Greetings from balmy Canada

Hi everyone,
I've been reading your site for the past 2 weeks and following your SLAM religiously for 1 1/2 of those, so I figured I should go ahead and sign up. I live in Southern Ontario (a few hours north of Toronto) and we generally have the pool open from late May-Mid October.

We gained a 16X36' vinyl in-ground pool (~80000 L)when we bought our house in December 2013. My husband was thrilled and made it his project. Unfortunately, neither of us really knew anything about a pool and he spent all last season consulting 'experts.'

The result was a pool that was swimmable for maybe 2 weeks total last season and ended up costing us ~$1500 in parts and chemicals. By the time we closed it, it was a lovely dark green. My husband was pretty discouraged and I wanted to fill the pool in and make a patio. This year, my husband and father opened the pool (still green), re-plumbed the filter lines to remove a non-functioning pool heater, and somehow ended up assigning the pool as "My project" to keep an eye on before work each day.

I'll admit, I wasn't terribly enthusiastic, but I do like a challenge and turned to the internet to make a go of it and found this site.

The SLAM was the first thing I'd heard or read that made sense, so I broke out the test kit and a Giant Costco pail of chlorine and got started.

Green-pool.jpg
1 week after open

blue-pool.jpg
2 days ago (after 3 solid days of rain)

The photos speak for themselves, so I figured I'd join up and keep on reading here. You guys are already much better than the 2 different pools store we consulted with last year (one of whom sold my husband a calcium additive for our well-water filled pool. :confused:)
 
Welcome to TFP, and congratulations on your "assignment". :) Just a couple things for you:
- I didn't see it above, so make sure you have the right test kit. You can get the Taylor K2006 mailed to you up there. The proper test kit is everything. Why? Because we've all learned (from personal experience) you cannot reply on pool store tests, test strips, or simple over-the-counter kits. They don't read Free Chlorine (FC) or Cyanuric Acid (CYA) levels accurately or to the high levels we need.
- Next .. Avoid the pool store for testing, advice, or products. You simply won’t get the advice/service you deserve and you will waste money on products your pool doesn’t need. Do not add anything to your pool other than what is advocated by the TFP site or its experts. You’ll have a happier pool, spend less time maintaining your pool, and probably save some $$ in the process. The following are short articles from this site that you will see linked in my signature below: Pool School, Recommended Levels (for YOUR pool), PoolMath Calculator, SLAM, and the Chlorine/CYA Chart.

Keep us posted on your progress or any issues you may have. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!
 
Welcome to TFP! Pool is looking good. Balmy, eh? Welcome to TFP! Pool is looking good. Balmy, eh? What is the Canadian definition of balmy? Here it is 95 or so. Isn't really hot until above 100. :)

Let me convert to celsius like everyone but the US uses. :)
In texas 35 is balmy and it isn't really hot until it hits about 38.
 
Balmy, eh? What is the Canadian definition of balmy? Here it is 95 or so. Isn't really hot until above 100. :)

Let me convert to celsius like everyone but the US uses. :)
In texas 35 is balmy and it isn't really hot until it hits about 38.

LOL! I suspect my definition of balmy is probably very different from a lot of people here.
In celsius, Summer is anything above 22... balmy is above 24 and anything above 25 is bloody hot. :p
We're light-weights in the heat department.

We're often still swimming when it's down to 19 (depends on if you have a solar blanket or pool heater), but usually we close up the pools here around Canadian Thanksgiving...other than that you freeze your hands reaching into the water to close things up. The pool's currently up to 23 and we've been itching to get the clean up finished and get in, we've had some hot days lately.
 
I got home last night and my pool water temp was 97 F (36 C)! I drained about 5" and added water from our well to cool it down to 88 F (31 C). I emailed my best friend yesterday who also has a pool and she described her pool as, "jumping into a nice bowl of warm soup". Balmy is indeed relative.