Apologies in advance for a very long post.
This is a continuation of a thread I started in April in the Algae sub-forum. Just to summarise, I had to switch off the pool over Easter as a result of a large ingestion of mud after a severe storm. When I returned, the pool was a little greenish so I initiated a SLAM. After six days, the CC was continually zero and it was passing the OCLT but the pool was still cloudy. I maintained (slightly more than) SLAM levels for fourteen days with no further improvement.
Since that time, the FC has been no lower than 9, the CYA is 30 and the water is cold (almost winter here in Australia). I thought that the pool had eventually cleared up but found that all the dirt had just settled to the bottom. I'm convinced that there is a circulation issue.
The pool was originally built with a Vantage infloor system driven by a 1.5 HP pump (with no soft start) feeding an SWG and cartridge filter. The pool was always sparkling clear and essentially low maintenance.
The only issue was that, every five years or so, the body of the cartridge filter would spring a leak. The warranty was five years so I claimed and received a new filter body twice. About 18 months ago, it failed again. A week out of warranty and the manufacturer (probably suspecting that I was a "serial claimer") refused the claim.
I decided that enough was enough and intended to replace the cartridge filter with something (hopefully) more reliable. Since I've always avoided pool shops, I had to ask around and found one that most people recommended as more honest than most. After explaining my problem and my intention to replace it with a sand filter or whatever, he said that he had a good relationship with the rep for my existing filter and leave it with him. Turns out he also worked for my pool's manufacturer for several years before opening his shop.
The rep blamed hydraulic shock from the large pump as it started up (which as I said has no soft start). I'm not the only one with the problem and the manufacturer resolved it by going to a two pump system - a small three speed "eco" pump to drive the filtration and the existing large pump is plumbed out of the SWG/filter line and just drives the in-floor. If I agreed to a re-design, they would give me a new filter. As you might expect, I was suspicious that this was an exercise in drumming up some business, but the total cost (including a refurb eco pump) was less than the price of a new sand filter, so I agreed. They suggested that I just run the infloor for a couple of hours a day during the filtration cycle.
Everything seemed to work well until the mud episode.
Now, I'm not so sure. The pool was never designed with this setup in mind. There are no returns at the opposite end of the pool from the skimmer - originally it relied on filtered water being blasted around the pool from each of the popups. The floor was always clean and filtered/chlorinated water was being evenly distributed. I assume that when my manufacturer went to a two pump system, they added some returns in the shallow end as for a conventional pool.
The new configuration uses the unused solar heating plumbing circuit. The filtration system draws from the skimmer and main drain and is then returned to the pool through the solar outlet which is slightly less than half way down the pool from the skimmer and is directed across the pool. The infloor system draws from the solar intakes and returns through the popups.
I think that I've just been lucky with the new config that the pool has never got dirty.
I watched the pool running for an hour yesterday and the shallow half of the pool is clearly in the doldrums. Without the infloor running, the water never gets past half way. To make it worse, the jet of filtered water which blasts across the pool seems to act as a barrier and the water gets turned back to the shallow end even with the infloor running.
I'm thinking that I need to bite the bullet, find a large pump with a soft start, replace the cartridge filter with something tougher and re-plumb back to original.
Does anyone have experience with running a pool with infloor in either of these configurations?
Thanks in advance,
Paul.
This is a continuation of a thread I started in April in the Algae sub-forum. Just to summarise, I had to switch off the pool over Easter as a result of a large ingestion of mud after a severe storm. When I returned, the pool was a little greenish so I initiated a SLAM. After six days, the CC was continually zero and it was passing the OCLT but the pool was still cloudy. I maintained (slightly more than) SLAM levels for fourteen days with no further improvement.
Since that time, the FC has been no lower than 9, the CYA is 30 and the water is cold (almost winter here in Australia). I thought that the pool had eventually cleared up but found that all the dirt had just settled to the bottom. I'm convinced that there is a circulation issue.
The pool was originally built with a Vantage infloor system driven by a 1.5 HP pump (with no soft start) feeding an SWG and cartridge filter. The pool was always sparkling clear and essentially low maintenance.
The only issue was that, every five years or so, the body of the cartridge filter would spring a leak. The warranty was five years so I claimed and received a new filter body twice. About 18 months ago, it failed again. A week out of warranty and the manufacturer (probably suspecting that I was a "serial claimer") refused the claim.
I decided that enough was enough and intended to replace the cartridge filter with something (hopefully) more reliable. Since I've always avoided pool shops, I had to ask around and found one that most people recommended as more honest than most. After explaining my problem and my intention to replace it with a sand filter or whatever, he said that he had a good relationship with the rep for my existing filter and leave it with him. Turns out he also worked for my pool's manufacturer for several years before opening his shop.
The rep blamed hydraulic shock from the large pump as it started up (which as I said has no soft start). I'm not the only one with the problem and the manufacturer resolved it by going to a two pump system - a small three speed "eco" pump to drive the filtration and the existing large pump is plumbed out of the SWG/filter line and just drives the in-floor. If I agreed to a re-design, they would give me a new filter. As you might expect, I was suspicious that this was an exercise in drumming up some business, but the total cost (including a refurb eco pump) was less than the price of a new sand filter, so I agreed. They suggested that I just run the infloor for a couple of hours a day during the filtration cycle.
Everything seemed to work well until the mud episode.
Now, I'm not so sure. The pool was never designed with this setup in mind. There are no returns at the opposite end of the pool from the skimmer - originally it relied on filtered water being blasted around the pool from each of the popups. The floor was always clean and filtered/chlorinated water was being evenly distributed. I assume that when my manufacturer went to a two pump system, they added some returns in the shallow end as for a conventional pool.
The new configuration uses the unused solar heating plumbing circuit. The filtration system draws from the skimmer and main drain and is then returned to the pool through the solar outlet which is slightly less than half way down the pool from the skimmer and is directed across the pool. The infloor system draws from the solar intakes and returns through the popups.
I think that I've just been lucky with the new config that the pool has never got dirty.
I watched the pool running for an hour yesterday and the shallow half of the pool is clearly in the doldrums. Without the infloor running, the water never gets past half way. To make it worse, the jet of filtered water which blasts across the pool seems to act as a barrier and the water gets turned back to the shallow end even with the infloor running.
I'm thinking that I need to bite the bullet, find a large pump with a soft start, replace the cartridge filter with something tougher and re-plumb back to original.
Does anyone have experience with running a pool with infloor in either of these configurations?
Thanks in advance,
Paul.
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