Pool Advice

[SpikedBuck]

Just put in my first pool at the new house...still filling up with water now on day 2. Need some good advice on pool maintenance/management from those out there that have had the experience. Seemed a little pricy for the pool company to come out every week to do the maintenance, so I decided to do it myself. Any advice would be welcome. :confused:

Thanks,

Dan

[ZonieDiver]

I've had three pools as an adult, and one while I was a teen living at home - so I consider myself a pool maintenance expert! :D

My best advice is this: Stay on top of your chemical balance. Get a very good test kit, not a cheapie. Also, get a bottle of those chemical test strips. Use the strips daily. Use the good test kit at least twice a week. About once a month, take a sample of the pool water into your local pool store (in the Phoenix area, they are almost like Circle K's or 7-11's - everywhere. Get to know the staff there. They can be life savers.

Not knowing your type of filtration, ionization, etc etc etc... I'll leave it at that.

Falling behing in chemical balance is a situation you don't want to experience.

[Kit Carson]

I totally agree with ZonieDiver..we've had an in ground pool for about 14 years.

For the first 4 or 5 years, we used our local pool company to test the water. They had a computer machine named Alex and it would spit out a sheet of paper with all the chemicals we needed to get the water "right". That usually required x pounds of this and x pounds of that, plus a couple of gallons of x.

Took me those 5 years to figure it out....Alex was designed to sell chemicals so they made more money...

My son asked if he could take over the testing. He's a really smart guy so I agreed. Bought him a high dollar ($50+) testing kit, Taylor iirc, and test strips. The water has been beautiful ever since.

Maintenance is an hour or so a week. Ours uses a Frog and mineral pack system and the pump runs 24x7 at 50% top and 50% bottom pumping.

Our pool season is from late April into early October here in KY.

It's a joy to watch all the grandkids having a great time in it.

[Eagle5US]

Had a pool in El Paso -

Spent a gazillion dollars on chemicals, add this (too much) counter it with that (too much) balance them with this other - (holy shit that burns:eek:), then my swimsuits started disintegrating (too much chlorine) holy hell how did it get green overnight:rolleyes:

The following 2 years (and now that I have tenants) I pay a nice young lady to come out weekly and service that POOL so it does not become a POND. Winter time, I happily pay her every other week to do the same.

I thought I was a pretty smart dude. Hell, I even took Chemistry in HS AND in college -
IT was an awful lot of work for me, I rarely got it right and when I did it didn't stay that way long (sun evaporates some chemicals faster than others etc...)

So much better for me to let someone else do it.

Should you stick with doing it yourself, find a pool store closeby and they nearly always offer free water testing if you simply can't "uncloud", "ungreen", "uncrust", "undisinitegrate your swimsuit", "unburn your eyes / skin / mucous membranes" your pool water.

Good luck and enjoy that pool. There was little I looked forward to more than heading into the backyard before bed and hopping in the pool. Friggin awesome.

[SpikedBuck]

Thanks to all for your thoughts. It will definitely be a challenge...will keep you posted on how successful I am at doing it myself.:D

[alelks]

We've had a pool for over 15 years. Best advice I can give is at the beginning of the season take it to the pool company and let them test it. Put everything it they recommend and from then on just keep up the chlorine and PH and you're normally good for the season.

The years I didn't do the above I spent a ton of money in chemicals. There is more to it than just PH and Chlorine.

I also never close my pool even though I live in NC.

I am getting ready to switch mine over to a Chlorine Generator though (salt system).

Oh yea, we run our Kreepy 24/7 and it keeps the pool pretty darn clean.

[Sarski]

I also grew up with a pool and it was my job to keep it clean, tested, and chemically stable. That was some time ago, but of course empty your skimmers regularly, more often if you have a lot of landscaping or trees around.

Also weather and temperature play a role as Eagle5US mentioned, especially with chlorine use in the summer.

Out here in the Dallas area they have "pool school" offered by some of the stores and a few of the pool cleaning/service companies in which they teach you how to clean and care for your pool. Not sure about your area, but that may be an option.

Pool size, climate, seasons changing, rain fall...all will play a factor in your pool care and maintenence.

Good luck, sir!

[PRB]

Convert it to a salt water pool....I spend nothing on chems basically. An inline cell converts the salt to a free chlorine of only 2900 PPM when you run the filtering system. You can barely taste it and the water feels better...not sticky and no chlorine burn up the nose when swimming for a workout.
The cells are not cheap but last for years.....
Once the salt is added it never needs replenishing..salt does not evaporate.
I've had the pool for 4 years now and have added a chem balancer 3 times in 4 years.
I was told about 70% of new pools in Phoenix are salt pools.

[Guymullins]

The salt option is good, but if you have an in-ground cement pool a Kreepy-Krauly or Barracuda auto pool cleaner is a must.( The inventor of the Kreepy lives not far from me). Keep your PH stable and where it should be is 80% of the problem solved and when adding chlorine, only do it in the evenings as the sun neutralizes it and you will pay double on this expensive chemical. Check Ph especially after rain, as this changes the water to alkali very quickly. You need always to have on hand a few gallons of pool acid, unless you are in an acid-rain area, in which case, you luckily wont need to supplement with pool acid.