We just setup our Funsicle 10’x30” pool on 6/30. We’ve enjoyed a couple of days over the holiday in the water with out granddaughters. We chose this pool due to the depth - chest high to our nearly 4-year old

Hey everyone,
I started having issues with my FC over the last few days and I'm concerned that I may have a bigger issue.
My FC reading have been pretty consistent for the last several months, usually around 4-5ppm with my SWG set to 30%.
On June 25 my test results were:
FC 5,
CC 0,
PH 7.6,
TA 70,
CH 335,
CYA 70,
Salt 3400,
Temp 83,
CSI -.30
On the 26th I reran CC and PH with the following results:
FC 5,
CC 0,
PH 7.8,
CSI -012
In preparing for the weekend, I tested on Jun 30 and go the following:
FC 1.5,
CC.5,
PH 8,
TA 75,
CH 335,
CYA 80,
Salt 3400,
Temp 90,
CSI .16
I boosted my SWG overnight and got my FC readings up to 4 the next morning with CC of .5.

On July 2, FC dropped again to 2.5, so I increased my SWG to 65% and added bleach to get my FC up, but unfortunatley I'm sure the bleach was no longer effective because 101 oz of bleach only increased my FC to 3.

On July 4, my FC was back down to 1.5 so I added 104 oz of new bleach and got my FC up to 7.5 on the morning of the 4th. I tested again before my party started and FC was at an 8, which I was happy with considering the bathing load.

Last night I tested for OCLT and the results were:
FC 6.5,
CC .5.

This morning at 7:10 FC was at 5.5, CC .5. I raised the SWG to 70%.
At 12:01 FC was holding steady at 5.5 with CC of .5.

My SWG is reporting salt level of 3300 (the other day it was 3200 with no change in actual salt).
The Taylor test returns a salt level of 3400. The ideal level is 3600.

1)Could salt a couple hundred ppm below ideal cause low chlorine output?
2) Considering FC held steady at 5.5 through the morning with the SWG at 70%, does the SWG output seem too high to only maintain that FC?
3) Is there anything else I should check?
4)This afternoon I plan to pull the SWG off and clean it. I did inspect it the other day, and there was only minor scaling on it.

I have an old Pentair Minimax 400 (mid ‘90’s) and it won’t stay in heating mode.

It immediately starts up and ignites the burners but after about 15 minutes, the potentiometer dial starts buzzing and the heater shuts down. If I turn the dial hotter, it will typically kick on the heater again for a few more minutes, keep buzzing and then shut down again. The buzzing stops if I turn the dial back to colder. This happens with both the rocker switch in Pool mode or Spa mode.

My manual shows the whole control panel assembly as one item and does not list the pentiometer as an individual item. I do see a few vendors sell a Pentair potentiometer individually.

Any ideas if it is in fact the potentiometers that has gone bad or it it’s something else?

Confused... have gone to two local pool stores and they both say this is okay. The water doesn't look terrible, but it's not as sparkly clear as usual.. almost has a bit of a haze recently.

Based on the pool school posts here, my CYA looks low. ALK looks high. Is that correct? Any help please?

I have a SWG. I'm aware I have to put some salt in, but I'm more concerned about the other numbers. Thank you.

I am in Phoenix with a 16,000 pool
Found TFP several years ago and shifting from tabs to liquid chlorine solved massive CYA driven problems. Aside from being a pain, the cost of the water needed to refill a pool after draining here in Phoenix is very high (~$200-250)
While I understand and agree with the basic pool chemistry points, the cost of liquid chlorine has become prohibitive. I get mine from a distant pool store where liquid chlorine is its major product. But it now costs $7.50/gallon. In the three months when daytime temperatures are in triple digits (often above 110F) I need to use an absolute minimum of a half gallon every evening, and really ought to be adding a full gallon per day. This seems consistent with the usage other users in very hot areas have reported. Over that three month period a gallon per day would cost $675. This is a lot more than the cost of tabs plus an annual drain and refill due to high CYA. And of course this doesnt include the chlorine costs in other months when temperatures are merely 90F.
Found a 2015 threat when a member from Vegas raised the same question but was basically blown off with a "liquid chlorine is always better" reply. Which for the vast majority of members would be accurate. But it seems that if liquid chlorine cost skyrockets with very high temperatures it might not be for everyone.
Is there some major problem with this cost analysis?

