opening questions for 2023

[sdtfp]

First up, I just measured pool temp with a meat thermometer and it says 57F. I'm in the NE, is it time for me to open? Or do I need to get a longer thermometer that measures the temp lower?

Secondly, should I keep the mesh cover on after opening? I mean I technically can, but it seems like it has some cons. First of all, I will need to remove some of the mesh cover to remove the plugs, so a little inefficient. Secondly, it's going to be pollen season soon and I dont want to get the mesh cover full of pollen, so i will remove it before that happens. I just don't recall if the pollen apocolypse happens after may 15th or before.

Finally, I am thinking of getting a solar cover. I've read the threads here to get something thin and cheap. I wanted to know, if I get something bigger then my pool, then I have to cut it down in size so that it fits perfectly over the water? And most importantly, what is the maintenance for the cover? Like if I put it on now, can I leave it on until mid to late june when the water warms up enough. Or do I need to be removing it daily or weekly? This also reminds me that it will get filled with pollen if I leave it on for a while, so I will either discard it this season or end up washing it on the driveway?

 

[PoolStored]

First up, I just measured pool temp with a meat thermometer and it says 57F. I'm in the NE, is it time for me to open? Or do I need to get a longer thermometer that measures the temp lower?

Don't overthink it. I opened this week and my pool temp is 48. If I were you, I would open now.

Secondly, should I keep the mesh cover on after opening? I mean I technically can, but it seems like it has some cons. First of all, I will need to remove some of the mesh cover to remove the plugs, so a little inefficient. Secondly, it's going to be pollen season soon and I dont want to get the mesh cover full of pollen, so i will remove it before that happens. I just don't recall if the pollen apocolypse happens after may 15th or before.

I leave my cover on until May 15. I lift the sides, remove the plugs, get the water moving and up the FC and CYA. Pool runs fine and keeps algae at bay. I also throw in the robot. Leaving the cover on, I avoid the catkins I get in the spring. I do put hairnets in my skimmer baskets to catch anything that goes under the cover. Pollen tends to just get blown off the cover. Any that gets through will get caught by the hairnets.

Finally, I am thinking of getting a solar cover. I've read the threads here to get something thin and cheap. I wanted to know, if I get something bigger then my pool, then I have to cut it down in size so that it fits perfectly over the water?

Yep.

And most importantly, what is the maintenance for the cover?

I don't do any maintenance. It goes on the reel when I swim and back on the pool when done. I will spray it down when I'm putting on the reel to get leaves and dirt off.

Like if I put it on now, can I leave it on until mid to late june when the water warms up enough. Or do I need to be removing it daily or weekly?

I don't remove mine. Some find that taking it off 1-2 a week for a couple of hours burns off any CCs that accumulate.

This also reminds me that it will get filled with pollen if I leave it on for a while, so I will either discard it this season or end up washing it on the driveway?

Just wash it off. Are you going to have a reel?

 

[sdtfp]

Don't overthink it. I opened this week and my pool temp is 48. If I were you, I would open now.

I leave my cover on until May 15. I lift the sides, remove the plugs, get the water moving and up the FC and CYA. Pool runs fine and keeps algae at bay. I also throw in the robot. Leaving the cover on, I avoid the catkins I get in the spring. I do put hairnets in my skimmer baskets to catch anything that goes under the cover. Pollen tends to just get blown off the cover. Any that gets through will get caught by the hairnets.

Yep.

I don't do any maintenance. It goes on the reel when I swim and back on the pool when done. I will spray it down when I'm putting on the reel to get leaves and dirt off.

I don't remove mine. Some find that taking it off 1-2 a week for a couple of hours burns off any CCs that accumulate.

Just wash it off. Are you going to have a reel?

That reminds me that I vacuum a few hundred worms from the bottom of the pool when I open. That will be a bit tricky with the cover still in place.

I hadn't planned on getting a reel. At this point, I am hoping I can get away with leaving it on for a few weeks and then throwing it out. Of course with the kids wanting to get in when overnight temps are low, I will probably have to break that plan. I guess I'll keep it in mind and see how hard it is to roll up without a reel. Seems like one of those mistakes you have to make before you get it.

