Hi Forum members. Wakers 3 checking in. Found your board while researching my potential conversion to salt this Spring and really like all of the information I have absorbed so far.
Wanted to provide a little history about my pool experience and perhaps get some direction. Prior house (and our first) happened to have a wonderful backyard oasis with an older gunnite pool that was built prior to regulations because is was pretty short but had a diving board. That thing was a gem. Low maintenance as I just added a couple of pounds of shock every week for about 5 years. Nice epoxy stone covering over top of the concrete pads surrounding the pool. Privacy fence to keep my hiney obscure from the neighbors. Miss that. Hurricane reached inland and brought debris, gunnite started breaking down, drought year, cold year, pump failed, epoxy stone started deteriorating, etc. Bottom line is that I had to start working on keeping the pool nice which started sucking. We were in that house for 9 years.
Family started and we decided it was time to move. We had enjoyed the pool so much for so long that we found a nice house with an existing pool that we figured we could make work. This pool is a little bigger with a vinyl liner and not as nice of a surrounding oasis as the last one and so far, I wouldn't say that it has been crazy work but there are more trees around and it seems like everytime I took water into Leslie's, there is some other chemical that I need to purchase and add. Especially Soda Ash. I can't stand buying Soda Ash.
Heard that Salt systems are basically the cure-all for any of the pool problems in life. Both from owners and of course Leslie's. So here I am. Trying to decide that if I just study and do some research and actual hard-core water testing on my own and actually learn about the chemistry of the thing - that my life with chlorine will become easier by default, and/or would I just take the plunge as they say this Spring and hit up installing a salt water system on my own and cross my fingers that my life improves. This past year was the worst as we had another one of those hurricane things that took me three vacuums to get all of the junk out and then my chemicals were way off for about three weeks.
Other things that I need to address:
-small hole in the liner about the size of a pencil eraser and above the water level
-concrete pad surrounding the pool has cracked and is shifting in a couple of spots
-liner has been damaged at some point because the nice pattern has bleached/faded here and there
Other things I would like to learn about:
-I have just always left the pool pump on all the time. Didn't realize there was an alternative until I started reading on this forum.
-automatic cleaners. Last pool was so much easier as there were hardly any trees around. This one is different.
-Salt of course. Is that the windex of the pool world, or am I reading it wrong?
Thanks for taking the time to read through my ramblings. Any direction on any of the topics above is appreciated.
-Bill
Wanted to provide a little history about my pool experience and perhaps get some direction. Prior house (and our first) happened to have a wonderful backyard oasis with an older gunnite pool that was built prior to regulations because is was pretty short but had a diving board. That thing was a gem. Low maintenance as I just added a couple of pounds of shock every week for about 5 years. Nice epoxy stone covering over top of the concrete pads surrounding the pool. Privacy fence to keep my hiney obscure from the neighbors. Miss that. Hurricane reached inland and brought debris, gunnite started breaking down, drought year, cold year, pump failed, epoxy stone started deteriorating, etc. Bottom line is that I had to start working on keeping the pool nice which started sucking. We were in that house for 9 years.
Family started and we decided it was time to move. We had enjoyed the pool so much for so long that we found a nice house with an existing pool that we figured we could make work. This pool is a little bigger with a vinyl liner and not as nice of a surrounding oasis as the last one and so far, I wouldn't say that it has been crazy work but there are more trees around and it seems like everytime I took water into Leslie's, there is some other chemical that I need to purchase and add. Especially Soda Ash. I can't stand buying Soda Ash.
Heard that Salt systems are basically the cure-all for any of the pool problems in life. Both from owners and of course Leslie's. So here I am. Trying to decide that if I just study and do some research and actual hard-core water testing on my own and actually learn about the chemistry of the thing - that my life with chlorine will become easier by default, and/or would I just take the plunge as they say this Spring and hit up installing a salt water system on my own and cross my fingers that my life improves. This past year was the worst as we had another one of those hurricane things that took me three vacuums to get all of the junk out and then my chemicals were way off for about three weeks.
Other things that I need to address:
-small hole in the liner about the size of a pencil eraser and above the water level
-concrete pad surrounding the pool has cracked and is shifting in a couple of spots
-liner has been damaged at some point because the nice pattern has bleached/faded here and there
Other things I would like to learn about:
-I have just always left the pool pump on all the time. Didn't realize there was an alternative until I started reading on this forum.
-automatic cleaners. Last pool was so much easier as there were hardly any trees around. This one is different.
-Salt of course. Is that the windex of the pool world, or am I reading it wrong?
Thanks for taking the time to read through my ramblings. Any direction on any of the topics above is appreciated.
-Bill