Recent content by Kaa

I've got readings of 30, 60, and 90. That's 3, 6, and 9 drops. I don't think smaller drops are going to be a sufficient explanation.

An update: the pool chemistry seems reasonably stable except for TA. pH is 7.3-7.4 and doesn't move. With TA the initial reading was 30, then I got two readings of 60, now after five days the test (TFP-100) showed 90! Re-test after a day showed 80. What got added to the pool in the meantime...

Kids can (and did) go into the pool if there's reasonable pH and sufficient FC. They do help to dissolve and mix things :-) I added about 3/4 of the estimated amounts of CYA and salt, we'll see how it goes and adjust accordingly. I'll keep an eye on TA, if it remains sufficiently stable I'll...

Borates because TFP told me that they will help to stabilize the pH and that they will make the water sparkly, silky, etc. with no downsides. Are there downsides?

I restored a small pool (4500 gal) with a vinyl liner. It's full of municipal water now, the pump/filter/SWG should go online tomorrow. I ran some tests on the new water: CH 50 TA 30 FC 0 pH 7.3 In the evening I dumped some liquid bleach in to bring up the FC to about 5 (realized later it was...

I have a small (16'x8') but fairly deep (~6') pool that's built into the deck and is partially above ground with galvanized steel walls. It needs a new vinyl liner and a local pool company that came to measure it for replacement said that I also need new foam and to replace the pool's...

If you want rainwater to drain away from the pool, you need to provide a downhill path for it to flow through. A french drain is a common way to do this. If you just put pebbles around the pool, water will stand and puddle underneath these pebbles. Your steel walls are very probably galvanized...

Ah, a PoolMath calculator, excellent. It *is* a small pool, the reason for the SWG is that I will be away a lot of time and it does make absentee management easier :-)

I have a small (4500 gal) pool which is having its liner changed. Once done, I'll fill it with municipal water. How should I proceed to get this water to proper chemical balance? I assume I have to dump in some chlorine, some CYA, and some salt (I have an SWG). Can I do rough calculations for...

IntelliFlo has a separate low-voltage control/data cable running back to EasyTouch, so EasyTouch can know everything the pump knows. And IntelliFlo is explicitly marketed as "The pump can adapt to applications between 20 and140 GPM. Simply program the pump to the desired flow rate, and the pump...

That's probably not true for VSF pumps like IntelliFlo. The pump is variable FLOW, not speed, so there must be a flow meter inside and that data goes back to EasyTouch. The controller should definitely know if the pump is unpowered and very likely knows if the power is on, but the pump is not...

So basically by putting the main pump and the SWG on different breakers you gain the ability to easily cut off power to the SWG. The trade-off is that if the pump trips the breaker, you're relying on the flow sensor to shut down the SWG (from the relay's point of view the pump is on, so SWG can...

Hm, the Pentair manuals want the same GFCI breaker to feed BOTH the pump and the SWG transformer -- I'm guessing to make sure that the SWG doesn't run if the pump trips the breaker. It also seems that Pentair wants non-IntelliFlo pumps connected to the first relay as well, but IntelliFlo...

UNLESS you have an SWG. Quoting from the IntelliFlo manual (bolding their):

I noticed that some PVC fitting for 1.5" pipe have deep slip sockets -- about 1 1/4" -- and some (as in, e.g. found in Home Depot) have shallow sockets -- about 3/4". I'm sure that deep sockets are better, but does it make any appreciable difference? Should I not use the fittings with shallow...