Main Drain Cover screw broke? Now what?

[reindeerboy]

Hi everyone,

Question: I am in the process of opening my pool tomorrow. It was so cold I scooped the rest of the ice out of my in-ground 16x32' 22k gallon pool. I plan to now fill it up and get the water moving. Overall the clearness is great which tells me the closing part went well as I did the chemicals but the pool company did the blowing of the lines etc for me.

I now have the main drain cover that looked odd to me so I touched it a bit with my pole. It moved! So Darn, Now it looks like one of the screws broke and the one side moves a bit. The screws that hold the main drain cover down are a bit rusty which tells me they must now have used stainless steel. Now I do think that the pool place added way too much pressure when they blew the lines out which caused this issue and I know it was solid before we closed as I was just under water cleaning around the bottom main drain a bit last fall upon closing.

So now the question I have is this: Is those screws threaded into the cover? If it snapped, most likely the other half is in the threaded area and I hope once the cover is removed that the broken end can come out. I don't believe it is leaking at all and that tells me the screws are faulty with a combination of too much air pressure from the pool place. I plan to call them in the am to see if they can compensate for the repair. I plan to use them for the repair too as they are great and have the scuba gear to reach it and replace it properly. Its 8 feet deep.

I plan to fire it up tomorrow and do you all think there is any issue with doing that? I don't think there would be as long as I don't bump it when I am cleaning the pool bottom. I could wait till it warms up but I cant hold my breath for that long of a time to replace the cover and the 2 screws as most likely is what I would want done.

Any suggestions? Sucks for sure but I want it fixed and plan to call them in the am to schedule the repair and check on the cost that they would run me.

I just want to at least get the pool running and do not believe doing that would cause any harm to anything while I wait for the pool company to come and fix my issue. What do the professionals think here?

Thanks everyone.

Chad

 

[gtemkin]

Is the main drain cover your talking about a special sealed winterizing cover or is it a standard grate style cover that protects the drain from ingesting big things?

 

[Melt In The Sun]

I wouldn't worry too much about it yet...once you're in the pool you can see what you need, whether it's a couple new screws or a new cover, or whatever.

 

[reindeerboy]

Thanks Melt in the sun.

Yea, its sunny out today which is a good day to open. I will do just that and wait for the water and weather to warm up. See what all I need when I can swim down there and take a much closer look and then go from there.

I do know that the one screw is still good and holding it into its place so thats a good thing for the time being. Once I go ahead and order the 8" cover, looks like a Hayward cover, I plan to get 2 new screws too including a size larger just in case and see if I can hold my breath later on this summer to fix it.

I still plan to see what the pool company has to say as I think it was their thing as it was just fine prior to them blowing air in my lines. The pressure was so much I think as the guys said they just got a brand new big blower and thats why I think they overdid it. Anyway, Once I hear from them today I will post it. Always interesting if they want the business and will work with you on the price. They seem to be a good company and most likely I plan to replace the darn liner etc in 2-3 years anyway, but if I can fix it for the time being, than that would be good.

I will post a picture once the water clears up a bit too. Lets hope the opening goes well today so that at least I can get the water cleaned up. Its been a super cool spring thus far and winter was the coldest stretch of temperatures in 40 years. 40 below windshield and -20 temps were common this winter so we will see how the opening goes this year. The water is pretty clear so I am excited that it will cost me less to clean it up this year.

Thanks again.

Chad

 

[reindeerboy]

Well I got the pool going and cleaned up. Attached is a pic. Went pretty smooth but opening day is always a lot of work when you do it all alone. Cover is holding in place and I got word from my pool company that they have the tools to take care of it and will contact me to setup a time for a repair. I will probably just use them as then it gets done right. Owner called me today, Saturday, and said they have seen these before and will have his service manager call me Monday to line up a date/time for repair. Pretty impressed with the timing and that is why I use them for these kind of repairs, parts, services.

Pretty clear but frickin cold. Water is 45 is all. Was a good day overall except for the main drain cover issue.

 

[Casey]

Pool looks good but 45 degrees... WHOA!!!! And that white stuff beside the pool... I don't miss it at all!

 

[MiaOKC]

Definitely a good call to go with the repair company. Similar thing happened to our MD cover last summer, I think our robot knocked into it but the screw was also all rusted and broken in half, and DH couldn't get it to re-attach. We got new screws, took the MD cover to the store to get the correct sizes (pool co didn't like seeing it, it was not VGB compliant I think), but it was just way too hard to hold your breath at 8 feet to get them screwed in. And he tried and tried and tried on multiple occasions. Our MD is actually disconnected, so the cover is more decorative and just for keeping the leaves out of the MD pot, so we didn't worry too much about it not being attached or VGB compliant since we were going to start a pool renovation shortly anyway. When we redid the plaster last month, we filled in the MD pot with plaster.

 

[reindeerboy]

Wow so you dont have a main drain at all then? How many skimmers as it looks like 2? I only have one skimmer so I would really miss my main drain for sure. It does work great and having them fix it is the way to go. Guy still has to call me to schedule it out, but it should get done here when the water warms up soon. 55 degrees today and beautiful. See attached after It was only 36 hours ago and only after using 3 gallons of bleach to clear it. Was the best opening to date either than the MD cover issue.

Casey, this was the second year now of doing the ice removal as I just could not take seeing that dang green cover on my pool any longer. Was a bit of work, but really worth it now. Thanks

I will update when I hear back from Pool Company for their plan and take some pics of them doing the fix as I would be curious as to what they find and hope its nothing major and a simple enough fix.

