Help! Have a super high maintenance pool. Ideas for simplifying upkeep?

[styrchn]

Hello!

We're looking for any insights in case there are any solutions we are missing.

We moved into a house with a 20 year old pool last year.

• We resurfaced the pool, upgraded all pool equipment last year.
• We filled it with fresh water that has stayed balanced for the past year.
• It is a 35K gallon free form pool.
• 8ft in the deep end, beach entry on the other side.
• It’s a salt water pool w/2 salt cells; cells are brand new.
• There’s an in floor cleaning system and only 1 skimmer (not sure why, there were 2 in the permit.)
• It has 2 floor cleaning pumps, 2 filters (recently replaced), and additional pumps for waterfalls & spa which don't run often.
• We are based in Las Vegas.
• The pool gets direct sun most of the day.

This pool is INCREDIBLY hard to manage right now.

It was mostly ok in the winter to keep balanced, but right now it's almost impossible.

The PH raises by .2 - .3 every day. This means dumping in a gallon of muriatic 3x a week to keep PH in line.

Pool Alkalinity is usually a bit low due to all the muriatic, about 60 right now. Raising it doesn't last long.

The primary salt cell is set to 100% and must run 24/7 and barely keeps up.

The chlorine completely evaporates daily and needs to regenerate over night.

We turned the autofill off to see how much evaporation is happening, it needs about 1 hour of full blast hose water daily to keep full. It did not leak during the winter. The pool temp is currently 89deg just from sun.

The pool does get quite a few leaves which could be contributing to balance. We empty the skimmer daily and use an additional skimmer bot. We run a pool floor cleaning bot daily.

Does this all sound normal for a “larger” pool in a hot climate or is something not balanced? Do you see other solutions to automate this more as we can’t leave the pool alone for more than 2 days. Pool service isn’t feasible at this level of upkeep as most services only come 1x a week and this needs daily or every other day maintenance.


How are others managing with just weekly service? Would love any advice for anything else we can do to simplify the upkeep!

 

[BDY]

The experts will
Be along shortly but welcome!!!

Two standard questions - how are you testing your pool and what equipment do you have? Esp the salt cells?

Cornerstone of this community is testing your own water with a reliable test kit.
Test Kits Compared

Can you post your current test results from wherever you are getting them? Especially the CYA level?

This is an excellent and friendly forum - lots of help available you’ve come to the right place!!

 

[Jimrahbe]

S,

What size salt cells do you have??

How are they plumbed into the system (Parallel or Serial) and what controls them?

What is your CYA level?

What FC number are you trying to maintain?

Your pool is not any different than other pools. If you are having a hard time maintain FC (Chlorine) it is not the pools fault, it is most likely yours...

Looking forward to your answers..

Jim R.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Welcome to TFP!

Your situation is not unusual. Caring for a pool in the summer requires more attention, but there's no reason you can't leave the pool for a few days. Hotter days and nights mean more evaporation. Each time you top off with fill water, you pool chemistry changes. You pool does need a daily dose of chlorine, but properly operating and adjusted SWGs should handle that. A TFP recommended test kit is the key element to proper pool care.

We can help you properly manage your pool. Spend some time reading up on some basics in Pool School. This is a good set or articles to start with.
Pool Care Basics

 

[DrewLG]

This pool is INCREDIBLY hard to manage right now.

Welcome to TFP!

How are you testing your water? Please post a full set of test results.

The PH raises by .2 - .3 every day. This means dumping in a gallon of muriatic 3x a week to keep PH in line.

Pool Alkalinity is usually a bit low due to all the muriatic, about 60 right now. Raising it doesn't last long.

Right, total alkalinity and pH tend to move in the same direction. You should let that happen; trying to raise alkalinity while simultaneously lowering pH will just result in endless, pointless oscillation.

Low total alkalinity (around 60) will slow your pH rise.

The primary salt cell is set to 100% and must run 24/7 and barely keeps up.

The chlorine completely evaporates daily and needs to regenerate over night.

What's your CYA concentration? Again, please post a full set of test results and also say what test kit you're using.

We turned the autofill off to see how much evaporation is happening, it needs about 1 hour of full blast hose water daily to keep full. It did not leak during the winter. The pool temp is currently 89deg just from sun.

If the pool is warmer than the air at night, water will evaporate. That's just how it is. A cover can help, although it will cause a number of other issues that might or might not be a problem for you.

How are others managing with just weekly service?

They aren't, really. Pool services that come in once a week can't keep pools sanitized and algae-free indefinitely.

If you have (or can get) a good test kit, and you can get your CYA concentration to a reasonable level, your regular maintenance will probably consist mostly of emptying the skimmer every few days and adding MA once a week.

 

[jesse-99]

If you have lots of water loss due to a) evaporation, or b) leaks, be sure to test your FILL/AUTO-FILL water for pH, TA, and CH. Do that sooner or later, it goes us a better idea what you're up against, because that will come into effect when balancing your pool chemistry.

