Just bought a house with a pool

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MrSmith47

MrSmith47

0
May 24, 2017
18
polo IL
I am a disabled OIF vet.

My wife and I have never owned a pool before and it was not on our list of wants or even considerations in buying a home. We have 7 children age 16 to 4. Our oldest is heading to college this summer. I have included what we think that we have in my signature to the best of my ability. We have had the pool guy out that the previous owner used...and in this area he may be the only pool guy. He says our system is very simple and we only need to test it with strips instead of the other Taylor testing kits.

I am here to learn about H20 and the business of taking care of our family pool...

My main question is how much should opening the pool cost? {Shock, clean and hooking up the heater et al.}

My second question is with the equipment that I have (liquidator, nature 2 and sand filter), how hard is this going to be to keep it balanced and clean for my wife and children.

My third question is how much is it going to cost to keep heated? {I'm living on my disability only.}
 
Great setup you have there, the first order of business would be to order a proper test kit.
test strips or what we refer to as "guess strips" are just that...inaccurate and not the way to get real useable test results.

Either the Taylor K2006C or TF-100 will do.

Once you post a full set of results we can go from there. But no more pucks or shock, those add CYA and eventually
go over the recommended levels quite quickly and then algae or cloudy water begins....bleach only and it looks like
you will have that easy with that liquid chlorine pump box.

Read the ABC's of pool chemistry on this site, to get started and order a test kit, others will probably chime in.
 
I have that Taylor K2006c as I had read all of the chemistry on this site and knew I would need it.

But then he was talking the Nature2 and the liquidator eliminated the need for most of that and that the strips would do....I was so happy lol....I was going to send the kit back....Now I see that I will have to use it...bummer.

I will pull the results tomorrow morning and post them here. It may take some time for me to figure out how to use the kit. I read and read and reread the basic chlorine fas-dpd test not complicated just a pain. Not sure how to do the other tests but I assume that it is abt as hard......but that is just an assumption and I will research it some more tomorrow.
 
Ok so the morning did not go as planned but we got the pool skimmed and strip tested....yes I know that is not acceptable but I will use those numbers for now until I can get a propper sample and run the various tests. I hope I can get to this after noon.

6.8-7.2 Ph
1-3 FC
80 TA
30-50 ppm Stab

Ill break out the kit and try to run these numbers again to get the Taylor k2006c numbers.
 
it will be interesting to see the taylor numbers. what is Stab?

And stock up some gallons of plain, non-scented, not splashless 8.25% bleach too (if you have not yet)

For the CYA taylor test it is vitally important to do that test in full sun, with your back to the sun
holding the vial waist high and looking down at the black dot, then away then back again and repeat
while pouring in the solution, until you can't see it.
 
ppm stabilizer

daughter is getting me a quart mason jar sample of the pool water. running the test very sooon

We made a deal with the local ACE hardware and will pick up the 12.25 gals this weekend. not sure how many to get for the season. I understand that bleach only has a 6mo-12mo shelf life before it slowly loses its %age....
 
yes, and the stronger 12% strength weakens quicker, might check the dates on those before buying.
I know someone on the forum had seen 1 year old 12% at their local ace hardware and wisely
chose not to buy it.

If at all possible the water should be taken from the deep end and always the same place
about 1 foot below the surface. a turkey baster dedicated to this task works well for this and is what I use.
 

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You're going to want to ditch that Nature 2 mineral pack. That adds metals to your water which will cause staining and who wants to deal with *that* if they don't have to!?

You don't want to cheap out on testing kits as the strips actually tell you nothing.... the most cost effective way to care for your pool is to have actual numbers to work with instead of some vague range result. Use liquid chlorine, or plain old 8.25% bleach. You don't need anything the pool store sells as you can buy what you need at the grocery store or hardware store much cheaper. Check the bleach for date stamp, anything older than 3 months or that has been stored outside is going to be weaker, hence more expensive. Don't buy an entire summer's worth at once.... just pick up a few gallons weekly.

You can save money by not using a pool guy too, especially one who thinks Guess-Strips are adequate. He doesn't know much about pool chemistry I imagine. Your older kids can easily learn how to test the water and do simple maintenance like brushing the pool weekly.

Maddie :flower:
 
Ok so my Taylor k2006c test results are as follows

Water temp is 58deg

FC 0.8
CC 1.8
Ph 7.0
TA 70
CH 60
CYA 0-30 test remained clear to black dot.

Are these good enough to swim in my wife wants to go for the first dip before the kids throw a party...So we would fire up the heater for a day or two before we take a swim. The water looks crystal clear.
 
Well, it looks like cya is extremely low to zero, so get some as soon as possible.
Any chlorine you add will be gone in 30 minutes if direct sun is on the water.
Amazon has chlorox 4lb granules for $ 15 bucks I think if you can't find it locally.

I'd wager you will need at least 2-3 lbs added... but plug your numbers into the pool math link to see.

CC of 1.8 and your water not being clear indicates you need to do a slam and your ph is low enough to begin that.

Probably not a good idea to swim in it until the CYA is added and enough chlorine is mixed
in at a proper level, otherwise your wife and kids might be exposed to bacterias.

It's frowned upon to swim during a slam FC level, but I did a few times
when I did a mustard slam and it was 100 degrees outside. I just got in with
a swimsuit I didn't care if bleach ruined it and made doubly sure to keep my
head above and mouth closed the entire time.
 
There is a direct relationship betwen CYA and FC. Cya acts as a buffer and holds FC from being burned by sunlight. CYA has to be added via the Sock method, that means you fill a sock(no holes)with the CYA granules and suspend it in front of a return nozzle. You can squeze regularly. Make sure you use pool math to calculate how much CYA you need. Also read up on the SLAM procedure and add Bleach in the amount pool math tells you to reach slam levels for the indicated CYA. If you really think your water is clear? You are in for a shock!
Make sure you test regularly , like every 15 minutes after adding bleach until your numbers hold.

Slam away!

Felipe
 
Is that an old picture? It looks cloudy in the picture, but if it's clear than you are already ahead!

Still though there is the issue of the CC of 1.8 and insufficient FC of 0.8 signaling the probable beginning of algae growth.

If the water is 58 F then that's really close to 60 where algae can take hold.
 
Sorry that picture was actually taken in the rain so there's a bit of a rain sheen on the pool we have the Liquidator chlorinator which my pool guy said that disperses the chlorine constantly. I will try to raise the FC level over time but according to the information on this site having a cya of 0 is ok
 
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