Can't run pool, 90 degree water, best course of action

[jst_becuz]

Hi all -

Long time lurker, first post. I have a in-ground, salt-water, gunite pool, 8 years old, in Charlotte, NC. Discovered a crack in the bottom half of a Jandy CL340 filter tank yesterday with water spraying out at high pressure. Thought about trying to repair it, but the internet quickly revealed how bad of an idea that is. So, the pool is shut down and water is drained out of the filter housing. I'm in contact with a couple of repair places who are working on quotes and finding a replacement. It seems at the crawl speed that anyone can find parts and labor these day, my pool is going to be down for at least a couple of weeks. The water temp is 90 degrees and the water is crystal clear... has always been well balanced. FC is at about 2.0 right now, but I'm sure will be dropping quickly in our Carolina sun. Is there a best practice for situations like this in terms of maintaining water chemistry or is my best bet to just not worry about it and reset everything after the pool can run again? It's ~20k gallons with attached, elevated hot tub w/ spillover waterfall. I've thought about adding some liquid chlorine and algecide and trying to stir it up bit with pool brush / hand skimmer, but that's obviously a poor replacement for a filter pump.

Thanks for any words of advice.

Tom

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! Add liquid chlorine as soon as possible and manually brush it around once or twice a day. Try to be consistent and it should help you until you can get the filter replaced. If you have a sump pump you can also drop that in the water to help move things around a little.

Pool Care Basics

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to meet this way with a busted filter!

Any chance a quick replumb to remove the filter and just use the pump to keep things circulated? That or follow what Pat said. Add at least 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine every day.

 

[jst_becuz]

Thanks for the quick reply TS. Will do on the liquid chlorine. I don't have a pump, but thanks to Amazon, I could have something cheap and easy like this (https://www.amazon.com/Superior-Pump-91250-Submersible-Thermoplastic/dp/B000X05G1A/) today. Will that help? Just drop it in the bottom of the pool with a hose and let it pump from one area and come out another? Seems pretty easy, even for someone like me who is generally not very handy. I could even pump it into the raised hot tub and let the waterfall pour it back in.

mknauss - Thanks. If it's going to be more than a couple of weeks for a new filter, I will see if I can get someone to at least do that. Definitely not a project I'd feel comfortable doing myself.

Pools... such joy... such pains in the butt!

 

[reggiehammond]

I plumbed in a new filter - it is as simple as adding unions and a couple of PVC cuts.
Do you have a lawn guy for sprinkler work? Pool PVC is no different than sprinkler PVC.

You could pick up a new filter or have one shipped in (1-2 days) and be back running by the weekend.

 

[tucsontico]

Hi all -

Long time lurker, first post. I have a in-ground, salt-water, gunite pool, 8 years old, in Charlotte, NC. Discovered a crack in the bottom half of a Jandy CL340 filter tank yesterday with water spraying out at high pressure. Thought about trying to repair it, but the internet quickly revealed how bad of an idea that is. So, the pool is shut down and water is drained out of the filter housing. I'm in contact with a couple of repair places who are working on quotes and finding a replacement. It seems at the crawl speed that anyone can find parts and labor these day, my pool is going to be down for at least a couple of weeks. The water temp is 90 degrees and the water is crystal clear... has always been well balanced. FC is at about 2.0 right now, but I'm sure will be dropping quickly in our Carolina sun. Is there a best practice for situations like this in terms of maintaining water chemistry or is my best bet to just not worry about it and reset everything after the pool can run again? It's ~20k gallons with attached, elevated hot tub w/ spillover waterfall. I've thought about adding some liquid chlorine and algecide and trying to stir it up bit with pool brush / hand skimmer, but that's obviously a poor replacement for a filter pump.

Thanks for any words of advice.

Tom

How about posting a picture of your pool pump/filter plumbing? The forum could give you more detailed ideas of how to either temporarily bypass the filter or install a new one.

 

[anthonypool89]

manually brush it around once or twice a day.

During the off season when I adjust the pH by removing the cover part way I use one side of my kayak paddle to get some manual circulation / water movement going. It's surprising just how much agitation that truly does provide. If you or a friend has a paddle that you could use, that's what I'd do. It'd move alot more water than just a brush. With the paddle you can get water moving at various depths.

 

[anthonypool89]

just use the pump to keep things circulated?

Certainly the best idea....

