Year 2: Avoiding the Sophomore Slump

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Looks like I'm passing OCLT, but it's a rainy day and I had a half-bottle of bleach left, so dumped it in and will let it ride until tonight. Like to make sure I pass twice in a row rather than quitting early. Saves me a week of re-slamming later. But pretty sure I'm good to go, and ready to go rebalance the rest of the chemicals tomorrow.
 

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It's looked sparkly and clean for about 2 weeks, which is why I've been mildly annoyed that the SLAM wouldn't quite finish :)

Knew it would work out (yay, Science!), so just a matter of sticking with it and keeping up with the two-a-day treatments. Here's hoping that this year is as simple as last year was; I basically got away with doing almost nothing last summer, just a spot check once a week or so to make sure everything was on target. Could tell visually that I was in range the whole time, though, so made for an enjoyable summer. Love my SWG!
 
TA adjusted, PH checked (looked good, but FC still high so maybe needs more adjustment). CYA needs 8lbs stabilizer to go from 30 to 70. Always nervous about that test, so I added 4lbs last night, and will recheck tonight before adding more. Hate to overshoot that one. that said, if it looks good tonight and the FC has fallen into a lower range, I'll turn on the SWG and let it maintain. Supposed to be 90 this weekend, so even if the water is cold, I'll probably reward myself with a quick plunge. 8)
 
So, couple rookie mistakes:

Didn't think about the salt, not really. SWG was set to off, but the screen is still reporting the average measured. Since it's not on, it's not taking new measurements, thus showing me the average of last year when it was running. So I'm a couple hundred pounds of salt light (measured 2200 once running, test strip confirms) had 2 bags on hand, but gotta go get 3 more today to bring me back up to the 3400 sweet spot.

CYA wasn't as high as expected. I'd been measuring about 30. maybe slightly under, hard to say with that dumb test. I put in 4lbs of the 8lbs pool math says to put in, but only measured 40 when I checked. Granted it wasn't really sunny out (overcast/gray skies), but expected 50. I didn't add any yesterday, anxious about overshooting the number. Does the CYA reagent go bad? I ask because I'm still using chemicals from last year's kit; didn't run out yet (but will need most of them for next year for sure). I had about 70 in the fall, measured 20-25 and bumped it up to 30 when I started this spring. Mesh cover, and drained down a couple feet over winter, and then totally refilled with snow/rain, and then drained some of THAT down to get below top of the skimmer when I started, but it just seemed lower than I'd expect compared to the horror story 'drain and refill' situations I hear about. Would it really go from 70 to 25/30 over the winter? Such an awful, subjective test.

Either way, it looks like it's reading about 40 now, so i'll check again tonight while it's nice out and add enough to get me the rest of the way (plus another 120lbs of salt). THEN I should be done :)
 
I mean, it kinda made sense, just wanted to make sure I wasn't getting a test wrong (or using unreliable old chemicals) and then super-loading my pool right from the start.

Salt and the rest of the CYA go in tonight, and then should be able to take a dip during the brief heat wave this weekend :)
 
So, noticed an issue:

Pressure Gauge says 5 PSI. All the time. Even when the pump is off. It wasn't like this a few days ago, but with the automation and the SWG, I don't check every day religiously. I think it's a problem with the gauge, as the pool seems to be working fine. Tried a backwash cycle just to see if that would clear things up, but it stayed at 5. Normally about 14-15, as a reference point. Pressure feels right coming out of the returns, looked perfectly fine during the backwash, etc.

Tried the little pressure relief valve on the gauge, tried tapping on it to see if the needle was stuck, no joy.

Any suggestions? Just a failed gauge, or could something be stuck in the part of the plumbing leading to it that would result in that reading all the time? Are there easy things I can check before trying to figure out a replacement? It's the nice bottom-mounted one from TFTestkits.net, bought it in late April and installed it brand new in mid-May. No idea if those things come with a warranty of any sort, but at least it wasn't super expensive, still disappointing if that's all I got out of it though. Much nicer than the old 8-year old one it replaced, it should have lasted longer than 90 days.

All I can think to try is draining the filter and then taking off the gauge completely to see if there's anything obvious. Any other thoughts?
 
Sent them a message, hopefully they can help. Must have just been defective, can't think of anything that would have caused it, and haven't had any surges or abnormal pool behavior, it's been pretty much on autopilot and doing great all summer.

Beautiful gauge (pool guys were admiring it when I opened, and then annoyed when I said what I got it for), should definitely have lasted longer than half a season. Pool is acting fine, and pressure is always pretty steady, so I can survive for a bit. There's always my bleached-yellow old air-filled one if I get desperate, I guess. Feel a little awkward when asking for things from small businesses, and it wasn't super expensive, but it should have definitely lasted longer than that (old one was probably 9 years old and only replaced it because I couldn't see through the yellowed plastic glass anymore).
 

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