First Opening Ever - Thinking about closing though...

[blue442]

Hey all. I've been doing a lot of reading, and I am confident I can open my pool solo this summer. I'm in year 3 of ownership, and live in the Clemmons, North Carolina area. We have fairly mild winters with around an 8" frost line however I still chose to have a solid safety cover installed. This will be the first year I've been involved in any form of opening it (and closing it hopefully this fall). Before I jump right into getting it running again, I wanted to understand what was done to close it so I can be successful this fall. It seems that something was done differently between the builder (Year 1) and the pool company I had close it last year (Year 2). I'm not sure if what the pool company did to close it was acceptable or not. For starters the water line appears high. I can't tell for sure as I have not removed the solid cover yet, but peeking in the gap near my waterfall, I can see its very close to the top. I also found the return jet caps sitting in my waterfall pump's basket. So I presume my lines were not blown out - I had asked for this to be done. Which makes me also then question if my deck jets or waterfall were blown out. Those seem to be the most important parts to have been blown out since the plumbing is so close to the surface. *edit* also not clear on what he did to the main drain and skimmer lines. I have a plastic tube in the skimmer box for ice compression, however the jandy valve was set to open. so there was no airlock.



So that said...
1) Do I need to blow the waterfall and deck jet lines out? The pool builder did it in the original year.
2) How do I blow these out. I don't see an connection point to do so without running through the sand filter and water heater. Is it possible to do this? Is this why the lines were not blown out?
3) Do I need to blow out the return lines and main drain for my area?



There is also a connection point labelled with a "?". I'm not sure exactly where it ties in at. The builder had to add a second pump as the original pump wasn't enough. so he modified the plumbing to add that pump. it is either tied to the Skimmer or the Main Drain. I do not know which. There is a backflow valve on it to prevent water from rushing back into it when the waterfall is not in use. Probably not relevant to this discussion, but I am going to mention it anyway.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Texas Splash]

For starters the water line appears high.

Perhaps on purpose to support the cover.

found the return jet caps sitting in my waterfall pump's basket. So I presume my lines were not blown out

That would seem like a foul

1) Do I need to blow the waterfall and deck jet lines out? The pool builder did it in the original year.

You should. Purge all water to the best of your ability.

2) How do I blow these out. I don't see an connection point to do so without running through the sand filter and water heater. Is it possible to do this? Is this why the lines were not blown out?

There are various methods, depending on the plumbing set up. Unfortunately for you, it appears your MPV is glued into the adapters in the MPV, so you can't push air from the MPV. I don't see any unions in the plumbing either. So you might have to push air either from the pump pot or remove the 3-way valve handle/cover and push air from there.

3) Do I need to blow out the return lines and main drain for my area?

While you don't have the same frost line as folks further north, if you are going to close, might as well do it all and do it right. Peace of mind. With a good Cyclone blower it's only take a few minutes.

There is also a connection point labelled with a "?".

I can only assumer it would be used for something that doesn't require filtering like water features or perhaps a cleaner line.

 

[blue442]

Hey thank you for the reply! I appreciate your input. I'll be picking up the cyclone blower when I close this fall, I had read about it on a different thread about closing on here.
I opened up last night. There appears to be a lot of pollen in the pool. Not sure how it got there though. At least I *Think* its pollen.



Its looking much better this morning after 12hrs of filtering.



It doesn't seem like the cover touches the water. It's a safety cover with connections to the concrete. It was very taunt. The water was up to my skimmer. I have to assume that either he left it high, or rain was getting into it enough that it raised it. Water had to have been getting in anyway with as much pollen (*if* it was pollen) was in it.

Also learned there is a connection below the laminar jets that was disconnected. Had no idea it was there. Had to put that back as water was flowing from the cans they sat in. whoops!



I guess the only question I have then in terms of blowing out the line water features and return jets through the pump pot... What would I need to set the filter to so there is as little resistance as possible for the cyclone blower? Recirculate?

All and all I feel pretty good about my first opening ever. Still stumped about the pollen though. Wasn't there last year when it was opened. Next year I'm going to set aside more time to open it. I came home from work at 6pm and had about 2 hrs of sunlight. I got it done, but did not have daylight to vacuum right away. I think that doing that would have been better and the pool would be ready quicker. Lesson learned.

Thanks again!