Hardness: 186
CYA: 117
Phosphate: 500

I've already adjusted the PH and alkalinity using baking soda and muriatic acid. I know I'll need to drain some water and replace to get rid of the CYA which will probably just throw off the PH that I just fixed.

Up until now I've been using Trichlor tabs and shocking with Clorox extra blue which has sodium dichloro something or other. No wonder my CYA is climbing every week.

I want to start using liquid chlorine but I'm not sure how much it will take. Once I get CYA down, and chlorine levels in check, how much liquid chlorine should I expect to have to use every day to maintain levels in a 22,600 gallon pool?

Will it take a gallon every day? 1/2 a gallon?

Just trying to figure out if I'll really be saving that much switching to this method.

What really stinks is that I just bought a 40lb bucket of Trichlor tabs at sam's club for 199.98 thinking I was getting a good deal and now I don't think I want to use it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I have an indoor pool and decided to bite the bullet and learn how to manage the chemistry myself. (I am a nerd at heart so this came naturally.)

I initially got a WaterGuru S2 and it reported off-the-charts FC. (It only reports up to 12.9 and my guess is I was well into the 30s before I reduced it.) I also noticed the water was somewhat cloudy and there were white chalky deposits on the bottom and on the steps. I found TFP via searching for what was causing the white deposits.

After a few days of reading this forum I got Pool Chemistry 101 under my belt and the cause was clear: I’d been using trichlor pucks in a feeder for the last year or so, not really paying attention to the levels and just using test strips periodically. Since this is an indoor pool, you probably know where this is going: FC was too high, yes, but CYA was off the charts (>100) and the chalky white stuff was calcium from the pucks. pH was also high (>8).

Interestingly the WaterGuru reported random and incredible values for TA, CH and CYA. Like CYA of 385 (!). So I took the TFP advice and bought a Taylor test kit and took some real measurements. I still didn’t have a decent CYA number, though, because I didn’t realize you need to look for the black dot in bright sunlight; I was reading it indoors.

I was able to get pH and FC into reasonable ranges with chemicals. But to my dismay, I learned here that there is no way to lower CYA short of water exchange. So using the pump-and-fill exchange method detailed here, I exchanged about 50% of the water in the pool. This got CYA down to ~50 (I learned how to read the black dot test properly) but… now my water was green.

Experts here will know my water turned green due to iron in my fill water. The good news is that by running a brand new filter and running the Dolphin pool bot a few times it cleared the iron out in about 24 hours. The Dolphin fine filter was coated in brown; this suggests to me that running the Dolphin multiple times (I probably ran it for 4x 3-hour cycles) is a viable way to remove iron from your water.

I’ve now got it pretty close to ideal, which feels like quite an accomplishment:

FC 7.5
pH 7.7
CYA 45-55
TA 90
CH 340

And of course I‘ll only use liquid chlorine from now on. And even now the WaterGuru reports just absurd numbers for CYA (it says 158 one test and then 350 the next). My observation is that the WaterGuru is actually pretty close to the Taylor readings on FC and pH but is utterly useless on the other three values. So there’s really no reason to use the 5-way tests in my opinion.

Thanks to everyone whose makes TFP such an amazing resource!

Dave

Hi everyone

I've had this pool for a couple years now, built new by me. I have a TF-Pro testkit that I test constantly with. My problem is that, my salt test kit has been reading and still does read 3600 for over a year now. The ONLY thing I've done to my pool in the last year is added (I'd have to check exactly) 50 or so pounds of boric acid to my pool. That was the fall of 2022. My salt has been reading around 4100 for the last couple months and today it hit 4600 (on my screenlogic app). Is this thing faulty, or is it somehow reading the boric acid in the water and messing up the reading? I can't find much info on this anywhere, but now my chlorine is only around 5 and I have CYA between 70 and 90. I live in Las Vegas and today is the first real day that it's gotten hot enough to get my pool above 78 degrees (I don't have a ton of direct sun exposure. Sun doesn't fully cover my pool until around 1pm and then it's only full coverage until 5pm).

In the meantime, is my pool generating chlorine at 4600?

has anybody got a good resolution photo of the back side of an i5PS personality board? I found this one from @pjt , but I want the other side...

Anyone have a clue what should be over this PVC pipe in my spa? I have two drains with covers and this is in the middle, so I’m not sure exactly what this cover should be or how it got lost. Thanks for the help.

I have been trying to get my Jandy LXI 400 (propane) working for the last year and a half and still no luck. Here is the latest:
Blower comes on, I hear the 3 clicks, I smell propane, nothing ignites, get “Ignition Lockout” error. So far I have:
1) replaced flame sensor
2) replaced ignighter
3) replaced gas valve
4) replaced Fenwell control module
5) checked hoses to air pressure switch for cracks
6) checked air pressure switch with multimeter
7) checked propane level in main tank
8) removed small visible amount of corrosion on the Universal Controller Power Interface
9) Had an HVAC guy out and he attempted to bypass the Air Pressure Switch to see if it would ignite and it would not

Next step:
1) Replace the Air Pressure Switch?

Looking at old threads, two other options are:
1) check gas with manometer even though we clearly smell propane
2) clean off “2 spade connectors”, but I am not sure where or what these are

Any other suggestions?

New pool and inground spa owner here. We truly appreciate the wealth of knowledge here.

This thread refers to our spa.

Both pool and spa are fiberglass, completely independent of each other (separate SWG, filters, pumps and heaters).

Our spa pump (Hayward Tristar VS 900) has never fully primed. There's always a lot of air in the filter basket housing. There seems to be enough water for it the run, but there is a good amount of air, about 2 full inches of air, always.

We don't have a check valve, or any valve on the suction side.

We've tried bleeding air out of spa filter valve, magic lube on filter housing lid o-ring, checking for suction side leaks with soapy water (none found, above ground anyway).

PB suggested lube on the o-ring, which we had already tried. They'll be back in 6 weeks to finish our patio and will look at it then, but kind of wanting to figure it out more quickly.

We do have an air bubbler, but even when it's off, there are always steady small bubbles coming out of the returns, even with the pump on low and even when SWG is off. Is this normal for spas due to the plumbing? Is air always introduced since we have a bubbler installed, even when it's turned off? Could these consistent bubbles be caused by the air in the pump? Could the air in pump be caused by the plumbing for the bubbler? I've heard of some kind of "loop" used for spa jets, but don't fully understand and am not sure if ours is plumbed that way.

Thank you!

Hi there,
I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before or if it sounds stupid.

My intelliflo pump which is connecting to Easy touch system was acting up couple days ago not starting and not responding
After some troubleshooting I found comm failure between pump and easy touch
I played with the RS cable from the pump side and communication was successful for sometime
I noticed a broken o ring and one of the connectors from the pump controller side was rusted.
I used wd-40 connector cleaner and it is now working but I believe it is exposed to the rain and elements and will rust again.
I was wondering if I can purchase the part in the picture or make it by myself or I have to buy the whole thing?
Thanks for your help