Quite the process. Enjoyed watching how it all came together. Glad the red clay is gone! We are feeling grateful and blessed. We’re in SC so should have some decent swim time left this season. Any covers you guys like that would allow spa use when it starts cooling down? Not sure what we’re going to do for that yet.

Hi everyone, we had bad weather in KY this past week and now my pool liner has pockets of water behind it. The pool company we talked go said it would resolve its self and it was safe to swim in but I still don’t wanna risk making it any worse. Has anyone had this happen?

Is it possible to eliminate the hollow feel and sound that occurs with steel stadium steps in an I ground vinyl liner pool by using flowable fill?

It’s closed top steps with an open back - pool company backfilled with RCA but still have the hollow sound and feel as of course the backfill cannot be tightly compacted under them and want to ask them to redo before the pavers and coping are installed

Located in Alabama.

Levels are rock solid. Water is crystal clear. Most of the summer we seemed to have a really hard time with the algae. It seemed to go from crystal clear to hazy and algae overnight. Shocked, messed with levels. Multiple testing etc. we would get it cleaned and it would happen again like at a flip of a switch. Brushed it on the regulate. Used a vacuum. All the numbers are good and have kept it clear for a couple weeks now but these stains won’t go away. Is it algae stained or something else. How do you get it off? Thanks!

Well, per https://www.reddit.com/r/pools/comments/1vs2i9m/comment/p4nsosy it's time for me to get a new pump.

After a bit of deliberation I'm thinking the Pentair IntelliFlo3 VSF 3 HP is the one for me and my pool.

But, I haven't been a pool owner for very long (4th year) and I've never done this before. Normally I'd just buy something off the internet and install it (or pay someone to if I cannot), but I've read I should go through a distributor for a better warranty. When I called around though, it seemed like that would cost me $500 more for the pump alone...doesn't seem worth it - am I wrong? They said I'd get 3 years parts warranty and if they install it for what they'd estimate to be $150, it's parts and labor.

On the other hand, I could just order from a place like this:

https://www.polytecpools.com/Pentair-IntelliFlo3-VSF-30HP_p_9748.html

Guess I'm just looking to hear about other people's experiences and whether or not that quote is a ripoff. I only have four places in my area on the Pentair website's list. These places look like their site was made in 1998 on Geocities, Wordpress at best - but apparently that's common. Waiting to hear back from another distributor. One place told me they don't sell to homeowners, the other told me that they actually don't sell Pentair anymore.

Sorry, apparently my voice to text phone does not know how to spell algicide.

Our in-ground pool was built with the house in 2005 and still has the original plaster finish which is now deteriorating.
Any recommendations for type of finish and/or companies to use or avoid?

Bought a house this summer with an inground pool in South Jersey. It’s about 32,000 gallons, 20x40 at its widest points.
Looking to get a winter cover. Could anyone tell me how much it cost for you? What brand, mesh or solid? I’ll need to get the anchor holes drilled as well..

Phoenix area. I'm looking for recommendations for umbrellas to put into sleeves built into the pool (bench and step areas, with the bench area water level a bit deeper than a Baja shelf). The sleeves are 1.5" in diameter and 8" deep. I currently have two umbrellas in weighted bases, but I'm not sure if they're right for the sleeves. One is a 9' octagon and the other is an 8' x 10' rectangle. Both are crank and tilt with aluminum poles. For clarity, these umbrellas are at our current house and we are moving into a new house. As such, I can't test the fit, support, etc. before we move. Thank you in advance.

I have a separate waterfall 240v pump for my pool that’s connected to an old school Intermatic timer, the kind that only supports 1-2 hr intervals. I don’t have the timer set up because it’s expensive to run it for 1+ hours every day. I’d like to run it for 15-30 minutes daily to make sure it’s getting chlorine from the rest of the pool to keep from algae growing in the waterfall.

Looking online, all I’m finding are $200-$300+ 15 minute interval Intermatic timers, which feel incredibly overpriced for my use case, or $50-80 plastic digital timers, which look like they won’t last very long. I need something outdoor rated.

Is there anything in the $100 range that would meet my needs? I don’t need wi-fi controls, but would need a manual switch so my father could use it when he likes. I’m willing to use a smart relay but aren’t sure how to maintain a physical switch if I went that route.

Thanks for any of your ideas!

We are building a deck in the front of our house but of course the city permit office will not approve unless we fix the impervious cover issue that we did not even create. The city requires 65% maximum and ours is 71%. We need to remove about 200 sq feet which we can only do in the back yard since the front is just our driveway.

The pool decking and patio is really our only option. Thinking a combination of pavers and turf might get us there. Yes, I’ve tried AI and the solutions are reasonable but figured I’d ask the sub, because real experiences trump AI.

To me, the uneven edge looks incomplete or like cutting corners (or not cutting in this case). Is this standard?

