Howdy from Phoenix, AZ

[proavia]

RO is certainly another option, but it's not cheap. You will probably still need to add 5000 gallons (or more) of fresh water to top off your 25,000 gallon pool.

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For what it's worth, I drained and refilled my 30k gallon pool in January, also located within the city of Phoenix. My water bill was $160 higher than a normal month.

Where did you drain to - street or sanitary sewer? I've drained to both in the past, but i live in Chandler.

 

[SunDevil1]

RO is certainly another option, but it's not cheap. You will probably still need to add 5000 gallons (or more) of fresh water to top off your 25,000 gallon pool.

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Where did you drain to - street or sanitary sewer? I've drained to both in the past, but i live in Chandler.

I drained to the sanitary sewer. City of Phoenix does not allow you to drain into the street or alleyways: https://www.phoenix.gov/waterservices/customerservices/generalinfo/poolinfo

 

[triptyx]

Right. Googling Chandler AZ Drain Pool shows that they have the same requirements as Phoenix - you must​ drain into the sanitary sewer.

 

[proavia]

For the past several years (sorry, don't remember how long) Chandler requires draining to sanitary sewer - no permit needed. Prior to that, Chandler didn't allow draining to sanitary sewer - so you had to drain to the street and a permit from the city was required.

 

[passthebandaids]

SunDevil1 - good info, thanks for sharing. Was wondering what the water would end up costing.

Unfortunately I don't have a sanitary sewer connection, so that's not an option. Nor do any of my neighbors, so borrowing access isn't an option either.

 

[triptyx]

You don't have a single sewer cleanout? Is that possible? Even homes built in AZ in the 50's had them!

 

[passthebandaids]

Triptyx - def have a cleanout, but it's only 2" in diameter. I think even if I put something on the hose to dampen the flow, it would still be backing into my toilets constantly.

I called City of Phoenix and found some cool information. Once a year, for free, you can drain your pool direct to the street if your chlorine is low. Mine's non-extant so that's fine. You need to apply for a $0 permit, via email, which they can approve almost immediately. Unfortunately, no one could do it for me today, so I'm stuck waiting until Monday.

Anyone know how much more harmful it'll be to do it then, while it's hotter? I could start around 7pm, when it'll be dipping below 80, and let it go all night. And I guess I could stay up and keeps the walls damp by spraying them down every once in a while.

 

[triptyx]

Awesome info on the street drain!!! I'm just sorry you can't get permitted to do it this weekend.

I drained today (see page two of this thread: Returning to Pool Ownership) and even with the temp being 82, my walls are pretty dry about every 20 minutes and are in need of attention. Draining took about 2.5-3 hours with a submersible pump from Home Depot dumped to the street, but filling will likely be all night and a good portion of tomorrow, requiring constant attention. I also have half the volume that your pool does, so take all of that and multiply it by two. While I won't say you shouldn't do this in 100 degrees, you might need to be prepared to camp outside with a hose during the day. Agreed, planning a large portion of the fill at night, especially the crucial early part when you have so much plaster exposed, is a good idea.

The lawn sprinkler I bought worked great in the shallow end (it kept the walls and steps covered in half of the pool) until the water crept up to it, but I still had to go out every 20 minutes or so today to hose down the steps, walls, etc. Fill will likely take me a couple of days.

Edit - be aware that the rental submersible pumps (60 gpm) can only handle 50ft of hose. Plan to have a way to get that hose to the street or at least your driveway to avoid a big erosion problem. The rental guy said using cardboard weighted down with rocks has worked very well in the past when you couldn't make it to cement with the hose. My house is very long and narrow and the pool is right up against the back of it - 50ft made it from my deep end, down the side of the house, and 4 ft onto my driveway, where I was luckily able to direct all of the water to the street on the concrete.

 

[pooldv]

To answer your question about avoiding calcium scaling. It might be possible. To do so you must manage your CSI number, keeping it between 0 and -0.3. Enter your test results in Poolmath and it will calculate your CSI. Tweak PH and TA to adjust the CSI number.

