Who DIY's their own pool maintenance?

[Rick Lee]

I just bought a house with a 10k gal. pool that's always in sunlight and hired a pro to help me for the first month. He immediately suggested a drain and refill, which I did. After a filter rebuild, a DE treatment and four weekly service visits, I decided I wanted to handle this on my own going forward. Yesterday was my first chemical test since his last visit and my readings were through the roof, suggesting I might need another drain and refill. WTF?

I posted my readings on a pool BBS and the resident guru told me test strips are totally inaccurate and I need to get a fancy test kit. That's the opposite of my pool guy told me. I swim just about every day and I really want to get this right. How do you pool guys test your pools and what kits/strips do you use?

[PeteT]

Rick-
I don't have a pool but do have an oversize spa, about 2000 gal. and do my own maintenance. The spa was just finished about two months ago and at first I was struggling to keep the water in check. After 30 days I was finally able to use the salt system and that has made the chlorine part easy. My advise is to buy a simple chemical kit from your local supplier and start there. I don't use the strips. Also when I was having problems I took an empty, clean water bottle full of spa water to the pool supply store and they tested the water for me there and hooked me up. Sold me everything I needed and within a couple of days everything was good. If it is a plaster pool be careful of draining and refilling it. Sometimes when you drain it you will introduce stress cracks to the plaster.
HTH
Pete

[Eric Coffey]

Thru the roof as in high ph/alkalinity? If so, I'd dump in half a gallon of muriatic acid and run the pool all day, then test again (repeating if necessary). You can get fancy "ph reducers" but muriatic acid will work just fine, and is very cheap. Oh, and the test strip are fairly accurate, but if you are still in doubt take a sample to Paddock. They will run a computer analysis on it for free.

How much DE did you use, and where did you put it? Most folks here only use that when they are back-flushing (once a month, or if your pressures start to rise). You pour it right in the filter trap. Also, do not go swimming for at least 24 hours after you shock it.

How long are you running the pump? On that pool, I'd say you need to be running it at least 8 hours a day (especially in the summer). If you are on the APS saver plan, run it at night to save on the electric bill.

Also, for your chlorine tabs, you might want to consider the ones from Paddock. They are a bit more expensive, but have stabilizers so the chlorine doesn't boil off immediately. Also, another trick is to leave them in the plastic package, but with one side slit open. This makes them last a bit longer.

I'm no expert as you know, so grain of salt, YMMV, yadda yadda.

[Eric Coffey]

Also, since we have such hard water here, it's probably a good idea to use a water softening/de-scaling agent every few months.

[Rick Lee]

Well, the number I'm most concerned about is my cyanuric acid, since there's no trick for reducing it other than draining and refilling. I'm at 150 ppm, which is off the charts. Everything else is out of whack too, but I know I can fix that with chemicals and other tricks. I'm a little concerned with taking a jar of my pool water to a shop, since I certainly need to do something and they're gonna try to sell all of it to me. Between what I've heard from my pool guy and the other site I just signed up on, I'm having trouble deciding whom to believe.

[Eric Coffey]

Hmmmm, sounds like your pool guy may have added too much "stabilizer" when you drained/refilled. That concentration is a bit hard to explain otherwise. That number will slowly creep up from the trace stabilizers in chlorine tabs, but it would take years to get to that level. Looks like at least a partial drain is in your future.

[Rick Lee]

If I'm at 150 ppm now, wouldn't draining it halfway down still leave me (best case scenario) with 75 ppm? WTF? How could he have screwed this up so badly. Or are my test strips really so inaccurate? It's only been a month since the drain and refill.

[Eric Coffey]

Yeah, but 75ppm is acceptable, especially here in the desert. You could also switch to a non-stabilized chlorine (granular/liquid) for a while until it disipates to around 50ppm (fresh water auto-fill from evap, splash out, etc.). There are plenty of pool guys that will tell you that a high CYA level by itself isn't even a concern (althouh yours is very high). The bigger issue is high total disolved solids.

