Auto-Fill and Leveling Systems

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Jgoal55 said:
Thanks. I believe it’s just a static line back to the canister. The pool and deck are both completely new so all plumbing is new and no breaking of walls or floors needed to be done.



Makes sense. But do they fail as often as toilet valves?!? Lol



Back to Flava Flav! Lol. There’s probably a way to add a timer onto that ball valve. In fact, with saltwater aquariums you can program controllers to open and close ball valves. I wonder if I could just add that tech to this idea.



I’ve heard this enough times already where it’s definitely starting to scare me off. Do pools leak that often?



Scary. Seems like the cons out weight the positives.



Wow. This is an awesome idea.

Where exactly does the sprinkler system add the water? Directly to the pool? Or did you plumb it into a line that feeds the pool?

I haven’t gotten around to a sprinkler system yet, but I’m really liking this concept.
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The line is plumbed directly into the pool like other fill lines. It was done by my builder. The sprinkler guy tied into the line when he was finishing his work and just added an extra zone.
 
duraleigh said:
"Easy" for me would be to stand on the edge of the pool and fill the pool with a hose for the fifteen minutes it might take. I would have $1500 in my pocket and the comfort of knowing I would NEVER overfill my pool unless the cold ones got REALLY good to me.
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To each their own but to us it was worth it. Also in the end the PB wound up throwing ours in for free but still would have paid for the conveinence as we're gone many weekends in the spring/summer along with both of us having busy jobs and 2 little kids.
 
I did it half way, what i mean is that my auto fill is connected to the water line but my drain is plugged. Since every morning i go out to look at the pool i can easily make out if it is overfilling. Also when rain comes i use the extra water to backwash my sand filter or drain to waste.
I thing is best of both worlds.

Felipe
 
If you go with the Pentair Intellilevel, it monitors and records fill time and amount
From the website:
  • Simple to set up and use
  • Communicates current water level
  • Monitors both fill amount and time
  • Notifies if fill fails
  • Indicates flow rate deviation and pump activity
  • Works to reach desired level in a single fill
  • Eliminates jumper settings
 
Thanks all for all the suggestions. I’ve decided to hold off on the auto fill for now. We did include an overflow and I will likely go the sprinkler zone route as that sounds like the safest/most cost effective way to do this. Either way, since the overflow is already done, I can always add the levelor or Pentair in the future if I feel I need it.

Not sure if I should start another thread for this, but I also have a couple of questions about materials used in the pool.

1) my pool has 5 decorative spouts. I am considering using 100% copper scuppers (linked below). Do you think the amount of copper they leach is a risk?

Cannon Scupper — Bobe Water & Fire

2) on the dividing wall between the hot tub and the pool, I am considering using keystone material to cover that wall. Keystone is a natural stone (limestone) and I worry that overtime the pool chemicals will eat away at it. There is very little flow over the top of the wall according to PB, but I still worry it will wear or dissolve slowly due to chemicals. Also, will the keystone leach calcium into the pool?
 
Oh those are so pretty!! I don't think you will have any problems with copper leach. What you might have problems with is kids/people hanging from them. Just something to think about.

Limestone is very soft material. I think the problem would be more from the flow of water than the chemicals aspect. Is there a harder stone you like?

Kim:kim:
 
Jeez all these fancy auto solutions. All I do is throw the hose in when I start mowing the grass. When I am done mowing, the pool is filled.
 
kimkats said:
Oh those are so pretty!! I don't think you will have any problems with copper leach. What you might have problems with is kids/people hanging from them. Just something to think about.

Limestone is very soft material. I think the problem would be more from the flow of water than the chemicals aspect. Is there a harder stone you like?

Kim:kim:
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Not particularly. The entire deck is made of the keystone. I found a porcelain tile that matches very closely and I like the idea of using that very much. The PB not so much. He really likes the keystone. Says he’s done many pools with keystone in the water in the Bahamas. It’s definitely nicer the way he’s saying but I feel it would be a maintenance nightmare.

As for flow, in the areas I am using there is no direct flow at all.

As for the copper leach, I don’t think so either but it is 5 spouts. I wonder if a bronze would be a better material.
 

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Wow, never quite realized the environmental need analysis for auto fill, and how many have had leaks. In the desert near Palm Springs, the evaporation is crazy and within 2 days in summer my water level will go below the skimmer without my auto-fill. My $10 float valve failed after heavy rains and probably caused me 500 gallons in waste, but I monitor my pool pretty closely and out here it’s a necessity in my book. I’ve had to replace the simple float quite reliably every 2 years. The newer modern toilet-valve style ones seem to be expensive ventures.
In my other pools it’s been difficult without auto fills, but there are clever alternatives now, including making the supply an additional sprinkler bank so at least it’s a way to cheaply automate water flow. I see the hose-end floats also, and almost got one for my parents who long for an auto fill.
I can say I had a pump fail once partially due to my negligence in water level and with an auto fill it’s just one step closer to a....wait for it...trouble free pool!
 
KDpoolguy said:
Wow, never quite realized the environmental need analysis for auto fill, and how many have had leaks. In the desert near Palm Springs, the evaporation is crazy and within 2 days in summer my water level will go below the skimmer without my auto-fill. My $10 float valve failed after heavy rains and probably caused me 500 gallons in waste, but I monitor my pool pretty closely and out here it’s a necessity in my book. I’ve had to replace the simple float quite reliably every 2 years. The newer modern toilet-valve style ones seem to be expensive ventures.
In my other pools it’s been difficult without auto fills, but there are clever alternatives now, including making the supply an additional sprinkler bank so at least it’s a way to cheaply automate water flow. I see the hose-end floats also, and almost got one for my parents who long for an auto fill.
I can say I had a pump fail once partially due to my negligence in water level and with an auto fill it’s just one step closer to a....wait for it...trouble free pool!
Click to expand...

The real problem is that you can get a leak, and not realize it until you get a huge water bill. Now a solution to that would be a water meter of some kind, doesn't need to be fancy, just a simple dial type meter would work fine. You can detect leaks by checking the meter occasionally, say once a week or so, if you see the water used is much higher then usual, you can investigate. I wonder if a cover of some kind, would help a lot with the evaporation. We use solar covers around here, to keep the heat in, which you probably don't need, but then my pool is under a foot and a half of snow right now... :-(
 
wogster said:
The real problem is that you can get a leak....Now a solution to that would be a water meter of some kind
Click to expand...

The auto-fill my PB is suggesting has an auto-shut off that will turn off water supply if it doesn’t reach a certain level within 15min so that’s somewhat of a fail safe though I guess a very slow leak would still be hidden.
 
I had an AutoFill PoolMiser installed with my new pool. It was recommend on here and it was something that my PB also uses. Time will tell but so far I'm liking the extra comfort of knowing that I don't have to worry about it.
 
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