Live From Burbank, California...

[kundderek]

Hello All - I'm Derek. Been a pool owner for about 12 years. First pool was a classic 20' x 40' with a 9' deep end. Had a one speed pump, one of those classic round deep end lights, no heater, and a diving board. My wife and I had great pool parties at that house. Moved down the street a couple of years later to a bigger house but no pool. The lots in Burbank are pretty modest, but we were able to have a 14x28 pool with a 7x7 spa built within a year of moving in.

I've had the same pool guy for a decade at this point. He keeps my pool clean but lately, I've been questioning some bits of his service. I've been thinking for awhile that he's treating my saltwater pool like the swg doesn't exist. He hasn't added salt in a number of years, always adding chlorine though. The swg is always set to 0% when I check it. And, what really caught my attention was that recently I started poking around in the my aqualink app and noticed the vsp was set to run for 8 hours per day at 3250rpm. It's been on that schedule for the past 6 or 7 years. I haven't been taking advantage of the low speed (lower energy use) option. I asked him about this - not utilizing the vsp option - and he commented that he assumed the builder set it when they build the pool and he never had a reason to check it.

So recently, I started reading up on pool maintenance on reddit's pools subreddit and here at TFP. Added some salt over the past weekend. I overshot it but not too bad...I hope. I'm testing at 3800ppm. Have the requisite Taylor kit on order. Still have my pool guy for now but I'm now running the vsp 24/7 and making adjustments to the SWG to see what produces the correct constant chlorine ouput. I'm sure I'll be around with plenty of questions.

Take care!

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP!

Be sure to bookmark ----> Pool Care Basics

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Welcome!

Hopefully your pool guy is not using tablets.

Which test kit did you order? When you get it, make sure you post some results and we can help you out.

Best wishes!

 

[kundderek]

Welcome!

Hopefully your pool guy is not using tablets.

Which test kit did you order? When you get it, make sure you post some results and we can help you out.

Best wishes!

Thank you! Happy to be here! A month or so ago, he had one of those floaters in my pool with chlorine tablets. That seemed to last only a few weeks however before I noticed it was gone again.

Here are the test kits that I'm waiting on. Should be here Friday or Saturday:
Taylor K1766 Salt Test Kit
Taylor K2006 Test Kit

But, here's a quick run through of what I had ordered prior to the Taylors:

1) AquaChek Salt Test Strip Titrators for Pools - these were bad news. The first two I used suggested my pool was at ~700ppm. The chart suggested nearly 300lbs of salt needed to be added. I was coming off the total dismay about my vsp not being used properly and assumed the results were correct and that my pool guy was neglecting to add salt to the pool. I added what I thought was a modest 160lbs of salt. Tested (with the strips) the next day and was getting 1250ppm. That concerned me as it should have been higher. Tested again later (all with the same strips) and I was back to ~700ppm. Uh-oh. Something was off.

2) Then this arrived via Amazon - Pool Salt Tester & PH Meter, Hofun Digital Salinity Meter and PH Tester for Pool Saltwater. Tested my water with this and I was getting salinity at 4400ppm. By then, I had studied up a bit on my aqualink and jandy pcl 1400. I checked the salinty button on the aqualink and was getting 4.4 which seemed to coincide with the 4400ppm. My pool guy came out this week and used his kit and said I was at 3800ppm. Still high but more manageable.

3) EASYTEST 7-Way Pool Test Strips - Got these to do some add'l testing while waiting for the Taylors.

My pool guy is still in the mix for now. My current issue is my PCL 1400 doesn't seem to want to run any higher than 15%. I do run it 24/7 which means it's producing just over 3 1/2 hours per day. But if I set it any higher than 15% it throws a serivce light and 120 service code. Oddly at 15% the service light never trips. My vsp schedule right now is 6a to 9a at 2750 with the aquanaut cruising around, 9a to 2p at 1500 (skimmer), then 2p to 6a at 1200 (skimmer). Wondering if the 1200 rpm is not enough flow for anything greater than the 15% swg setting, but I haven't ready anything here or elsewhere to suggest it. My salt cell is from 2017 so could very well be time for replacing it.

The last issue I'm trying to mull over to see if its a big deal or not is the hardness of my pool water / municipal water supply. I test completely purple (700 to 800ppm) on the EASYTEST Strips. I've read that hardness doesn't have to be an issue so long as you offset it's impact with muriatic acid - still need to get through the ABC's to make sure I understand what I'm saying there.

Anyhow, that's where I'm at for now. Pool looks good and we are having fun in it on the weekends. I have the water temp at 87 on the weekend for the wife an kids and let it drop off during the week. I'm just learning what I can now. I'm looking to get to a point where I understand the chemistry and how to make adjustments to it before I say so long to my current pool guy.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk haha.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Things will become much more clear when you get your test kit. The test strips you've been using provide inconsistent and inaccurate results. The 120 code on your SWG is probably related to low salt. Hopefully you can get things squared away after you get some good test results. Start a new thread and post your results when you're ready.

Make sure you spend some time going through the articles that were posted for you earlier. Here is another that deals specifically with your SWG.

Jandy AquaPure SWG - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com