Hello

This is our first year owning a pool. Its a coleman 12x24 (about 7,000gal or 27,000L). We have the generic cartridge pump that came with the pool. Should I upgrade the pump. If so any suggestions?

Hello all,

My original single speed pump died, and I replaced it with an Ecostar VSP. I got it all working/communicating via the data cable and all, but would like to get your thoughts if my automation panel is/was wired correctly for the equipment.

I previously had a polaris booster pump which I took out and am using as an extra return. It was hooked up to AUX1 relay feeding off of the filter relay.

I have a Raypak 406A pool heater fed by 240V off of the AUX1 relay which is suplyed by through the filter relay.

I understand that for proper control of the pump (per the addendum in other posts) the pump needs to be wired directly to the breaker. I saw a YouTube video for a pentair wiring and the guy wired it "directly" by connecting the output lines to the pump to the supply side in the relay. It's what I've done as well but am wondering if that is proper (per picture).

Should I install a separate GFCI double pole breaker for the heater? If so, should the heater be wired into it, bypassing the relays? Does anything need to be done to detect no flow (currently handled when filter is not on - I don't have a flow switch).

Any other recommendations around the wiring?

Thanks for all your help and useful info on this forum!

I got a Coleman index pool from my kids and bought a new pump for it this yr. Hooked everything up turned it on set the timer to 12 and put chemicals in and went to bed. Got up this morning go out to check on it pump was not running so put it on where it will run with out timer still won't come on checked to make sure filter was good. Checked the gfi it's flashing green. So not sure if I'm missing something any thoughts would be appreciated.

We installed this liner 2 years ago from liner world. It has faded terribly and unevenly. It is below the water line but I do not think it is from water chemistry bc I regularly check and nothing has been way off. It is in the sun almost all day. It now has 2 leaks, one on the side and one on the bottom. We’ve tried patching with no luck. It has flooded our yard and messed with our septic, we are now draining the rest with pump. I’m not sure we can get the liner warrantied but I am going to try. The top rail is really rusted all the way around so I was thinking of pulling back the liner to check for rust before buying a new liner in case we need a whole new pool. My 5 & 8 year old are devastated. Any advice??

My first official test results with my brand new K-2009:

CYA: 30
FC: 17 (whoops )
TC: 17
CC: 0.0
PH: 7.3
TA: 80
CH (not tested)

Nice to see I didn’t undershoot the LC , but I think I’ll let it air out for a couple of days……..
Quite an eye-opener.

Hi,

I have a pool and spa, separate bodies of water, using shared equipment.

It's all controlled by Intellicenter with the i8PS personality module. The pump is a Pentair VSF, with RS485 control. The pump is always powered, and speed is controlled by the Intellicenter.

The Intellicenter doesn't seem to handle switching bodies correctly.

Here's what I've tested / observed.

WITH valve delay
Moving from pool to spa works, but the pump runs during the 'valve delay' period.
Moving from spa to pool does NOT work. The pump is set to 0 speed immediately after the move from spa (which I think is correct) but does not get started once the valve delay completes.
In this 'stopped' state, the app shows the pump is meant to be on and running the pool.
If I turn the pool off and back on, the pump starts.

WITHOUT valve delay
Moving from spa to pool or from pool to spa works. Pump remains running.

The problem is that I need the valve delay to stop my spa overflowing. Each transition pushes a bit of pool water into the spa if the pump runs during that period.

Anyone else seen this, or know how to address it?

I have NOT tried powering the pump off the filter relay, as I'm trying to avoid all the 'lost communication' alarms (and it shouldn't be necessary).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

John

Hi so I was battling a leak by my skimmer gasket , I repaired the leak and it seems to be ok , haven’t been in the pool cause I have a broken foot but yesterday my MIL and SIL went in and said where the shallow end starts to slope down they felt a large solid bubble …

Now is it from ground water ? We are in NJ it has rained alot lately ,

Or is it from the leak ? Is there still another leak idk where to go from here it’s my first pool , pool companies around here r impossible to get a hold of .

Please reply or DM any advice / suggestions / tips . Thank you!

