New contract / New build - SE Pennsylvania, Gunite free form pool and spa

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MarlboroMan said:
Sorry to change the conversation @Gorilla83 although I would love a place by the beach.

Anyway I checked out your build and overall everything looks great to me. Hope the weather warms up so you can enjoy it.

By chance is your plaster ansylbrite colbalt blue? If so, that's our color as well.
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Thanks - The color is actually "onyx" which is a light gray but looks like a slightly dark shade of blue when filled.

bmoreswim said:
I don't get the extra hassle of having a pH probe (unless it's just a tech addiction thing). IF you can read the pH test easily (which takes a little practice) it's super simple and reliable.
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So far so good for me with the Taylor test kit. I'm all about the tech like Jim, but so far it's working well with the PH testing.


Other notes -

-Had a slight hiccup with my Dolphin cleaner yesterday. Kept getting "Drive 1 error" so i emailed Marina P&S and they responded almost immediately. After talking with a tech over the phone, he walked me through the usual checks and we discovered there was a small piece of plastic wrapped around one of the gears, which I removed. Back up and running very quickly, whew! Thanks Marina! Fantastic service once again.
-Still waiting on A&S to fix 2 of my bubblers
-Still waiting on a fix to unclog my overflow line
-Discovered a few weeks ago that my sunshelf return was incorrectly hooked up to the bleeder line of the waterfall valve rather than the main system. I've been nagging them to fix this for a few weeks now and they haven't been very responsive. Shocking.
-Waiting for them to register all of my equipment with pentair as one of the lights (spa) bleeds colors when set to white. Not a huge deal, but would like to get it fixed
-I plumbed in a hard line for the backwash line. The crappy "hose" they gave me ripped on the first use, ugh. This was a REALLY nice addition.

In other news, chemistry has been holding nicely. Testing in the evenings now when I get home from work. Got my second backwash in the other day, even though pressure was only rising 2lbs or so. Maybe I just wanted to practice. :)

FC sits steadily around 5-6
CC at 0
PH between 7.2 and 8 typically
CH at 250
TA seems to like to settle around 60
CYA right around 30 but should be at 40 soon with the tabs in there - and BTW Jim I did wind up ordering that BlueDevil kit, should be here soon.
 
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That cya kit is much nicer I think. You will see what I mean.

Having a hardline for backwashing and taking water out is nice. No much better this year with it.

Keep on a&s. I bet before you signed they would get back to you within minutes. I know they used to for me when I had questions before I hired who I did. Haha

You guys still getting clobbered with rain. I have taken water out 3 times already. My water was 66 now it’s back down to 56 cause of the rain. This is a horrible year already.

Jim
 
jimim said:
That cya kit is much nicer I think. You will see what I mean.

Having a hardline for backwashing and taking water out is nice. No much better this year with it.

Keep on a&s. I bet before you signed they would get back to you within minutes. I know they used to for me when I had questions before I hired who I did. Haha

You guys still getting clobbered with rain. I have taken water out 3 times already. My water was 66 now it’s back down to 56 cause of the rain. This is a horrible year already.

Jim
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I forgot to mention I had to take water out 2x as well in the last week alone! I probably pumped out 2-3000 gallons of nicely conditioned water, ugh. Also the same issue with water temps, I was up to 72 and now down to 63 this morning. It was in the 50s on Monday! Boo. At least the next 7 days look promising, especially so later next week being in the high 70s and low 80s.

Planning to go in the spa tonight! I'll call, email, and text A&S again today. We're about to be on day 30 and still waiting on a date for my salt start up as well.
 
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It was 45 here the other day! Not night. Horrible!

Call your “sales guy”. That’s who I would big cause he is out of the loop now so you will just be annoying him and maybe he will call who he needs to and say “just get this Guy off my back”.

That’s why I like my builder. I need him I go to his house or shop. Haha. He is a great guy though also.
 
jimim said:
It was 45 here the other day! Not night. Horrible!

Call your “sales guy”. That’s who I would big cause he is out of the loop now so you will just be annoying him and maybe he will call who he needs to and say “just get this Guy off my back”.

That’s why I like my builder. I need him I go to his house or shop. Haha. He is a great guy though also.
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Good idea! I'll shoot him an email and he's help resolve some of these things in the past. At this point it's a daily nag. :)

Thanks!
 
