Mechanics of draining a pool with submersible pump

[sdrilling]

Good morning

We are going to attempt draining our pool 1/2 way (high CYA)

Our pool company drained it last time. They used a submersible pump and 2" blue hose. Unfortunately, we were not there when they hooked everything up.

We have located a pump and a hose, available electric and we have a place to discharge the water.

https://www.amazon.com/HydroMaxx-Di...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8X1Z9JV61K5E26QWR47R

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Superio...PIPHorizontal2_rr-_-204589831-_-204609991-_-N

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We know the pump gets attached to the hose but not much else.

Our questions:

1. Do we need anything else? It seems like there should be another fitting to connect the pump to the hose. I have read through Amazon and home depot and am lost in discussions of npt, mpt, males and females. If you use this system could you tell us what fittings you use?

2. After we get the pump and the hose connected what are the actual mechanics to start draining the pool? Do we just dump the pump in and turn it on or do we have to do something with the pool? I remember the pool company saying something about setting something to the main drain.


I know we sound like morons! We just bought our home on October 1st. We have never had a pool. We could ask the pool company to drain again however they are pushing us to do a total drain (we did a partial 22,000-gallon drain last week and CYA is still too high) and an acid wash to cure the CYA.

We really appreciate any guidance you can share.

Thank you

Steph

 

[proavia]

It appears the pump you linked to has a 1 1/4" outlet. You may need an adapter to go from 1 1/4" to 2".

Home Depot usually rents pumps for about $50/day. And provides the discharge hose too. I think their discharge hose is only 50' - but they will furnish 2 lengths if you ask. Their pump would output more gpm that the one you linked to - which would make the drain down faster.

 

[PoolGate]

That pump isn't going to do much. I have a similar one. The pump is fully submersible so I just throw it in the water and attach a hose to the output. The funny thing is, many of those sump pumps don't accept a standard hose fitting so you are left trying to figure out what you need to get a standard hose attached. I think the reason for that is the hose is very small and will reduce the already paltry rate at which they run. Using my 1/2 hp pump, it takes me 3-4 hours to lower the water level by around 4".

The thing you want to do with the pool if you are draining a lot of water is to probably shut everything off while you are draining. It depends on how low you are going to go. If you are going below the skimmers for sure you want to turn off the skimmers. But if you don't have a floor drain then turn it all off.

Does your pump have a drain on one of the pipes coming from the pressure side? Mine does and I just hook a regular garden hose up to that and drain from there. I only use the sump pump now in winter when the system is off.

 

[Leebo]

First and foremost, welcome to TFP!!

If I may ask a totally unrelated but vital question, was the high CYA reading from your kit or was this based on a pool stores reading?

If it’s based on your personal testing then proavia has ya covered. You’ll need an adapter to attach the larger blue hose. If you go to almost any hardware store they’ll likely sell the pumps and hoses and will be able to assist you in what you’ll need.

 

[sdrilling]

First and foremost, welcome to TFP!!

If I may ask a totally unrelated but vital question, was the high CYA reading from your kit or was this based on a pool stores reading?



Good morning -- the high CYA reading was confirmed by both a Taylor Kit test and pool store reading. We started at over 150. We drained 2/3 of the pool or about 22,000 gallons. Resting shows the level at just over 100 using the dilution method for Taylor and 83 for the pool store.

We are going to drain about 1/2 again to see if we can get it closer to 60.

We live in Georgia and plan to transition to salt water in March/April. We hope a level of 60ish will be fine to leave it until then. Our pool company wants us to do a complete drain of the pool and pay them to acid wash it. We have not been able to locate any definitive literature to support acid washing as a method needed to reduce CYA. Our 14 year old pebbletec finish is not stained, there is no calcium buildup and we do not have a hard water issue.

We are looking forward to getting our pool to acceptable levels and cutting the pool company off except for a quarterly check of equipment.

 

[Leebo]

Sounds like you’re on the right track! Ditch the store and carry on. I’m glad to hear the results were from your kit as the entire time I was reading I kept fearing the store was wrong.

An acid wash won’t reduce your CYA but it will reduce the life of your surface. If the surfacenis still looking good, don’t touch it. Using a pump to drain then adding fresh water is best. As mentioned above most hardware stores sell both pumps and hoses. There will be somebody there to assist ya. You’ll need an adapter to use the larger hose but they’ll be in stock I’m sure.