(Part 2) Best products from r/pools

Hey - on the CYA thing, it turns out that TriChor should break down into CYA - but I have Zero CYA unless I add it.... I am looking into this.

ON the "Service" side, It is an interesting animal, the key is developing a culture, and in the pool business ( high employee turnover, low margins, cranky homeowners) this would be tough. But culture (why do we do what we do) , and vision (how we do what we do) - is vital to a good ( happy customer) business. Point being, you may not have to shrink, but show your employees that they work for the clients, not you, THE clients pay them.

After the POol business, I was field service engineer for electric systems, then robotics, then sold service for robots and the sold engineering services.... you get the point...

Service businesses are interesting to me. I recommend Settting the Table, by Danny Meyer, a restaurateur turned restaurant mogul... He created Shake Shack etc.

I am sure you will find many parallels.

The first and best thing you can do is go to TroubleFreePool.com and read everything in their Pool School section. Make sure you pay extra attention to the sections on the SLAM protocol and the chemical info. Feel free to message me (or post over there) if you have any questions.

Regardless of what people might have told you, pools can be pretty easy to take care of, especially after you get them going. Preventative maintenance is way easier than falling behind. Owning a pool is like having a pet: Even if you don't want to play with it, you still have to feed it. It's also like brushing your teeth: you can spend pennies/day, every day, or not do it for awhile and spend thousands of dollars fixing things.

As for basic equipment:

• A pool pole that you attach everything to.
  
  
• A pool net that attaches to the pole for fishing out stuff (leaves, acorns, things like that -- note this net has an angled/beveled bottom so you can 'scrape' it along the bottom of the pool to lift leaves and stuff off and into the netting)
  
  
• A vacuum head that you attach to the pole, and attach a vacuum hose to, to suck out stuff that you can't get with the net.
  
  
• A vacuum hose that attaches to the vacuum head on one end, and likely to your skimmer on the other end. This uses the suction produced by your pool pump to suck things out of your pool.
  
  
• A pool brush -- I use the "wall whale" model but any of them will work fine. You use this to brush the walls and side of your pool to help keep them clean. If your pool ever goes green, you'll have algae on your walls and bottom and you use this to brush that off the walls and into the water so the chlorine can help kill the algae.
  
  For a testing kit, I highly recommend you avoid testing strips, and splurge a bit for the TF-100 test kit with the SpeedStir, and the XL option. It's expensive, and worth every penny. If you're going to be closing this pool soon for the winter, I'd wait to buy the testing kit in the spring so your testing reagents are as fresh as possible when you open the pool.
  
  If you go the TroubleFreePool route, you'll be a large purchaser of bleach. I buy it about 15-gallons at a time from Wal-Mart -- just plain, unscented bleach. Anything else adds unneeded and unnecessary chemicals to your pool. Pay attention to the date code on the jug ("19250" means it was manufactured in 2019 on the 250th day of the year, newer is better since chlorine degrades over time), and the percentage of chlorine in the bleach -- most generic laundry bleach is 6%, the extra cheap stuff (which you don't want) doesn't even show the percentage so don't buy it! "Pool chlorinating liquid" from Wal-Mart is 10% bleach, and some pool stores sell 12.5% bleach.
  
  My 20k-gallon pool usually takes about a half-gallon/day of regular 6% bleach to keep the chlorine levels stable (sometimes added every day, sometimes added every 2-3 days). Other than initial setup in the spring when I add about $15 worth of chlorine stabilizer, and the occasional small dose of muriatic acid to keep the pH down, I rarely have to add anything else. Maybe a little baking soda when I first open in the spring, but nothing crazy. 99% of the "chemicals" I put in my pool is just plain bleach, and my water stays crystal clear and all chemical levels within range, all the time.

Impeller and diffuser look good, definitely replace the Seals while you have it open. The back plate/Seal Plate however, if you look at the bottom left part where the motor bolt connects to the plate it looks like it starting to crack. You can try to re-use that plate and hope the brass insert doesn't pop out, but in the long run it would be best to replace.

Edit: A little trick of the trade when installing the pump seal/PS-1000
Good Luck!

The skimmers were actually recently replace when I bought the house. The lines were replaced as well but with the 1 1/2 black poly. I feel they did a cheap job since they were selling the house.

I didn't know you can use both the holes in the skimmers... Hmmm that makes a good idea if that works. Can I just set up 2 1 1/2" lines coming off each skimmer and meet them together to the 2 1/2" run to the pump?

I was planning on upgrading the filter to this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001H3J474/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER and the mutiport value to this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001F6S9TC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I would be changing all the pad piping to 2 inch except the the outbound to the returns which was planning 2 1/2" and the inbound from the skimmers 2 1/2" as well.

How does that sound?

Thanks again for your expertise.

DON'T EPOXY OR SILICONE IT IF YOU WANT TO BE IN CODE! If you're in the US, the VGB Act is very strict on main drain design and install. Get this and get the right size drill bit with a 1/4" shank for the course-thread screws it comes with (the 'quick attach' style drill bit). Put that drill bit into one of those screwdrivers that lets you change out the tip of it, then drill some pilot holes by hand into the plastic part of the Ring. It'll be pretty easy to drill these holes by hand as the plastic is fairly soft. Once you have those holes, install the SDX retro cover I linked by following the instructions it comes with.

