Slowly progressing...

[partsman]

I'm new to the forum...and apparently newer than I thought when it comes to pools. (haha) After skimming through the forum, I had no idea as to the depth and wealth of info posted on here!

Like the thread title states...I am slowly progressing with our above ground pools. I do them pretty much just for my kids (6, 10, 15). My wife and I will jump in occasionally when it's really hot out, but for the most part the kids live in there all summer!

I think it started with a plastic, molded 'above ground' when the kids were little little. Obviously, it didn't take long for them to outgrow that.

The next one was an Intex rectangle inflatable that was a little bigger...
they didn't care about the size or water level or anything. They just wanted to be in it and splash around.

Fast forward to 2 years ago we bought the 15x48 Intex...and they love it!


I installed the salt water system last year, and now the sand filter will be installed this year. So we'll see how that goes after I get it all plumbed up.

I am looking into a solar heater of some sort now. The backyard gets shade around mid afternoon. I plan to cut some trees down to open it up for longer sun time, but I would like a heater hooked up as well.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Sounds like you are stepping up in the pool world

Are you using a good test kit to maintain your water? Would hate for it to go green on you.

 

[partsman]

Thank you sir!

As far as the test kit, I've been using the one that came with the saltwater system...it seems I have more research to do on that!

 

[pooldv]

We did the research for you, Pool School - Test Kits Compared

I have used the TF-100 for many years now and I buy mine from TFTestkits.net.

 

[partsman]

Thank you very much sir!...I appreciate the links.

 

[partsman]

By the way...has anyone tried to register on the 'other' pool website?...poolforum.com
You have to register, no problem...then you have to post your question to a certain place, ok...to see if one of the mods can answer it first...huh?...really? Then it has to be approved, no problem...but it never does! Nobody does anything with it, at least not with mine! If you look on the site, there is almost a whole page of people asking(begging) for their post/account to be approved. Weird.

 

[jblizzle]

There is one admin over there that has all the power moderators have no power and he tends to just disappear for months/ years at a time. That place is pretty much dead.

 

[partsman]

That would explain it! My second (and last) post basically told them how screwed up their forum is and to delete my account.

 

[partsman]

Intex fittings question...

The Intex sand filter that I will be installing has the larger hoses so I bought these Intex threaded strainers...

 

[partsman]

Ok...I enlarged the holes in my liner the other day, and I'm getting ready to hook up the new strainers, hoses, sand filter, etc...waiting for the 1-1/2" box adapters to come in from home depot online so I can adapt the pvc ball valves, and plumb everything together.

(sorry, I can’t find the pics that were in this post)


Now that I'm not using the cartridge filter pump, I want to use it just for the solar panel heater...can I plumb that as a separate system?

 

[jblizzle]

You can ... although I am not sure why you would not just run the solar with the main pump. Running 2 pumps = more $ on electricity.

 

[partsman]

Thanks for the reply!

I was thinking if I used a separate pump for the solar, I wouldn't impede the 'main' flow from the sand filter pump.
If I didn't already have this cartridge pump to use, I would just run it off the main one.

 

[partsman]

I got the sand and the salt all plumbed up this past Sunday! The sand filter works great, and I am looking forward to not having to buy and change cartridge filters anymore!

But...

I went to turn on the salt yesterday before work...and nothing, completely dead...no lights, no beeping, nothing. Fortunately (or unfortunately) there have been other reports/posts of this happening with the same Intex salt system I have.

I found a post by a very helpful member of this site named jeffchap that had the same issue (2 years ago). I sent him a PM about it to confirm exactly what he did, and he replied quickly and very willing to help!

Basically, he just cut off the big black box aka GFCI on the end of the cord...

...and replaced it with a regular plug.

I used this one from HD and it worked perfectly!...

The salt popped on with the switch like there was never anything wrong!

Thank you again to jeffchap!!

 

[pooldv]

Yep, we like jeffchap!

 

[partsman]

So it seems photobucket decided to revise their terms of use today and be dumb so I can't link my pics there anymore. Friggin ridiculous, been using them for years...whatever...I had to upload my pics in this thread to imgur.

 

[pooldv]

Yes, we've een seeing a few people discuss photobucket changing their policies. I guess we'll be seeing that a lot more soon. It looks like imgur is working fine. I'll pass it along.

 

[partsman]

Yes, Imgur is working well...it just took me the better part of today taking my pics off photobucket, such an unstable site. What a pain...all good now though!

Edit: I’ve been meaning to post an update here for a while...Imgur kinda sucks too.
I use imageshack to host my pics now.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

So it seems photobucket decided to revise their terms of use today and be dumb so I can't link my pics there anymore. Friggin ridiculous, been using them for years...whatever...I had to upload my pics in this thread to imgur.

At the beginning of the year, PhotoBucket "lost" all of my data. I lost every picture I ever uploaded to them (thankfully nothing personal, I only used it for pool pictures). They gave me some bogus and ridiculous excuse about a "1 in a billion chance error" and then threw me a free premium account upgrade for 1 year. What, you have no catastrophic backup storage in place for data mirroring?? I told them "No thanks!" and had them remove my account permanently.

Now I use TFP to store sensitive pictures. TFP is working (slowly) on a Photo Gallery feature but it is only for subscribers/supporters. I will never use or recommend PhotoBucket ever again.

 

[partsman]

Dang...good thing it was only pool pics. It took me forever to get all my pics off that site...with all the ads and the site itself screwing up IE (at work)...etc. I finally figured out that if I deleted the pics I already saved to my computer, it went much quicker...then click on delete account!

 

[partsman]

Old thread, but it’s my old thread haha...and I have progressed!...slowly of course.

I found this pool the other day on my local Craigslist for free!...

...on the top of those fancy columns it says Esther Williams...

I had to Google her, I had no idea who she was or that she had a pool company named after her!