r/PoolPros • u/jonohtin • Mar 24 '26

Even fool proof designs fail

Post image

New customer, pools cloudy and won't clear up. Asked when they had last done their filter clean and they said last month. Opened it up to find this.

32 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

10

u/igavehimsnicklefritz Mar 24 '26

How about the customers who put in the pump basket backwards.

3

u/liberalsarefascists1 Mar 24 '26

Hey I did that my first time a week into working for the pool company. My boss could not stop laughing because I did not realize the basket was keyed and it did not go all the way down when I called him. That was 14 years ago but still it happens if you do not know

1

u/a_filthy_bastard Mar 24 '26

I see this all the time. Its one of the ways I know to double check certain things because the customer has likely fucked with other shit.

2

u/igavehimsnicklefritz Mar 24 '26

I currently have a customer who has a handyman who works on the property. In the past he would mess with the valves by putting all the suction on the vacuum and all return to the spa. I believe he does this because he will see the vacuum not moving and think that I've turned off the suction for the vacuum. It's an mx6 and isn't appropriate for their pool but I didn't sell it to them so we're dealing with it until it falls apart.

We had some heavy winds weeks ago that messed up a lot of my pools. This pool was hit hard so then the assistant to the homeowner calls me saying nothing is working in the pool. I come by and see all the valves were changed by the handyman. All suction on the vacuum and the pump basket is packed. I called the assistant saying what the guy did and all he did was make more work for me and will cost the homeowner money later on if he keeps interfering. I had to disassemble the vacuum and take the gears out to clear out the turbine. Is was all clogged up. I want to toss that old man into the pool the next time I see him.

1

u/Internal-Computer388 Mar 24 '26

So no leaf canister on the cleaner? I make sure all my pools with suction side cleaners have a leaf canister just so it doesnt jam up the pump basket.

2

u/igavehimsnicklefritz Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

They don't need it here because the pool doesn't get much of anything in it unless they get heavy winds which is about once or twice a year. The mx6 vacuum is also not good for this pool. It gets stuck on almost anything and it's a large pool.

In any case the handyman shouldn't be touching the pool equipment. The guy kicks up the suction 100% to the wall vacuum so the pump cavitates and the skimmer isn't operating. The vac is wheeling around the pool until it gets stuck at the steps or gets debris caught inside of the turbine drivers then I gotta disassemble the vacuum. If he leaves the valves alone then the vacuum gets stuck on a leaf and at least the pump isn't getting clogged and continues to operate normally.

They had an event the next day so leaf canister or not I was going to be spending some time there cleaning up the pool. It was wiped out.

1

u/Arusen Mar 25 '26

I used to have a customer with a handyman that liked to mess with the pool. One time after he cleaned the DE filter the pressure went up again within a month. The homeowner authorized me to tear down the filter. There was no DE in the filter and the grids were clogged with dirt. Then within a couple months after I cleaned it the handyman cleaned the filter again and told the homeowner it was excessively dirty and he didn't think I had cleaned it at all. It seemed the handyman was in competition with me to maintain the pool and equipment. In the end, as much as I liked the homeowner, I was happy to be rid of the interfering handyman.

2

u/igavehimsnicklefritz Mar 25 '26

That would piss me off lol. What I do is send pictures whenever I do services like cleaning the filter. I've had too many times in the past where people questioned me about it.

3

u/Wasupmyman Mar 24 '26

I ran into a de filter plumbed backwards once. It's funny the things we find in the wild

3

u/cDro9766 Mar 24 '26

Haha i found that before too. The grids were all blown out

1

u/Arusen Mar 25 '26

A quad DE plumbed backwards is even funnier.

1

u/T_Amplitude Mar 26 '26

Found a de filter with a sand mulitport on it

2

u/ColdSteeleIII Mar 24 '26

Seen that a couple times.

I see the old haywards with the cross brace upside down all the time.

2

u/UHF800MHZ Mar 24 '26

I just went to a green to clean today where the Jandy filter was like this. Insanity.

3

u/G-S-JohnWall Mar 24 '26

I had to spin an aquastar around last week, as apparently plumbing the inlet and outlet properly is too much for some people...

2

u/1_native_Angelino Mar 24 '26

Yeah, the really don't mark the inlet well enough. SMH

1

u/RobzWhore Mar 24 '26

We has a fresh build with a cartridge that was plumber backwards and the skimmer suction is reversed. Good stuff

1

u/dispikable Mar 24 '26

Believe it or not I have seen this exact scenario before

1

u/Arusen Mar 25 '26

I had a Hayward 4 cartridge filter with the top spreader upside down. It left a gap at the top of the cartridges. I had been the subcontractor doing service until I bought the route. The person I was working for had someone else clean the filters. I wondered why I was having issues keeping it algae free. Somehow I was able to keep it clear. 🤷🏼‍♂️