We moved into a place a year ago with a pool. First time in my life with a pool. End of summer last year, our pool guy fired us. I think he saw my TFP test kit I had ordered, plus I had started asking about some questionable things like a missing weir (‘oh you don’t need those’). I have ignored the pool all winter long, closed up with the filter running on auto 3 hours per day but otherwise literally haven’t opened the cover in about 4 months.
Today was my pool maintenance inauguration. Will be posting some updates and a log as I go through the process of trying to figure out this pool thing. Please do make fun of me, and hopefully pointers or feedback too.
Pool is a ~29,000 gallon 30 year old in-ground gunite pool with solar heating. Some updated components in there too, will post pics as I come across them.
After opening the cover, things looked fairly decent. Some leaves at the bottom in the corners, a little green algae on the shallowest step, some dark debris on the other stairs. I scrubbed the stairs and walls, skimmed, emptied the poor vacuum that was stuffed with basically soil at this point. Checked chems and got 0 chlorine (no surprise).
Next step was getting the solar working again. I didn’t have any instructions, so hopefully I did it right. I closed the pipes (left open and draining over the winter), and called for heat. Then I went to the solar panels and manually bled the two vacuum port things (no idea what they do, they certainly don’t release air on their own). The pool was a balmy 52, and the return was showing 80. The panels felt ’cool to the touch’, but clearly something was off.
I tried cranking the pump speed up, but at ~2700 rpm or so some of the equipment started leaking at the seams. I stared at our filter for a while, and decided that maybe I should open it up and see what I was dealing with. It’s a system:3 DE 54‘ filter. I took the clamps off (what a pain), popped the cartridge out. I don’t know how to evaluate the state - but it seems off. There was serious bridging. The butterfly bolts crumbled in my hand to dust as I tried to loosen them. The bottom of the tank was so full of DE the entire exit pipe was covered.
I hosed off the filters (in a huge plastic bucket to catch the DE - is it safe to run into the gravel, or do I need to figure out how to get this into the trash?) and reassembled. Had to use some zip ties chained together to keep the cartridge together since the bars and nuts are destroyed while I get new ones on order. I forgot to put the bleed valve back in - which may foreshadow an issue in a bit. Also noticed that the o-ring holding the cartridge in is broken - ordered a new one. Lots of deferred maintenance apparently.
Got it all back together, whacked with a mallet to get the dumb clips back on, and fired it up. Holy cow, water flow! Where the returns where barely putting any water out before, now all 3 returns in the pool are jetting water. Mixed up ~5 lbs of DE slurry, and dumped that slowly into the skimmer.
Next up, dumped 2 gallons of HDX chlorine that I bought today. Waited an hour, and tested the water with the TFL kit. Only 1.5 FC. Dumped another 2 gallons in. Wondering if my chlorine is old, but not sure how to read this label:
Leaving the filter running overnight, will check on things tomorrow.
Current issues: the filter is only showing ~3 PSI pressure. When I open the release valve at the top it isn’t super-squirting water the way it did previously, more a 1 or 2’ stream, which seems to line up with only 3 PSI. Not sure what’s going on, but hope that replacing the air bleed valve in the cartridge + a new o ring will help. Water volume is amazing in the returns and the skimmer has never worked so well, so it’s like there is no friction, not no flow.
Today was my pool maintenance inauguration. Will be posting some updates and a log as I go through the process of trying to figure out this pool thing. Please do make fun of me, and hopefully pointers or feedback too.
Pool is a ~29,000 gallon 30 year old in-ground gunite pool with solar heating. Some updated components in there too, will post pics as I come across them.
After opening the cover, things looked fairly decent. Some leaves at the bottom in the corners, a little green algae on the shallowest step, some dark debris on the other stairs. I scrubbed the stairs and walls, skimmed, emptied the poor vacuum that was stuffed with basically soil at this point. Checked chems and got 0 chlorine (no surprise).
Next step was getting the solar working again. I didn’t have any instructions, so hopefully I did it right. I closed the pipes (left open and draining over the winter), and called for heat. Then I went to the solar panels and manually bled the two vacuum port things (no idea what they do, they certainly don’t release air on their own). The pool was a balmy 52, and the return was showing 80. The panels felt ’cool to the touch’, but clearly something was off.
I tried cranking the pump speed up, but at ~2700 rpm or so some of the equipment started leaking at the seams. I stared at our filter for a while, and decided that maybe I should open it up and see what I was dealing with. It’s a system:3 DE 54‘ filter. I took the clamps off (what a pain), popped the cartridge out. I don’t know how to evaluate the state - but it seems off. There was serious bridging. The butterfly bolts crumbled in my hand to dust as I tried to loosen them. The bottom of the tank was so full of DE the entire exit pipe was covered.
I hosed off the filters (in a huge plastic bucket to catch the DE - is it safe to run into the gravel, or do I need to figure out how to get this into the trash?) and reassembled. Had to use some zip ties chained together to keep the cartridge together since the bars and nuts are destroyed while I get new ones on order. I forgot to put the bleed valve back in - which may foreshadow an issue in a bit. Also noticed that the o-ring holding the cartridge in is broken - ordered a new one. Lots of deferred maintenance apparently.
Got it all back together, whacked with a mallet to get the dumb clips back on, and fired it up. Holy cow, water flow! Where the returns where barely putting any water out before, now all 3 returns in the pool are jetting water. Mixed up ~5 lbs of DE slurry, and dumped that slowly into the skimmer.
Next up, dumped 2 gallons of HDX chlorine that I bought today. Waited an hour, and tested the water with the TFL kit. Only 1.5 FC. Dumped another 2 gallons in. Wondering if my chlorine is old, but not sure how to read this label:
Leaving the filter running overnight, will check on things tomorrow.
Current issues: the filter is only showing ~3 PSI pressure. When I open the release valve at the top it isn’t super-squirting water the way it did previously, more a 1 or 2’ stream, which seems to line up with only 3 PSI. Not sure what’s going on, but hope that replacing the air bleed valve in the cartridge + a new o ring will help. Water volume is amazing in the returns and the skimmer has never worked so well, so it’s like there is no friction, not no flow.