 

[reindeerboy]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/27/rygajare.jpg[/

Love the borax ! Pool is finally running at. 74 today ! Cover should get fixed by pool company in couple weeks but things overall for opening went really well ! Have a great Memorial Day everyone ! God bless the troops/ veterans!

 

[MiaOKC]

Looking good! Yes, we have 2 skimmers and 7 returns so get pretty good circulation even without MD.

 

[reindeerboy]

That makes sense . U have a great looking pool!


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[reindeerboy]

UPDATE: Pool place is on schedule to replace MD cover on Friday the 13th. No, it was not designed that way but just so happen to work out. Been a cooler season for us up here but the water is in the mid 70's and looks great. Bit chilly when I swim and I have been thinking of putting in a heat pump next season. My pool place does a great job and would install it all except the electrical and natural gas hookups which I would line up. First things first, my roof, gutters, soffit, facia, and downspouts on my house are junk. That has to come first as that is a necessary item to have.

Once they come to replace MD, I will try to snap a few shots of them doing the repair as I am curious. They say they have an underwater impact driver & drill that would help get the job done fairly quickly.

Stay Tunned!

Happy swims to you all!

Chad

 

[reindeerboy]

Main Drain was repaired today! The old cover did NOT have stainless steel screws on it which I knew it did not. Totally rusted out and it hurt the housing it sat in so we replaced the housing ring with a new one that had brass threaded inlets with a federally approved MD cover. Attached is a copy.

Pool Company did a totally great job so I was happy with that. Now I am thinking of having them install a 250,000 Pentair header into the pool. Does not require power as this one has it internally and is run by Natural Gas. They gave me a fairly good price, but am gonna shop around online just to see and then see if they cant come down even more.

Enjoy the pics everyone.

 

[ps0303]

Check with the codes in your area on that heater. Many places have codes in place not allowing millivolt equipment to be installed. If the unit doesn't require an electric, it is then a millivolt unit which means it has a standing pilot light which means, even when you aren't using it, it's burning fuel. The newer electronic ignition units do not have the standing pilot and only burn fuel when you turn them on and the light. Saves you on fuel. The small amount of electricity these newer units use is minimal. They aren't like a heat pump.

 

[reindeerboy]

Thanks Paul. I figured that and I went online and looked and that is the conclusion I came to as well. I have to find out the model number of it, but most likely would want it to have its own power with breaker. The breaker is just on the other side of the wall to the house so wouldnt be a big deal for an electrician to bore a hole in and set it up for me. Thanks again

Chad

 

[reindeerboy]

Well, I pulled the trigger and the Pentair 250k pool heater was ordered. Pool company backed up the warranty than anything online and matched my online price. Professionally installed us what the Pentair rep said they like to see. Plus the pool company is coming out next spring to run through start up with me step by step! Customer service is key in my book and these guys know it. Pretty awesome. Been such a cool summer tgat it's time for a heater! Wife won't use it unless it's 80 so "happy wife , happy life" is my quote of this season!

Hope everyone had a great 4th!

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[reindeerboy]

UPDATE: I now have finished the install of a new Pentair pool heater to my pool. The upgrade came with a few challenges and surprises. Plumbing was very interesting. Found out the previous owner put in drain pipe and not schedule 40 and then painted the pipes so you could not tell, well at least I couldn't. Cutting them open we found this and then ended up replacing the pipes.

Then I decided to make the plumbing a bit more challenging with the heater by putting in a bypass. Now the pic below shows the bypass. I used Jandy Valves which I love by the way. Purpose of the bypass was in the spring, I would close the water to the heater, open the bypass, clean and shock the pool until it becomes crystal clear, and then open up the valves to the heater to start warming the water up once the crystal clear pool has occured. Main reason is to extend the life of the core to the heater when you have higher cholorine concentrations in the pool. 2-3 days of shocking and then you can start to warm up the water is my thought. Another reason for the bypass was in case something happend and you had to replace it. You can still run the pool while you are getting a new unit.

This process took some time for me but I got it done. I included the pool pic which includes the fire pit that I put in this spring, package that with a new shingles roof, gutters, facia, and sofit work done on the house and you have an expensive summer project folks!

Anyway, let me know your thoughts on my plumbing configuration. I also poured the concrete pads myself and leveled them properly with a slight slope away from the house for water drainage.

So far its working AWESOME! 83 all the time. The ironic thing was that it was 90 out and 80% humidity that day. The contractors for electrical and gas were so hot that they asked to dunk their heads into the pool. I thought one guy was going to have a heat stroke.

Anyway, I sure am glad to have this project completed. One other think is that the PSI went from 16 to 20. Plus the bubble issue that I have had for years in this plumbing/pump/filter is now completely gone. No air or bubbles anywhere so obviously the drain pipe was the issue here. That was extremely bothersome as I am a perfectionist and like things done right the first time.

The only bad thing is I caught the gas contractor trying to steal a few of my tools and kicked that guy off the pad. His partner/boss told him to go back to the shop and next thing the owner is in my yard asking me what happened. Cant trust anyone anymore. Cameras in both front and back yards caught the dude on film so when he tried to deny it, I pulled up the video and shot it to his boss. Busted! Ha Ha!

Anyway, enjoy the little story of my pool improvement and pic below.

Take care everyone!

 

[reindeerboy]

Been a good summer since the heater install! Little dry so rain would sure be welcome! Fine tuned the puck feeder. Will continue to use as cya is at 40. Goal is to hit 60 and then switch to all bleach. May not get there this year as it is winding down. Either way, knowing the different types of chlorine is very important. Really helps keep the costs down ! Enjoy the picks !