Hello!
Somehow I know for a fact my question has been answered, possibly many times, however a search does not really answer it...mostly an opinion here or there, but no real hard answer. I am ready to call the DE company. But before that, I will ask you.
I purchased a house with a pool last December. My first pool that I own (and am now responsible for).
I initially kept the pool guy the previous owner had and learned from him how he does things. That, coupled with this site, has led me to send him on his way and do things myself, changing a couple of things. Being winter, we were not using the pool anyway, so playing with the chemistry and goofing up were not going to spoil the weekend fun. Now it's warming up....
So anyway, a quick rundown of my pool and the things I did before going into my DE question.
Approx. 18X40 foot rectangle pool 4 foot deep level for about 1/2 of the length, then slowly drop to 6 foot deep at max last 5 feet or so (not deep). A couple of waterfall features and spa in the corner of the shallow end.
The pool guy would come weekly and vacuum it out and clean the skimmer and filter baskets and check chemistry. He told me very sternly not to go to pool supply houses as they will take an out of spec reading and sell me something which would probably only temporarily fix the issue and maybe cause others. He said that if anything, other than chlorine is out of normal range, to not panic and simply wait until the next week and see if it is holding or trending in one way or another. Most likely, the KH will remain somewhat stable and pH may fluctuate depending on use and whatnot, but would also average over the month to a specific number, only adjust to the average number, not the weekly number.
For chlorine, he added pucks to a floater (my pool has a SWG, but it is disconnected and he said something about years ago it didn't work so they just disconnected it. I knew this before buying the property). He would add one or two pucks per week depending on what he measured. Keep in mind the pool is not being used (by humans, I did see ducks in it) during this time.
So anyway, after reading this site, I checked the CYA and it is quite high (over 150), so I blame the pucks and have switched to bleach from Costco. Testing daily for the first month, I have found I can keep ppm stable around 4ppm if I add 1 quart each morning. This is based on 4 people using the pool about 4 hours a week (this will increase as summer comes along I am sure). I also added an automatic floor vacuum and floating skimmer. The pool is basically always clean now except after a very windy day. KH, pH have been very stable, as the pool guy told me. I have not done anything in four months to change these parameters.
So anyway there I am. Now I have a DE filter (grid style) in need of cleaning. I did it myself!!! Yay, me! But what I didn't expect is how difficult it is to figure out how much DE to add.
Some people say pounds, some say cans, some say cups. Man. Based on my filter size (which is a unit of surface area), the box of DE that I have (which is 1/2 full from previous owners) say to add 7 "1 pound coffee cans" to the skimmer.
OK, fine, but according to this site, DE is 1/2 as dense as coffee, so do I use an actual coffee can? If so, that means 7 x 1/2 lb or 3.5 pounds of DE...is this correct? Or 7 pounds (14 cans)? The stupid box does not say how many actual pounds of DE to add (or cups). So I went ahead and simply got an old 1 pound coffee can and added 7 of those. Is this overkill? Under-kill? I have no idea. I am thinking of waiting a month and cleaning the filter again just to see how well it was coated.
Why can this not be easily explained? All they need to do is say how much volume to add or even weight, not an abstract number using another arbitrary item for comparison, especially when that item is not comparable....7 cups, fine, I get it. 7 pounds, fine I get it. 7 1b coffee cans... Certainly they must know a can is a unit of volume....what does coffee have to do with it anyway? Who else uses this as actual language? I can only think this is terminology passed down over many decades from the first person to use DE and they happened to use a coffee can and it somehow stuck.
I just bought 3 cups of girl scout cookies...they charge $5 per box. How much do I owe them? It's just NOT PRACTICAL units of measurement!
Is there an actual item that is a scoop or something that is equivalent in DE to a 1 pound coffee can? If so, please show me and I will buy it and know to just add 7 of those.
I should have kept the pool guy around long enough to change the filter and see how much he added.....
