First Time Home Owner - Went Stupid, Got a Pool Too!

[jimcraig152]

Topic says it all. Got the keys to my first home mid-April (2013). The house was built in 2002. Previous owner then added an in-ground Gnite pool sometime after the initial purchase. Here is what I moved into.

• Pool is probably less than 12,000 gallons.
  Pentair VS + SVRS Pool Pump
  Solar Heater on a 2 story house (no solar controller)
  Sta-Rite System: 3 Filtration Filter
  Poolvergnuegen 2X Suction PoolCleaner

Everything I have seems to be fairly new. But a month and a half in and $600+ into the pool expenses already things aren't working right. I have a pool guy doing the cleaning and chemicals for the pool and still things aren't as they should be. Here is a list of all the things I have encounterd so far:

• Pool was green when I got the keys.
  Hired someone on Craigslist to clean and service my pool. He charged $150 for the cleanup $65 a month.
  3 weeks after the clean-up, the pool turned green.
  As it turns out, this this pool guy I hired just finds new accounts, does the clean-up, then sells the accounts to someone else for a fee.
  On the 3rd week, the pool guy that took over had to redo the clean-up and thankfully only charged me $50 (cost of chemicals) to get the pool back to blue.
  Previous owner decided to make off with the pool cleaner. Spent $400 to buy the Poolvergnuegen.
  After reprogramming the pump, somehow the SVRS system keeps kicking in and shutting down the pumping cycle
  The pool cleaner doesn't run during the complete cycle because of this, so I have debris in pool.
  And the pool is not getting heated through solar

Time to read and educate myself. Thanks for listening and hello TFP Forum Community!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I have yet to read about someone on the forum that raves about the SVRS ... they seem to really not be suited for private pools, especially that use a suction cleaner ... even Pentair has been surprised to hear they are used at a private house.

Get one of the Recommended Test Kits and you will quickly be able to save yourself some money by caring for the pool yourself.

 

[Isaac-1]

Welcome, we can help, but like they say people have to help themselves, to do that you need to understand what the chemicals do in your pool and when to use them, for that there is pool school (link in the upper right), you also need to know what is going on in your pool, for that you need a quality test kit, the 2 on the market that we suggest are the Taylor K-2006 and the TFTestkits TF-100 (which gives you more of the test reagents you use the most) the TF-100 is produced by the owner of this site so by choosing it you help support the operation of this forum. I get paid nothing for saying this, I am just passing along the same advice many other people here would give. Then when it comes to your specific issues with plumbing, equipment operation, even adding a solar controller we can help there too, whether your a do it yourselfer or are looking to find a someone to do the work for you.

Ike

 

[jimcraig152]

Thanks guys!

I found this site after reading this guys review on a pool maintenance book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2WZ7MH60Z ... deID=&tag=

Yeap, think that describes me in a nutshell! Spent all day here reading and am still reading. Will post if I can't figure it out.

 

[jimcraig152]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I have yet to read about someone on the forum that raves about the SVRS ... they seem to really not be suited for private pools, especially that use a suction cleaner ... even Pentair has been surprised to hear they are used at a private house.

Get one of the Recommended Test Kits and you will quickly be able to save yourself some money by caring for the pool yourself.

Just visited TFTestkits.net and placed an order!

Funny, was just at the Leslie in town today and the clerk told me that "That I shouldn't have problems with solar with the SVRS that came with my house. The SVRS is the only one they recommend." I had done some reading online prior to the visit, and so with a confused response, I said "The SVRS? Really?" And he reconfirmed with a yup.

...........go figure.

 

[Isaac-1]

I hate to say it, but I partly agree with the pool store guy, there should be no issue with your solar heater and the Pentair SVRS pump, now problems with the suction side cleaner thats another thing. my guess is they recommend it because it is the most expensive of the Pentair Intelliflo pumps though. The problem is these pumps detect increased suction resistance like you might find if someone was trapped against a drain or suction line and they turn themselves off so the "victim" can get away, the problem is they can't tell when you have a suction side cleaner running which may also change the amount of suction the pump sees.

This of course leaves the question of what to do about it, and it seems your only viable choices are replace the Intelliflo VS+SVRS pump, perhaps with a plain Intelliflo variable speed pump, or change to something other than a suction side cleaner, like perhaps a robotic cleaner. Neither is a cheap choice, switching pumps would probably cost less, and you might be able to sell your pump to someone on ebay that does not care about the downsides of the SVRS feature at not too much of a loss, but on the other hand a robot cleaner is likely to perform better than any suction side cleaner.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

Good choice on the test kit. You better get on top of that water chemistry quick because Manteca gets HOT.

[center:1ga468iy]

I predict CYA figures in three digits. And CH approaching four digits.[/center:1ga468iy]

 

[jimcraig152]

because Manteca gets HOT.

And you are not kidding. It is forecasted to be 108 here on Saturday. Being a Bay Area transplant, I am going to grit my teeth through it to see if I can survive living in the Valley!