Hi .. some quick background: we moved into a new house with a pool in August. A professional maintained the pool weekly for the previous owners, but we can't afford to keep doing that so when we moved in, I started using Bleach and bought the tf100 kit... Was thinking of closing it on my own, but despite all that I read on TFP, I knew too little about the system to do it myself - so we hired someone to close it and I took tons of notes and pictures so I could do it myself next year. I finally dug out my notes so I could write up a little maintenance guide for our pool and also in preparation for reversing everything so I could open it by myself. As I was writing it up, I came up with some questions that I hope someone can help me with .. If you have the time,I would really appreciate some feedback on the guide I created (had to split up the guide due to the file size limit)- specifically the Pool Opening piece, but if you have time to look at the other parts, I'd love that! I'm sure there are some gaping holes
.. I left all the other sections in since it might help explain what kind of pool system I have..
here are my initial questions:
1) My pool is filled to the top due to rain water and I remember reading that I should let my filter run for 3-4 hours before taking my first reading. Before I run the filter, I should drop the water to the skimmers, right? I also need to add DE to the filter - Should I just follow the instructions on the DE Bag- I read somewhere that I should add DE based on the type of filter I have, I have a DE4800, so I'm suppose to add 4 coffee cans of DE? Also, should I turn on my Polaris and In Floor cleaners at this time too?
2) When we closed the pool, I was told that we actually had an In-Floor Cleaning system. How often should I run that.. It shares a valve with the Return, should I turn the Returns off in order to open the valve to the In Floor Cleaning System? Owners never told me anything about it even existing.
3) When I first start the filter, I have a bunch of different valves and I want to make sure that I turn on/off the right ones. Please let me know if this sounds right...The Skimmer and Main Drain should be OPEN, The Return should be OPEN, In Floor Cleaner should be CLOSED, The Water Feature (water Fall) should be CLOSED.
4) In preparation of opening the pool (I'm waiting to cut down some trees first), I bought a lot of Bleach, a case of Sodium DiChloro from Costco and a bag of DE powder. I'm guessing I won't use the Sodium Dichloro, right? and I'm thinking I need to buy some Polyquat, right? Anything else I should buy in preparation of opening the pool?
Thanks in advance, I'm sure there will be many more questions to come - I'm feeling really anxious about taking off the cover, but will be waiting for the tree guy to cut down some trees to avoid getting all sorts of wood chips in the pool. Once that happens, it's game on![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
here are my initial questions:
1) My pool is filled to the top due to rain water and I remember reading that I should let my filter run for 3-4 hours before taking my first reading. Before I run the filter, I should drop the water to the skimmers, right? I also need to add DE to the filter - Should I just follow the instructions on the DE Bag- I read somewhere that I should add DE based on the type of filter I have, I have a DE4800, so I'm suppose to add 4 coffee cans of DE? Also, should I turn on my Polaris and In Floor cleaners at this time too?
2) When we closed the pool, I was told that we actually had an In-Floor Cleaning system. How often should I run that.. It shares a valve with the Return, should I turn the Returns off in order to open the valve to the In Floor Cleaning System? Owners never told me anything about it even existing.
3) When I first start the filter, I have a bunch of different valves and I want to make sure that I turn on/off the right ones. Please let me know if this sounds right...The Skimmer and Main Drain should be OPEN, The Return should be OPEN, In Floor Cleaner should be CLOSED, The Water Feature (water Fall) should be CLOSED.
4) In preparation of opening the pool (I'm waiting to cut down some trees first), I bought a lot of Bleach, a case of Sodium DiChloro from Costco and a bag of DE powder. I'm guessing I won't use the Sodium Dichloro, right? and I'm thinking I need to buy some Polyquat, right? Anything else I should buy in preparation of opening the pool?
Thanks in advance, I'm sure there will be many more questions to come - I'm feeling really anxious about taking off the cover, but will be waiting for the tree guy to cut down some trees to avoid getting all sorts of wood chips in the pool. Once that happens, it's game on