What did you do to your pool today?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
dereksanders said:
Yeah. I was hoping for three.
Click to expand...
I've given up hoping for more than one and just know I'm going to toss them at the end of the year. The summer solar one get full sun blasted on it all day almost so I can pay $50 for an Intex one that will start disenegrating after 4 or 5 months, or a $100+ that will make it through the 1st season, then I have to store it for the winter and it will be fine for a month or 2 then fal apart. I hate contributing to the landfill like that, but none of them last.
 
kne said:
. . . The summer solar one get full sun blasted on it all day almost . . .
Click to expand...
You certainly get full sunshine there. I had family that lived in Pacheco and it’s nothing but all day sun outside of winter.

What’s the weather like? It was beautiful yesterday, is beautiful today, and will be beautiful tomorrow. 😉
 
  • Haha
Reactions: kne
I just made the mistake of clicking on this thread, which takes you to page one. I was halfway through the first page before I realized I was catching up on old news, all 286 pages of it… :hammer:

Anyway, tomorrow, or today now I guess, is a new day. I’ll check my pH and FC and put Robby to work for a quick clean. After a coffee and a dog walk…
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88 and Newdude
AUSpool said:
I just made the mistake of clicking on this thread, which takes you to page one. I was halfway through the first page before I realized I was catching up on old news, all 286 pages of it… :hammer:

Anyway, tomorrow, or today now I guess, is a new day. I’ll check my pH and FC and put Robby to work for a quick clean. After a coffee and a dog walk…
Click to expand...
Aidy Bryant Snl GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Newdude
dereksanders said:
You certainly get full sunshine there. I had family that lived in Pacheco and it’s nothing but all day sun outside of winter.

What’s the weather like? It was beautiful yesterday, is beautiful today, and will be beautiful tomorrow. 😉
Click to expand...
It was all day sun today :) In my opinion freezing at 65, but sunny. When @Mdragger88 was talking about her upcoming polar vortex, I looked at our weather, saw it was going to get to 39 at night and thought to myself - Same girl, same.
Today I installed the new solar cover holder and worked on clearing up the pool. I tried to keep the pool "open" for the winter but that was a lesson learned. Too much of my neighbors trees blow into the pool all winter and I'm not outside enough to deal with it.
Water has been in the low 50s I thought algae wouldn't be an issue but I had myself a green soup for a second at the end of December, we're at a light milky blue now 💙20250111_154847.jpg20241230_111839.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88 and Newdude
kne said:
It was all day sun today :) In my opinion freezing at 65, but sunny. When @Mdragger88 was talking about her upcoming polar vortex, I looked at our weather, saw it was going to get to 39 at night and thought to myself - Same girl, same.
Today I installed the new solar cover holder and worked on clearing up the pool. I tried to keep the pool "open" for the winter but that was a lesson learned. Too much of my neighbors trees blow into the pool all winter and I'm not outside enough to deal with it.
Water has been in the low 50s I thought algae wouldn't be an issue but I had myself a green soup for a second at the end of December, we're at a light milky blue now 💙View attachment 624194View attachment 624195
Click to expand...
You would likely benefit from the soft close/soft open method that many of us use.
Basically cover the pool once its too cold to swim and things start falling from the sky but run on a reduced schedule whilst continuing to chlorinate until its time to winterize & the water is cold enough to actually close the pool completely. Or just forgo the winterize part and just make sure you run when freezing.
I was able to let my swcg get me to slam level and maintain it while covered this fall. I run my bot under the cover.
I reverse this process in the spring.
Its doable with a solar cover but they don’t keep all the junk out so it’s a bit more work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Newdude
Started reading different threads regarding hard plumbing with PVC. I have a new pump and filter so I figured I may as well bury the plumbing. Learned a few things so it pays to start early with plans.

It won’t be anything extravagant but I no longer wish to trim around hoses and/or pipes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88
For months, I've been thinking I'm insane. I've felt like the water level in the pool has been dropping quicker than usual. This became much more apparent after my Fill-O-Matic succumbed to the beating hot Texas sun and finally just failed altogether. I could not detect a leak anywhere, nothing was obviously leaking on the pad, and if water leaks under the ground here, it causes the ground to become a soggy mess rapidly (ask me about my very "inexpensive" main water line replacement).

I bought a wi-fi garden hose valve and eventually started using it's timer function to act as a sort of auto-fill. That was working well for a couple of months, but with the freezing temperatures, I had to bring all of that stuff inside. Now I'm manually refilling the pool what seems like every day. Even at our highest evaporation rates during the hottest parts of the summer, I don't recall adding THIS much water that often. Anyway, yesterday I was out looking at the pool pad and I noticed that in the backwash line looking glass, there was quite a bit of water in the line. That's weird, because I haven't backwashed the thing in months. Any water in there should have been long gone. Then it clicked.. is the valve itself leaking? This is a janky Jandy slide valve. I pulled the valve assembly out of the housing and both O-rings were one, ancient, and two, had quite a bit of damage from years of use. There's no chance these things were actually water tight.

I threw some Magic Lube II on the o-rings and stuck it back in since it was already fairly late when I discovered this. This morning, I ran down to the supply house and bought a whole slide replacement kit (includes the slide, handle, o-rings, etc.. my old handle was broken from a previous owner). Now with the new one, that line is suddenly water-free. How strange!

We'll see if that truly fixed the problem, but I think that's certainly a hopeful first start.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88, oledan, AUSpool and 4 others

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
If only you’d done that 6 months ago aye.

It probably wouldn’t hurt to put a simple cover over those valves to keep the direct sun off them. An upside down empty plastic flowerpot or similar. A sacrificial UV absorber. I noticed my main shut off valve was getting a bit of direct sun so I moved a tea towel that normally drapes over the pipes to cover the valve instead.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88
Well the Aiper came back last night. So plugged it in, also the Betta’s were not working since it has been overcast, so plugged the plus in as well.

Threw both in this morning since the pool was looking very dirty. Also figured I would run a full set of tests since it has been two months. Anyway FC was at 19, so whoops. Also turned down the SWG a little. I figure hot is better than not.

Also noticed that my CYA was holding, that is a first for me. Steady at 90 after an addition from 2 months ago. This Doheny CYA seems to be the real deal.

Anyway pool is perfect now, so the universe is in balance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AUSpool, Obecalp86, oledan and 1 other person
I ran Robbie last night, must pull him out this morning and clean his basket. We’ve had a bit of rain in the last two weeks, salt is down from 3500 to 3200ppm, FC steady at 7ppm and I’ll need a cup of acid.

I must check my CyA today, I’ve been loosing about 10-20ppm a month. TFP recommends testing and adjusting CyA once pre season and then once mid season but from what I’m going through it needs to be tested at lest monthly or even fortnightly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88
Homebrewale said:
The issue is that by the time pool season actually gets here, the bleach will be several months old instead of 11 days.
Click to expand...
I use it for my hot tub but many people here do keep their pool open year round. Only time will tell if they continue to actually replenish it throughout the season.
 
Actual sales by quantity per shop would probably surprise most of us. We go, get and leave, it’s a brief snap shot in time.

Same shop, different times. On one visit there must have been about 10 pallets of salt, no bleach in sight. I conclude that this area must be dominated by SWG pools. Another visit there was one pallet of salt and about 6 pallets of the 4 gallon(15lts) jugs of bleach. - there goes the first theory. But there is always a chance of something I didn’t think of, like I just happened to be there when a commercial order came in.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Mdragger88

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply