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I see the local forecast for this week is for a bunch of 3F - 4F mornings, and at least a few days with highs in the teens. So a reminder to those in the northeast... check your chemical storage! I know 31% Muriatic won't freeze above -80F, but I think 10% Chlorine is only good down to +19F...

My skimmer gets totally jammed up with leaves this time of year, and it’s just not possible to keep up with it on windy days. I can empty it several times per day, but it will still jam up overnight. I've had the standard basket get sucked down inside the skimmer housing a few times. Broke a...

Did a conversion to TFP method and SWG this year, and wondering two things: 1. Has anyone posted a closing procedure, with regard to TFP methods and SWG? I'm assuming that loading up with 90-day algea blocker and stain and scale remover, as my pool company recommended in years past, is not...

The usual advice I see on this forum is to aerate to bring pH back up, after any additions of muriatic or cyanuric acid, when adjusting TA or CYA levels. But in our cool climate, my pool temperature drops quite fast when aerating, which is costing me a bloody fortune in heater run time. Is...

While exploring Effects of Adding with SWG, I found that the decimal point does not work in the FC generated. You can work around by just checking values above and below (eg. 2 ppm and 3 ppm if your daily loss averages 2.5 ppm), but it sure would be nice if we could just plug in the closest...

Been working to get some pretty out-of-whack chemistry onto the TFP / Pool Math targets, and I'm pretty close now. With conversion to SWG, new target for CYA is 60 - 90, and I'm somewhere right around the minimum there. I say "somewhere around", because I have low confidence in the accuracy of...

Salinity has been measuring 3200 ppm by Taylor drop test, which is on the low end of the recommended 3k - 4k range, but fine. However, the controller on our freshly-installed CircuPool RJ-45+ is listing the salinity at 2900 ppm, out of range. The system is running, not faulting, but I guess I...

Our pool installer instructed us to use this product, Pool Perfect Total, and I'm wondering if I should finish out using what I have or just toss the stuff now that I've converted to TFP methods. I'm also not sure if it's contributing to, or helping with, some of the above the water line...

The white plastic of our skimmer and stairs both have a gray shadow above the water line. It's especially visible on the stairs, where a warning label about diving recently came off, and the area under the label is still bright white. From what I've read on this site, I suspect the staining is...

During rainy periods, where we're getting more water into the pool than required to make up for evaporation, at what point do you guys make the call to dump water? We don't have municipal water, and it takes 300 gallons from our well for each inch of make-up water, so we try to use that...

What are folks in northern climes doing with their CircuPool controllers? Wanting mine tagged onto the pump circuit, so the tripping of the interrupt device for the pump will be sure to shut down the SWCG, I'm debating whether to hardware or install a receptacle on that circuit to plug in the...

I fell victim to Taylor's vague instructions, on testing for alkalinity. I was counting drops to change from green to red (per the instructions in the kit), rather than drop count until it stopped turning redder (per this forum and YouTube). The result is that my efforts to target and hold 100...

I had so many nuisance trips with the Cutler Hammer CH GFCI breaker on my Pentair VS pump, that I had to temporarily swap it out for a regular CH220 breaker. It's a hardwired circuit, no receptacles, which historically did not require GFCI. But it's a new (2023) install, and I believe latest...

I remember reading about the higher FC levels promoted by TFP making the typical color tests for FC inaccurate, as the reagents can bleach out. So, we have the drop test, which works great. But can the same happen with pH test reagents? I'm trying to lower my Total Alkalinity, and of course...

CYA = 60 ppm, so min FC = 4.5 ppm. Pool math has me targeting FC = 7 ppm, when recommending additions, which I assume accounts for an expected 2.5 ppm loss per day. But if my actual loss is always higher than this, will PM adapt to a higher target, based on historical losses, or some...

All systems are a compromise. Chlorine tablets are convenient, but come with uncontrolled CYA rise. Liquid chlorine is cheap and adds nothing but salts, but must be dosed daily or fed thru troublesome liquid dosers. SWG resolves these issues, but at what penalty? Cost alone? Is there any...

New pool almost 1 year old, lights just began to malfunction a week ago. Controller: PAL COLORTOUCH single zone remote control LED controller PCR-1Z-65 Lights: Seem to be Treo model, but not sure While sitting unused the last several weeks, we found the two lights flashing one short blink...

Okay folks, after several straight weeks of travel away from home, I'm ready to dive into this SWCG conversion. But time is preciously thin, I'm in catch-up mode with work the next several weeks, after time on the road. The basics of my pool configuration are in my signature and profile. I...

My goodness, I really dislike the CYA test method in the K-2006 kit. I have basically zero confidence that I'm calling the dot "gone" where I should. I mean, if I can just faintly see it through the haze, and another person claims they can't, should I keep adding or not? I seem to remember...

For the first time since we've gotten it, rain has worked faster and harder than evaporation. Water is almost to top of skimmer opening. I had thought I'd be using opportunities like this to backflush the filter, but honestly, the gauge really never climbs beyond initial reading for a given...

Someone had asked me about my water testing routine in another thread, so posting the quick synopsis here. The pool installer/retailer set this pool up with a Frog Leap sanitizer, and gave me the obligatory Frog test strips. We found the colors on the test strips often didn't match anything on...

I'm running a 15k gallon pool (Radiant Metric semi-inground) with solar cover and heat pump heater, with a Frog Leap system, and having one heck of a time with ever-increasing cyanuric acid levels. It's to the point where I just ran the Frog Leap without a chlorine "torpedo" most of last...

We're looking at a semi-inground install of a Radiant Metric Freeform, which will have patio (either paver or concrete) on one side of the pool and just a wall of pavers or stone hiding the pool wall on the other side. We will probably bullnose paver all the way around the permeter. Our dealer...