I was running out of Taylor R-0001 and R-0002 reagents so I bought some refills. The ones I already have are at least 2 seasons old, probably older. In the summer they sit in a storage box with a lid under the pool deck. In the winter they are stored in my conditioned crawlspace. last week the refills arrived so I decided to run a chlorine test with them. I have a K-2005 kit. The new reagents tested higher levels of chlorine than the old ones did.
pH is at 7.4 - my pool always starts very low in the spring, then doesn't move much once I get the pH up.
Chlorine (old reagent) 5-10
Chlorine (new reagent) 15 or higher

Should I be replacing the reagents every season? I think I have been over-chlorinating the pool.

Seems this is all home depot carrys now, anyone had any experience with it, what ive read is its 20% acid.

Hi all, my first post here since actually registering. Really grateful to the community here.

I have a Rheem 406A Propane heater for a 15K gallon inground pool. Everything works totally fine in manual mode. I'm building my own pool controller based on a Raspberry Pi computer, an 8-switch relay, and some cool free software. Here's an example of the kinds of instructions I'm following.

I recently replaced the control board (a raypack 013464). The instructions say that you provide 24VAC on the blue wire, and then a path to common on either the black or the orange and that's how it knows whether you want spa temp, pool temp, or no heat. I've built this with my relays and it delivers what I think is the right electric signal in the right circumstances.

The problem is this: I put the heater into 'remote' mode (hold down temp up/down buttons for a few seconds). I trigger the voltage from my automation system. Nothing happens. I'll see 'remote. no demand' on the display. It never changes. If I take it out of remote mode, and I use the 'mode' button to turn it on/off and set temperatures, it works fine. E.g., putting into spa mode will spark and heat to spa temperature.

I took my electric meter out to measure the voltage at the heater. When I have it on, I see 28.8V AC on the blue/orange path (for example). Then I switch it and I see 28.8 VAC on the blue/black path. Then I turn it off and I see like maybe 1V AC. Interestingly, when I have 28.8 VAC running across one circuit, I seem to have about 10 VDC running on the other. At least that's what I *think* the readings show. (The "AC" on my multimeter disappears, and about 10.1 V appears on the display). That's weird. I don't know if it's an incorrect reading, related to my problem, or just spurious information.

Below is a wiring diagram of how it looks. If relay 7 is active, 24VAC flows from COM to NO ("NO" means normally open). Power then passes via relay 8. Either it goes over the NC (normally closed) path, which is the orange wire for pool temperature, or it flows over the NO path to the black wire, indicating spa temperature. If Relay 7 is off, no power flows at all. This seems like the right wiring. But the heater doesn't respond.

Anybody have ideas what I should try next?

Good morning all!

I received an email/alarm yesterday regarding a communication loss: Alarm for " Home" at Jul 4, 2023 17:32:45, Reason:MSP_DEV_COMM_LOSS,Comm Loss Device:a1430fe2af HUA:OPLMP.

I initially ignored and cleared it because everything started back up fine, or so I thought. This morning at start up, I noticed no sensors were working. There is communication to the pump, but not reading anything from the salt cell, air or water temp sensors.

We did have a nasty storm last night…

Tried some initially trouble shooting but nothing has changed. Not even sure if the cell is producing chlorine at this point, as I haven’t seen any bubbles on the water.

Upon opening the panel up, I noticed what looked like a dent in one of the chips on the main board (see attached pic). I have check all of the fuses, including the 20a, 4a and slow blow glass fuses. I can’t really find anything in the manual about those slow blow glass fuses, but they do look a little cloudy and I can’t tell if they are blown.

Any advice? I see main boards online for around $1k.

Thanks in advance.

