pool being closed tomorrow by pool company...

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From an email with him:

Our closing package is $325.00. We will lower the water level, blow out lines and equiptment, remove drain plugs,put antifreeze in skimmer lines, and chemicals and put on the winter cove.




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This pool service has serviced this pool for the original owners of this house for the last 6 years since the pool was installed....
 
i save some $ by doing all the chem work before they come and purchase the antifreeze myself and my vill is $225 then. Would be less but they come 100 miles one way and do 3 others in town so they split out the milaege cost. I thought about doing it myself and I know I could, but I do it for time as I am so busy at work and they do a good job. Plus I ask them questions and seem to always learn something when they come
 
I've never closed a pool before, as this is my first year owning one....


so I figured I'd rather just let the people who have been doing it handle it...

rather spend $325 and have it done right, than to do it myself, do something wrong or incomplete, and wind up paying thousands in repairs...
 
GuinnessPhish said:
pool is closed with a mesh cover.

The guy told me I should dump about two gallons of bleach in to the pool about once a month, and to dump it right through the mesh cover. He said it wouldn't damage or discolor the mesh cover.


Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I totally disagree with this.
Pouring bleach through the cover WILL discolor it, unless you immediately flush it thoroughly with a hose. Also, because it's heavier than water, the bleach will just sink to the bottom of the pool and not circulate.
Unless the temps in your area are consistently above 60 degrees F. algae will not be a problem.
In the spring, if you want to help, put a couple of gallons of bleach, spread around the pool, and immediately flushed with water, a few days before the pool is opened.
 
Qwaxalot said:
GuinnessPhish said:
pool is closed with a mesh cover.

The guy told me I should dump about two gallons of bleach in to the pool about once a month, and to dump it right through the mesh cover. He said it wouldn't damage or discolor the mesh cover.


Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I totally disagree with this.
Pouring bleach through the cover WILL discolor it, unless you immediately flush it thoroughly with a hose. Also, because it's heavier than water, the bleach will just sink to the bottom of the pool and not circulate.
Click to expand...
This second part of your answer seems counter to the way I would expect this to behave. I would think that being a water diluted solution of sodium hypochlorite - adding this to the pool would result in the gradual mixing of the chemical - but I could be over simplifying things. I wouldn't expect perfect distribution - but I also would not expect it to settle - if that was the case I would think the existing chlorine would behave the same way over the winter with residual chlorine causing bleaching at the bottom as the concentration climbed as it settled out.
 
^But isn't that why you circulate it at shock level a day or so before? To properly mix it...?

Also, Guiness - I too had pool co. close this year (and likely will every year because the cover is just too heavy for me and h. and we're busy...plus their device to blow out the lines is vastly superior to anything we have kicking around -- you should have seen that main drain bubble!) but I just gave instructions that they were to ADD NOTHING to the water.
I balanced it and shocked it first myself before they came. You can too if you don't want them adding what I call "pool voodoo" products.
 
Swampwoman said:
^But isn't that why you circulate it at shock level a day or so before? To properly mix it...?
Click to expand...

30 mins for bleach and that's to mix to remeasure it for dosing purposes and also to prevent poor distribution. The difference is that we're talking low chlorine demand season and talking about replenishing a dwindling supply vs. not doing anything. 1 day? Only for Polyquat as far as I can think of. Polyquat is much much thicker and from what I understand it also has mild clarifier effects and that is part of the reason to mix for so long - but I'm not sure.
 

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^The closing thread mentioned doing so a few days prior. However yes, I've also seen the "half-hour re-read" thing, and done it myself ;)

At any rate, I've seen references here frequently to the need to mix the chlorine well if a pump is off, and assumed it was because the pump/filter was necessary to evenly distribute it since there is a weight differential between bleach and water...I can "see" the weight differential between the bleach and water when I pour it, actually, which is why I always pour it in front of a return, as instructed.

I'm not sure what to make of the pool guy's recommendation. My pool guy had also been explicit about NOT adding chlorine without mixing, and this pool guy would seem to contradict that.

Qwaxalot is ALSO a pool guy, so that means we're running 2:1 in terms of Pool Guys say NO, Pool Guys say Yes ;)

2 Gallons of bleach, btw, should be about 8 ppm in a 12k gallon pool.

I HAVE heard that some of the older mesh covers let in enough UV to cause algae if the water cracks 60.

Guiness, how old is the cover? Is it "dense" seeming, loop-lock-ish?
You can probably ignore the guy and just be sure to open cold.

Or alternately, hope for some more running votes here from folks who've done it ;)
 
UnderWaterVanya said:
This second part of your answer seems counter to the way I would expect this to behave. I would think that being a water diluted solution of sodium hypochlorite - adding this to the pool would result in the gradual mixing of the chemical - but I could be over simplifying things. I wouldn't expect perfect distribution - but I also would not expect it to settle - if that was the case I would think the existing chlorine would behave the same way over the winter with residual chlorine causing bleaching at the bottom as the concentration climbed as it settled out.
Click to expand...
Bleach is thicker and heavier than water and if it's poured in a stream into standing water it will sink to the bottom and sit there until it naturally disperses, which takes a while. While it's sitting there dispersing slowly it will certainly bleach the bottom of the pool.

The Liquidator relies on this very property of slow dispersion of bleach in it's operation. When you fill it with bleach then it fills with water, there is a very distinct interface between the belach and water where the dispersion is taking place.

Once the bleach is fully dispersed into the water it will not un-combine (for lack of a better word) and settle out, so areas of concentration, once it's dissolved, isn't a problem.
 
Bama Rambler said:
UnderWaterVanya said:
This second part of your answer seems counter to the way I would expect this to behave. I would think that being a water diluted solution of sodium hypochlorite - adding this to the pool would result in the gradual mixing of the chemical - but I could be over simplifying things. I wouldn't expect perfect distribution - but I also would not expect it to settle - if that was the case I would think the existing chlorine would behave the same way over the winter with residual chlorine causing bleaching at the bottom as the concentration climbed as it settled out.
Click to expand...
Bleach is thicker and heavier than water and if it's poured in a stream into standing water it will sink to the bottom and sit there until it naturally disperses, which takes a while. While it's sitting there dispersing slowly it will certainly bleach the bottom of the pool.

The Liquidator relies on this very property of slow dispersion of bleach in it's operation. When you fill it with bleach then it fills with water, there is a very distinct interface between the belach and water where the dispersion is taking place.

Once the bleach is fully dispersed into the water it will not un-combine (for lack of a better word) and settle out, so areas of concentration, once it's dissolved, isn't a problem.
Click to expand...

Is this bleaching likely to happen quickly? I ask because as I have said before I have a mentally disabled brother in law who is my bleach pouring assistant. He does this while I am not at the pool and many times does not realize the pump is not on. He's been doing this off and on for the season and while we have some bleaching in the liner in spots - it predates our ownership and it isn't where he's pouring it in. Granted the bleaching is the worse at the lowest point in the pool - so if this is flowing down to that point we might not notice it - but it would have to flow down a slope and over and isn't showing any problems in that path.
 
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