How difficult is to drain/refill pool water?

[ShinDiors]

I'm being overconcerned by the chemicals that stay in the water, such as Calcium and CYA, main reason being not sure how troublesome it is to drain and refill partially. My local reg does not allow me to drain water with chlorine directly to storm drain, but is ok to drain over your yard. When the pool renovator drained the swap out (4-yr old swappy water under safety cover), they used a big pump with 2 inch collapsible hose to storm drain (which is actually right at my curb), it needs may be about 40 ft or more from the pool to reach curb.

If I drain over my yard for the purpose of adjusting chemical level, would the water damage grass/plants (I also do not like the idea of draining tons of water from backyard to front yard). How would you guys recommend doing it, and would a utility pump that discharge through regular garden hose be sufficient? Do i need to adjust the FC level before draining?

I started thinking about this because of two things, 1. we would like to be able to still vacation a couple of times each year but even only using Trichlor packs on those would inevitably increase the CYA level especially if I maintain the desirable level already. 2. Here in Northern VA, we can get plenty of storms (just had one yesterday), those heavey downpours ranging from 1.5-4 inches, and I would love to be able to use these natural water to adjust the chemical level if needed, which of course involves draining the current pool water a bit first.

Please bear with my over anxiety, since we paid an arm and leg to finally get the pool back in operation. We were trying not to mess this fresh reboot up. Thanks in advance.

 

[cowboycasey]

It will not hurt your grass what so ever, it will actually like it, it will get down deep into the roots...

You can lower your pool water 2 to 4 inches just with the skimmer and let rain water fill it back up, that works perfect for lowering CYA and CH.. You will need a trash pump to lower it further below the skimmer.. I pump with a hose attachment will take forever doing it... A big pump will take less time...

Also, a 1 or 2 hp above ground pool pump with a 2 inch pipe dropped into the pool and a pressure side with a 1 inch pipe connected would lower the pool water fast.. remember there needs to be pressure for the pump to work, so maybe a 1.5 inch pipe down to a 3/4 inch reducer and spray water everywhere

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[Homebrewale]

I have never had an issue with pool water killing grass. The only issue I have had is a downhill neighbor not liking the water flowing in front of his house.

 

[ShinDiors]

It will not hurt your grass what so ever, it will actually like it, it will get down deep into the roots...

You can lower your pool water 2 to 4 inches just with the skimmer and let rain water fill it back up, that works perfect for lowering CYA and CH.. You will need a trash pump to lower it further below the skimmer.. I pump with a hose attachment will take forever doing it... A big pump will take less time...

So were you saying I can drain the pool water as is and no need to adjust the any chemical level?

Also, what did you mean by "lower pool water with skimmer" and how to do it? I understand skimmer is connected to the filter pump which is sucking water in, how do discharge the water out from skimmer?

Thanks a lot

 

[cowboycasey]

You have a DE filter and should have a backwash setting that sends backwash water out of the pool.. it may be plumbed to the curb or somewhere already or just a blue hose.. You can use that to drop water level

Show us a picture of your equipment pad and filter so we can see what's going on

 

[ShinDiors]

You have a DE filter and should have a backwash setting that sends backwash water out of the pool.. it may be plumbed to the curb or somewhere already or just a blue hose.. You can use that to drop water level

Show us a picture of your equipment pad and filter so we can see what's going on

Here are a few pix.

Jandy FPHM15 Flopro pump
Polaris 46 booster
Raypak RP2100 heater
DE filter


Original two pumps were Hayward.
DE filter set up seems to be Hayward too. Pool company needs to come back check the condition, cleaning and show me how to backwash. A little water dripping from the pressure gauge area.
Heater was not changed, not sure how old and condition, not bypassed yet, no leak observed. It is powered, showing me water temperature.

A side question, is red circled area the bypass valve (heard it is useful, when treating metal)?

 

[cowboycasey]

That is a push pull backwash.. when you backwash the waist water goes somewhere and that will lower your pool water.. so instead of backwashing for 3 minutes you would continue to backwash for 30 minutes or till the pool water is lowered 2 to 4 inches...

 

[ShinDiors]

According to the RP2100 manual, it has internal automatic bypass valve (external aux bypass valve is used for 2hp high performance pump), do you happen to know how internal bypass valve work? I read the heater bypass article here, and it described the automatic bypass valve a little bit as " control how much water flows through its core while bypassing the remaining water directly out the heater. ", does it have function to bypass entirely (no water into heater)?

Thanks.

 

[cowboycasey]

you are talking 2 completely different things..

The heater bypass uses that to move some water past the heater and not through the heater...

What you circled is not a bypass it is a backwash... where does the water go when you use the backwash valve? there should be a pipe or hose connected to it... Have you done a backwash before?

 

[ShinDiors]

Sorry for sidetracking it. I have not done backwash before, the pool company which did the renovation is going to come and check/clean the filter and show me backwash etc.

 

[cowboycasey]

do you know the model of DE filter, you could get the manual and do it yourself and save a lot of money

 

[ShinDiors]

do you know the model of DE filter, you could get the manual and do it yourself and save a lot of money

It's part of the project, and I won't be charged additional. Plan to observe the learn.

 

[wireform]

Remember the filter pump is expensive and once the water drops below the skimmer if there isn't a main drain you can hurt the pump. Make sure the guy has it figured out.

 

[ShinDiors]

I do have a floor main drain in deep end. The pool guy mentioned it to me but I did not quite get what it is draining to and purpose. I now know the skimmers, return line locations and all. He asked us to brush the surface 2* a day for the new plaster surface and push stuff towards main drain side, but i did not feel the debris/stuff getting "drained" away.

 

[wireform]

You can either have the MD (main drain) plumbed directly to the equipment pad or some older pools have it plumbed to one of the skimmers with a gizmo that controls how much it pulls from the skimmer vs the MD. In your case when the water drops below the skimmer mouth water can no longer feed the pump, that's when he'll valve off the skimmer and open the MD to keep feeding the pump so no worries there.