Got A&S to come back out this last Thursday:

-Salt start up complete! Took 16 bags of salt to go from 800ppm to 3400
-pulled 2 of the lights to get serial numbers for warranty registration
-fixed 1 bubbler, hope to get the last one fixed this week
-troubleshot my clogged overflow line but didn’t get to the issue yet
-plumber is supposed to come out next week (day tbd) to fix my sunshelf return plumbing

And Jim thanks for the tip again on the blue devil cya kit. I tried it and definitely easier to use.

Planning to head back from the beach Sunday late day so we can get some swim time in for MDW!
 
Had our first pool party here on Memorial day and it was loads of fun. Ran the heater along with strong sun to push the temps into the mid 80s easily, it was really nice.

Plumber is supposed to come early this week to address my sunshelf return, if that happens I'll be a bit happier too.

Chems as of tonight:

PH - 7.2
FC - 9 (still dialing in my SWCG, slowly reducing this down). My pool only seems to be consuming about 1.5 FC per day at this point.
CYA - 60
TA - 60 (had to bump this up after all the acid)
CH - 325 (can I leave this alone for now?)
Salt - 3400

Also dialed down my pump run time to 14 hours. It seems happy running around 1350-1400rpm which is about 100 over where the flow light trips for the salt cell.
 
So happy to hear about the day sent enjoying your pool with warm water and good friends!

Look at your numbers in Pool Math. See what the CSI is and go from there for any adjustments you might need to make. The water temp is very important for this.

Kim:kim:
 
kimkats said:
So happy to hear about the day sent enjoying your pool with warm water and good friends!

Look at your numbers in Pool Math. See what the CSI is and go from there for any adjustments you might need to make. The water temp is very important for this.

Kim:kim:
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Ah, apologies I should have posted CSI. Sitting at -0.70 right now, water temp 79-80. I've been using the pool math app religiously for logging, etc. :) PH will come up on it's own tomorrow which will push that number up some.
 

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kimkats said:
SWEET! Don't you LOVE Pool Math and all it does for us???
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Sure do! I'm a fan for sure.

Yesterday's update: Finally got the return plumbing fixed along with all 3 splashdown fountains!

Definitely a win for sure. Now just to get the autofill fixed and submit a warranty claim for the spa light (bleeding colors when set to white) and we'll be good to go. :)

105194
105195
 
kimkats said:
SWEET!
What did they have to do to fix those items? I like to ask this questions so I can learn to help others in the future!
Kim:kim:
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2 different fixes here:

1) The sunshelf return was originally plumbed incorrectly connected to a "bleed" line on the waterfall pump. This led to poor circulation in the sunshelf and shallow end of the pool unless the 2nd pump was running. It also had no heat pumping in that area when the heater was on. This fix was simply capping the bleed line on the waterfall pump and move that plumbing into a valve on the main pump/filter/heater.

2) The middle splashdown had the 1" PVC pipe stuck down in hole (they are 24" below the surface). This likely happened either during gunite or plaster but to fix it the plumber actually shut off all other valves except that line and cranked the pump to full power and BOOM it shot right out. :) From there they simply glued in the pipe/fittings and turned it back on.
 
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jimim said:
Holy ph rise Batman! Lol Those bubblers are cool! I wish we had a shelf. I got vetoed on it.
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Ha, you're right PH would go crazy (it is already on it's own) if I ran them regularly. The kids love them though. And honestly the shelf has been the most used area of the pool so far. It's a go-to favorite for kids and adults to hang when we have people over as well. Very glad we did that!

kimkats said:
Did you get to see it shoot out??? Bet it was neat to see!
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Unfortunately no :( I'm impressed with the height of these guys though when the pump is cranked up!
 
Gorilla - I just joined and did a search for Lehigh Valley, and read through your whole thread. Was your original PB Chris from Signature Quality? We were always considering a liner due to costs, but I reached out to him on a whim based on our fence installer recommendation. He was super quick to respond. I was very upfront about our budget and not wanting to waste anyone's time if it would out of line. He said he could work with it and came out promptly for a very lengthy in person discussion. After he left, my husband and I were pretty set on going gunite. Said he'd get back to us in 3-4 days and plan a next meeting for the following weekend. Then poof, nothing. No follow up, no email replies, no text replies.

Super frustrating, because I really liked him initially.

Anyway, your pool looks fantastic and I'm glad it's finally done!
 

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