Ok pool gurus and experienced owners, fess up!

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Saturn94

Saturn94

Bronze Supporter
Mar 11, 2015
1,746
SE Virginia
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Time for you pool gurus and experienced owners to fess up to bonehead pool care mistakes you made!

I’ll go first. ;)

At opening when I started up the filter, water started spraying out between the upper and lower housing. I first thought it broke (its 14 years old), but soon realized I forgot to install the O ring! Doh! :oops:

And it gets better.....

The last several days I couldn’t figure out why my Polaris cleaner (pressure side w/booster pump) didn’t seem to be cleaning well despite the appearance it was running fine and I was running it many hours a day (lots of tree mess this time of year). I finally noticed why today....when I emptied the filter bag several days ago I forgot to zip it back up, so it was just blowing debris back into the pool!!! :hammer:
 
Hmmm...

Biggest mess was caused by assuming that the 1/4 twist in the backwash hose would straighten itself out once water started flowing. It wouldn't. It turned itself into a full twist and caused the hose to pop, spewing months and months' worth of dirt and debris out all over the side of the garage. The gravel filled planter now grows lush crops of weeds above the weed barrier as a direct result.

How about trying to titrate the CH test using R-009 and wondering why it hadn't changed yet when I was roughly 500 ppm above where I thought it should be?
 
Closed both valves to my intake and my return and ran pump for a few hours. Surprisingly, pump was fine but one of the hoses broke and the water was seriously hot!
 
In an attempt to bump CYA, I reached into the supply closet that was still stocked with potions from the previous owner. Instead of "stabilizer", I dosed the pool with "chlorine neutralizer".

Wha, who, why, HUH???? I'm still curious about why Mr. Greenpool thought that was a wise investment!
 
Forgot to open the valve to my main drain. After a few days noticed my water was not as sparkly.........hummmm whats up with that? Did a OCLT test and got 1cc :shock: Started thinking backwards and checked it..........closed. Guess the water sitting in there was brewing something not so nice! Opened it and shoot a turkey baster full of chlorine down it and did a SLAM. Got the water looking like a jewel again in two days.

Kim:kim:
 
Occasionally forgetting how my automation timer works. It's set on High for a bit, then Low for hours, then Off. But if I manually change it to High during the Low period, it runs till the next day because in the evening it only turns Low off, not High.

Small consolation is that my two-speed pump is loud on high, so I can sometimes hear it and be reminded.
 
Well last year after closing the pool and draining the water down to a bit below the skimmer, the snorkel in the return (it sits a bit below the skimmer) I screwed in and left it pointed down. So as rain water got onto the cover the water in the pool went -up- the snorkel and out the return. I pull the SWG for the winter and leave the valve open just in case.
 
Recently remodeled our pool. Of course part of this process is emptying it and filling it, and adjusting the chemistry. Had lots of baking soda, soda ash, and boric acid on hand just for this moment. Well in my glee to add borates back to the pool water accidently grabbed the 50 lb pail of baking soda when I intended to grab boric acid. Proceeded to add 36 lbs of baking soda. Didn't realize this until a few days later when I went to check the borate level and got 0.....wth. Eventually figured it out and of course fretted that I screwed up something in my newly installed finish. Lucky it was ecofinish and I'm thinking I should be ok.
 

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I use a Dolphin robot cleaner. When I first moved into my new house, the prior owners left a Polaris pressure cleaner in the pool. It wasn't running, so I pulled it out and put my Dolphin in to clean it (because despite the Polaris in the pool, it was dirty). I placed the Polaris on the deck, but did not unhook it from the pressure return. I did not check to see if it was set to a timer, so a few hours later I go outside and it is spraying water everywhere.

I turned the timer off, added some fill water, unhooked the Polaris from the pool, and sold it.
 