Good point about the sock on the skimmer for collecting pollen, last year I told myself to do that this year and I had already forgotten.

 

[Newdude]

+1 on a soft open. I'm running now under the cover. I've gone a month and a half in the past before the weather matched my enthusiasm.

It took 5 mins to pop the shallow end and put it back after pulling the return plugs and reinstalling the eyeballs. It will take just as 'long' to pop to dose LC as needed. With next to no sun hitting the water and cold water, it won't take much or be often.

 

[sdtfp]

+1 on a soft open. I'm running now under the cover. I've gone a month and a half in the past before the weather matched my enthusiasm.

It took 5 mins to pop the shallow end and put it back after pulling the return plugs and reinstalling the eyeballs. It will take just as 'long' to pop to dose LC as needed. With next to no sun hitting the water and cold water, it won't take much or be often.

When do you slam with soft open? I was actually going to slam with the schock packets, which is something I should of included in OP.

So adding to my OP, I also want to use shock packets to slam on opening this year. It's hypochloride I belive. So when I first moved in, the pool CYA was 130. It was very hard to maintain that season. I actually considered replacing the pool water but let things settle as I learned more about pool maintenance. Fast forward a few years and now I am opening at close to 0 CYA. I've asked about it here and the best thing I can come up with is that over the fall and winter it rains a lot and I have to drain a lot of water several times to lower the water line. With a small pool, that seems to be replacing a lot of water. So essentially I have a natural way of replacing the water every year. Last year I had a tough time keeping the CYA above 30 i believe. I had to add pool pucks for a few weeks in the season.

Anyhow, I suspect I will have 0 CYA when I open and if I do, my idea is to shock with leslies powerplus shock packets to get the CYA up. It says 1 packet per 16k gallons. And I have a 17.5 gallon, how many packets should I use? I just want to use them to get CYA to 40 quickly and then use liquid chlorine to get the FC to the SLAM level. Is this reasonable?

 

[Newdude]

When do you slam with soft open?

You open the cover *if* there's a reason to SLAM. Do you have a reason ?

 

[sdtfp]

You open the cover *if* there's a reason to SLAM. Do you have a reason ?

I thought it was just good practice to SLAM when opening. My water is usually clear but I feel SLAM is still needed as the overnight test takes a few days. Although, I always seem to mess up the SLAM somehow. But I've found that cleaning out the light niche gets the SLAM done more quickly. But I guess I don't need to SLAM until a few days before people jump in the pool, so I got a long time for that.

 

[Newdude]

I thought it was just good practice to SLAM when opening.

You are welcome to perform an insurance SLAM. I will. I will raise it to SLAM FC / 12FC for 30 current CYA, and OCLT. If I haven't lost any FC overnight, I get on with balancing. If I lost FC overnight, I'll full
SLAM Process

But. It's a process which requires accurate and frequent testing/dosing. Dump and pray with a few bags of shock ain't gonna cut it.

the overnight test takes a few days.

It takes one night. It says so right in the name.

But I guess I don't need to SLAM until a few days before people jump in the pool, so I got a long time for that

Get it running under the cover and keep FC in range as needed. If you do need to SLAM, it won't go green between now and then and will be a much easier SLAM. If you just let it go now, you're risking a Shrek worthy swamp when the time comes.

 

[sdtfp]

You are welcome to perform an insurance SLAM. I will. I will raise it to SLAM FC / 12FC for 30 current CYA, and OCLT. If I haven't lost any FC overnight, I get on with balancing. If I lost FC overnight, I'll full
SLAM Process

But. It's a process which requires accurate and frequent testing/dosing. Dump and pray with a few bags of shock ain't gonna cut it.

It takes one night. It says so right in the name.

Get it running under the cover and keep FC in range as needed. If you do need to SLAM, it won't go green between now and then and will be a much easier SLAM. If you just let it go now, you're risking a Shrek worthy swamp when the time comes.

lol. This is the way. Filter running with FC at 4-5 with the cover on for a few more weeks shouldn't be too hard. Although daily lifting of the cover to check FC level or add cholrine seems like a chore. Maybe ill do it weekly as i dont expect much chlorine loss this early in the season with cover on.