More here, Langelier and Calcite Saturation Indices (LSI and CSI)

Is your CYA above 100? That would be another reason to do a partial drain.

 

[proavia]

While maybe not ideal, draining when it's hotter is possible. As has been mentioned - keep it sprayed down while draining/refilling. Check it every 5-10 minutes to start.... once the sun is off it you can extend those times. Once the sun comes up in the morning and it starts warming up, monitor how quickly it appears to evaporate off the exposed plaster.

It surprises me that the city is more concerned about a little chlorine and not the "stuff" in nasty green water. I would think even 5-10 ppm of chlorine in pool water would get used up pretty quickly when flowing over who knows what that's in the gutters and storm sewers. Also, no mention of high or low pH.

Oh well, at least you have a way to drain, even though it means waiting until Monday to get the permit.

The HD in Chandler where I checked a few days ago indicated that the hose is 50'. And that you could get multiple 50' lengths if needed - for the same rental price. Maybe different pumps?

 

[triptyx]

Possible - I can't say that my rental guy was an expert, but he handed me two 25' pipes for the 60gpm pump I rented and when I asked if I could get an extra one he said the pump wouldn't support it. I don't know if he's right or wrong.

 

[jblizzle]

Luckily the weather looks cooler this weekend

 

[passthebandaids]

Yeah, dude at my home depot (cactus/cave creek) indicated an extra 50' hose wouldn't be an issue. His beard was long and grey, so he is clearly a pool pump master.

Unfortunately pumping in the heat is my only option since the earliest I'll get that permit is Monday.

What are your thoughts on the following: My wife pointed out that from May 13-22 we're out of town. I wonder if I shouldn't just put this off until I get back. Maybe get lucky and drain during a cloudy monsoon day - less sun, more humidity, possible rain. I don't know what effect leaving the pool like this for another two weeks would have.

Regardless of whether I do that, I was also just considering covering the pool with a tarp so that the majority of it is not exposed to direct sunlight. Still hose it down to counter evaporation from the heat. But I think that shade from the tarp would help, and might even increase humidity beneath.

 

[jblizzle]

All those ideas are reasonable.

 

[triptyx]

The tarp idea is pretty good. If I hadn't cut my solar cover down to the pool size already, that same thought had occurred to me.

If your CYA isn't crazy high (and from your earlier posts, it's not great, but it's not the 300+ that I was fighting), you might be able to get away with it.

How are you handling chlorination while you're out of town? If you were planning on floating pucks anyways, and you're going to use a tarp or shade of some sort to drain, you might be best just floating pucks and then draining to deal with the CYA/CH later.

 

[passthebandaids]

So this is where my ignorance comes in - if I'm going to leave town and drain the entire pool when I get back in two weeks, would there be a reason for me to chlorinate now/while I'm gone?

 

[pooldv]

Yes, definitely maintaining chlorine is better than not. The less stuff that grows in your pool now the less stuff to kill and filter out later.

 

[kimkats]

And staining could be a problem if you leave it with the stuff growing........don't want that to happen.

I like the idea of waiting until you come back...........good call wife!

Kim:cat:

 

[passthebandaids]

Gotcha; I'll wait to drain until I return.

Meantime, how much chlorine should I put in? I've got 15 gallons liquid, and a ton of powder and pucks. Figure using the powder and pucks at this point wouldn't be too bad since I'll be draining in a couple weeks regardless, yeah? Or am I off the mark? I've got muriatic acid on hand as well.

Or do I just follow SLAM procedures, even knowing I'll be draining pool? At this point it sounds like the only reasons to chlorinate now (and while away) is to avoid too much algae growth and staining.

 

[passthebandaids]

Draining pool tomorrow morning! When I refill, what's the procedure for adding chems during refill? I have 15 gallons of liquid bleach, and 2 gallons of muriatic acid on hand.