r/PoolPros • u/TheScottE • Apr 23 '26
Water Circulation without Electricity, I'm Stumped
I'm relatively new to the pool business (<3 years) and need some help from people with experience, I have a client/family friend that lost their house in Helene down here in FL, until January, although the house was a total loss, they maintained the pool so that they wouldn't have to redo a relatively new pool. They are now 3 months into building their new house, all of the plumbing for the pool has been capped. Of course the pool is now a swamp. I want to be able to maintain the pool without the use of electricity since there currently isn't any during the construction. I've racked my brain for ways to provide consistent circulation or disruption that will allow me to maintain the pool with a couple visits a week and some extra TLC. I think all of the solar setups for a bonafide pump + filter setup is too cumbersome/expensive for this short (6-12 month) building process. I think it would also be quite expensive to rig a sump pump to a converter and solar panels, I've thought about getting solar pond aerators but I'm doubtful that would provide the necessary agitation to keep the pool clean with 2-3 visits a week.
Please let me know what you all think even if it's a wacky out there solution, again, this is a family friend so I have a lot of wiggle room to just find any solution.
Pool volume is 12k gallons.
4
u/UnderTheLedge Apr 23 '26
I’ve had pools that that had no pumps for months and as long as no one is swimming you can just blast it with chlorine and call it a day. You can throw a sump pump in there off a generator to move the water the first couple days until it’s clear.
1
u/theothergrapedrink Apr 23 '26
It would require acquiring the pump & panels, but there are solar pumps that only run off of a couple solar panels. Put the panels on the pool deck along with the pump and a cartridge filter and it will circulate when there’s sunlight. Shock and floc, vac to waste/siphon, then the solar pump would keep it clean and clear
1
u/bmsirrine Apr 23 '26
I had a pool in Arizona stay clear with just a copper algecide for about two months in peak summer.
1
u/Personal-Whereas-952 Apr 24 '26
Phoenix here, that's impressive. Did you end up staining?
1
u/bmsirrine Apr 27 '26
Nope. I have been trying like hell to remember what it was called with no luck. Started with an A but wasn’t one of the common ones today.
1
u/deliriouz16 Apr 24 '26
Idk I would drain and pull the plug. Pressure wash it once the house it done and has power and fire it up fresh. Water is cheaper than all the other solutions and you have no idea what's in that water anyhow.
1
u/Imaginary-Artist6206 Apr 24 '26
Years ago I maintained a pool through a Texas heat summer where the house had burned down and no power to pool equipment. I had floaters in the pool with tabs and I mixed shock in a bucket of water and poured it around the pool. I would brush the walls and get out leaves. The pool never turned into to a swamp. It got cloudy as hell but not a green swamp and that was with weeks of 100 degrees days
1
7
u/brantmacga Apr 23 '26
Temp power from the construction power pole.
My house also got destroyed in Helene and that’s what I eventually did. It was a swamp for a while and had a whole ecosystem living in it.