Didn't closely inspect the used Hayward that I bought. Hooked it up with hoses attached, and then started to fill my pool to get the level up to the intake hose opening. Filled water for several hours and the pool wasn't getting any higher. I went round back only to discover that I did not have the plug for the base of the filter basket, so the water was running out of it for several hours.
 
Luckily I found this site shortly after having my first pool built. :kim:

First mistake was adding too much MA to the pool and getting the pH down to about 6.8.

Second mistake was not being able to figure out why there was no display on my AquaRite. I even called my neighbor over to try to figure it out. Turns out the pump needs to be on for the display to show. :brickwall:

Most recent was on my first CH test of the year thinking that my CH level was zero after it being about 650 last year. Finally figured out that my reagents had expired. Thankfully I didn't add anything as my CH is currently about 550.

This site is a life-saver!
 
ok i'm new to pools so.

turned on the heater last weekend. easytouch showed it was on and all good to go. walked into my storage and saw i had a burner on the panel. ok cool. 4 hours later "daddy the pool is still cold". me to myself: "kate ur 8 you don't know anything". don't anyone say something cause you all know you have said it to urself. so i then start to think. . . nah. . . i walk over to the heater. ya it's not on. i'm like what the. . . . . check all the line voltage, breaker. . . all good. no power though on the heater itself, but the almighty easytough and screenlogic says it's heating.

so i pul lthe panel apart. the wire for communication to the heater in unplugged. the low volt one! seriously!!!

ok but in my defense now. . . i should not have to check the heater that is the whole point of automation. . . . why isn't thier a feedback loop for when u send a command. easytouch thought it was all good but it should be looking for power and if it doesn't sense it back from the heater it should give u a warning like the salt cell does. if it's unplugged it says communication lost. why doesn't the heater?
 
The first year a closed my pool myself. AGP with standard winter cover. In the spring I opened it and water was great. I start vac'ing some small debris and find a screwdriver in the pool on the bottom below the skimmer. Apparently I set it on the top rail and knocked it in the water before the cover went on. It sat there all winter leaving a "nice" rust stain on the bottom.
That was a little over a year ago and the stain is still there. Now every time I see the stain I'm reminded of this blunder.
WCl4tjMt.jpg





Another is for a homemade solar cover reel I made. I took some 4" pvc pipe and put flanges on the end. It would span rail to rail across the pool to roll the cover up. It worked well. I took the cover off and hung it on hooks on a fence. Well, I came home one hot summer day to find the pvc had permanently bent into a nice S shape from the heat & weight of the cover. It ruined the pvc reel.
y4jzODRt.jpg





BUT, my biggest pool blunder by far was the use of the mineral pack that came with my pool when I had the pool installed. This AuqaSmarte mineral pack uses silver metals to "try" to keep the pool sanitary. I didn't take the mineral pack out when I stopped using the tab feeder portion. No staining luckily, but I've had issues with the calcium test since and have to do a work around. It's better this year since the replacement water is diluting the metals.
 
I was very new to TFP.... and learned from the experience .....

Foolishly thought I could use up the remainders of my pre-TFP trichlor puck bucket to raise my CYA back up to 80 from 40 following a completed SLAM Process. I thought with Mule Team and PoolMath I could keep ahead of the PH drop due to the acid pucks, but I neglected how severe the low PH water would be on it's circulation path before diluting. Even though the tests said I was in range for PH, I did some solid damage to the plaster near and after where the puck net was hanging. To add insult to injury, the acidic pucks actually destroyed the net they were hanging in and actually dispersed all over the bottom of the pool overnight.

When you do use pucks, keep them in the floater, not a net, and not in the skimmer. Don't use more than one floater at a time. Always use PoolMath to predict the impact of adding the chemicals.

Thanks trichlor - I'm done with you forever! It was fun while it lasted!

- - - Updated - - -

Another oops from before TFP - I blindly trusted the pool store and my CYA was over 200 leading to Black Algae infesting my already failing plaster. On the bright side, that's when I found TFP!
 

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