Recent content by LongDuck

Couple of pack rats that I figure the dog chased into the water. One in the skimmer (not bad) and the other off the bottom. Wife opened the skimmer one day to find a Desert Hairy Scorpion looking up at her. We dried him off and once he warmed up he was perky again. Taught me to take a good look...

Posting this to help others using the Pentair QuickTouch II 4-function remote for their automation system and finding that the remote seems to lose connection to the powercenter on occasion. Symptoms are a remote that lights on button press but won't switch on features and functions even though...

Now confused whether you attribute the drop in CYA to the chemical you added or due to water replacement...?

I use those foam rubber mats sold at hardware stores for flooring in workshops which have a scalloped edge meant for interlocking multiple mats together. This is mostly for sun shade in the Sonoran desert, because we have a ton of UV which tends to degrade all manner of plastics - less so for...

On lighting, projecting away from the house is preferable, as you'll get 'spill' lighting refracting from the surface which would illuminate your house, along with shimmer inside any windows facing the pool. Pretty standard practice to have light coves on the house-side to avoid this. Also...

I would also be interested in knowing your Test Kit and test process to show a decrease in CYA from 125 to 90. Test methods vary and only through consistent process and multiple testing to eliminate variables would this be indicative of a positive outcome. Thanks for sharing your experience,

Not knowing your skimmer setup (venturi vs. draw), it wouldn't hurt to leave the pump on. At least then, the filtration effect of the pump would help to keep contaminants out of the water which will need to be offset by chlorine. On our venturi setup, the return pressure drives the skim...

Yep, it's concrete! Recognize that shot-Crete is about the 85% point in your pools construction, so now is pretty far along to be questioning design facets. When we first laid out our pool, the guy decided to set it about 2ft further from the house which really had me worried if only for space...

Really not too many options but to let the PB do another acid wash. I would be talking to him about the cost to drain and refill however, depending on how much water runs in your area. We had some color streaking that the plaster guys had to come back and acid-stack using a bottle of dilute...

PebbleSheen Thunderblue, and the single light works great with all color combinations from Pentair. We stay away from the reds and oranges hut lostly because they're in contrast to landscape lighting and the surrounding vegetation. Blues and greens look great and only one light for our setup...

Paid not a Penny more than the contracted price. What it comes down to is how well you planned your pool from the start. If you start making changes halfway through, you can expect to pay thousands more in restocking fees on tile, decking, and equipment changes or additions. In our case, we're...

Well, here's a quick point of reference; we waited 8 years after living in our house to be sure the economics worked out - but we're patient people, and I wasn't willing to finance the pool. We're conservative with expenses and though my wife wanted to work on this years ago, our jobs weren't...

Consider the interest you'll be paying on the pool build expense rolled into the mortgage over 15 or 30 yrs, as well. The total cost of financing on the pool is going to be much larger than if you funded it separately and paid cash, obviously, but with inflated costs tacked on, it's not just...

This may sound crazy, but is the valve suction source mislabeled? I.e., the valve when you switch it to Main Drain is actually switching entirely to skimmer? the skimmer in our new build isn't suction, it's pressure - in other words, it blows water through a Venturi under the basket which draws...

Re: Why no one mentions Liquid Chlorine ? As others have mentioned, some Pool Stores carry it, and my local Leslie's keeps it in the back store room - you have to ask them specifically for it. What I noticed after asking was that the lady behind the counter got a lot less 'friendly' and just...