Greeting from beautiful Dayton, Ohio

[thebigwoo]

Howdy folks! My husband and I bought our house in October 2016, and it came with an in-ground pool! It was in need of a bit of work, so this spring we had it refinished, and are super excited to start using it (see photos below).

We are new to the pool owner thing, and have a gazillion questions.

We're purchasing a Taylor Test Kit as the recommendation of some friends that also have pools and from what I have ready here on TFP, so that we can get started on the right foot.

We also purchased a Dolphin Caymen (nicknamed "Little Geek") to get us started. He does a great job for the open areas, however he seems to always miss the corners, and doesn't seem to do well with going up the walls on the deep end (10ft).

I'm looking for recommendations for a good vacuum head we can use to pick up Little Geek's slack. The previous owners left us one (triangle shaped), but i'm sure there might be something better out there.

When we had the pool opened, we found out that we may have a leak somewhere in the line to the bottom drain, so we have to get that checked out. Right now, only the skimmer is pulling water to the filter/pump.

Since the pool is newly refinished, we want to do whatever we can to make sure it stays nice and clean. One thing I have noticed is the walls on the deep end seem to have a layer of "dust". When I try and brush the walls, it seems to go away, but then reappears after awhile. Not sure if this is due to the bottom drain not being on, to suck out debris.

This site has a lot of info, which can be overwhelming to sort through for a newbie, but it has been very helpful! Thanks, and I look forward to our summer together!

 

[needsajet]

Your pool is looking great!! Welcome

As far as the test kit, just be sure it's a Taylor K-2006 (or you can check out TFTestkits.net for the TF-100)

The vacuum head you have is probably fine; maybe post a picture

You can use a bucket test to see if your pool is leaking via the main drain line. Sadly it's not uncommon for main drains to fail, but many pool owners abandon the main drain and have no problems. To do a bucket test, fill a plastic bucket, set it on a pool step, and make the water level the same as the pool, or mark the level in the pool and the bucket with electrician's tape. See if they go down the same amount each day from evaporation. If the pool water goes down faster, there is probably a leak somewhere.

As soon as you get your test kit, post the numbers for us to see.

Keep brushing the walls with a nylon pool brush to knock the dust off which is common on brand new plaster. If it was me, I'd leave the robot out for the first few days after new plaster and just brush manually, but it may be far enough along now to be OK.