Guess what's been happening around our digs....

[Gofirstclass]

Thanks for all the comments. We're already enjoying the pool and I keep having to remind myself that we'll be able to do that for years to come.

A friend on another site suggested I keep a log of pool maintenance....hours I ran the pump, how often (and how much) I added chemicals, etc. He said a pattern would begin to show what is required to keep it sparkling clear.

We have the only tree that shades the pool. It's a huge 'twisted willow' that was the first tree planted in the whole subdivision. I love the shade and would probably not remove it, but it does keep the pool from getting the full advantage of the solar heat. I guess we'll just have to learn to live with the tree and the shade. I'm light skinned (former red head, now a grey head) and burn easily, so the shade is a welcome relief for me. Not so much with GW who is Italian, olive skinned, and never burns. But she loves the tree and would never let me cut it down.

Wayne, life is going to be more fun with the pool. On days when it's too windy to boat we'll be around the pool. I am going to have to watch that we don't ignore the boat. We also have the Whaler that could take us away from Beachcomber at times, but at least we'll be on the water if we're using it.

 

[wyrman]

Nice addition to the yard Mike, and speaking of windy days.............
I was planning on taking my 18' bowrider out so the dogs would have fun today but it looks like I'm staying home.

 

[Molson]

Looks great! A site that has helped me with my pool questions is troublefreepool.com

 

[redneck joe]

we just did the same and so far we boat the same

 

[fwebster]

We've had our pool about 25 years so we've learned some lessons along the way...........We are in the south, so our situation may different.

Spend the money to get a good and complete pool water tester and learn to use it. Stay out of the pool store....My wife is more consistent than the high school kid or retiree who checks samples at the pool store. One thing I noticed early on that step # 1 on your sheet of stuff to do from the pool store is add "PH increaser", that is always followed by whatever is really needed, that is followed by shock and the last thing is always "PH decreaser"....then you get a bill for $150 for all the stuff they say you need. When I asked about the PH up followed by the PH down, I got some mumbo-jumbo about needing to buffer the pool water for the other chemicals.......and my BS detector is still screaming. Learn to manage it yourself.

I have also found that most of the trouble we have had with cloudy water, black, green, mustard algae, copper deposits, high calcium were the direct result of running the pool on chlorine. Our annual chemical budget was $400-$600 /year for chemicals, depending upon the weather we had. I got so frustrated at having to manage a moving target that I bought and installed a salt system. Now I run the pool no more than 12 hours a day, and only have to check ph, chlorine levels (which is adjustable by turning a knob on the salt generator instead of adding $$ and chemicals) and stabilizer. no more throwing shock into the pool (I flip a switch on the salt system), my chemical cost last year was $70 (most of that was salt because rain water dilutes the salt in the pool)....and best of all, I don't need to be here to manage the pool. It pretty well runs itself on a timer when we are gone.

Over time you will learn the short cuts.....like that willow tree is going to give you fits. Its leaves are small and narrow so you it will be a full time job keeping the pool clean when the leaves begin to fall. We put our pool in to give our kids a reason to be here rather than riding around looking for something to do. It worked.....there were times when my wife could have called the role for one of here English classes in the back yard. ANd the pool is now a big draw for the grandkids. It cost a pile of money and was very expensive to maintain after it got some age on it, but it has been a great investment for us and I am sure you will find the same to be true.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Frank, thanks for the tips. So, is your pool a "salt water" pool now? How is that to swim in? I've been in the ocean a few times and didn't like it much when I swallowed any of the salt water. Also, what kind of pool test kit do you have? Any recommendations on which ones to look at?

Between those tips, and some I received from a fellow boater on another boating website, I think I'm pretty good to go on maintenance. I still have to set up the pool electronic control box to run the pump/filters automatically every day but that's simply a matter of getting it done. I've been told that 3 hours a day will be good until the weather turns hot, then bump up the time.

You're right about the willow tree. It's already a PITA but there's no way GW would let me cut it down. Besides, it provides the only shade for the pool so I'll just have to live with it.

