I just moved into a house with an inground vinyl lined pool. We paid someone to open it (I know, but I literally know nothing about pools), only to find that the pump was no longer functional. So we bought a new pump, a Hayward 1HP super pump. It was finally opened yesterday, now I have a few questions.
1) The guy that opened the pool used 2 gallons of liquid shock, a quart of algaecide and then put chlorine pucks in the skimmer. Obviously from reading pool school I know this is not what we want to do moving forward. Is it ok to just take the pucks out after testing the water and start using the bleach? Or should I wait a while, or continue with pucks now that pucks have been started?
2) How often should I be needing to backwash? Last night after the guy opened the pool the pressure on the filter was at 7. After a few hours (including my vaccuuming the pool) the level was up over 17, meaning it needed to be backwashed right? So I did that. Then overnight it went from 7 to 13 and after another round of vacuuming (this is going to be my next question) back up over 17 again. So I backwashed again. Is this normal, or is something wrong with the filter (it's in my signature, but the filter is a Hayward DE and after backwashing I've been replacing the DE). The pump has been running continuously since yesterday.
3) Vacuuming. Is this why everyone has robots? Because vacuuming? It's awful. I feel like I'm vacuuming but not really getting anywhere. There are some leaves at the bottom of the pool and it's definitely picking them up but it seems like I'm having to go over the same spots several times and it's still not really "clean", which is going to drive me nuts. Any advice here? I replaced the vacuum head and vacuum hose this morning.
4) Priming the pump. I've seen mention of this. When does that need to be done?
Please be gentle. I may ask more questions in response to your answers. I feel like I'm in way over my head but I'm determined to learn this and have a clean pool for the rest of the summer and the years to come. Also, I can post test results if need be, but it will be with the cheap WalMart test kit until my TF100 comes in the mail.
Thank you!
1) The guy that opened the pool used 2 gallons of liquid shock, a quart of algaecide and then put chlorine pucks in the skimmer. Obviously from reading pool school I know this is not what we want to do moving forward. Is it ok to just take the pucks out after testing the water and start using the bleach? Or should I wait a while, or continue with pucks now that pucks have been started?
2) How often should I be needing to backwash? Last night after the guy opened the pool the pressure on the filter was at 7. After a few hours (including my vaccuuming the pool) the level was up over 17, meaning it needed to be backwashed right? So I did that. Then overnight it went from 7 to 13 and after another round of vacuuming (this is going to be my next question) back up over 17 again. So I backwashed again. Is this normal, or is something wrong with the filter (it's in my signature, but the filter is a Hayward DE and after backwashing I've been replacing the DE). The pump has been running continuously since yesterday.
3) Vacuuming. Is this why everyone has robots? Because vacuuming? It's awful. I feel like I'm vacuuming but not really getting anywhere. There are some leaves at the bottom of the pool and it's definitely picking them up but it seems like I'm having to go over the same spots several times and it's still not really "clean", which is going to drive me nuts. Any advice here? I replaced the vacuum head and vacuum hose this morning.
4) Priming the pump. I've seen mention of this. When does that need to be done?
Please be gentle. I may ask more questions in response to your answers. I feel like I'm in way over my head but I'm determined to learn this and have a clean pool for the rest of the summer and the years to come. Also, I can post test results if need be, but it will be with the cheap WalMart test kit until my TF100 comes in the mail.
Thank you!