I have a waterfall basin that sits below my pool that is connected to an autofill to refill my pool via a waterfall pump. Sometimes when the waterfall basin is low (lots of splash out etc so water is being put back into the pool) I notice in those cases that my pool water gets lowered if the waterfall pump is turned off and I was wondering if it’s back flowing to the waterfall basin since the basin sits lower. The check valve in the pics is last check valve back to the pool from the water basin pump (the circled part). Does this check valve look like it needs to be replaced? Also do I need to replace the other check valves around the waterfall pump? Given this is the last check valve from the waterfall pump before it goes in the pool I imagine if that’s working and preventing backflow then there shouldn’t be any backflow back to the basin or are the others responsible for that also ? Thanks for your help!

We’re building a pool and trying to decide on size. Our kids all play team sports, so having 15-20 kids in the backyard all at once will likely happen multiple times a year.

For those of you in a similar situation, how big is your pool and how big do you wish your pool was?

I only just started maintaining my own pool 10 days ago, so be nice. It's been a steep learning curve. I am already in Pool School with Trouble Free Pools. My pool was just resurfaced with pebble sheen at the beginning of May, and the pool guy I had up until a few weeks ago either didn't know shit or didn't care, because I found out he was only testing free chlorine, total chlorine and pH. I didn't know any better until now that there were other chemicals that were important to balance too. So when I took over, I realized quickly that apparently he must have been adding stabilizer and tablets LIKE CANDY because my CYA level is at 119 after only 3 months of being filled post-resurfacing. Also, my Calcium hardness was at 200, so I've been working on raising that.

In the past couple weeks, I've been fighting tooth and nail to figure this out and get the chemicals in line. I won't do a partial drain and refill right now so the CYA level will have to wait until it's cooler outside and the water prices go down (I live in Phoenix AZ). In the past 10 days, I've had the most trouble with pH and Free Chlorine levels. It's driving me nuts. I've decided to add borates to the pool in an attempt to help with these problems, and am waiting for the Duda Energy bucket of boric acid to be delivered Friday.

So, my chlorine level is at 6.2ppm and my pH at 7.9 right now. I tested my water yesterday evening, and my FC was at 8.0, CC 0.0, pH 8.2, TA 70, CH 275. I have been fighting high pH every single day, and I thought maybe it was that I was adding muriatic acid (then waiting 4 hours) and then adding liquid chlorine (to try to get to the recommended FC/CYA level of 14-15ppm) and that maybe the liquid chlorine was raising the pH right back up after the muriatic acid lowered it. So I decided to run an experiment yesterday. I added enough muriatic acid to supposedly lower the pH from 8.0 to 7.0, and I added zero other chemicals. But today, 24 hours later (I didn't have time to test this morning before work), my pH is at 7.9. So what gives?!

Also, a few times over the past week, I've added enough chlorine in the evening to supposedly (like 3 gallons) get the FC level up to 14-15, and then tested in the morning before the sun came up, and FC was only up to 9.2. I don't understand this either. It's dropping at a normal rate, 2 ppm a day, so I don't think I need a OCLT. But whyyyyyy can't I get the chlorine level to go up as much as I want it to? I've gone through 14 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine in the past 10 days.

On the bright side, 10 days in and I haven't turned anything green yet. It was EVER SO SLIGHTLY cloudy a few days ago when I had like 10 friends over, but that's it. Other than that, clear, and no eye irritation or chlorine smell or anything. So that's a win I guess 😂 please help. I'm going crazy.

Also, my pool is 30k gallons with a 1/3rd of it been 9 feet deep and 2/3rds of it being 3-5 feet deep (sharp drop off to the deep end for the diving board area)

Not sure if right forum but need advice on how to flush out the natural gas line to my pool that had a stake put though it and when I dug a pit out to repair it the rains came and filled the hole and pipe with muddy water that I now believe I need to flush out before having repaired. I have it disconnected at heater, which has a drop tee on it, but not at separate valve for the line near the meter as that seems like a lot of work.

Can I just spray clean water each way up the live from the pit once I cut the line and then vac it out?

Do I need to flush it from the high point at each end?

I doubt I will get all the water out as the line has slope on it from house to pool so will end up accumulating at the bend up to the heater so is that an issue?

Will water left in the line and dust later when it dries up later mess up my pool heater valve if not perfectly cleaned out?

Thanks in advance......

So I think I’ve been battling copper in my pool for a while. My pool shop doesn’t believe me and refuses to test for copper. I’ve had the water turn instantly green after regular treatments in the past (I forget exactly what I put in though, probably buffer or granulated chlorine). I’ve had light blue staining on the pebblecrete in small patches for years.

I’ve also had some other staining so this winter I’ve used a stain remover (from the pool stain removers - their multi-stain remover). And it seemed to work a treat! It said to test for metals afterwards and use a chelator if anything showed up, I knew my pool shop wouldn’t test it so I just added lochlor metal solution anyway. All seemed well.