Pool Newbie Mike

 

[fwebster]

Mike,

You need to cycle the water thru the filter at least once every day. Do the math.....figure the volume of your pool then divide by the GPH for your pump and I am pretty sure it will come out more the 3 hours. The idea isn't to run water thru a chlorinator to inject chlorine as much as it is to maintain a chlorine level and to filter the small solids that land on the pool surface. Remember birds are using your pool as their outhouse all day every day. Be thinking a minimum of 12 hours but you do the math and see what the pool looks like after a couple of weeks.

Here is one tip I forgot.......if you see greenish shadows on the walls, steps or bottom, then shock the pool immediately. Do not wait, since algae waits on no man and it won't cure itself. Algae only grown in a pool with insufficient chlorine at temperatures above 56˚ so green shadows means you don't have enough chlorine. I have also found that algaecide is the pool store's revenue enhancement tool. It helps, but you can still get algae with algaecide in the pool and you cannot clean up a pool with algae in it with algaecide alone.

On your salt question, you use salt (NaCl) in the pool only to provide Cl molecules to the salt generator. The salt cell converts salt into sodium and free Cl molecules. That means instead of buying ($$ at the pool store) chlorine in liquid (conc. bleach), pucks or granulated form (calcium hypochlorite) the chlorine is in the water all the time. You just have to free it electronically with a salt cell...and the more voltage applied to the cell, the more chlorine it converts. THe pool requires only 2800-3200 PPM of salt and sea water is more than 100 times that @ 35,000 PPM. The pool water tastes more like distilled water than sea water.

 

[redneck joe]

you can barely taste salt and skin isn't itchy when you dry off.

 

[Bucit]

and it doesn'tt ruin your clothes or hair. It's an easy upgrade to any pool. Less than $1000 and your saltwater swimming!

 

[Molson]

I switched to salt a couple years ago and love it, like Frank said, very little maintenance. Keep your Chlorine and pH in check and you're good (for the most part). Don't buy in to the Pool stores trying to sell you crap.

Liquid chlorine = bleach (regular is typically 3%, "Ultra" is 6% and liquid chlorine "shock" is 10% (brand name of Purox here).
pH Down = normal muriatic acid
pH up = 20 mule team borax, found at your grocery store
to raise TA (Total Alkalinity) use baking soda (note pH will rise too, aerate to lower)

If you switch to salt, don't spend the 2, 3x amount for "pool salt". Water softener salt, which has 99% salts will be fine, and a LOT cheaper.

As far as test kits:
I recommend the TF100 kit from http://tftestkits.net/ He is the guy that runs troublefreepool.com and offers the kit at a great price. It uses Taylor reagents and a great instruction sheet. It has FAS-DPD test for your free chlorine, Total chlorine and combined chloromides, so you know exactly what is happening. The taylor equivalent kit is the Taylor K2006.

Put your numbers into The Pool Calculator (http://poolcalculator.com/) and it will tell you what you need to add, and is fairly accurate, I've been using it, and the tips/tricks at troublefreepool for years, great people over there too. (No i don't work for them, I'll endore that side as much as I'd endorse CSR if someone had a boating/Sea Ray question)

I hope this helps.

 

[AFD]

The best piece of machinery I have for my pool is a remote control boat that has a skimming net . It takes me 3-5 minutes to clean my pool. I only use the skimming pole when things get to the bottom and since I skim with a beer in hand sitting in a chair or while floating In The pool, nothing ever gets to the bottom unless I have been away from it for a while. I also use it to push the floating cooler over to me or my wife or to push me to the cooler as it will push my fat a$$ in a the or float chair just fine.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...=99XlfeDmRP0bdUrVdxDs1A&bvm=bv.67720277,d.cWc

 

[Molson]

I want one!

 

[Gofirstclass]

Geeeesh, you guys are almost overwhelming me with information, but please keep 'em coming. Like I said, I'm a newbie at this and have a lot to learn. It will take me a few reads through all of this to properly digest it ('cause I'm an old fart) but don't stop with the ideas and suggestions.