Thanks in advance for any insight you can give me. Everything else about the pool is wonderful (though I want to put a controller on it that I can run from my phone to switch to spa mode, temp, etc., that would be great)
Somehow I know for a fact my question has been answered, possibly many times, however a search does not really answer it...mostly an opinion here or there, but no real hard answer. I am ready to call the DE company. But before that, I will ask you.
I purchased a house with a pool last December. My first pool that I own (and am now responsible for).
I initially kept the pool guy the previous owner had and learned from him how he does things. That, coupled with this site, has led me to send him on his way and do things myself, changing a couple of things. Being winter, we were not using the pool anyway, so playing with the chemistry and goofing up were not going to spoil the weekend fun. Now it's warming up....
So anyway, a quick rundown of my pool and the things I did before going into my DE question.
Approx. 18X40 foot rectangle pool 4 foot deep level for about 1/2 of the length, then slowly drop to 6 foot deep at max last 5 feet or so (not deep). A couple of waterfall features and spa in the corner of the shallow end.
The pool guy would come weekly and vacuum it out and clean the skimmer and filter baskets and check chemistry. He told me very sternly not to go to pool supply houses as they will take an out of spec reading and sell me something which would probably only temporarily fix the issue and maybe cause others. He said that if anything, other than chlorine is out of normal range, to not panic and simply wait until the next week and see if it is holding or trending in one way or another. Most likely, the KH will remain somewhat stable and pH may fluctuate depending on use and whatnot, but would also average over the month to a specific number, only adjust to the average number, not the weekly number.
For chlorine, he added pucks to a floater (my pool has a SWG, but it is disconnected and he said something about years ago it didn't work so they just disconnected it. I knew this before buying the property). He would add one or two pucks per week depending on what he measured. Keep in mind the pool is not being used (by humans, I did see ducks in it) during this time.
So anyway, after reading this site, I checked the CYA and it is quite high (over 150), so I blame the pucks and have switched to bleach from Costco. Testing daily for the first month, I have found I can keep ppm stable around 4ppm if I add 1 quart each morning. This is based on 4 people using the pool about 4 hours a week (this will increase as summer comes along I am sure). I also added an automatic floor vacuum and floating skimmer. The pool is basically always clean now except after a very windy day. KH, pH have been very stable, as the pool guy told me. I have not done anything in four months to change these parameters.
So anyway there I am. Now I have a DE filter (grid style) in need of cleaning. I did it myself!!! Yay, me! But what I didn't expect is how difficult it is to figure out how much DE to add.
Some people say pounds, some say cans, some say cups. Man. Based on my filter size (which is a unit of surface area), the box of DE that I have (which is 1/2 full from previous owners) say to add 7 "1 pound coffee cans" to the skimmer.
OK, fine, but according to this site, DE is 1/2 as dense as coffee, so do I use an actual coffee can? If so, that means 7 x 1/2 lb or 3.5 pounds of DE...is this correct? Or 7 pounds (14 cans)? The stupid box does not say how many actual pounds of DE to add (or cups). So I went ahead and simply got an old 1 pound coffee can and added 7 of those. Is this overkill? Under-kill? I have no idea. I am thinking of waiting a month and cleaning the filter again just to see how well it was coated.
Why can this not be easily explained? All they need to do is say how much volume to add or even weight, not an abstract number using another arbitrary item for comparison, especially when that item is not comparable....7 cups, fine, I get it. 7 pounds, fine I get it. 7 1b coffee cans... Certainly they must know a can is a unit of volume....what does coffee have to do with it anyway? Who else uses this as actual language? I can only think this is terminology passed down over many decades from the first person to use DE and they happened to use a coffee can and it somehow stuck.
I just bought 3 cups of girl scout cookies...they charge $5 per box. How much do I owe them? It's just NOT PRACTICAL units of measurement!
Is there an actual item that is a scoop or something that is equivalent in DE to a 1 pound coffee can? If so, please show me and I will buy it and know to just add 7 of those.
I should have kept the pool guy around long enough to change the filter and see how much he added.....
Thanks in advance for any insight you can give me. Everything else about the pool is wonderful (though I want to put a controller on it that I can run from my phone to switch to spa mode, temp, etc., that would be great)
