New F/Glass build DownUnder - Adelaide - What have I let myself in for?... :)

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AUSpool said:
I have to assume your happy with the VironXT
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Yes - seems to be a fairly reliable and popular pump. It is a DC drive motor with an electronic speed control for the variable speed side of things.

Spares are readily available (seals, O-rings etc) - so no dramas if you have a problem.

The current Viron XT is actually a revised pump that Astral used to sell years ago. It has better performance and efficiency figures and is quieter as well.


AUSpool said:
How did you select your equipment, a mix of Waterco and Astral?
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Pretty much what the majority of pool builders use here in Adelaide. A lot of the overseas products are more expensive but more importantly they tend to be more difficult to source, so many PB's use Astral products.

The Waterco multicyclone is probably the best designed cyclone device from what is on the market and my PB also recommended that one over others.

So far - everything has been working OK - I would not worry about tech support too much as there are a few of us on here at TFP that are well versed on some of these products - so any questions - just fire away... :)
 
Do you find that your pump derates itself on really hot days? We had a 39C day in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and the filter pressure dropped down a few PSI, but pump still showed 2850rpm. I guess it shows the set rpms rather than the actual. Filter pressure was back to normal the next day when it cooled down. It's only done it that one day.
 
jgb75 said:
Do you find that your pump derates itself on really hot days?
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I have not noticed this - although my pump is mounted in a room and the hottest ambient temp has been about 45C.

If your pump is out in the open sun, then it could get very hot in direct sunlight possibly forcing the unit to drop its drive level to protect the motor/electronics.

I normally have the pump running at around 1300RPM for the majority of time and it does not really emit much heat at that low RPM.
 
Mine is indoors as well and normally run at 1600rpm as it vibrates quite a lot when running any less than that, like the motor is not quite balanced. I only noticed this reduction in output when running on high to skim the pool for an hour. Must just be an undocumented self protection feature.
 
jgb75 said:
Mine is indoors as well and normally run at 1600rpm as it vibrates quite a lot when running any less than that, like the motor is not quite balanced.
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Unlikely to be the motor itself - It is more likely that the impeller is out of balance as the impeller is just a plastic moulded item which is screwed onto the end of the motor shaft.

Might pay to remove the 'wet' end off the pump one day (fairly easy to do) and check to see that no debris etc is trapped within the impeller itself which could cause an imbalance.

You could even try swapping out the impeller as they are not overly expensive just to see if that helps with the vibration.



jgb75 said:
I only noticed this reduction in output when running on high to skim the pool for an hour. Must just be an undocumented self protection feature.
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Yes you are probably correct - although I have never had to run mine at very high speed for long periods. Usually only run mine at 2850 RPM just for priming and backwashing my filter which only takes a few minutes.
 
Hey Costas! Just dropping by to say wow about your weather! Hottest day on record today is crazy! Hope you’ve been able to enjoy the pool. We had a 34* day today but generally it’s not getting over 30* most days. Of course I build a pool and we have the coldest winter and the coolest summer in a long time. Hoping some of your weather makes it up here (you can keep several of those degrees though).
 
riley00dog said:
Hottest day on record today is crazy! Hope you’ve been able to enjoy the pool.
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Hi Liz...!

Yep - Ended up reaching 46.5C yesterday (115.7F)...:eek:

Needless to say we spent a lot of the day and evening in the pool - I'm on leave from work this week and the next, so I am enjoying the heat blast in the pool....!



On a side note - Work has been quiet on the pool project due to the Christmas and New years break - however some paving has been laid and my glass fence contractors were around this morning starting work on the fence.

They will pop around tomorrow to finish off and hang the two glass gates.


For those not familiar with glass pool fencing: Coring through the granite and into the concrete foundation below - Stainless steel spigots are glued in which hold the glass panels:

i4GSQL.jpg




Closeup up of the spigots I selected - These are not plated but are manufactured from 2205 stainless steel and simply polished - Should be more robust than cheaper plated units.

Once the glass panels are all lined up/level etc - Adhesive is poured into the hole locking in the spigot to the concrete foundation & granite deck.

BwcPuK.jpg





Work so far, just need to allow for the adhesive to fully cure before hanging the doors tomorrow.

JLFpNS.jpg
 
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Looking good. A coat of paint on that dodgy fence and some synthetic grass and your done. ;) I wonder what uses less water per square meter, grass or and evaporating pool, my guess is grass. :unsure:
 
SWEET! That is some good progress there! Good pick on the spigots instead of plating. Guess the plating would start to flake after a while.

That piece needing painting....................how about hiring it out to a graffiti artist?? Some of them have mad skills and if you tell them what you want and see them sketch it out you could have a real statement piece!

