Pool Draining & Refill

[smh60]

Our pool guy said our cyanuric acid is 300 ppm (or more). Said we need a drain and refill, recommended someone who would do it for $275. Note we acquired the house/pool a little less than 2 years ago (May 2019) and it was tested at 0 ppm CYA. Not sure how rapid an increase it is, but perhaps the ash from the California fires this past summer combined with the fact that the prior owner put in a stone waterfall next to a flower garden on one edge to the pool accounts for it. (It's a shame no one has found an additive to precipitate or cause a reaction toward precipitation to lower CYA.)

My question: is this going to happen frequently (every 2 years), a drain & replace?

 

[magiteck]

How are you chlorinating your pool? If you're using pucks, ~125 8oz. Trichlor pucks will add over 300 CYA. It builds up and accumulates.

CYA should only end up in the water if you add it - either as stabilizer, trichlor pucks, or dichlor "shock".

Once you get your CYA level in check, stick with liquid chlorine (or a Salt-water Chlorine Generator) and you can prevent it from rising back up.

 

[mknauss]

The only way CYA gets in the pool is if you have added it. No natural sources. As it sounds like you have a pool service, they use trichlor (tablets/pucks) and most like dichlor (granulated shock). Those are 1/3 to 1/2 CYA.

You can easily drain the water from your pool. In your area, it may not be advisable to drain as you may have a shallow water table. Check on that as it is easier to drain, but there are methods to do an exchange. Either method will cost less than $100 (for a pump) plus water cost.

Once you get new water, you will need to decide if you take charge of your own water chemistry or stay with the pool service and drain the pool each year or so. If you manage it, in your area, you should never have to drain.

 

[mknauss]

I also recommend you review ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and as much of Pool School as you can.

 

[PoolGate]

How was your water tested? You should consider getting your own test kit and testing yourself. Testing CYA levels above 100 requires a special technique that i doubt a service would do.

 

[smh60]

How are you chlorinating your pool? If you're using pucks, ~125 8oz. Trichlor pucks will add over 300 CYA. It builds up and accumulates.

CYA should only end up in the water if you add it - either as stabilizer, trichlor pucks, or dichlor "shock".

Once you get your CYA level in check, stick with liquid chlorine (or a Salt-water Chlorine Generator) and you can prevent it from rising back up.

The pool service has a floating dispenser with the 3-inch tablets/pucks in them. I really don't know how the service is doing chlorinating. I can see why the pool guy wants the drain and refill because he can't get the chlorine level up (chlorine lock?). I will look into SWG.

The only way CYA gets in the pool is if you have added it. No natural sources. As it sounds like you have a pool service, they use trichlor (tablets/pucks) and most like dichlor (granulated shock). Those are 1/3 to 1/2 CYA.

You can easily drain the water from your pool. In your area, it may not be advisable to drain as you may have a shallow water table. Check on that as it is easier to drain, but there are methods to do an exchange. Either method will cost less than $100 (for a pump) plus water cost.

Once you get new water, you will need to decide if you take charge of your own water chemistry or stay with the pool service and drain the pool each year or so. If you manage it, in your area, you should never have to drain.

I will attempt the drain and refill myself. Is there an effective small (non-submersible?) pump I can buy (on Amazon) with enough power and flow that you can recommend?

I take it you are not thrilled with "professionals" managing pool chemistry. I was going to do it myself, but before we moved into this house with inground pool, I had set up the Intex vinyl 12' x 2' above ground 2000 gal pool and from the start of summer to about mid or end of summer, it ended up being fluorescent green (probably the algaecide used, and pouring in bleach did not de-colorize it. So she insisted on the service.

How was your water tested? You should consider getting your own test kit and testing yourself. Testing CYA levels above 100 requires a special technique that i doubt a service would do.

When we got the house/pool 2 years ago, my wife insisted on hiring a service to check & control the chemistry, even though I ran a laboratory that used well-calibrated ion-specific electrodes (including the H+ ion, or pH meter). She figured I would be too busy to strictly control matters so wanted a "professional" to maintain. I don't look over his shoulder when he comes once a week, sometimes once every two weeks (his "holiday" schedule).

Yes, we have chlorinating tables/pucks floating in the pool, which is mostly like the source of the CYA.

There is no question I have to do the drain and refill, and I am wondering if I can do it myself rather than hiring another service at $275 (I am not sure how they handle it)

I am thinking about the following:

• buy a cheap pump (no-submersible) on Amazon to take out the pool water
• without doing an immediate refill, the plaster surface has some dark staining (what? black algae? precipitated metals?) and what appears to be some cracking in the plaster: I want to obviously take advantage of the draining to eliminate the staining and paste (?) up any cracking, but I have no information about how to go about that. Suggestions, please

 

[smh60]

Based on this email exchange below, I guess I can do nothing of what I wanted to the plaster surface while the pool is drained.

I had this email exchange with our pool service:

Me: Hi ____,
Give us the name of the drain & refill service, please.
One other thing: I cannot have an immediate refill: the pool plaster service has staining and cracks. While the pool surface is exposed, I want to de-stain or scrub the
surface and "paste" or use an appropriate plaster paste on the cracks. Perhaps the service does this as well.
Otherwise I will have to buy a pump, do the draining myself, re-condition the plaster, then commence with the refill.

Pool Service response:
The "trick" to draining and refilling a pool without causing damage is to do it very quickly. If you are planning to drain the pool, then do work on it, and refill it
days later, you will likely cause more damage than can be repaired. I don't suggest doing that. If the pool needs to be resurfaced then that might be the best option.
The company I referred you to is _________________. The offer a Spring Tune Up which includes, among other things, draining the amount of water that needs to be
drained, and balancing it again after refilled. The whole process is done in two days. I doubt they will take the liability of letting the pool sit empty.

 

[SacDave]

I'm up in Rocklin I would check with your water company and see what the water cost per gallon. (per 1000) I drained my pool 2/3rds about 4 years 20K pool water cost about so little didn't even notice on our bill. I would suggest only draining 1/2 to 2/3 of the water, if there is groundwater the pool can float up. From reading some of your post 1st thing I would do is get rid of the pool service. If you have physical damage to your plaster that most likely would be a major repair that should be done by a professional licensed contractor insured. You should get a couple bids, ask for a contactors number (should be on bid) you can check them out on CA contractors board. You really need to manage your pool chemistry yourself, pool services work on volume, pool supplies have more snake oil to sell you than you'll ever need and the BS to go with it. If you follow this forum your pool will look better and cost you less to maintain.

 

[mknauss]

I suggest your read Draining - Further Reading

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I suggest that most of your problems are from the pool service themselves. Coming by once a week or so and tossing in a few pucks, emptying the skimmer, etc is all easy. BUT its those pucks that have caused your pool to build up CYA. The pool service never warns you that this will happen eventually and require draining and new fill. They may be adding cheap algaecides that contain copper which can build up and stain your pool or turn blond hair green. But it buys them time cause they don't really have to manage the pool *well* and much as they do it *fast and out of there!*

Here at TFP we've learned the best way to manage our pools ourselves is to test ourselves and only use the chemicals that the water needs (chlorine) or pool surface itself needs (calcium for example). We know how to put chlorine in without putting in other unwanted chemicals- Liquid chlorine or a Salt Water Chlorine Generator (SWG) are two ways.

Pool School articles can help ..... you CAN do this yourself!

Maddie