Hi, we recently bought the house with the unground pool on property. We decided to open it in May. From the previous owner we learned that pool was not opened for last 3 years. When opened, there was a lot of leaves in it, so while working on pump/filter issues we clean up as much as we could. Few things were done: we change the pump to new one, as the old one was leaking, the chlorinator and the filter were changed as well. Now we have sand filter. The swimming pool is ~18,000 gallons.
The bottom was vacuumed at least twice, with a lot of debris removed.
Last Wednesday, (6/28) after we knew all is working we added 15 gallons of liquid chlorine, water from green changed to grey/brownish Filter is backwashed ~ 2x/24 hours since that day. On Monday (7/3) we added additional 10 gallons of chlorine, as the water did not improve (still very cloudy, color did not change). We just purchased the kit recommended to measure water parameters at home (didn't arrive yet), so we used our local pool store to check the water (last Friday): chlorine was very high (I still can't measure that with my small home kit, as is still above 5); pH ~7.2; alkalinity ~80 ppm, CYA ~6. Calcium was adjusted as it was 0 at that time, but I don't know what is now, as we didn't measure it yet. We have some stabilizer to increase CYA as well, but we were told not to do that until the chlorine is in range.
My biggest concern is how the water looks after a week: very cloudy, brownings/ grayish, we can't see more than 2 steps down. I know that sand filter is slower that the other but concerning is that there is not much going on and water is still cloudy and not improving. Am I just impatient? How long it will take to clarify the water? Should we keep shocking with chlorine or it does take some time now to filter the water? Should we add the CYA now or wait until the water is clear and chlorine in range? The pictures with water attached.
Any advices will be highly appreciated

The last two years a neighbor of ours lights off very elaborate and damaging fireworks and we end up having a lot of debris in our pool. We have what looks like gun powder in our pool, orange sand like material, that can only be taken out with the robot vacuum. Are there any dangerous side effects to what we are finding in our pool. Should we get metal remover chemicals? Are there any dangers to us and our young children?

A friend of mine came over and saw my many jugs of 10% chlorine that I get from Walmart. He told me about a local chemical company that sells to the public in Greenville, SC. They just delivered my 55 gallon drum of 12.5% and a siphon pump for a total of $290. That is about $125 cheaper than buying single gallons
in my area.

If you have chemical companies in your area that sell straight chlorine, it might be worth checking out.

The pump was $25. I can reuse that for the next drum.

Hi - I’ve been following TF Pool methods and test kit for three years and my water has been crystal clear and never green. I do however notice a green ring at water level on the stairs. My wife keeps complaining of our daughters hair getting a slight green tint and yesterday a guests white top started to get a green tint to it. I bought copper test strips and both times I tested in past year it shows ideal. Pool is 40x20 liner with IC40, DE filter. Photos attached and screenshot of pool levels. FC low at 3 ppm but I just increased cell run time now that we’re in the hottest period. Up until last week it was hovering around 5ppm.

Hi,
First post, after a lot of reading.
After 8 years of working normally, the relay that controls aux 5 started clicking on and off rapidly yesterday. Which caused my equipment to shut off. There is nothing connected to the aux 5 relay. After doing some troubleshooting, I found that the problem was actually the remote. Aux 5 was also flashing on the remote. When I took out the batteries of the remote, everything went back to normal, and worked properly. I left the remote over night and put new batteries in it this morning. The aux 5 light started flashing again and the pool equipment stopped again. My question is…Is there anyway I can stop the signal from aux 5 from being sent to the remote, since I don’t use it anyway, or do I need a new remote. Thank you for your help.
Steve

Hello all - Hoping for some advice. I have about a 6 year old Pentair SD80 sand filter. This year, like 3 months ago I paid almost $1k to have a company put in new laterals and 'change' the sand to glass media. Didn't realize until job was 1/2 done that apparently I already had glass media in there instead of sand. Obviously kicking myself but is what it is, job was done. Couple months later the filter started to leak from the seam, some small pinholes that were getting worse. I tried to mend it with some fiberglass patching from the inside and outside, as expected it won't hold so time for a replacement.

I have a replacement Pentair SD 80 coming which has the multiport on top and laterals included. Ideally I want to re-use the glass media I just had put in the old filter. It is about 225 lbs of fine and 75 lbs of coarse and around here will be close to $500 to buy it again.

My 'plan' is to use a wheel cutter to cut a window in the top of the broken filter. I am going to try to put some towels over the glass on the inside through the top opening to attempt to keep the fiberglass / plastic pieces I will be cutting from getting mixed into the glass. Once I have the window cut I plan on scooping out the glass into containers that I can weigh at the end. I am hoping I will be able to keep the coarse and the fine separated by sight when I get towards the bottom.

Ideally, I am hoping that maybe I just have to buy maybe 2 bags of coarse and 1 bag of fine due to waste in my process when filling up the new filter.

Fully realize plans are only good until the first unforeseen issue so figured I would ask to see if anyone has better advice or thinks I am going about this wrong. With the glass being just a few months old I just think that it is worth the effort to re-use it.