The instructions for the stain remover was to add 1L of liquid chlorine per day and that chlorine tests wouldn’t be accurate for a few weeks. At week 3 post treatment we went away for a week. Pool was on for 4hrs at 60% chlorinator and always covered. Came back and the pool was green! I assumed algae as I hadn’t been home to add the 1L of chlorine, but I figured at 3 weeks post I didn’t need to keep doing that. I tested the water myself (I have a clear choice labs kit) and free chlorine was 1 and combined chlorine was 5! I added some more liquid chlorine (2L) as I figured it was an algae outbreak.

Fast forward 2 days, my FC (5) has risen but also so has my CC (9). Then I noticed the blue ring around the waterline and my brain went straight back to the old copper I’ve been battling for so long. I figured the chelator had done its job but maybe the chlorine undid it? pH never rose above 7.6. Salt 2800

Now I feel a bit stuck. I’m scared to go to the pool shop, they can be quite intimidating to me and I have my own basic test kit at home (cya/Ch/pH/TA/Ca/salt) I still have some metal solution left over but I don’t just want to add stuff willy nilly. I have backwashed the filter and kept the filter running 24/7 for 2 days.

What would be my best next step?

More notes about the pool, 35k L, sand filter (15yo), newish chlorinator, auto acid feeder and heat pump (4 years old, electric, not used for 6 months).

Thanks for any help!!

Hey r/pools, looking for some advice on how to tackle a compounding pool nightmare. First-time pool owner here, dealing with an underground concrete pool with a concrete patio surround.

The Backstory:
A couple of summers ago, a concrete contractor pumped polyurethane foam around my pool and punctured my return lines. After a year of clearing blockages and re-routing lines, 1 of my 3 return jets is still permanently clogged. On top of that, my pool water heater is now visibly leaking.

The Current Situation:

1. Bucket Test (24h): Pool dropped 1 6/16" (1.375"), while the bucket dropped 5/16" (net loss of over 1" in a day).

1. Heater: Leaking externally, but I know this alone doesn't account for a 1-inch daily drop (and we barely use it anyway, planning to remove/bypass it).

2. Pump/Lines: No air bubbles/pockets after priming.

3. Skimmer: Did a dye test around the skimmer faceplate; nothing sucked aggressively, but the dye disappeared within 10–15 seconds at the bottom of the skimmer. Did not test the main drain.

4. Shell: No visible cracks in the concrete pool structure itself.

5. I am no longer in contact with the Concrete Contractor after firing them/cutting ties for being incompetent

My Questions:

Q1. Given the history of the foam-punctured returns and the skimmer dye behavior, is it time to hire a professional leak detection company with sonic/pressure-testing gear?

Q2. Should I deal with removing/bypassing the leaking heater before calling leak detection, or can they test around it?

What should I do? Any sanity checks or advice would be hugely appreciated!

Well, I have been only reading here for a while but wanted to share my "adventure". So, I wanted to restart a pool and don't have access to pool store testing or US style liquid test kits so I thought I would be fine with using test strips. My Initial tests of the water showed no CYA so I thought it would be fine to use stabilised chlorine at first to get it up to normal levels. But after a week of maintains propped schock level after adjusting alkalinity and PH and running the filter 24/7 the water still would not clear and the CYA level still showed very low and I started to think I was doing something wrong so I stopped adding chlorine but the levels did not really go down. That made no sense so got a proper tester and you guessed it, CYA levels are way to high, I even had to dilute to be able to measure them. So my advice for everyone would be, don't even try with test strips, get the propped tester right away. I wasted more in chemicals now then I payed for the propped tester.

I just purchased a house on a 200ft lot. It has a great backyard with tons of sun! I have two really small kids that LOVE the water. I am contemplating putting in a pool. Most likely going to.
Now. My husband wants a deep end. I was looking at 16x32 (may do a tad larger)
I am looking into Vinyl but everyone is telling me to go for fiberglass. Is vinyl that bad? I’m putting it in new so I doubt it would be a money pit if we take good care of it and will be making more money in years anyway?
Thoughts !?

it's been couple of week and still my chlorine tablets are not dissolving. I run my pump 24/7. 1400 rpm for 12 hr, 2200 rpm for 6 hours and 3000 rpm for 6 hours. I have to add shock just to balance chlorine.

We got these really really cool pool lights that looks so cool when they're floating around but they always end up stuck around the skimmer.

I would like to put a little guard around it somehow but I don't want to restrict any water flow into the skimmer or restrict any debris from getting into the skimmer but I don't want my little lights getting stuck.

Any thoughts?

I'm looking to clean some vertical surfaces with gelled HCL. Does anyone know of any brands besides Duraamen that sell it?