What did you do to your pool today?

[proavia]

Though I gotta admit, that bucket bath felt so good I may have another... just because I can.

Now THAT is TMI

 

[Dirk]

OK, I mispoke earlier, THIS is the post that concludes the Filter Plug Down the Drain saga.

As I mentioned, the Pentair plug does not come with an o-ring. That arrived today, so I wanted to swap that in asap. Which meant emptying the filter again. But ah-ha! I had a new plan, born from the previous fiasco. I took some scraps of ABS I had laying around, and added a few elbows from Lowes, and fabricated this today:



And it fits into the drain hole in my pad (the one that sucked down my previous filter plug), like so:



Now, when I unscrew the drain plug, this ABS gizmo swings into place, under the filter plug's hole, and catches the water, diverting it right down the drain hole! Because the gizmo gets placed in the hole first, before I unscrew the drain plug, there's no way for the plug to get to the hole! I even sewed in a stainless steel screen to keep the plug from getting into the gizmo, which is something I could probably manage to do somehow:



The other thing I did differently was to leave the filter's purge valve closed! Last time I had it wide open, and that created the flood of water leaving the filter body that snatched up the plug. With the purge valve closed, the water glug-glugs out in a much more controlled flow, and one that doesn't overwhelm the gizmo.

It all worked really well, and probably only a few cups of water and a quarter cup of crud escaped onto the pad. The majority of both went right down the drain. Before, all that river rock would get flooded and filled with gunk. You can kind'a see in this pic how little water and gunk escaped.



So with any luck, I'll be able to use this gizmo for 20 or 30 years, once a year. So worth the time I spent on it today. And maybe it'll keep me from ever losing that plug again!!

And then I went for a nice swim!!

 

[Katodude]

The golf course did some maintenance yesterday and dumped a bunch of grass clippings into the pool. So running the robot on wall mode for the first time in a long time to catch the stuff that is stuck to the sides of the pool.

And of course we are in full summer mode. The pool hit 91 degrees yesterday.

 

[phonedave]

Well, not pool related, but this post concludes my lost filter plug saga, and might enlighten others to something I just learned. I'm talking about my sewer backup problem, that I thought might have been caused by the filter plug I flushed. It wasn't. Just an odd coincidence that they happened within the same week.

So the plumber shows up early. Two trucks. Crew of three. My brain goes into ka-ching, ka-ching mode. They find the clean out, in the middle of my pool pad no less. That's my filter, and the smaller cap is the one that sucked down my filter plug. The bigger one, which I've never opened, is appararetly my house's clean-out. Great place for it.

View attachment 647616

So they fire up the snake. They get three feet down the bigger clean-out and crunch-crack. He hauls out the snake and the part he just broke. This was in my sewer clean-out (yellow end up):



He doesn't know what it is, but guesses it's part of my sewer system check valve. Did anyone know sewer lines have check valves? I sure didn't. Apparently, a good thing to have when your house is close to or lower than street level. Which mine is not. He recommended I get rid of it, which sounds good to me (since it was the reason I had the blockage, not the filter cap). So he proceeds to bust up the flapper, which is still in the sewer pipe and blocking it, with a long pipe. And that was the end of it.

Then he ran the sewer cam all the way to the sewer main. The cam operator moves the screen from my view, and the boss says "Well let him see, he's paying for it." Ka-ching, ka-ching. Turns out my entire sewer line is as clean as it gets. No crud. No roots. No filter plug! Good to go.

So they pack up and I cringe when I ask "how much." $250. I was floored. Extremely reasonable (IMO). Such a relief to have the problem solved, and solved permanently, and to learn my 15-year-old sewer line is in great shape. So worth it!!

So today is a good day. I caught a break. Though I gotta admit, that bucket bath felt so good I may have another... just because I can.

There are a number of things here that I am not used to.

Main drain clean outs OUTSIDE? What a concept. That's not going to fly in the Northeast, unless of course you want to risk not being able to access your clean out for 4-5 months out of the year when it is frozen shut.

Drains where you can just dump stuff into your sanitary sewers? No bueno around here. Drains that handle things like rainwater, pool overflow, etc go into the ground. It keeps the sewage treatment plants from being overloaded, and it also lets the aquifers recharge. We have to have a certain amount of pervious ground here, and if you do not have enough, you have to build impoundment for rain water.

Some people, depending on elevation of the home, have backflow perverters on their sanitary drains. My brother does in his house. His basement flooded with sewage one too many times so he had one installed. His house is in a lower area, and when it really rains, it can back up the systems. Some areas (such as where he is) have not completely separated their sanitary and storm sewers, so you get that issue. Some areas have them separate, but have overflow interconnects, so if the sanitary system backs up, it flows into the storm, and then discharges untreated sewage into a river (lovely). Welcome to 100 year old infrastructure.