Kim:kim: (one day I will find someone to do a statement mural!)
 
That is crazy hot! Glad you got to enjoy the pool though. The glass fencing looks amazing! Somehow it makes the pool look bigger. Sprigots look great and sound like they’ll last. I was so nervous when they were core drilling our holes. Didn’t get a choice with ours and I’m not sure exactly what they are ? They appear to be brushed stainless. They’re taller than yours I think. We also seem have the bottom of our glass sitting higher than yours. Maybe our panel height is less? We were really happy with the fencing contractor the PB used. Enjoy your long weekend happy Australia Day ??

Oh and Auspete - grass wins hands down over evaporation. I’d say each week I top up the pool with about half of what I use to water the (small area of) grass every day... well that’s since my pool is no longer leaking ?
 

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LOL We do LOTS of murals for out bulletin boards. The kids love to do them and the adults like to see them. I then bring them in and put them on our ceiling! The kids lay around and look at them as they talk about the different parts!
 
AUSpool said:
Looking good. A coat of paint on that dodgy fence and some synthetic grass and your done. ;)
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kimkats said:
That piece needing painting....................how about hiring it out to a graffiti artist??
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That 'dodgy' fence is actually the rear of a neighbour's garage.

As you can all see it is a real eyesore at this point in time - We are planning to obscure it with a feature wall placed in front of it - Have not quite decided on the wall material as yet - still thinking about that.

My garage which is located on the LHS of the photo below will eventually be painted the same colour as the surrounding fencing so we may break the overall dark colour perimeter with a light coloured feature wall.



riley00dog said:
They’re taller than yours I think. We also seem have the bottom of our glass sitting higher than yours. Maybe our panel height is less?
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Mine are around 200mm and the gap under the glass panels is approx. 55mm.

Glass panels are 1200mm which is the current minimum height allowable (here in SA).

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Fence is now complete - Gave the glass a real quick clean this morning and washed off all the contractors leftover dirty footprints on the decking....:)

qK6OKe.jpg
 
kimkats said:
Loving the glass fence. Safe and can still see that wonderful pool! How does it latch? It is lockable?
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Hi Kim,

Glass fencing sure looks better than the standard tubular styles. Your eyes get drawn into the pool water and you end up not noticing the fence all that much (providing glass is kept clean...:)) - A lot easier on the eyes rather than having to stare through bars. Only catch is that glass fencing ends up costing approx 5 to 7x as much as a standard fence.

The spigots are fairly expensive as well as the hinges I chose. The self closing hinges are equipped with hydraulic dampers which allow for a soft closing action - I think they were around $400 extra on top of standard style hinges for a set...

Latches can only be operated by leaning over the fence and operating them from the pool side. They are just a simple magnetically held latch which permits auto closing of the door.

These ones are not lockable as our current laws do not require a 'locked' gate for the fencing but you can purchase 'lockable' versions of the same latch.
 
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You’d be surprised how much slamming they will cope with. Ive had glass gates slam from the fully open position with fully tensioned springs without a problem - they must, by code, be able to close against the normal prevailing wind. I saw the damage caused by a swimmer with poor judgment who jumped from the top of a glass panel, the glass didn’t break but was ‘pushed’ over by about 30 degrees. :oops:
 
We have the lockable version but otherwise exactly as described by Liz. The gate is also soft-closing but the wind can really hammer it anyway and all seems fine. I lock the gate when I SLAM, but even then it really isn't needed. Thankfully the rain cleans the glass (we've never cleaned ours other than taking the sunscreen off the gate).

The laws here are pretty good overall, but not 100% effective, nor could anything be. They're targeted purposefully at 4 yr-olds and younger. Our own experience has been that they need to be around 8 or 10 before they can reach over and down to the latch. I like that as well because at 7 or 8 they're not yet responsible enough to keep the toddlers out. The most common pool drowning here occurs when the gate is blocked open or doesn't shut properly. Sadly, people allow littlies to play in the yard unsupervised, relying on the fence, and an older kid defeats the self-closing gate with a toy, a flower pot, a brick or whatever. So it's really important to remind people it's just an extra line of defense, not a babysitter.

At Christmas, I set up a slippery slide outside the pool fence with soapy water that the kids loved, but they wanted to get back to the pool more easily in between slides. One of them blocked the gate open, and there were a bunch of adults all yelling in unison "That's illegal! You wanna kill your cousin?!"
 
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We always had a bit of a poke at the fence laws, our pool has all the right gates and dimensions but not 6 feet away is a lake fenced by a single chain - at least no kid will drown in my little body of water. We’re still pondering the logistics of fencing our new pool build, the rear wall is a 3m high retaining wall within the neighbours boundary.
 

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