New to the forum. Have been reading and using ideas from this site and my pool is clear and easy to maintain now. Prior to following recommendations on this site, I was having a lot of problems with algae. I have an above ground, 24' round with 6.5 foot deep end in the middle. It's about 17,000 gallons. It's a Doughboy Tuscany pool and those come with a waterfall of sorts that pours water out the side rail in a sheet about 4 feet wide. When I turn on the waterfall, about half of the return water is diverted to that and so the pressure in the return is half. This is important to keep in mind as it allows me to have a low, medium and high pressure setting for the items I'll discuss below.
Anyway, one of the ideas I read on this site was a way to cool pool water by spraying it across the pool at night. Since temps in my area, near St Louis, had been mid 90s all week, the water temp was at 91 degrees. Morning air low temp was mid 70s and the pool would only cool a couple of degrees, then go right back to 90 during the day. So, I decided to make one of these PVC pool coolers myself and did so for less than $10 worth of PVC parts. It was so easy to build a cave man like me was able to make it.
First night, I ran it from 2 am to 7 am. Temp dropped to 85 degrees by morning. Second day, the water temp rose to 89 at sunset and I ran the cooler that night as well. Temp dropped to 84 degrees. I like the water temp around 83 to 85 degrees. Wife likes it no less than 85, so I haven't tried to cool it below 84.
Thanks to a contributor on this site for a great, inexpensive way to cool the water! I'm posting it because it was such a great idea that it should be told far and wide!
During the day, my wife and I got in the pool and ran the PVC cooler and found that in addition to it cooling the pool, it was quite entertaining. The spray was fun to float under and it added some activity to the pool rather than just nearly calm water. Then my wife suggested we use the spray as a volleyball net of sorts. With the waterfall running, the spray reached about half way across the pool. I turned off the waterfall and the cooler sprayed all the way across and was essentially a wall of water about 2-3 feet above water level. Actually, it was three walls of water since I made the cooler with three rows of holes. That gave it a center spray and two going roughly 45 degrees of center. It was fun enough for volleyball, but the side sprays took up a lot of room. Still, it was better than the net we had bought last year from a pool store for 70 dollars (what a waste that was.)
I decided to make a second sprayer with only a center row of holes and that created a single wall of water. Perfect as a volleyball net. I've now thrown away the 70 dollar net since UV rays had destroyed much of it anyway and this net sprayer was much more fun and super easy to set up.
Later, a friend came over with his kids and they had the idea to run around the edge of the pool to make a sort of whirl pool. Hey, it was something to do. Anyway, he and I decided to make a new PVC toy, but it was just an elbow that blew water parallel to the pool wall. That created a fairly good circular current, so now people floating go around the pool. The other idea was to make a fountain, so we built a PVC item with a 90 degree elbow and piece of pipe to raise it above water level, then a 45 degree elbow to angle it toward the center of the pool, then restricted the flow down from 1 1/4 pipe to about 3/4 inch. With the fountain running, it blows a large stream of water to about mid pool. With the waterfall off, it sends the water out of the pool.
The parts needed are:
1) an adapter to screw into the return vent (after you remove the original cap and jet director (or whatever they're called). An adapter has threads on one end and is smooth on the other.
2) an 90 degree elbow to send water up
3) short piece of PVC pipe to get to edge of pool (I didn't want mine showing above the edge of the pool)
4) a cap
5) PVC primer and glue, plus tools like saw, straight edge, pencil and drill.
Instructions: Before glueing anything, screw the adapter in until it is just snug. Note where the top of the adapter is. Remove it and glue the elbow to the adapter with it pointing up in line with the point on the adapter you determined would be up once screwed in. Cut a piece of pipe to length and glue in. Glue cap on top of pipe.
Now the fun part. Draw a straight line down the middle with a pencil the length of the tube. Mark dots where you want to drill holes. I made about 6 or seven. Then draw two more lines, each slightly off center. Don't make them too far off because they might shoot the water too far right or left and out of the pool. Then using a very small diameter drill bit, drill pilot holes straight in. Then switch to a larger bit and drill them angled downward. The angle will send the spray up. I drilled it at about a 45 degree angle.
How many and what size of holes you make depends are your water pressure, so start small and drill more until water goes where you want without spraying out of the pool.