Some houses here still have main traps on the sanitary sewers. Way back in the day, before you had a P trap on each fixture, they just installed a single on the house. They clog frequently and back up your whole house. People usually have them removed.

 

[Newdude]

Passed an OCLT at Oh5twentyfive. 19.5 drops last night and 19.5 drops this morning.
I left the CYA a bit low at opening because it was so early the daily demand was next to nothing, but its starting to ramp up now.

The pool has been at half slam since opening with 10 FC / 50 CYA 8 weeks ago, but rules are rules so I needed the OCLT pass before raising the CYA.

 

[Mdragger88]

There are a number of things here that I am not used to.

Main drain clean outs OUTSIDE? What a concept. That's not going to fly in the Northeast, unless of course you want to risk not being able to access your clean out for 4-5 months out of the year when it is frozen shut.

Drains where you can just dump stuff into your sanitary sewers? No bueno around here. Drains that handle things like rainwater, pool overflow, etc go into the ground. It keeps the sewage treatment plants from being overloaded, and it also lets the aquifers recharge. We have to have a certain amount of pervious ground here, and if you do not have enough, you have to build impoundment for rain water.

Some people, depending on elevation of the home, have backflow perverters on their sanitary drains. My brother does in his house. His basement flooded with sewage one too many times so he had one installed. His house is in a lower area, and when it really rains, it can back up the systems. Some areas (such as where he is) have not completely separated their sanitary and storm sewers, so you get that issue. Some areas have them separate, but have overflow interconnects, so if the sanitary system backs up, it flows into the storm, and then discharges untreated sewage into a river (lovely). Welcome to 100 year old infrastructure.

Some houses here still have main traps on the sanitary sewers. Way back in the day, before you had a P trap on each fixture, they just installed a single on the house. They clog frequently and back up your whole house. People usually have them removed.

In the south the cleanouts are pretty much always outside in the yard (usually in the flower bed). Basements are unusual here. I happen to have 2 - one is just for my kitchen then the main one.
One Being located on the pool equipment pad is a bit strange to me. Perhaps the pool came later than the house?
We have a septic system so draining pool effluent into it would be a big no no but those with city sewer are allowed to in our area I believe.

 

[Dirk]

There are a number of things here that I am not used to.

Main drain clean outs OUTSIDE? What a concept. That's not going to fly in the Northeast, unless of course you want to risk not being able to access your clean out for 4-5 months out of the year when it is frozen shut.

Drains where you can just dump stuff into your sanitary sewers? No bueno around here. Drains that handle things like rainwater, pool overflow, etc go into the ground. It keeps the sewage treatment plants from being overloaded, and it also lets the aquifers recharge. We have to have a certain amount of pervious ground here, and if you do not have enough, you have to build impoundment for rain water.

Some people, depending on elevation of the home, have backflow perverters on their sanitary drains. My brother does in his house. His basement flooded with sewage one too many times so he had one installed. His house is in a lower area, and when it really rains, it can back up the systems. Some areas (such as where he is) have not completely separated their sanitary and storm sewers, so you get that issue. Some areas have them separate, but have overflow interconnects, so if the sanitary system backs up, it flows into the storm, and then discharges untreated sewage into a river (lovely). Welcome to 100 year old infrastructure.

Some houses here still have main traps on the sanitary sewers. Way back in the day, before you had a P trap on each fixture, they just installed a single on the house. They clog frequently and back up your whole house. People usually have them removed.

We don't think much about how different climates call for different solutions around our homes. It never occurred to me that a clean-out would have to be inside in some climates. Makes perfect sense.

I'm sure the city would not be happy about me dumping pool water into the sewer. I know we can't empty an entire pool into it (and I don't). But the amount of water in my small filter is probably less than a shower's worth.

My house is not only above the street, but one of the higher houses on the street (and no basement). Those below, down the street, are going to get hit with a backed-up main long before I would. That's not to say it couldn't happen to me, but that check valve caused me more trouble than I've ever had with a sewer, in any house I've owned. I think ripping it out is a minimal risk where I live. I live in a 15-year-old neighborhood, so I gotta hope our infrastructure around here is OK.

In the south the cleanouts are pretty much always outside in the yard (usually in the flower bed). Basements are unusual here. I happen to have 2 - one is just for my kitchen then the main one.
One Being located on the pool equipment pad is a bit strange to me. Perhaps the pool came later than the house?
We have a septic system so draining pool effluent into it would be a big no no but those with city sewer are allowed to in our area I believe.

My pool pad was poured well after the house was built, so that explains why the clean out is where it is. The pad is located in about the only spot it could be in my yard. But no one has a good explanation why I have that secondary smaller drain, right next to the clean out. Perhaps the pool builder anticipated the need for it, just as I use it. Either way, it worked out perfectly for me. I'm just grateful the pool contractor didn't just pour the pad right over the clean-out! I think that happened to my neighbor when he extended his driveway. We can't find his clean-out!