Regarding your test strips, I'd probably have the free computer analysis done to confirm. If your findings are correct, there is nothing they can sell you to correct the problem anyway.

[dewolf]

Just change to an automatic salt chlorinator. Pool life is now a breeze.

[Chocaholic]

Now I understand why Wayne built his "in-pool" deck. Sheesh.

[sammyg2]

I have a pool that I DYI, I use both the strips and the multi-test kit. Once i get it dialed in, the strips are accurate for mid-week tests. But if it's way off the strips can lie to you.

In fact, I've gotten to know the pool so well that I can usually tell what it needs without testing every single time. I have a chlorine gererator so that makes it a little easier. I still have to add chlorine sometimes but not as often, but I have to add acid more often.
The only part I don't trust to the strips is salt content. I get the same exact reading every time, 3600 ppm. No matter if it has lots of salt or not very much. I figure those strips are bogus.
About once a month i take a ziplock full of water to the pool store and they run it for free so they can sell chemicals. That is a good way to double-check.

I have to add a little cynauric acid in powder form once in a while but not very often.
Iffn I were you I'd try to lower it over time instead of draining and re-filling, especially in AZ. They are fully about water in the desert. How much would a drain and re-fill cost there?

[ODDJOB UNO]

rickster..............you silly TWIT!


our water is hard. your pool guy is a MORON. drain pool about every 5 years thats it.



slap 3 tabs of chlorine in basket, 1 gallon of acid.



step away from pool and STFU and crack beers.



fire rip off pool guy.



3 tabs chlorine a week and skim off any all debris. crack beers. empty baskets. i run a barracuda and have forever. if i spend 5 minutes on my pool a week thats it.



we have hard water accept that and walk away.



sand filter cheaper than DE.

[Rick Lee]

Well, the water is very cheap here, so I can drain and refill without too much pain. I'm sure it's well under $200 for the whole deal. But I need to get the water tested at the local shop first to make sure this is really necessary.

[David]

I use the test kit with the little vials and take a sample to local pool store about once a month in the summer. I installed an inline chlorinater that really helps and I use the multiple chemical tablets.

Keeping up with Ph and chlorine is pretty easy with the test kit but I rely on the pool store for the other readings.

I don't bother with backwashing the DE system because it doesn't take much longer if any to take the filter apart and wash the elements.

I've had much better luck with the higher quality, higher cost chemicals from the pool store vs the stuff you get at Home Depot or one of the low end pool stores.

The pool pump needs to run in the heat of the day. I run from about 10am to 4pm in the summer with at least 2 hours of pool cleaner time. A good brushing once a week in the summer helps too.

In the winter I back the pool pump to 4 hours and add very little chemicals.

[javadog]

Pool maintenance is easy. Get a good test kit, get your water tested at a place that sells chemicals for the things you can't test for using the kit, and take their recommendations. They'll tell you what to do, and in what order to do them. Once you get things where you want them, it's easy to keep them there.

JR

[David]

My newest pool maintenance problem is our lab Lola discovered the pool a couple weeks ago and now we can't keep her out of it. Here's Lola lounging in the pool:

[sammyg2]

DE filters? sand filters? LOL i have a washable filter, looks like a giant K&N

I take it out and spray it with the hose really well and stick it back in.
I have to keep reminding myself not to coat it with oil first .......

[carreradpt]

I second javadog. That is exactly what we do. I also brush the pool at least once a week because I'm in it often too. The pool store guys are very helpful and we buy chems from them if have a good price. We run the pump when sunshine is on the surface and we use algaecide occasionally. Inline chlorinator and "KN" filter, easy upkeep. Easy to keep in check.

[David]

So who makes this "K&N" type filter?

[legion]

If it's too acidic, why can't you just add some baking soda?

<--Does not own a pool.