I've included a couple of pictures, one showing the four items I made and one showing the cooler in action with the waterfall on so it only goes to mid pool.
Hope this helps others enjoy their pools more. And if you devise and other PVC items for use in the pool, let me know. There must be all sorts of creative way to spray water and make the pool experience more fun.
Anyway, one of the ideas I read on this site was a way to cool pool water by spraying it across the pool at night. Since temps in my area, near St Louis, had been mid 90s all week, the water temp was at 91 degrees. Morning air low temp was mid 70s and the pool would only cool a couple of degrees, then go right back to 90 during the day. So, I decided to make one of these PVC pool coolers myself and did so for less than $10 worth of PVC parts. It was so easy to build a cave man like me was able to make it.
First night, I ran it from 2 am to 7 am. Temp dropped to 85 degrees by morning. Second day, the water temp rose to 89 at sunset and I ran the cooler that night as well. Temp dropped to 84 degrees. I like the water temp around 83 to 85 degrees. Wife likes it no less than 85, so I haven't tried to cool it below 84.
Thanks to a contributor on this site for a great, inexpensive way to cool the water! I'm posting it because it was such a great idea that it should be told far and wide!
During the day, my wife and I got in the pool and ran the PVC cooler and found that in addition to it cooling the pool, it was quite entertaining. The spray was fun to float under and it added some activity to the pool rather than just nearly calm water. Then my wife suggested we use the spray as a volleyball net of sorts. With the waterfall running, the spray reached about half way across the pool. I turned off the waterfall and the cooler sprayed all the way across and was essentially a wall of water about 2-3 feet above water level. Actually, it was three walls of water since I made the cooler with three rows of holes. That gave it a center spray and two going roughly 45 degrees of center. It was fun enough for volleyball, but the side sprays took up a lot of room. Still, it was better than the net we had bought last year from a pool store for 70 dollars (what a waste that was.)
I decided to make a second sprayer with only a center row of holes and that created a single wall of water. Perfect as a volleyball net. I've now thrown away the 70 dollar net since UV rays had destroyed much of it anyway and this net sprayer was much more fun and super easy to set up.
Later, a friend came over with his kids and they had the idea to run around the edge of the pool to make a sort of whirl pool. Hey, it was something to do. Anyway, he and I decided to make a new PVC toy, but it was just an elbow that blew water parallel to the pool wall. That created a fairly good circular current, so now people floating go around the pool. The other idea was to make a fountain, so we built a PVC item with a 90 degree elbow and piece of pipe to raise it above water level, then a 45 degree elbow to angle it toward the center of the pool, then restricted the flow down from 1 1/4 pipe to about 3/4 inch. With the fountain running, it blows a large stream of water to about mid pool. With the waterfall off, it sends the water out of the pool.
The parts needed are:
1) an adapter to screw into the return vent (after you remove the original cap and jet director (or whatever they're called). An adapter has threads on one end and is smooth on the other.
2) an 90 degree elbow to send water up
3) short piece of PVC pipe to get to edge of pool (I didn't want mine showing above the edge of the pool)
4) a cap
5) PVC primer and glue, plus tools like saw, straight edge, pencil and drill.
Instructions: Before glueing anything, screw the adapter in until it is just snug. Note where the top of the adapter is. Remove it and glue the elbow to the adapter with it pointing up in line with the point on the adapter you determined would be up once screwed in. Cut a piece of pipe to length and glue in. Glue cap on top of pipe.
Now the fun part. Draw a straight line down the middle with a pencil the length of the tube. Mark dots where you want to drill holes. I made about 6 or seven. Then draw two more lines, each slightly off center. Don't make them too far off because they might shoot the water too far right or left and out of the pool. Then using a very small diameter drill bit, drill pilot holes straight in. Then switch to a larger bit and drill them angled downward. The angle will send the spray up. I drilled it at about a 45 degree angle.
How many and what size of holes you make depends are your water pressure, so start small and drill more until water goes where you want without spraying out of the pool.
I've included a couple of pictures, one showing the four items I made and one showing the cooler in action with the waterfall on so it only goes to mid pool.
Hope this helps others enjoy their pools more. And if you devise and other PVC items for use in the pool, let me know. There must be all sorts of creative way to spray water and make the pool experience more fun.
