Recent content by chatcher

I don't "dive in", but I like having a deep end to swim around in. Plus, playing games from the deep end is better exercise. Plus, it's a good way to even mismatched players, by putting better one(s) in deep water. You can reason and rationalize all day long about the pros and cons, and the...

That fits with your numbers. The good news is that it doesn't cost much to run 24/7. The bad news is that you probably have to!

Closing the valves to the skimmers and drain has isolated the problem to the PUMP side of those valves. Look at it this way - your pump/filter is the high point in a continuous circuit from pool to pump to pool. If there is no leak, any tendency for water to run back into the skimmers and...

How about something that reduces pH without chemicals? The water ionizers sold for health purposes (or some would say, quack medicine) separate the ions present in the water and discharge two streams, one alkaline for drinking and one acid for discard. See...

Has there been any discussion of of using boric acid in place of muriatic acid for maintaining pH, to gradually add borates over time? Of course you'd need to stop when the borate level was where you want it.

That sounds low. What kind of pump is it? At 100% efficiency, one horsepower is equal to 0.7456 kilowatts, or 537 kilowatt-hours per month running 24/7. At 10 cents per kw-hr, one horsepower costs $54/month. $7/month wouldn't get you more than about 1/8th horsepower BEFORE accounting for...

That's a nice looking pool. Looks like the crew knows what they are doing.

A "pretty" owner of a "new pool"? A "pretty new" owner of a pool? An owner of a pool that's "pretty new"? An owner of a "pretty and new" pool? Or maybe all the above.

Ever have a skimmer basket packed to the brim with tent caterpillars?

I can speak for the Goldline actuators, but others are probably the same. The actuator has a motor and two limit switches. Depending on which wires the controller applies voltage to, the actuator will turn in one or the other direction until stopped by a limit switch. The limit switches are...

My first reaction to your answer was "Huh? Impossible!" But it seems there is more to these valves than Jandy mentions in any of their literature. I could have done a lot neater plumbing job on the half I have finished if it had occurred to me you could "redesign" the valves just by...

My experience is incomplete because I am not yet finished, and I wouldn't want anyone to use my timeline as an example, even for DIY, because I basically took most of a year off right in the middle of construction, but my take on it is that no one part of the job is very difficult, but there is...

You can get a leaf strainer that goes in the vacuum line, or a vacuum fitting which goes over top of the skimmer basket. Either one might prevent a lot of grief in the future.

Does your skimmer have a basket? It should, and it should keep the rocks and pebbles out of your pipes.

If you're trying to defeat the heater pressure switch to get the heater to come on, that's not a good idea! Get your flow issue worked out first, and the heater will probably start workign again.