Money Pit 1850s house with pool

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AB Inn

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Aug 5, 2015
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new albany/IN
Hi, recently purchased old house with a poorly maintained pool. Previous owner just kept it saturated with Chloe taps and "looked for the sparkle." I looked into salt and UV systems because I have sensitive skin and want a few chemicals as possible. Pool company talked me out of salt because it would eat up all my concrete. Almost talked me into UV, but I couldn't find anything but over the top endorsements or loud guffawing towards it online, and locally couldn't find anyone who would give me a reasonable assessment.

I have a background in chemistry so I feel like I should be able to deal with the pool. We have 6 kids and their friends love to drop by. Hubby loves the pool and we invested the money that was going to go into salt into a pool heater instead to extend the swim season. I sort of feel like he and the kids should take care of the pool since I barely swim in it, but it keeps getting neglected so I end up grudgingly fixing it after the chlorine has run out and it smells and looks weird. I hate to do the mom thing and just take care of it because no one else will. So I am hoping to develop a god system/routine and then either fall in love with maintaining it or pass along my knowledge to the people who actually use the pool.

We keep it covered at night and often when not in use. We live in the city and I worry about someone wandering into the yard and drowning in it. Our local pool dealer is nice and after testing the water for me does not load me down with chemicals. Usually I walk out with a bag of shock. I think I've been wary of over-using chlorine and getting that "smell" and it makes my skin itch and we have wet towels everywhere!

So I guess I was just saying Hi and venting a little bit. I think this forum is great and have looked around a couple of times. Thank you to the administrators and the the creators of this site!

I am trying to develop a system/routine for dealing with the wet laundry! I think I am going to have to start grounding them from the pool because of all the wet towels and swimsuits I keep finding everywhere. I remind them that we are not staying at a hotel and I don't want dripping bathing suits hanging all over the bathrooms. I put in a retractable clothesline and that is helping a little.
 
Welcome, and I highly suggest you take some time a read those links posted above, pool chemistry management is not that hard, but you need a good knowledge base to start with, and a lot of the information you find from pool stores is dated to say the least, I am concerned from a few things you have said that you are getting bad advice from your pool store. They may have good intentions, but most pool stores get their information on pool chemistry from the chemical company sales people, and it is often lacking to say the least.
 
We just recently had the wet suit/towel conversation at my house. What we came up with is a place on the way into the house where we put up a privacy area. You get into and out of suit, there. There is a rope where you can hang towel and suit. They get line dried that way and keep the wet out of the house.
 
HI MOM! Yeah I hear you on taking care of the pool when it is not really for YOU! Hubby loves the pool, I take care of it :roll:

Wet stuff.............If you post a pic of your set up I bet we could come up with at cute/pretty way to take care of the wet stuff.

Testing--------PLEASE look into getting your own test kit. It will save you SO much time and money. It is VERY easy to do. I have the link to the test kits in my siggy.

Chemicals-once you get your pool balanced the TFP way your skin will thank you!

Ask any and all questions. Someone will be able to answer!

HUGS! We will get you set up!

Kim
 
I do have a UV lamp and I strongly recommend it. I am using bromine to sanitize my pool and the UV lamp is very important for me. I know that in this forum it is regarded as an usless object, but there are some good points and some bed points even for a pool sanitized with chlorine. For sure if one can keep up the chlorine level at the reccomended value, than is not neccesary to have a UV lamp. BUT if the pool is left with inssuficient chlorine, than the battle with algae wil begin and it may take weeks to clear the pool. With a UV lamp in place the filtered water is sterilised and only a small fraction of water is left for algae to grow. UV-C radiation will also help distroy the chloramines. These will vent out and be also reduced by the solar radiation without a UV lamp in place, but a germicidal lamp will help. The bed part with a UV lamp is that it will distroy some of the chlorine present in the pool water and it will increase the chlorine demand. Still, I think that it is a great help for people that cannot take care of the pool chemistry every day. SWG is another option. Practically all materials around the pool can be protected by a good qualty sealant. Price for a UV lamp is simmilar to the price of a SWG. Lifetime of the UV tubes is 9000 hours (- 3 years of normal use) and replacement parts are not expensive.
 
Welcome to TFP. I was told that there are a lot of health hazards associated with chlorine so I looked for an alternative. Chem Geek was very helpful for me. You may want to search some threads for "chem geek bromine, chlorine" to see what he has said. But, if I remember correctly, chlorine smell, itching and skin rashes are usually due to chloramines which are a by product of oxidation of organics. These conditions do not exit in a properly managed chlorine pool. An expert can jump in here if I misstated something. All systems have pros and cons the key is to get good education understand them and pick the system best for you.
 
Welcome to TFP.

First of all, Chlorine is NOT your enemy. If you can smell it, you do not have enough of it. What you're smelling is Combined Chloromines which aggravate the skin. Please do yourself a favor and order a recommended test kit like the TF100 and start maintaining your pool as outlined in Pool School and the ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.
 

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For an outdoor residential pool exposed to sunlight and is typically low bather-load there is little need for supplemental oxidation or disinfection and chloramines are not normally an issue. As for having a backup system for preventing algae growth in case one is lax in maintaining at least the minimum FC/CYA ratio, there are many ways of dealing with that.

UV and ozone systems only kill what is circulated through such systems so do absolutely nothing to pathogens nor algae growing on pool surfaces or otherwise not getting circulated. So while these systems can help for some times of algae that doesn't clump (i.e that remains free floating), there are other backup techniques that will work everywhere in the pool including algaecides and phosphate removers. Of course, these are not necessary and are extra cost, but if one really wants insurance they will be more effective than any UV or ozone system because they will work to kill algae anywhere in the pool regardless of whether such algae gets circulated.

If you have an indoor pool then UV can be helpful in controlling chloramines. A pool with a higher bather-load is helped with ozone though note that ozone depletes chlorine (UV does as well, but a properly sized UV system primarily for disinfection doesn't deplete a noticeable amount of chlorine).

Maintaining a pool with chlorinating liquid or bleach does take regular effort, but it's just a few minutes every day to add chlorine (you might be able to get by adding less frequently if your cover is on longer and you lose less chlorine to sunlight). There are automation systems to make it easier including The Liquidator, peristaltic pumps, and saltwater chlorine generators.
 
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