 

[PoolStored]

lol. This is the way. Filter running with FC at 4-5 with the cover on for a few more weeks shouldn't be too hard. Although daily lifting of the cover to check FC level or add cholrine seems like a chore. Maybe ill do it weekly as i dont expect much chlorine loss this early in the season with cover on.

You might run higher. You might also experience more daily loss than you think. I would test daily for the first few days to see what the demand is...

 

[sdtfp]

You might run higher. You might also experience more daily loss than you think. I would test daily for the first few days to see what the demand is...

yeah good point. This makes me weary of a "soft open". Seems like more work than a regular open. But like all things, I'll have to try it and see for myself and then adjust for next season.

The water temp is 60F on my meat thermometer today. We're having like a spring heat wave over here (temps in the 80s for multiple days). This is uncommon for spring, a week in the 40s wouldnt surprise me aroudn this time, so im hesitant to open up yet. Thje weather says 60s next week with overnight in the mid 40s to mid 50s, so I guess the pool will keep warming up. Looks like i will open this weekend just as a precaution.

 

[Newdude]

This makes me weary of a "soft open". Seems like more work than a regular open

Regular maintaining under the cover will be less work than battling a swamp in the long run. It an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure situation.

 

[sdtfp]

Regular maintaining under the cover will be less work than battling a swamp in the long run. It an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure situation.

True, but the other option is to just throw a floater with some pucks. Which I had done in the winter, but I didnt want to do anymore now in spring.

Anyhow my soft open plans got scrapped for a number of reasons.
1. Mice got into my DE filter and I spent an hour or two cleaning that up. I had left it all clean in the fall, and with other things going on this weekend, I didn't have time for that additional cleaning. So if I went for a soft open, it would of been a rush job.
2. I realized the water is a bit low, so I would need to add water. I'm kinda confused because usually the pool is full to the brim by the time I go to open. I think a combination of me draining too much and a dry/hot spring has kept the water level low.
3. FC is 9 and CYA is 30 albeit the pump is not running.

So with the water so low and plenty of chlorine, I think I'll wait another two weeks before I open. Next weekend is busy, so currently not planning to open then. But I'll test the chlorine and if its dropped substantially, then ill have to make time. That leaves me with a tentative open date of april 29-30th.

 

[sdtfp]

We got a good amount of rain and now have some excess to open up with. I think I asked this before, but cant find the thread, but does anyone use the pool vacuum to open up and remove all the debirs and worms from the pool floor? The point being that I don't want worms in my clean DE filter. I will set the filter to waste, so I don't even think my filter will fill up with water. I'll just be pumping all the water and worms to waste line down the driveway into a laundry net.

Unfortunately, my waste goes through the separation tank first, so I may have some cleanup in there.

 

[V___25]

We get tons of worms, it's so gross. I scoop out as many as possible with the net off the bottom and I just use the robot to clean the rest.

 

[sdtfp]

We get tons of worms, it's so gross. I scoop out as many as possible with the net off the bottom and I just use the robot to clean the rest.

I didn't use the net nor the robot, I ended up vacuuming to waste as planned and that worked well.

An update on my plans to try "soft opening":
We had a ton of rain over the weekend and the pool was filled to the brim. So it was a perfect time to try vacuuming to waste and that worked out pretty well. I actually don't think I will be "soft opening" next season after the amount of work I had to do.
Maybe you guys have a different situation, but I have a mesh cover with spring fasteners. So in order for me to vacuum the pool on a soft opening, I have to either remove the cover completely or remove it in pieces. I think if I were to remove it completely, there is no way I would put it back. I don't have a helper, so maybe it's not nearly as much work if you have a couple of people doing it.
I actually ended up removing the cover in sections. And since I didn't have a helper, I used bunji ropes to keep the cover from being lost in the pool. Of course, some/most of the cover got submerged at one point or another, but the ropes made sure I had a way to get the covers back. I unfastened and pulled back, the long edge near the skimmer and vacuumed that side. Then I did the short end, and finally, the opposite long edge. So managing the cover in sections like that was a shore, and I probably reduced the lifespan of my cover as it got submerged and stretched a bunch.
It took a couple of hours to vacuum to waste this way and maybe I spent half an hour on some filter maintenance by adding some lube to things. Next I plan to put in the robot, but its going to take a little bit of work to undo the cover on one side so I can start with the cord fully unwrapped as I usually do. Should be rather easy, but I feel like I am done with the cover right now!
So unless I havent realized some other hidden benefits of soft opening, I think the cons outway the positives for my situation. I'll keep doing it for this season, but I doubt i will do it again next season.