The job is a PITA, bit I've done it quite a few times with only a mask and a weight belt. You'll just bounce up for air every few turns of the screwdriver. Your other option is to hire a pool company to do it, bit it'll cost you hundreds vs $50 for the cover, and $10 for the drill bit if you don't have one already.

Another way I did it with an old employer was to use an air compressor with a cheap drill head from harbor freight. Washing beforehand and later reoiling the drill attachment as well as dragging around an air compressor wasn't worth the effort over just doing it by hand.

This is an up-rated 56J motor that you're replacing it with. The super pump comes with a 48J motor - slight size difference but there is a foot that you can remove.

I suggest replacing all the gaskets and the shaft seal. Here's the kit. Make sure you order it too!

There are youtube videos out there to show you how to replace it.

Good luck!

I would like to run all the other equipment except the heater at the same time (chlorinator and pump) and only have the heater off but in pool heat mode with a set temp so when powered with a switch it turns on and begins to heat. I have a inline thermostat that monitors the water temp going to the heater to gauge the temp.

From the panel it goes into this switch:

https://www.amazon.ca/Aeon-Labs-White-V3-26-AL001/dp/B00MBIRF5W

Which ties into a home automation platform for on and off times. I would also like to use the same style of switch for the heater so on a swim day I can check the temp and fire up the heater from work to pre-heat the pool so it is ready to go when I get home (father of young impatient kids who don't like swimming in cold water)

There is a disconnect outside.

Current flow

240V Panel --> IN Smart Switch OUT --> IN Disconnect Switch OUT --> IN chlorinator OUT ---> IN Heater OUT --> PUMP

Hope this is more helpful.

So when we had the pool opened, the guy from the company pointed out the vacuum port. In addition to 4 standard water returns, we have a 5th that perfectly fits a standard pool hose. He said they used to be the rave, and they're for pool vacuums "but they left you that electric vacuum, so you're not going to need this".

I did some googling, and there are TONS of pressure-style vacuum robots, that run partly or entirely on that piece. But they're all full-automatic, and not the kind of thing I put on a pole.

I get it... Suction's great, and my pool was designed with a hose port under the skimmer, but I used to have one similar to this that was great for larger matter (worms, twigs, etc) that my suction vacuum doesn't handle well... but those use a garden hose to generate their suction, not a pool hose.

Water Tech Pool Blaster Catfish Li Pool and Spa Cleaner https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GT91SK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.AdozbC1MJ81C

This thing is awesome. It ll get sand off the bottom of my Intex pool. My pool is 18ft around and it did the whole thing in a few minutes. Way better than the one you have to hook to a garden hose or the intex pool pump. Those didn't work and had a bunch of tubes attached. This is self contained and works great.

I was curious about your control system so I Googled it and came across this on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/IAQUALINK-2-0-UPGRADE-SYSTEMS-IQ20-RS/dp/B00NVLM4LS

Expensive but the description says it improves reliability, signal, and compatibility. Reading the reviews looks like it might be a good option.

Green and Mustard algaecide Swimtrine plus

This works really well. Make sure you shock, use your algaecide and proper filtration. I recommend a 36 hour treatment. Shock, use algaecide and use a wire brush on the mustard algae. After the first 12 hours of running your filter, shock it again. Shock a 3rd time at 24 hours, 4th at 36. After 36 hours, clean your filter out as best as you can.. another thing I’ll include is controlling your phosphates. Not a lot of people mention about phosphates but if you have surrounding trees/bushes that are getting into your pool, it’ll increase your phosphates, which is food for algae. Let me know if you need anymore help !

Edit: forgot to mention; Hasa Phos out works really well at reducing your phosphates. You should add this once the algae is gone.

Yeah, filter tanks expand more than you would think. That’s fine. Also, what kind of nozzle are you using on the end of your garden hose? Frequently people are using one of those 5-option ones from Home Depot, and those don’t clean for squat. Something like this works much better:

Brass Hose Sweeper Nozzle with Extra Washers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0186NHC7Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_30A-AbSQ5TWFB

If you clean the filter, and everything works fine, a dirty filter was the problem. If you have to clean it too frequently, either you aren’t getting it clean enough, or it’s a bad filter.

I was confused - thanks for clarifying.

There are titration kits available that will allow you to test up to 100 ppm (or more, I think) accurately.

this is a link to an Amazon web page showing a Taylor test kit I'm familiar with that allows accurate testing above the 5.0 ppm ceiling most kits provide - I am not affiliated with Taylor nor do I receive any remuneration for recommending their products - and I'm not real keen about Amazon but they do have a lot of product listed for easy display

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88° In Georgia, we finally got out of the triple digit daytime temps. I keep a small fountain running at night which helps. It had reached 94° , which was way too warm.

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This is the one I use.