I just bought a house over the weekend with an in-ground pool. Unfortunately, it seems the previous owners did not maintain the pool for the last month (they moved out as soon as we had a contract signed and closing took 35 days). When I moved in, the water looked mostly ok - slightly cloudy, and a tiny bit of green where the walls meet the floor. Skimmer basket was full of leaves; filter pressure was around 25psi. I took a water sample to a local pool store on Saturday and they told me I basically needed to re-open the pool - no chlorine in the water, algae, phosphates (~2500 ppb), low pH, etc. I got all the chemicals and some detailed instructions - had the water retested on Tuesday and it's much better: phosphates down to ~900 ppb, chlorine, pH, and alkalinity are still low, but I think I have the chemical situation under control.
The filter, though... I can't get the pressure to come down. Bumping only works for, like, half an hour. So, I tried "backwashing" - found a video on youtube, looked easy enough. However, the video was for an above-ground pool: turn off pump, bump, open drain, open air valve, allow tank to drain completely, close drain/air, repeat. This resulted in a lot of DE draining into the pool since only half of the water drained through the drain valve - the rest went back through the pump (that was turned off) and into the pool since the pool is lower than the filter
Insult to injury: my drain valve is now leaky - I've temporarily remedied with a screw-in plug with o-ring. It still drips slowly, though. It was difficult to get it to open, so, maybe I broke something when I opened it?
Realizing I screwed that up, I did my best to remedy (vacuumed all the DE in the pool and added some more DE through the skimmer to replace what actually did drain). At the suggestion of a pool-store employee, I tried cleaning the filter next: disassembled the unit, hosed off the fingers, soaked in a bucket with Caribbean Blue All-in-One Filter Cleaner + water for ~2 hours, hosed off again, reassembled, and added DE. That only helped for a couple hours and now I have a small leak where the top of the filter connects to the filter tank, and once a day I notice the accumulation of what I assume to be DE around the edges at the bottom of the pool Bumping helps bring the pressure down for an hour or two, so, that's an improvement.
Yesterday, I tried backwashing again. This time, I followed a procedure from a pool-store employee: turn off pump, bump, open drain, run pump until water is clear, turn off pump, close drain, turn on pump until water jets in pool are normal, repeat. I did this several times and then added more DE. That seemed to really help... pressure around 10-12, at least for 4ish hours. Was around ~25 psi before bed (bumping brought it down), and around 28 psi when I woke up this morning - the highest its ever been - basically no water flowing out of the jets at all
I get that part of it is that the filter is doing it's job and removing all of the stuff that was in the pool, and that's causing it to clog up. But, is there light at the end of the tunnel? I can't babysit this thing 24/7 - I have to sleep, I have to work, I have to unpack, I have to buy furniture, etc. I can't bump this thing every half hour and backwash it every Dang day. Will it ever just run? I spent all weekend and every evening since messing with the pool. I go to bed every night worrying that tonight will be the night the pump explodes because the pressure is too high. I've got multiple leaks in the filter now, my driveway is stained white from draining the filter onto it (I'm hoping rain will clear that up!), and the pressure is getting worse.
I've scheduled some professional help, but earliest they can come is the 22nd. What can I do to manage in the meantime? What is the actual, correct procedure for backwashing? How about cleaning? Am I going to have to go through all this Darn again in the spring when I open the pool?
/sigh
Ok, one more easier question about chlorine: my test strips say free and total chlorine is high, but the water tests in the store say it's low - the difference is a factor of 10: strips say 3, in-store test says 0.3. I saw suggested elsewhere that I should ditch the strips in favor of a liquid test kit - I'll get on that! But I'm wondering: is there some reason there'd be such a disparity? Am I using the wrong kind of test? Or the wrong kind of chlorine? Or maybe the strips are just bad (they were left behind by the previous owners)?
Sorry for the long post - I really appreciate any help and advice!
The filter, though... I can't get the pressure to come down. Bumping only works for, like, half an hour. So, I tried "backwashing" - found a video on youtube, looked easy enough. However, the video was for an above-ground pool: turn off pump, bump, open drain, open air valve, allow tank to drain completely, close drain/air, repeat. This resulted in a lot of DE draining into the pool since only half of the water drained through the drain valve - the rest went back through the pump (that was turned off) and into the pool since the pool is lower than the filter
Insult to injury: my drain valve is now leaky - I've temporarily remedied with a screw-in plug with o-ring. It still drips slowly, though. It was difficult to get it to open, so, maybe I broke something when I opened it?Realizing I screwed that up, I did my best to remedy (vacuumed all the DE in the pool and added some more DE through the skimmer to replace what actually did drain). At the suggestion of a pool-store employee, I tried cleaning the filter next: disassembled the unit, hosed off the fingers, soaked in a bucket with Caribbean Blue All-in-One Filter Cleaner + water for ~2 hours, hosed off again, reassembled, and added DE. That only helped for a couple hours and now I have a small leak where the top of the filter connects to the filter tank, and once a day I notice the accumulation of what I assume to be DE around the edges at the bottom of the pool
Bumping helps bring the pressure down for an hour or two, so, that's an improvement.Yesterday, I tried backwashing again. This time, I followed a procedure from a pool-store employee: turn off pump, bump, open drain, run pump until water is clear, turn off pump, close drain, turn on pump until water jets in pool are normal, repeat. I did this several times and then added more DE. That seemed to really help... pressure around 10-12, at least for 4ish hours. Was around ~25 psi before bed (bumping brought it down), and around 28 psi when I woke up this morning - the highest its ever been - basically no water flowing out of the jets at all
I get that part of it is that the filter is doing it's job and removing all of the stuff that was in the pool, and that's causing it to clog up. But, is there light at the end of the tunnel? I can't babysit this thing 24/7 - I have to sleep, I have to work, I have to unpack, I have to buy furniture, etc. I can't bump this thing every half hour and backwash it every Dang day. Will it ever just run? I spent all weekend and every evening since messing with the pool. I go to bed every night worrying that tonight will be the night the pump explodes because the pressure is too high. I've got multiple leaks in the filter now, my driveway is stained white from draining the filter onto it (I'm hoping rain will clear that up!), and the pressure is getting worse.
I've scheduled some professional help, but earliest they can come is the 22nd. What can I do to manage in the meantime? What is the actual, correct procedure for backwashing? How about cleaning? Am I going to have to go through all this Darn again in the spring when I open the pool?
/sigh
Ok, one more easier question about chlorine: my test strips say free and total chlorine is high, but the water tests in the store say it's low - the difference is a factor of 10: strips say 3, in-store test says 0.3. I saw suggested elsewhere that I should ditch the strips in favor of a liquid test kit - I'll get on that! But I'm wondering: is there some reason there'd be such a disparity? Am I using the wrong kind of test? Or the wrong kind of chlorine? Or maybe the strips are just bad (they were left behind by the previous owners)?
Sorry for the long post - I really appreciate any help and advice!