 

[jst_becuz]

Thanks for all the replies / suggestions. Quick update:
- Obtained liquid chlorine and added about 3 qts to the pool.
- Bought the pump linked above from Amazon and it was delivered at 8pm last night. Put it in the deep end, with a hose running to the elevated hot tub. Working like a charm. Obviously not a full waterfall at 1/4HP, but definitely helping with the mixing.
- Inspected the cracked filter housing. Looks like it had a small gash in it, like something hit it. Maybe long ago, maybe recent (just had a new chlorinator put in earlier this season). The rest of the tank looks fine. With the system off, before I emptied the tank, it would drip about one droplet per second, so it is a really small hole. I flex sealed the gash, duct taped over it, and then flex sealed over the tape. Let dry over night. My pool pump is two speed and I get pretty low pressure through the filter on low speed (~5 PSI if I remember correctly... I "only" get 15PSI on high speed with the filters clean and I just recently did that), so my plan is to start it up later today (remotely, initially, then I'll walk over to it) in low speed and see what happens. If the seal survives startup in low speed without leaking, it should be able to run, chlorinate, and even filter a little while I try to get a new filter housing. If that doesn't work out, I'll keep doing the chlorine add by hand and sump pump method to at least keep it from turning green. ***Note: I accept all risk here... not asking anyone to bless my decision or share responsibility***
- I have two pool repair companies trying to source a replacement filter tank bottom. I found one myself, but it would have to be shipped and then would still need someone to put it in, which I'm guessing is the real limiting factor. Going to give them another day to see what they can come up with before going that route.
- I know re-plumbing around, or plumbing in a new filter isn't the hardest job in the world, but I also know my limits (time, mostly.). It's just not something I'm capable of right now. I do have a local sprinkler guy, but he likes to stay in his lane and has more work than he can handle already.

One more question for the group... if it's still leaking on low speed after patching, could I remove the filter cartridges to reduce the pressure even further and then try low speed again? I would guess I'll be near 0 PSI if I do that, which would eliminate all danger beyond startup. If I do that, do I also take out the manifold that holds the cartridges in place, and just let it run with a completely empty tank? I would guess yes.

Thanks again everyone. Really appreciate the guidance.

 

[mknauss]

Not endorsing using a pressure vessel that is compromised.

What equipment do you have downstream of the filter? This is where a signature really helps us help you.

 

[jst_becuz]

Not endorsing using a pressure vessel that is compromised.

What equipment do you have downstream of the filter? This is where a signature really helps us help you.

Downstream from the filter is 400K BTU heater (not used when pool pump is in low speed, but water passes through).

Updated the signature with specs. Let me know if I missed anything important.

Sounds like we might have a new unit available tomorrow and an installer. I'll believe it when I see it, but will scrap the plan above until then. Still good to know if its ok to run without cartridges in the filter if needed for future reference.

Thanks again!

 

[mknauss]

Issue is getting debris in the heater coils and plugging them. I would not recommend it for very long.

 

[Mdragger88]

Hey & welcome to tfp @jst_becuz Just gonna chime in with a reminder to ALWAYS follow the FC/CYA Levels so u don’t go below minimum for your cya lest nasties will grow
Fc of 2 ppm is very low & below the recommended minimum for most cya levels.

 

[Kaylee34]

Just weighing in on this to say don't worry too much about not running your pump and filtering for a few days. I was without a pump and filter for over 6 weeks this summer and not once did I even have a hint of algae. Keep your chlorine up above minimum with LC, skim the surface, brush occasionally and let your new little sump pump handle circulating water for you. The pool will be fine until your new filter arrives.

 

[jst_becuz]

MK - that makes sense. And given all of my wife's flowers/plants in the yard, there is constantly debris this time of year.

Md - agree. Hard for me to keep it high enough this time of year in full sun with 90 degree water, but new chlorinator this year is helping and I discovered the filter tank issue when walking over to the equipment to crank it up to 100% (from 80%) b/c of the 2 FC reading. I also drop a tab in the skimmer occasionally to help out once in a while vs. running 20 hours per day this time of year. Have never had any nasties (other than springtails invasion post-construction - oof that was a pain). I've also had some surface staining, possibly from high chlorine + high PH + aluminum umbrella depositing metal into the pool in year 1 before I knew what I was doing. Did the whole citric acid thing one year and it did not help at all, so not sure if that was the cause, but I'm always worried about chlorine getting too high and making that worse. A full story and issue for another day

 

[jst_becuz]

Happy to report that I did get the replacement tank installed on Friday. Perfect fit, so no re-plumbing required. The sump pump and liquid CL worked to maintain the water and after running the pump and vac overnight on Friday, the pool was open for business on Saturday.

Interestingly, when the repair guy came with the new unit (it was top and bottom with new filter cartridges, which we were able to get substantially faster than just a replacement bottom and now I have a top replacement, and extra set of filters, and a bunch of spare parts) I opened the clamp on the old unit to get the filter cartridges and parts out and to keep the top. The clamp was stuck on pretty tight and I had a pry it off. When I did, I didn't have a good hold of it and it fell, slamming into the filter tank, right about in the spot where the leak was. I'm guessing 8 years of me or others occasionally doing that is what caused the issue in the first place. Lesson learned. The repair guy said he's only seen a handful of these needing replacement through his pool career and they were all cracked toward the bottom in approximately the same spot. That probably means I'm not the only one making this mistake. Anyway, just a story to help the newbies if anyone is reading this thread in the future.

Thanks for all the ideas and support last week!