Not sure if this is the right forum or not, but even after 2 (very long) years, I still feel like I'm "Just Getting Started". I bought a home in Summer of 2020 with a crazy/resort-like pool in the back... Fully landscaped with giant boulders (50 tons worth) and rock mountains, 2 huge waterfalls, a giant waterslide, an upper spa (leads to the slide which goes down to the main pool) with a cool Tiki Hut next to it, a disappearing edge and overflow basin, a cave grotto with seating, built in bar-stools/firepit (all in the pool), 2 bubblers/fountains on the beach, and an infinity swim thing-a-ma-bopper. And here I thought, never having owned a pool, "Oh neat, this will be awesome. What problems could their be with a pool? It should take what, 5-10 minutes a week to manage and maintain properly, right?!" I sure was ignorant and naive.
The pool worked, sure. But, it had it's share of problems. Okay, a LOT of problems. Of which, I had to figure out nearly all of the problems and fixes by myself because the company maintaining the pool was a bit, lacking, of how all the pieces of this massive puzzle came together and were supposed to work (thankfully at least they were honest, and didn't take advantage of me). They were good with break/fix of the physical equipment, but didn't quite grasp the dynamics of the pool that all had to be running in-sync for everything to operate properly. I was basically forced to learn it all on my own (with the help of TFP!) and make decisions for fixes and improvements to get the pool running 100% efficiently and without problems. What a work in progress, but it's also been a great learning experience (yeah, let's call it that, a learning experience) and I feel way more empowered and knowledgeable as a pool owner now. I've since switched pool maintenance companies as well, and found a service manager that really LISTEN to me, and trust my own knowledge (which they admit is more than other pool owner they've encountered so far), they trust my Taylor-2006C reading and findings and let me manage my own chemicals per my liking, and they also know about TFP and admit to coming here to learn and figure things out (imagine my delight when I mentioned TFP early on when we began discussing them maintaining my pool and he says that he loves coming to this website too). Not to mention, he admits when he doesn't know something, rather than faking it and pretending to know. I can certainly appreciate that, as we all continue to learn about this stuff constantly (for example, he learned about Poly-Fill in the skimmer from me, which I learned from TFP, and he thinks it's a great addition for getting rid of iron when its in suspension, based on what he's witnessed with iron in my pool and use of Poly Fill).
That all being said, it's been a long long road. And I can't count the number of times I thought it'd be better to get some dump trunks of concrete and fill this blasted thing in but... patience (and unfortunately, a whole lot of $$ to address all these issues) seems to be winning out and things are very close to getting to where everything is finally about where it needs to be.
All the issues fixed along the way.... (in order of completion)
This site really is amazing. I can't express how much I appreciate every single response I've received to my past posts here, and all the knowledge I learn from the real experts around here that -always- seem to offer up opinions and advice for us newbies and frustrated owners when I'm randomly reading things here to increase my own knowledge and curiosities. (and Pool Math app FTW!)
-J
The pool worked, sure. But, it had it's share of problems. Okay, a LOT of problems. Of which, I had to figure out nearly all of the problems and fixes by myself because the company maintaining the pool was a bit, lacking, of how all the pieces of this massive puzzle came together and were supposed to work (thankfully at least they were honest, and didn't take advantage of me). They were good with break/fix of the physical equipment, but didn't quite grasp the dynamics of the pool that all had to be running in-sync for everything to operate properly. I was basically forced to learn it all on my own (with the help of TFP!) and make decisions for fixes and improvements to get the pool running 100% efficiently and without problems. What a work in progress, but it's also been a great learning experience (yeah, let's call it that, a learning experience) and I feel way more empowered and knowledgeable as a pool owner now. I've since switched pool maintenance companies as well, and found a service manager that really LISTEN to me, and trust my own knowledge (which they admit is more than other pool owner they've encountered so far), they trust my Taylor-2006C reading and findings and let me manage my own chemicals per my liking, and they also know about TFP and admit to coming here to learn and figure things out (imagine my delight when I mentioned TFP early on when we began discussing them maintaining my pool and he says that he loves coming to this website too). Not to mention, he admits when he doesn't know something, rather than faking it and pretending to know. I can certainly appreciate that, as we all continue to learn about this stuff constantly (for example, he learned about Poly-Fill in the skimmer from me, which I learned from TFP, and he thinks it's a great addition for getting rid of iron when its in suspension, based on what he's witnessed with iron in my pool and use of Poly Fill).
That all being said, it's been a long long road. And I can't count the number of times I thought it'd be better to get some dump trunks of concrete and fill this blasted thing in but... patience (and unfortunately, a whole lot of $$ to address all these issues) seems to be winning out and things are very close to getting to where everything is finally about where it needs to be.
All the issues fixed along the way.... (in order of completion)
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This site really is amazing. I can't express how much I appreciate every single response I've received to my past posts here, and all the knowledge I learn from the real experts around here that -always- seem to offer up opinions and advice for us newbies and frustrated owners when I'm randomly reading things here to increase my own knowledge and curiosities. (and Pool Math app FTW!)
-J
