Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a pool

[cya_sux]

I’m having such a tough time with my mother-in-law’s pool. I believe that the pump is not circulating as well as it could. As you can see in the pic, whoever piped in this equipment was either really cheap, lazy, or just didn’t know any better. Everything is 2 inch pipe after the filter. Everything before the filter is 1.5 inches.

I was hoping that by cutting the two suction pipes below the elbows, turning the pump 90 degrees, and piping to the filter (with 2 inch lines), it would reduce some of the head, giving me a bit better flow. Is this worth the effort/cost? Crappy sketch of what I'm talking about is in the link.

As it stands right now, the vacuum gauge reads about 7.5-8, and the pressure gauge reads about 13.

This pool gets algae unbelievably fast. It burns through chlorine like nobody’s business . I recently installed the chlorinator (in pic) and it seems to help a bit but I don’t think it is getting enough flow through it. I would like to turn on the main drain only when clearing up the pool but when I do, the vacuum jumps up to about 15 and begins cavitating. It's an 8-foot kidney shaped pool.

This is a pool I can only get to maybe once a week, but usually ends up being around every ten days or so. I would really like to fix this on the cheap. I could get a new filter body bottom that has 2 inch inlets and a new pump housing but that is really out of my budget right now.

Pictures: http://imgur.com/a/do85y

What should I do TFP?

 

[Lershac]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

Shock the pool. its a process that will take several days. Once you are behind and have an algae bloom you have to work hard to catch up, then that swg can handle the ongoing chlorine demand.

Full test and some numbers would be helpful. I think you might be flogging the wrong horse worrying about the plumbing.

 

[Lershac]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

oops sorry no SWG. I am betting you have some seriously whacked chemistry

 

[Lershac]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

See the filter really is only there to remove particulate matter... NOT THE ALGAE. Thats what the sanitation chemicals are for. The filter then will remove their lil dead bodies over time. The reproduce faster than you can possibly filter em out.

 

[JasonLion]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

Replacing plumbing that is fine is not usually worth it. Upgrading the 1.5" pipe to 2" will improve things, just not by very much.

The first thing to do is to get a full set of water test results to see where you are. That will no doubt turn up things that need balancing.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

The very first, most important, thing you need to do is order a good test kit. Do that now! The TF-100 of course!

Next, get a set of test results and post them here, & tell us how you got them. We will help you get through this.

Don't change the plumbing. It might help but that's not your biggest issue.

Is the vacuum gauge in psi or inches of HG? If it's in "HG then your total head is only 38' and that's not too bad.

Here's my recommendation for long term maintenance once you get the chems balanced. Get either a Liquidator or a peristaltic pump and let it feed the chlorine into the pool. Since you're only there on an infrequent basis you could have MIL just inspect the equipment to make sure it's still operating. She could even learn to run the OTO/ph test using the K-1000 kit that comes in the TF-100 just to make sure there's chlorine in there.

List the equipment for us too. Size pump & filter make and model.

 

[dmanb2b]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

Any update?

I'll just reiterate what everyone above said. Start with a full set of test results. Even poor circulation can be overcome by maintaining slighlty elevated FC levels.

FC, CC, PH, TA, CH, CYA

You already know cya_sux :lol: , so make sure you have enough FC for your CYA level, CC is 0.5 or below and you are able to pass the overnight FC loss test. If not, you need to shock

 

[cya_sux]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

Everything has been looking pretty good lately. I did not realize that there was a nice leak where the tile meets the skimmer. It would lose water until the pump lost prime. The mother-in-law would add water when she heard the pump gurgling like crazy. This would eventually lead to algae. I got some underwater epoxy and donned my swimming trunks and hopefully the leak is now gone.

As for me reconfiguring the piping...meh. I don't think it would make too bit of a difference to upgrade to 2in pipes.

Now if I can only convince her to cut down the GIANT magnolia tree that hangs right over the pool... Anybody know how much it would cost to cut one down?

 

[dmanb2b]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

Now if I can only convince her to cut down the GIANT magnolia tree that hangs right over the pool... Anybody know how much it would cost to cut one down?

Best to get local quotes as prices can vary by region. I've seen people getting charged anywhere from $100-$1,400 depending on size, terrain, access, etc.

 

[Lershac]

Re: Help a guy out with his mother-in-law's diaster of a poo

Tree folks prices vary greatly. If Billy-bob the uninsured unbonded part time tree guy does it it could be cheap until he injures himself on your property. If a licensed, insured, bonded arborist does it, it will cost in terms of dollars but save you liability exposure.