New Pool Owner in Washington State

[uwsublime]

Hello All,

We were not looking for a pool, but we found the house we wanted and it had one. We enjoyed a few weeks of use before the weather decided it was time to start trying to close up the pool. I have a large list of items I need to address in the off season and I hope some of you can help me out. We've enjoyed the use of the pool so far, but the cost and the time commitment have been a real pain when combined with all of the other pains of moving. I'm hoping to get that all under control for next season so we can use the pool long term and not just leave it closed permanently,

Brian

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!

As you get your list together regarding the pool ask questions in the appropriate forum! Your signature shows a pretty good set up for your area. With a solar cover you could probably still be swimming with the use of your solar panels.

How are you chlorinating? Do you have your own test kit?

Welcome again. Take care.

 

[uwsublime]

Welcome to the forum!

As you get your list together regarding the pool ask questions in the appropriate forum! Your signature shows a pretty good set up for your area. With a solar cover you could probably still be swimming with the use of your solar panels.

How are you chlorinating? Do you have your own test kit?

Welcome again. Take care.

Thank you for the response. I will take it to the correct forum(s), but two of my top issues are that the solar panels are leaking, and that I need a pool blanket. Due to those issues, we were using far too much gas to keep it warm and we are working on getting it closed for the year.

We are currently chlorinating with tablets left by the previous owner. Those are almost out, and I'm probably going to move to liquid bleach as it seems much cheaper. Is there a better way to go? The only test kit we have are the little strips that you dip in the water. I'm hoping to upgrade to an electronic kit eventually, but there are a few other priorities I have first (such as the solar blanket).

 

[mknauss]

There are two pool water testing kits we recommend - the TF100 from TFTestkits.net or the Taylor K2006C. The C is important as it provides more reagents than the non-C Taylor kit. The electronic kits (Lamotte) are not as good for residential pools. See Pool School - Test Kits Compared

The forum also does not recommend using solid chlorine products for daily maintenance. They all add something that does not leave the water unless you replace the water and will lead to issues with your pool
See Pool School - How to Chlorinate Your Pool

I have a SWCG and it is the one item that dramatically reduces your maintenance time. You pay for your chlorine upfront and your main item to manage is pH. You will end up adding acid regularly. I travel for extended periods and the SWCG adds the chlorine and a weekly pool service adds the acid and cleans pool.

Take care.

 

[needsajet]

Welcome to TFP! Go the Huskies

 

[uwsublime]

There are two pool water testing kits we recommend - the TF100 from TFTestkits.net or the Taylor K2006C. The C is important as it provides more reagents than the non-C Taylor kit. The electronic kits (Lamotte) are not as good for residential pools. See Pool School - Test Kits Compared

The forum also does not recommend using solid chlorine products for daily maintenance. They all add something that does not leave the water unless you replace the water and will lead to issues with your pool
See Pool School - How to Chlorinate Your Pool

I have a SWCG and it is the one item that dramatically reduces your maintenance time. You pay for your chlorine upfront and your main item to manage is pH. You will end up adding acid regularly. I travel for extended periods and the SWCG adds the chlorine and a weekly pool service adds the acid and cleans pool.

Take care.

I will do more reading on the two test kits recommended. Just to be clear, something like a "Phin" would not be recommended?

I'm confused by your response about chlorine. Literally the #1 item on the link you provided is liquid chlorine, which is what I had in mind. I would love to move to something like a SWCG, but I haven't read up on how to convert the pool to salt water, and if my current components would even be healthy with salt added to the system... That project will probably be saved for another day after I get my current setup in order.

Thanks again for your responses. Very helpful!

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Welcome to TFP! Go the Huskies

Thank you! Rough weekend for football in the NW... Huskies, Cougars, Ducks all lost... At least the Seahawks had a bye week!

 

[mknauss]

Great on planning to use the liquid chlorine! It is a daily maintenance.

Not sure what a "Phin" is. Can you give us more detail?

All pool equipment is OK for salt water use. All pools have salt. Nearly all forms of chlorine (sodium hypochlorite - aka liquid chlorine, Trichlor - aka pucks; etc) have salt. Most pools end up with 1000 - 1500 ppm salt in them after one season.

Take care.

 

[borjis]

If your solar panels are the hard plastic tube type mats and the leaks are on those areas,
they can quite easily be repaired.

 

[uwsublime]

Great on planning to use the liquid chlorine! It is a daily maintenance.

Not sure what a "Phin" is. Can you give us more detail?

All pool equipment is OK for salt water use. All pools have salt. Nearly all forms of chlorine (sodium hypochlorite - aka liquid chlorine, Trichlor - aka pucks; etc) have salt. Most pools end up with 1000 - 1500 ppm salt in them after one season.

Take care.

A "Phin" just floats around your pool then emails or texts you or whatever when something needs to be added. I'm unsure if linking products is allowed here, but a quick search on Amazon will return the device. I have no idea if they are any good, was just looking at them to replace some of the manual labor of maintaining chemistry.

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If your solar panels are the hard plastic tube type mats and the leaks are on those areas,
they can quite easily be repaired.

If by repair, you mean plug, then yes I've already done that several times. I'm not looking to be on my roof all summer covering up a product's defects. I also don't like waking up to see that my pool has lost 1500 gallons... That has happened to me several times already. I will be posting more about these issues in other forums as I have time, but I'm not looking to keep these terrible FAFCO panels. I do appreciate your response though!

 

[mknauss]

A past thread discussed a similar product, or may have been the same, as the 'Phin'. Sadly, they will not work. The probes must be regularly maintained, cleaned, replaced, etc. Similar to ORP. Typically the CYA levels needed to maintain a sanitary FC level preclude the use of probes to test FC. The pH probes have to be calibrated very often.

Your call to try it out -- but the Forum stands behind using proper drop testing methods for the residential pool owner.

Take care.