Anyone else clean their pool using this technique?

[chriszke]

I'll admit...my impression of this community is that of a fairly well off financially (or at least over-extended) and innovative group.

That said...I almost feel silly bringing this up...but I'll blame it on my wife as she was the one who taught me the technique.

We've got a round 24' pool.

The following describes a process she learned as a child: we end nearly every evening of swimming by creating a "group whirlpool".

We then exit the pool and let the water continue to swirl. This has the effect of bringing 95% of the pool dirt to the center of the pool, where it collects and sits undisturbed until the next morning.

Then, the first person (usually a kid) in the pool either takes the hand-skimmer with'em and picks up as much debris as they can, or an adult hooks up the suction hose, put on a pair of goggles...and vacuums the 6' circle of dirt manually.

It always seemed kind of silly to me...but it seems to take just a few minutes and I'll admit...we've got a pretty clean pool.

Anyone else use the "whirlpool" method?

 

[sredish]

I'll admit...my impression of this community is that of a fairly well off financially (or at least over-extended) and innovative group.

That said...I almost feel silly bringing this up...but I'll blame it on my wife as she was the one who taught me the technique.

We've got a round 24' pool.

The following the process she learned as a child, we end nearly every evening of swimming by creating a "group whirlpool".

We then exit the pool and let the water continue to swirl. This has the effect of bringing 95% of the pool dirt to the center of the pool, where it collects and sits undisturbed until the next morning.

Anyone else use the "whirlpool" method?

you absolutely have to get some video of that.... :-D

 

[tagprod]

I have the jets in the pool positioned to circulate clockwise. I do have the kids get in the spa and walk around in a circle. All the dirt on the steps get's pushed to the bottom where the drains are and get sucked up.

 

[Backglass]

Though not quite as much fun as a group whirlpool, I point my return jet in my i/g pool so that the water circulates in the same manner. As a result due to the currents, I only have dirt in two small piles to vacuum as well.

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

When I had intex pools, I used the skimmer net to stir the pool in a circle, then picked everything up in the middle... again, not as fun to watch as your method of creating the whirlpool, but effective all the same!

 

[chriszke]

Truth is...our "group whirlpool" most often consists of my 60lb 9-year old son, my 74lb 13-year old daughter and their 240 lb 45 year old dad (me).

You might call me "the straw that stirs the drink".

My son asked me the other night "how fast would you have to go to get a hole to form in the center of the pool"?

"Faster than your old man can move pal" came my reply.

Anyways...we can get a pretty strong current going by walking powerfully around the perimeter of the pool 2 or 3 times...then we hop out and let the water do the rest of the work.

 

[waterbug]

This picture of your human whirlpool cracked me up while I am sitting here with my stuffed up miserable summer head cold! but......having finished laughing, I remember last week after a fullfledged vacumming and then swimming around a few hours, two of us started walking fast against the circulating motion of the pool to get some exercise...........when we stopped we have all these leaves surrounding us in the centre of the pool - must have come out from under the stairs where the vacuumer did not see them!

 

[Poseidon]

We do it all the time. Although not to clean the pool, just for fun. With a small round pool like mine and 3-4 people, we can get a really good whirlpool going. :-D

 

[Rangeball]

Do you ever put anybody in the middle to see if you can suck them down?

 

[rbielefeld]

Growing up in Wisconsin my dad would have me and my friends create a whirlpool in our 24' round Doughboy pool so he could then vacume out the dirt and leaves that all ended up in the middle. So yes, others do use the technique and have for a while. It works great and you should not feel funny using it. It just makes sense. Good for you. Ron

 

[Shelley N]

Get this...I have the opposite. My oval AG collects the fine silt falling into it and deposits it around the outer edge. I thought it was algae at first because I thought dirt would collect in the center, but we looked under a microscope and it's just teeny tiny silt. I'm thinking that its so fine that it goes thru the filter and blows around the outside and settles as it goes around. It is easy to clean though as I only have to go around the edge when vacuuming.

 

[Wolfmarsh]

Haha, i guess i do that indirectly.


For some of my exercise, i "run" around the pool in a circle for a while, the resistance of the water gets my heart going pretty well.

Once I am good and tired (every 10-15 minutes) I stop, pick my feet up, and let the water current carry me full circle around the pool 3 or 4 times, then start the process over again.

 

[Backglass]

For some of my exercise, i "run" around the pool in a circle for a while, the resistance of the water gets my heart going pretty well.

Once I am good and tired (every 10-15 minutes) I stop, pick my feet up, and let the water current carry me full circle around the pool 3 or 4 times, then start the process over again.

When we had a round pool, we used to do that same thing. Grab a couple noodles, everybody runs in a circle, then kick back on your noodle and ride the current for awhile. I must admit however these whirlpool sessions were usually late in the evening and alcohol induced. :lol:

 

[vejadu]

Before we got our new pool, we did that in our intex. It really gets that junk off the bottom doesn't it! Another fun trick that doesn't really have any function is to lay half your body on a boogie board or kick board and jump up and down. Voila, instant wave pool!

Bigger bodies=bigger waves.

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

This thread is making us sound a little loopy!! :lol:

I remember 'riding the whirlpool' as a kid in a friends pool... we would sit on beach balls and try not to tip over (this was before the days of noodles )

 

[From_Arizona]

I love this thread - this placed a smile :-D on my face this morning thinking about the group whirlpool. What a great way to have fun making a chore easier.

My silliy question for the day :?

We live in the northern hemisphere....would/do we all turn clockwise when we do this? Would those in Australia turn the other direction.

Oh, I guess one comment too....
Could that be a reason that Australia does not have the same SWG issues?

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

silliness aside, you will get a better whirlpool if you go with nature (counter-clockwise in N hemisphere)! You can make one in the opposite direction, but it will neither be as strong or last as long!

(ETA whoops, I was feeling dyslexic there for a minute! Thanks KurtV for getting me headed in the right direction!!)

 

[KurtV]

Counterclockwise in our hemisphere. The whirlpool creates, esstentially, a low pressure area. The water flows down the slope toward the low and the Coriolis effect deflects the flow to the right.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

We use the "human whirlpool" daily, for exercise and also because we have a bottom drain that collects all the silt. Turn the pump on high, full bottom drain suction, start running (counter clockwise!) while I push the brush and voila! No vacuming necessary! Had shin-splints the first few weeks....the kids think its funny and gross to see the dead bugs floating in the center get sucked down the drain.

 

[matt4x4]

30 foot round 54" deep (deeper in the middle) AG pool - have done it many times, and yes, it does move most dirt to the center portion of the pool - which makes a HUGE difference when vacuuming this monster.
Kids love it - they like hanging out on floaties and getting pulled by the current - it can get going pretty strong.