Going to drain and refill...

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rinaldok

rinaldok

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Sep 16, 2016
136
Peoria, AZ
Hi folks,

I have postponed the resurfacing of my pool, probably till the season is over. I've had too many slaps to the budgetary face this year already and my plaster is not dire (yet).

I was going to utilize the resurfacing project to do a total overhaul, since obviously it would be drained that would solve my sky-high CYA problem (previous owner was a pucker) and I was going to replace my filter and pump and install a SWG at the same time.

I calculated it out and it's going to cost me about $65 on my water bill to drain/refill, so rather than wait for the resurfacing I'm thinking I'll just do it RSN, like maybe this weekend. If nothing else, not having to maintain my FC in the 20s will be nice. Admittedly, I don't keep it that high now, and luckily I have not had any water issues.

My question is about the plaster... we're having ridiculous temps (118, 119...) and we're going to be in the 1-teens this weekend. I have read and been told that plaster does NOT like to be dry, especially not in the heat. Would I be asking for trouble if I drained my pool in this heat? I would be refilling it as soon as it was drained, so it wouldn't be without water for too long, maybe a day or so if it takes 20-ish hours to drain at 700gal/hr and another however-long hours to refill?

If I'm risking bad juju on my already borderline plaster, then I can just suffer through dealing with the chemicals. I'd rather replace the water, but not at the cost of causing harm to the plaster.

Advice?
 
Yes, bad juju is definitely a risk. If you do drain then leave some water in the bottom and either hose or run a sprinkler to keep the plaster moist at all times. It should be fine. And stick 2 or 3 hoses in the pool to refill, it will go quite a bit faster.
 
I would not drain it in this heat. The plaster will quickly come up to air temperatures and you'll rush shrinkage cracks. The heat is too high and humidity is too low. I can't say for sure "bad juju" will happen but you would be really tempting the angry plaster gods doing a drain now.

I'm at a CH of 1150ppm but plan on doing a tile clean, drain, wash and refill in the late fall (Nov or so).
 
Also be careful figuring out your water costs. At my old house I learned a hard lesson. If you have city sewer service the base that charge on your water consumption unless you have a dedicated outdoor meter. I had a really green yard for a month until I got a $300 water bill which had $60 water charge and a $240 reclamation charge
 

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At the risk of derailing this thread away from donkey wrestling...

When would be the recommended/suggested/ideal time to drain? Fall/winter (remember this is AZ so I'm talking 70ish degrees not 40)? Of course if I'm resurfacing it's moot, but if I have to postpone that and I need to change out the water, do I still need to worry about keeping the plaster wet if it's mild temps or can I drain / refill over the course of 2 or so days or however long it takes?
 
I don't know what the magic number is, but I'd guess in the 80s somewhere. There are a couple of other options, like drain in the evening and refill over night. Or drain from the top of the shallow end and refill in the bottom of the deep end at the same time.
 
Thanks... so as long as the temps are decent I won't have to rig up sprinklers or anything to keep the walls damp?

I know I could dump water pretty fast if I run my pump to waste in a late-night street wetting (and hope I don't get caught), but to be legal, I'm supposed to drain into the sewer, and they say not to exceed 12gpm, so I would have to rent a submersible 700gal/hr pump. At that rate for 15k gallons it would take around 20-21 hours to drain. I don't have to drain it completely dry, I'll do a diluted CYA test right before I'm ready to drain to figure out approxixactly how much water I need to drain (since I don't know exactly how many gallons I have, estimates have been between 13.5-15ish). I'll do the calcs for 15k and that way if I err, I'll err on the side of just having to add some CYA back in.
 
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