 

[fwebster]

I think my pool sweep is the best piece of add-on machinery we have. After the first summer/fall, with that willow tree so close, you will hate the dip net and vacuum attachment.

 

[skylark]

Frank, thanks for the tips. So, is your pool a "salt water" pool now? How is that to swim in? I've been in the ocean a few times and didn't like it much when I swallowed any of the salt water. Also, what kind of pool test kit do you have? Any recommendations on which ones to look at?

Pool Newbie Mike

I switched to salt water about 5 years ago and would never own a pool that wasn't salt

Though the water in a salt water pool is saline, it’s actually nothing like swimming in the ocean. The salt concentration in the pool tops out at about 2800 to 4000 parts per million, compared to 50,000 parts per million in ocean water. Salt water pools are less salty than tears (you usually can’t even taste the salt) but the soft, luxurious feel of the water, not to mention freedom from the burning feeling of too much chlorine, is immediately noticeable.

 

[Molson]

Yeah, what my marina ditching friend said....

I switched to salt water about 5 years ago and would never own a pool that wasn't salt

Though the water in a salt water pool is saline, it’s actually nothing like swimming in the ocean. The salt concentration in the pool tops out at about 2800 to 4000 parts per million, compared to 50,000 parts per million in ocean water. Salt water pools are less salty than tears (you usually can’t even taste the salt) but the soft, luxurious feel of the water, not to mention freedom from the burning feeling of too much chlorine, is immediately noticeable.

 

[redneck joe]

i was told not to use water softener salt but Sams has pool salt at $5 per bag and don't expect to use more that the 5 bags I bought this year (after the first 15 that came with the new pool)

 

[Gofirstclass]

I talked with the pool guy about switching to a salt water pool and he recommended against it. He said the salt eats up the metal parts of the pump and anything else metal in the system. I think we'll stick with what we have.

My 4yoa grandson and I were playing in the pool this afternoon. The water temp is getting up there, at 88* and the air temp was about the same. It was great.

The landscapers were here bright and early Monday morning and started doing the final landscaping. They first got rid of the dirt pile we've had in the bark yard....

then started setting up the underground sprinkler system in its new layout and grooming the dirt in preparation for laying new sod...

Then, the 8 guys they had in the work crew laid down 6 pallets of sod and finished out the afternoon. They ran out of sod so there's one pallet yet to be delivered and put down along the side of the house. Here's what the finished back yard looks like...

It's finally sinking in that I again have a pool. Thus far it's only involved about 30 minutes a day of 'working' around the pool. That includes emptying the skimmer, using the skimmer net to remove the willow leaves, checking chemicals, etc. It's not really like work because I find it relaxing. I usually do all that stuff in the morning after reading the paper and drinking my usual 2 cups of coffee. At some point it may feel like work, but now it's kind of fun.

If it ever becomes too much like work I'll just have to reflect back to the hour or so my grandson and I spent squirting each other and diving for toys at the bottom of the pool. That seems to make it all worthwhile.

 

[fwebster]

It isn't my pool so I don't know what brand of components you bought, and I'm not arguing with your pool guy, but I kinda think he hasn't got very much experience with salt pools.

My pump and filter are Hayward and there are no metal parts in the pump that touch the water. The same is true with my Polaris pool sweep which has a booster pump. I have 2-3 old brass gate valves from the initial 30 year old installation that haven't been replaced yet and they are fine. The ladder and handrails are stainless steel and show no corrosion. Corrosion just hasn't been a problem for me.

But I will tell you what has been a serious problem: I've had numerous bolts stick, some small diameter PVC piping get blocked on the automatic chlorinator and deposits form near the waterline on the skimmer door when we were on chlorine. THe deposits were from years of shocking the pool with calcium hypochlorite shock on powder and puck form.

So...there really is no free ride, but for me, salt has certainly be the lower, cost lower maintenance approach when compared to chlorine.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Frank, thanks for that info. I'm going to do some research and see what the general opinion is on the internet. We know everything on the internet is true and that nobody tells any little white lies, so I'll just do some checking.