Best products from r/swimmingpools

Sort answer Teflon Teflon Teflon on the threads. Gizmos can be used with teflon and do serve double function that way. Pool_Guy was getting at that issue. They plug the skimmer line as well as anything physically possible and protect against freeze expansion. They also make a special Gizmo of a special kind or different name. That has o-rings at the bottom threads. But also has a cap at the top which can be removed and can blow the skimmer out above the water level of the pool. So 1) Put in the Gizmo/ Gizmos. 2) Remover the caps. 3) Blow the skimmers out. 4) When skimmer line and Gizmo are COMPLETELY empty...and they can be. Replace the caps.http://www.amazon.com/Gizzmo-MWUG-Skimmer-Protection-Blowout/dp/B004VU8H5U. Also open all valves. When blowing out returns they can be done in order from closest to furthest. This will ensure the best blowout. The air is going to displace water and take the path of least resistance i.e. the bubbles are gonna be huge at closest return and lesser at furthest. Just plug them in order of closest to furthest. You will be doing the best possible way. Keep in mind on deep stuff water is also an insulator.

What a beautiful pool! I hope you enjoy it.

I have a gunite pool. Unfortunately (for you, but fortunately for me) I don't know how much it will cost to redo because the previous owner did it sometime before we bought. We've been in the house about 10 years now and haven't had to redo the gunite, so at least you know if it's done well you won't have to do it for a while.

The pool had a cartridge filter when we got it. The pump finally gave out a couple years ago and we had to replace it, and now have a sand filter. Truth be told, I feel the pool was consistently cleaner with the cartridge filter. Maintenance consists of pulling it out every couple weeks and hosing off any muck, and eventually bought a second one so we could just put the clean one right after taking the dirty one out. There are hose attachments you can get that help direct the water flow to make the cleaning more efficient. Here's an example.

For reference, there are only two of us who use the pool occasionally, and no kids or pool parties so there is minimal human ick. Our yard has a truckload of native oak trees so we end up with leaves in the pool that need to be skimmed often, especially after a storm.

Try this one thing before anything else, get yourself one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/PoolRx-Algaecide-Unit-20000-gallons/dp/B003TXBE4Q


I have a really clean pool but at the peak of summer I started getting the same algae and fought it for a while before I found that Pool RX product.

It instantly killed that algae and it stayed gone for the whole season. I reduced my chlorine by about half and still ZERO algae.

Another major bonus is it makes the water sparkle this certain way, I can't explain it. Like, you think you had a clean pool but this product just makes the water sooo clear it's really nice.

Pretty much overnight I was blown away by the difference.

Its like $60 and now this season I bought a new one and just holding it until either I see that same algae again, or once it starts hitting like 90's and 100's.

pH/alkalinity etc are always going to need to be balanced. Not too often, but you'll want to keep an eye on it.

Really what you have to choose is your sanitation.

Baqua Spa works fine, and is chlorine free, but it can be expensive. You do want to stick to the 3 or 4 chemicals they recommend to make sure it all works ok.

I'm a big fan of the Nature^2 stick which, along with some MPS/Oxy Shock can take care of your sanitization at a decent cost and pretty low maintenance. Change the stick with the water (~4 months), and oxy shock once a week and you should be good.

If you don't want the stick, then you're typically looking at something like shaking some Sodium Di-Chlor in every time you get out, and then some oxy shock once a week. If your pool gets cloudy, or you have higher calcium levels, you might want to use some Stain & Scale remover once a week.

I am not sure if you have power or not but these seem to get very good reviews and a lot of the reviewers put their own pictures.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0749GN5WF/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are some pretty good , quality solar and battery operated color light these days. Just remember you will need some pretty high lumen lights to get a good “pop”.

Both Pentair and Hayward have great reviews on Amazon for their pumps in the $920 range:

TriStar 3202

Tristar 3200

EcoStar 3400

Pentair 011018

and with the pool servicing company doing the install the warranties will be honored for 3 years which is nice to have as well.

on a few different websites the Intelliflo comes in as the best quality but the EcoStar as the best value since it costs less to run it overall.

Do you have any other information on that?

Yes, good clarification, I put the ShopVac on suction to pull all the water out of the returns (I'm using this ShopVac: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013DD8N4/ ). The key for me is that my return lines split underground near my pool somewhere, so when I vacuum them out, I remove the saltwater generator cell, plug the opposite return and vacuuming everything out of the line from the return to the SWG. Then I seal off the saltwater line, move my Vacuum to the opposite return and pull the water out the other way to ensure i get all the water out of the lines. When I moved my equipment and partially re plumbed my pool last year, I added 2 ball valves (these guys: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CG4DGX6 ) just so I could isolate the intake lines. I put a ball valve and a check valve on the skimmer and floor drain lines and use the pump multiselector valve on my filter to seal the rest. Another good catch - I have 2 ball valves total - I do not have an actual ball valve between the pump (I realize I said ball valve in the original post, sorry about that - where I say "ball valve between the pump and filter, it should be put the multiselctor valve on winterize) As long as you have a way to isolate the skimmer and floor drain lines, you should be good to go.

On the adapter, I looked everywhere, and couldn't find anything like it (which is a bit shocking!) - but you could replicate it pretty easily with a 1 1/2" threaded pipe end (which threads into an eyeball fitting) , and a heat gun like this guy does ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS20exGNPbg ) to adapt the pipe to a shop vac end. Let me get out to my garage a bit later and snap a photo so you can see what I have. Does this help? Anything I can take photos of to help visualize it?

