Weighing down A-Frame ladder

[richierich]

I read through so many great threads about weighing down ladders that had 'shelves' or could 'hide' the weights. I have the following ladder and don't want to fill with sand or pea gravel. Any ideas how to weight it down so either the bleach bottles filled with concrete or pvc filled with concrete would be hidden?

Evolution A-Frame Pool Ladder - Doheny’s Pool Supplies Fast

 

[kimkats]

One idea would be to use PVC tubes filled with concrete. Use zip ties to hold them to the inside of the ladder. They will be white so should not stand out too much AND can be removed for cleaning and such. You may have to play around with how big to make them to do a good job of holding it down.

Kim

 

[Cap'n Hook]

My last A frame ladder had small cubby at the bottom for sand bags. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how my pool kept growing mold so fast. On a whim, I finally pulled out the ladder and removed the sand bags, LOADED with algae. My wife came up with a simple solution to replace the unsealed sand bags with VACUUM sealed food bags loaded with sand. Algae problem solved!

 

[richierich]

Thanks but there is no cubby for sand bags or anything.

 

[Cap'n Hook]

Just a quick read on the brochure since I'm not familiar with your ladder, says it's supposed to fill with water to hold itself down. Are you sure it's filling completely with water? Trapped air inside may be causing it to float. Maybe try to completely submerge the ladder in the pool and rotate it in all directions under water to release any trapped air pockets causing it to float? Others seem to have simply secured the ladder to the side of the pool wall or top rail.

 

[JoeSelf]

You are going to need to remove ladder at least weekly to drain the water in the ladder completely and then refill it when it goes back in. If you just put it in and leave it in, it will be the source of your algae bloom.

 

[richierich]

Thanks, I was also going to add bleach with the water inside the ladder. Would that work? Or should I skip adding the water. I already have PVC and PVC glue and could add sand and make weights for the sides to weigh down the pool

 

[kimkats]

I would skip the water for the above reasons. yuck!

Kim

 

[JoeSelf]

Even with the bleach there will be no circulation. I have wedding cake steps where two of the steps are weights, (filled with pea gravel). I drain then weekly and put in a couple of ozs of Algaecide in each step. I'm getting better each year since TFP with my procedure. I've added more holes to help with circulation and plan on adding more this spring. I try to pull the whole thing out vacuum and brush under and behind weekly. I leave them out over night sometimes and bring CL level up.

Its a work in progress. Once the steps go in, little to no circulation behind them. Brush, Brush, Brush.

 

[Smolder]

Enlarge the holes that are in the ladder for filling with water. It will allow for circulation and facilitate easier filling and draining when you remove. I've been using mine for 4/5 years and never once has the water been anything but perfectly clean even after weeks of not having been removed. Granted, my ladder is on the opposite side of the pool from the water return, so this may aid in water circulating through it.