 

[Wntrequinx]

That reminds me that I vacuum a few hundred worms from the bottom of the pool when I open. That will be a bit tricky with the cover still in place.

I hadn't planned on getting a reel. At this point, I am hoping I can get away with leaving it on for a few weeks and then throwing it out. Of course with the kids wanting to get in when overnight temps are low, I will probably have to break that plan. I guess I'll keep it in mind and see how hard it is to roll up without a reel. Seems like one of those mistakes you have to make before you get it.

Good point about the sock on the skimmer for collecting pollen, last year I told myself to do that this year and I had already forgotten.

I just let mine get all pollen covered and don't worry about it, any pollen that washes into the water gets handled by the filter... I have the above ground hooks to hang it on the side of my pool, and just rinse it off on that when I can.

But I had to trash mine after 2 years because the first year it got left under the deck and it was an algea refuge by the end of last summer..

 

[sdtfp]

I had another two issues with opening, not related to soft opening!
The first is that the pressure gauge didnt work. A brand new one I bought last year, that also had issues last year but it ended up working and I wasn't sure it was something else. This time I used my ancient pressure gauge and that worked perfectly.

The second issue is that when I stopped the pump, the water and DE from the filter would drain back into the pump and into the skimmer. I was worried my pump or multi valve was broken. Luckily I heard some air escaping and noticed it was from the tablet chlorinator. I was able to bypass and it looks like the water is not draining back into the pump anymore. Anyone know if that all there is to it, or should I be expecting a bigger problem?

I have a hayward chlorinator that is fairly new, and I store it in the garage during the offseason. I only use it for when I go on vacation, but I leave it connected without tablets during the season. The hoses for it seem a bit brittle, but I am using one now to bypass it so that one works for sure. I'll have to check the other one. And i'll check to see if maybe I just didnt close it right. It is a bit of a pain to open and close.

One thing I did learn is that flow back from pump to skimmer is pretty easy, so I am going to see if I get a pool company to install a shut off valve for that. This way I have a way to stop DE from flowing into the pool. I had a valve installed last year for the return side for the same reason, but I didn't think about the water going in the reverse direction.

 

[sdtfp]

So the air issue I had with the chlorinator was still an issue even after removing the chlorinator. I think I solved it by taking apart the pump cover and cleaning it well. I didn't realize the glass/plastic part of the cover can be removed and so I hadnt cleaned it since I got the pool 3 seasons ago.

So what I think was happening is that air was coming in through the pump cover and after like an hour or so, the pump would be close to half full of air and I'd have to restart the pump and vent air through the filter pressure gauge and then the process would start again. With the chlorinator attached, I could hear air coming in or maybe it was coming out of the chlorinator so I thought that was it. But Maybe now that I fixed the pump cover, the chlorinator will work fine. That is TBD until I wait a day or two to claim victory on this air issue.

Another thing that could be an issue is the lube i use to lube the orings. I have two different lubes: 1. boss products 820 lube and 2. magic lube 2. This year I used the bos products on all the orings. And so far I had a water leak on the filter and an air leak on the pump cover. Both times I ended up taking everything apart and cleaning it up and then using magic lube. So definitely I might have several issues, but it looks like boss 820 lube is one of them. I am going to try to stick to magic lube from now on.

 

[sdtfp]

quick question, can I SLAM with a solar cover on?
I opened the pool and it was 10 FC from the tabs I left over the winter, 40 CYA. I checked it several days and the FC was solid. So then I put on a solar cover to warm up the pool. First year trying this out. I don't have a reason to SLAM but I figure it couldn't hurt to do so while no one is using the pool yet. So now I want to SLAM, but just realized it may not be ideal to do so with a solar cover on and wanted to ask first. I don't want to take the solar cover off as its a pain to put away for a few days and then bring out again.