While I know it's obviously a lot more than $40, this is one hell of a replacement LED bulb. It's got a 50k hour lifespan, is very bright and if you have multiple of them, they can sync up on their own using the electrical without additional automation or anything. Good warranty, great customer support. The company is very reputable, and makes complete fixtures as well. They used to manufacture OEM fixtures for Jandy, actually not sure if they still do after their Savi acquisition. I'm in distribution, and we're starting to move tons of them.

The one you got looks pretty crappy, tbh. Not trying to be a dick but i can't imagine it's very bright, and looks like it would crap out pretty quickly form overheating or something like that.

EDIT: forgot the link, ha. http://www.amazon.com/Color-Splash-Pool-Light-Replacement/dp/B0033BGRK0. That one specifically is 12v, (part number LPL-P1-RGB-12) so if you need 120v change the part number to LPL-P1-RGB-120.

We've got this one I'm very happy Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus Automatic Robotic Pool Cleaner with Easy to Clean Top Load Filters Ideal for Swimming Pools up to 50 Feet https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q8M0NWE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_4MpVCbFMKMVXN

A new children's swimming school opened near us this winter - really stellar facility, so many things were well considered, highly impressed with it. One thing they use in every lane when my 3yo is taking lessons is this Finis Swim Teaching Platform, and all of the kids love them.


We've got a large shallow area, but it's adult-shallow, not toddler-shallow. As much as I'd love to get one, we've got a vinyl-lined pool, so that's basically a non-starter. Our liner is near the end of its lifespan, and is really the last remaining item that we'll need to replace soon. If we got one of those then I'm sure it'd wear a hole in the liner in no time.

We've used Pentair/Rainbow ProVac heads for years of our service vans. They do a great job, roll easily and steer well due to the swivel handle. Parts are readily available so we get 5+ years of daily use of 10+ vacuums per day before they need to be replaced. For your pool the 14" head would be a good size (R201276). We tried the ProVac 2 and didn't like it as much.

It's worth noting it's designed for 1-1\2" vacuum hoses, so if you have an 1-1\4" hose you'd have to remove the hose swivel and it won't work as well.

Short of the ProVac, I'd just get a cheap concrete pool vac and plan on replacing every couple years. I'd steer clear of liner vacs as they are a pain to vacuum with and have no benefit in your pool.

Thanks so much for the response. I have been looking at this one as the reviews are great:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I466H94/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1VPVM6ZKJOM4L&psc=1

This is probably the route I will go, but will wait a day or two just to see if others have other recommendations. Again thanks for your time.

I have also thought about eventually converting this all to an in ground pool, as I am not a big fan of above ground pools. But for right now even if I can just float on the water in a raft on a hot summer day that is a start.

Thanks again...

Yeah, I've been looking at the "Sunken Treasure" because it seems to have pretty good reviews and appears to be pretty simple to use.

Teflon and silicone is what I use every day. 4 wraps or so of Teflon with a bead of silicone around the base (where the threads first touch the pump) of the fitting.

I wouldn't use white PVC on the pump fitting though, it's more prone to heat damage/warping. You want to use gray cpvc for at least a few inches. Even better would be a threaded Union like this 2" one or like this 1.5" one. The union gives you a way to break apart the plumbing later on for future repairs without having to cut it apart. Those unions are hi-temp rated to help prevent heat warping.

1. no, I live in MD and have a 60k gallon pool and never drain it all the way, my neighbors have large pools also and never completely drain them. It's a waste of water. Just drain it down below the return jet, plug the jet up and keep an eye on the level over the winter.
   
   
2. I don't know without seeing it, but painting a pool every year is beyond overkill. It's just not necessary, the cost and time involved are wasted.
   
   
3. I have used liquid rubber to seal leaks in the pump and plumbing but not for the pool itself. There are special products for things like that. I use JB Water Weld for repairing leaks in the gunnite. Use can use it underwater and from my experience it works well on small cracks.
   
   I suggest taking numerous pictures of the pool and take them to your local pool store, they can point you in the right directions. Also, maybe get with some of the people in the HOA and come up with a yearly plan for pool maintenance. Delegate someone to be in charge, and make sure that person becomes an expert in taking care of the pool.

Too true, u/TyneyTyney. OP, save your self pennies and lose dollars to rebuild this if you can afford a Pentair Intelliflo VS. This WILL save you the cost of the pump within a year and a half and after that it will be paying you back for years and years of free service. http://smile.amazon.com/Pentair-011018-IntelliFlo-Performance-Horsepower/dp/B007E4VWNO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458757750&sr=8-1&keywords=Pentair+Intelliflo+VS

I've got one of these and like it. We call him Scooby, & he does a good job cleaning up if you just let him hop around for a while. It also recommend getting the leaf canister when you purchase - saves you from having to clean out your filter as often.

My experience is with the [Baracuda G3] (http://www.amazon.com/Baracuda-W03000-Advanced-Suction-Automatic/dp/B002HRET3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370546589&sr=8-1&keywords=baracuda+g3) which moves about differently. It works well enough, but I find I can manually vacuum a pool way faster than the vacuum can randomly do it. If I have the time (which is 70% of the time) I just do it manually. But it's nice to have the automatic vac for days when people are coming over and I'm busy in the morning with other things.

I have had this one for three seasons now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C4JSTES/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_QZrADbCGESHZJ

20x40 pool with Rocky's Rollers, even my wife can pull the cover off by herself. It's still in good shape and I can get at least one more season out of it.

We found this Dolphin last week-- Nautilus CC PluS -

https://www.amazon.com/Dolphin-Nautilus-Robotic-Cleaner-Cartridges/dp/B00Q8M0NWE/ref=sr_1_3?m=A70W6TBLAYLN5&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&qid