Usually don't post things online..

[reidtheresults]

Until I gave up on digging through countless useless articles trying to figure out how to maintain a pool.

I've had my pool for 2 years now and it's been nothing but a nightmare. We bought the house because of the pool and how beautiful the 2 massive Ficus trees over the pool were. Did not realize how much of a nightmare that would be.

I had a pool company the first year of owning the pool to manage the chemicals and come clean it every other week but I was out there everyday cleaning out the debris from the trees. I finally just thought what am I paying a company for when I have to be out there cleaning it every day and tried to learn.

Maintaining a pool is theoretically simple and yet every thing I did wouldn't work and lead to a green pool. I was using test strips so I didn't realize how bad the water actually was. 750 CH, 3400 TDS, 150 CYA. Now that it's winter in AZ, I'm now just draining my pool, doing a chlorine wash (maybe acid wash?) and refilling it.

I'm excited to learn and hopefully help a few people with wrapping their head around what it is to be a pool owner.

 

[reggiehammond]

Before you go too far - make sure you read Pool Care Basics.
Why do you think you need to chlorine/acid wash? We don't typically recommend that.

In AZ - your water hardness works against you in terms of managing CH. Most people use softened water for filling (after initial fill) so make sure you consider how you'll replace your water. If you don't have softened water, frequent drains and refill or RO process might be necessary, but it's all manageable.

TFP methods are simple - you just need to embrace self-testing with a proper kit and the simple pool chemicals needed.
Test Kits Compared

 

[Newdude]

Hey RTR and Welcome !!!

A good chuck of us made it here in your shoes. The only question is how long we spent trying a broken system, or how many pool services were tried, hoping that the next one got it right.

It was the system that was broken the whole time.

We do it on the cheap and easy here, and non of us forgot how bad it sucked before we got here. Read the links above and fire off any questions and we'll help fill in any blanks.

 

[reidtheresults]

There's a waterline algae stain on the tiles so I was hoping the chlorine wash could get rid of that stain. I don't want to want to do an acid wash at all but I just want to make sure I can take advantage of having an empty pool and hopefully not allow algae to win again.

I don't have a water softener and was just planning on using the hose to refill.

 

[reggiehammond]

Algae is cleared up easily using the SLAM Process which is nice and easy with fresh water.

Using high CH water, just keep an eye on CH to inform when to dump and refill to avoid potential calcium scaling issues.

 

[Newdude]

I just laid out the test kit differences this morning. It'll help explain it all when looking at the Test Kits Compared link.Without a reliable test kit, you don't even know what you don't even know.

Tldr: TF100, TFpro (both available in salt versioms) are the winners from TFtestkits.net. They're guaranteed fresh and the owner is available here and always steps in immediately to right any wrongs.


So the test kits fall into 2 price points.

Bracket 1)

K2006 : too small
TF100 : 2.7X the supplies

Bracket 2)

K2006*C* : too much TA, CH and not enough FC, CYA

TFpro : sized better for how we do things
*fancy case
*includes $48 stirring device

Either tftestkits.net option is hands down a better value than the Taylor option. Both kits were created with our way of doing things in mind, from Taylor supplies.

Either TF kit can be bought in a salt version which adds the $30 salt kit for $20, making them even better deals versus the Taylor equivalent, plus a K1766 salt kit.

TF kits are also available with a SLAM option that doubles the FC tests. It's a smart call for newbs or those with swamps. Both will be testingore frequently at first, exhausting those supplies in any kit.