Also, provide test results on the pool water for: pH, TA, CH, CYA, and FC. It will help us, to help you... Also, for the SWG (as mentioned before, CYA buffers against UV) so we need to know CYA in relation to your SWG which is having a difficult time keeping up. How many hours per day are you running your Filter Pump (which I assume is also tied to your SWG?) Once we know CYA and how long your Filter Pump and SWG are running, we can give you better ideas/tips.

Also, speaking of pumps, let us know if your Filter Pump is single speed or variable speed???

Maintenance on big pools can be a real pain. Especially if you also deal with trees, trees, and more trees (like me!) and lots of water features (evap, aeration, etc.). The walk-in beach will also add some effort to keep your pool clean because stuff washes up there, or gets in there easily. Certain times of the year (April-June and Sep-Oct), I basically have to use a cordless shop vac DAILY and vacuum up the area of the walk-in beach where the water extends to because it collects a lot of Crud. Getting a pool robot cleaner (VRX IQ+) was one of the biggest helps for me keeping the junk out of the pool, along with a Stenner pump to dose MA (2.25 gallons per week) to minimize my MA additions by hand.

 

[styrchn]

Thanks everybody, this gave me some good ideas to work with!! Appreciate all the feedback!

I'd been testing daily with Sutro, which doesn't test those things. I have this TFP test kit that I need to locate.

I took my water to Leslie's today and sure enough my CYA was low. Hopefully that was the root of the excessive loss. I bought what they recommended and will retest in 2 days.

Thanks jesse-99 for confirming that I'm not crazy! I also have to vacuum the beach entry daily, have lots of leaves, and use a floor cleaning robot daily. (DOLPHIN Nautilus CC Supreme + Instaspark Betta) My main pump pushes water over a spa overflow waterfall, so I think I'm getting extra loss from evap + aeration from that as well. 2 gallons of MA per week sounds about right. I used to think I had a leak in the pool because the water loss was so bad in summer, but the salt level has held exactly the same for the past year and water level didn't drop in the winter, so it must really just be a lot of evaporation.

I'm still trying to work out the optimal schedule for the two salt cells. Recently I've had the main cell running 24/7 at 100% generation pushing 3200rpm. I've been adding the second cell only when needed at 60% and 3000rpm. If I have them both running at night, I can get above 3 FC by morning, but during the day with just the one running at 100% I can see a drop of 1 full FC by afternoon, so it's been tricky to find the right balance with the swings.

Do you guys have a favourite schedule to try for the two pumps?

 

[wireform]

I took my water to Leslie's today and sure enough my CYA was low. Hopefully that was the root of the excessive loss. I bought what they recommended and will retest in 2 days.

Big mistake, don't rely on any testing other then yourself. They have unreliable test outcomes and adding chems due to their findings can get you in trouble. CYA is one of those they don't always get right. Look for your kit, hopefully it isn't expired and was stored in a temp controlled environment. Get all you test results and post for further advice . Good luck.

 

[ajw22]

You should not need two salt cells for a 35K pool. What model cells do you have?

How often are the waterfalls and spa spillover run?

Your equipment sounds more complicated then necessary.

Post pics of your pool and equipment so we can see what you are dealing with.

 

[styrchn]

Fair points. I still have a few more boxes to go through to see if I can find the test kit before I give up and order a new one. The spillover is always on as it's part of the main pump. Main waterfalls run for maybe a few hours a week.

Using 2x Intellichlor Model IC40, which was what the installer had recommended.

 

[ajw22]

Fair The spillover is always on as it's part of the main pump. Main waterfalls run for maybe a few hours a week.

Your spillover always running contributes to your pH rise. You should be using SPILLOVER mode on your automation and not always running it.

Your signature does not say what automation you have - EAsyTouch or IntelliCenter?

Using 2x Intellichlor Model IC40, which was what the installer had recommended.

Your installer should have put in one IC60 cell.

 

[Jimrahbe]

S,

Using two IC40's should work just fine... Just connect one to run at say 80% 24/7 and then have the other one set so you can adjust the output to maintain the FC target you want. It should not be a big deal..

You never did tell me how you are powering the two cells now. Are they connected to some type of automation system, or do you have two external Power Centers??

Are they plumbed in Series or Parallel?

Thanks,

Jim R,.

 

[Cena_sea]

If your cya is on the lower side now have you considered tabs (not blue ones) with your swg for a temporary time? When cya was around 50-60 last fall I added a tab float occasionally as I wanted to increase cya. It also helped with ph too. I didn’t use liquid chemicals like I had the previous fall/winter and kept track of how many used (based on how many left in bucket). I just tested cya this month and it’s 70 so I’m done with tabs and will go back to lc this fall/winter. But I liked how tabs and swg during the winter and spring kept the fc high (most of the time above 10).