Thanks for any advice / opinions,
Gary

Hi all,
Have what seems to be a strange issue. 3rd startup year with salt pool and have the ic60 intellichlor. This year everything appeared normal, balanced water, powered up ic60, lights on and looks like it’s running normally. First thing I noticed it that the system wasn’t using any acid. But then the chlorine levels still weren’t coming up and we started getting some algae I knew there was definitely an issue. Since the ic60 lights were functioning normally, I was thinking the chlorinator had failed early and needed to be replaced. Now I received a new ic60 and it’s behaving the same way. Powers up, lights all greeen, indicating it’s chlorinating. Been on for 4 days and chlorine is way down and hasn’t called for any acid.

Does anyone have experience with the power supply failing such that all the lights would still indicate that everything is ok but the cell not produce anything. I just tested the DC voltage and it was 27 without the ic60 connected.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Found your site while researching test kits and some issues Im having with my pool while its being installed.

I have several concerns about things that have been done havent been done and things I think should be done.

Which forum should I ask about my concerns?

3 year old pool:

A couple months ago my pump started having trouble staying primed and maintaining pressure, ton of air in basket.

I replaced every o-ring on the lids and and valves, ran without filters, plugged pump-drain plugs, but no change. Tried soapy water on all the joints and could really find anything.

I used to be able to run my pump at 2500rpm but now it won’t maintain prime/pressure unless it’s at least 2700-3000rpm.

Pump loses prime the quickest when sucking from the cleaner port (maybe because of the distance/pressure?) but the issue persists even for the main drain and skimmer. Some days the pump can run all day without going dry and others, the basket empties fast. (I assume dirt underground sucks into the leak and holds some days)

That makes me believe the suction leak is after the suction valves and before the pump.
I have an in-ground leafvac canister before the pump. I have a feeling the suction leak is there, before the pump (2 pvc elbows underground), the one place I can’t check.

Does this seem likely? How much am I looking at in terms of repair?
Would be nice if I could reach down into the canister and patch the 3 inch pipe from the inside.

Inspired by a post I saw here at tfp, I mocked up a prototype of a solar cover holder.
The idea is great - material not so much, as the pipes are flimsy and bendy. But that’s what we had at home.
So we’ll work on improving - I just needed to see how it worked in a practical sense, and I’m a fan

Folds away for safety - and protection from wind.

I'm having a strange issue. For the past few days, the SWG cannot produce enough chlorine. In the winter I ran it at 10-30% and it did just fine. I assumed that I would have to bump it up to 80% in the summer and it would be great. However, for the past few days I've had it at 100% and it cannot keep up. Last night I left the pump running at 100% and this morning I had gain of 1 ppm FC vs the previous evening.

I took some water to the pool store to make sure I wasn't going crazy and the results were similar.


Last night FC was at 4.0.

I ended up buying a small bucket of chlorine tablets and a basket to help the SWG. Is this what I'm supposed to be doing and will it cause any chemistry changes in the water other than FC increase?

Looking at my records, you'll see that FC likes to be around 6-7 ppm. I don't really know how could it be that this SWG can't keep up with chlorine production. There has to be something wrong here, right?

The cell is nice and clean, no buildup of any kind. Pump runs for about 8 hours a day at 2000 rpm. The water looks good as well.

EDIT: I just measured FC again and came in at 3.5 ppm. SWG ran all day at 80%, there is a tablet in the water (has been there since 11 am or so), and I still lost 1.5 ppm during the day. What is happening?

Hi all. I'm just starting the pool building process. We decided on an inground gunite pool and I'm finding these forums to be a tremendous help. I think we're going 18'x36' rectangle sports OR deep end with spa and sun shelf. I'm here to learn all about the many choices that come with having an IGP installed, along with regrets and must haves.

Thank you all for the information and I look forward to the completion of this whole process!

Are there any devices to attach pumice stones (like the rectangular "original pumice stone" and knockoffs) to a telescoping pole? I'm fighting some scale and the walls I can mostly do by hand, but the worst spots are actually on the floor, and they're impossible to do by hand. I've seen some that come pre-attached to pole connections, but they're small and I would probably go through 20 of those! And then have a ton of useless pole pieces! Surely there's a better option!