Rental Property Pool Dilemma

[Vcbmoore]

When I joined this forum several months ago I immediately saw its value and became a lifetime supporter. The TFTestkit, Speedstir and Taylor Salt Test are on the way. Hopefully everything will arrive on Monday.

Now I need your help! Let me give you a little background. We sold our old house and living in one of our rental properties with a pool (see my sig) while our new house is being completed. BTW, it will have a BBB pool.

Here is the dilemma. Our old house was 1.5 miles away from the rental. It was easy for me to come over at least once per week to test, add chemicals and water. For the last 6 years I have been using the BBB method but (don’t shoot me) with hockey pucks for convenience. Our new house will be 30 miles away! It's not going to be convenient to stop in every few days! Two weeks would be the desired interval. We are also prone to traveling to far off places for several weeks at a time.

Assuming I can get the new tenants to add water, as I see it, these are my options:
1. Hire a PS - Not to slight any members here that earn their living that way, but I've been underwhelmed in the past with local folks.
2. Get the new tenants to do it - BTDT - needed to add 20 lbs of Borax to get the PH up! BTW, Borax does a great job in controlling fleas. I understand DE does as well.
3. Add a chlorinator - inexpensive but back to using pucks.
4. Go to Salt Water - looks interesting, the new house pool will be SW, good learning experience.

Any others?

Assuming 4 is the most viable, since I already have an Easytouch with a wired indoor control panel, it would seem adding an Intellichlor would be a no brainer. The new house won’t be ready until late August, this would give me ample time to work out any bugs and test it out during the desert summer. Many folks here recommend one size bigger which would be IC20. But based on my research, the IC40 is only $75 more. Wouldn't I be better off spending the extra money and get more capacity? The IC40 would be loafing.

One other advantage to 4 is, I can add ScreenLogic to use with our iPhones and iPads. I was contemplating this for the new house. If it works well I can take it with me!

I was going to solve the PH problem with a siphon system as in some other threads.

Do you think this will work?

Thanks in advance for comments, questions, criticism, etc?

 

[openpool]

Here's some insight I have learned about tenants in a rental property with a pool. At first, they may love that the house has a pool, but in time you may realise they just don't share our sense of pride/duty/enthusiasm in making things work -- they might not care if it looks cloudy, not care to test often, they might not even use it often.

SWCGs and acid pumps and autolevels/drains, robots are great things in trying to help a pool go as long as possible without constant attention but unless someone has it as a job to care for the pool, it's hard to know what type of tenant yours will prove to be.

 

[Vcbmoore]

Openpool,

Sorry for the tardy reply. I was working on the new house over the weekend.

Your advise is well taken. We've had this property for 6 years and 4 tenants. Their behavior has ranged anywhere from "almost pride of ownership" to "PITA" . That's why I want to automate and take the "tenant variable" out of the equation.

But before I can do that I need to solve some chemical balance issues. The TFTTestkit arrived on Saturday. Thanks Dave!

The initial test results are as follows:
TC 3
pH 7.5
CH ?
TA 140
CYA 100+++++++ Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe that's because I was using hockey pucks for years. No mas!!

I had trouble with CH. I'll bone up on that today.

Added about 64 oz of Cl last night,. I'll check the TC this morning.

Before I can convert to salt, the TA and CYA need to get in range. Here in Tucson water is VERY,VERY expensive. Therefore draining and refilling is not an option. So I'm in the process of finding an RO service. I used a company years ago but was underwhelmed with their performance.

Any Tucsonians on here know of a good service?

 

[jblizzle]

I am not aware of RO companies around here.

Try doing the CYA test with a 50/50 mix of pool water and tap water, then multiply the result by 2. Lets see just how bad a shape the water might be in.

It does not sound like you added nearly enough chlorine (assuming you used bleach and not stronger stuff). At a CYA of 100, your minimum FC needs to be 7ppm. If you are well above 100, then the FC needs to be that much higher just to prevent algae from starting.

Who supplies your water? When I had Tucson Water, filling the pool was <$100. Now with a larger pool and on a non-for-profit well, it is <$50. Realize that if you have sewer, you should be able to call the company and tell them you are filling a pool and they should not charge you the sewer fees.

I find it hard to believe that RO will be cheaper than a refill.

EDIT: Did a google and found a few companies:
http://www.cleanwaterproducts.net mentions $250, but that may not be their actual price.
http://www.ultrapurepools.com has a special listed for $299 normally $400

Of course both of the sites make statements that are not true or wild exaggerations about pool sanitizers. For example: "Sanitize Water Without The Use Of Chemicals"

 

[Vcbmoore]

Jason,

Thanks for the help.

I did the diluted CYA and it still was way above the 100 level!!! I'll try 3 or 4 to 1 dilution. Although at this point is probably doesn't make much difference.

I threw in all the Chlorox my wife had in the laundry room last night. I'll stop by Costco or Walmart this afternoon.

Thanks for the links to the RO services. I'll check them out. I cant' believe the would use false advertising!

 

[jblizzle]

Randomly throwing in bottles of bleach at this point is just a waste of money. If you are not maintaining the appropriate shock level, then the algae is growing faster than you are killing it.

Sounds like you either to do a massive water change to lower CYA or need to hire a RO company. In either case, there is not point in continuing to add little amounts of bleach until you get the CYA down to a manageable level.

Some examples for my reasoning:
CYA = 100, Minimum FC level = 8, Shock level 25ppm, 570 oz bleach (3 182oz jugs) to reach shock level (from zero)
CYA = 200, Minimum FC level = 15, Shock level 41ppm, 935 oz bleach (5 182oz jugs) to reach shock level (from zero)
CYA = 300, Minimum FC level = 23, Shock level 58ppm, 1323 oz bleach (7 182oz jugs) to reach shock level (from zero)

And then you have to maintain the shock level and later the minimum FC level ... pucks are

 

[Vcbmoore]

Fortunately there is no algae yet. I did p/u a couple of cases of bleach at Costco this pm. But I ran into a cleverly disguised opportunity (read problem) and was unable to get to the pool. That's the priority tomorrow morning.

Since only being in this house for less than 2 months, I don't have a real grasp of the water usage. Having lived in the old house a 1.5 miles away for 12 years, my average water bill was $125/mo without sewer fees - big house, big yard, big pool! Sewer was usually equal to the water usage. A friend living a couple of blocks away has a monthly bill of $1,000 - big lawn.

Even if RO is a little more expensive, this house does not have a yard big enough to absorb 8,000 gal of water. Draining it to the street is not viable either due to the HOA police.

I'd rather pay for RO than get in a tiff with them.

I'll report my numbers tomorrow. Then find an RO company. Then buy a SWG - new toy!

 

[jblizzle]

Wow that is a lot of money for water. I am usually right around $50/mo for water and we have septic.

At a grand a month I would have to suspect a broken pipe somewhere unless there is a rediculous amount of landscaping.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone

 

[Shane1]

I would say give them the pucks and acid and move foward. Hoefully you will get good people in there.

 

[Vcbmoore]

Jason - my friend's backyard was fully landscaped with a big lawn - no broken pipes. Now that his kids are grown and he's retired he is considering taking the lawn out. But it sure is beautiful. My yard was desert landscaping with 200 plants and trees.

Shane - if I do that, I may end like my 1st post - 20 lbs of Borax or worse! I'd rather spend the money to make the pool as "idiot proof" as possible.