brand new pool startup--help!! (price, to eat, company)

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by lewdog_5

Sorry, I meant city sewer.

Well it would be silly for him to come test my water just to see what it's at. I'm trying to manage this pool myself. I'm not paying him, I just call him with questions and he tries to answer them for me without charging me. Once he heard the CYA level I asked if he'd be willing to drain it and he said yes.

Oh, you're getting his assistance for free...that's a whole different story and he is a good guy.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by Reedus

You guys are preaching about CYA like it is the end all be all. Like I mentioned before, by the time it gets out of control you need to drain anyways due to high TDS levels. Just because you are chlorinating with bleach doesn't exempt you from having to drain every 3 years. Where tabs are elevating your CYA, bleach is loading up your pool with salt and other hard minerals. Don't drain it and you will be paying me to come out and glass bead your tile line to get all the calcium hardness deposits off. Bleach is fine if you want to maintain your pool on a daily basis, but most people don't have that luxury or even the inclination. Pucks are by far the less hassle way to go, unless you can afford a salt system.

I can't figure out why anyone would not have a salt system. It was only $1500 to add when the pool was built and when you're spending $30k or more already why you wouldn't put that in is beyond me.

SOOOO much less hassle and only requires five minutes each Saturday of my time.

[Roger427]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Her second test showed FC of 0 which I took to mean her chlorine is being consumed and she needs to address now. In the OP she said her pool was 16,800 gallons.

I didn't take it the same way but you are right. I took it as a less accurate test. Probably bad on my part. I'm no expert but my pool has not been green in 3 years. Also the last time I listened to recommendations from Leslie's.

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by Roger427

I didn't take it the same way but you are right. I took it as a less accurate test. Probably bad on my part. I'm no expert but my pool has not been green in 3 years. Also the last time I listened to recommendations from Leslie's.

Sounds like you're doing it the right way...knock on wood, we built our pool seven years ago and it hasn't been green once. I listen to all my buddies at work complain about getting their pool cleaned up and two weeks later it is green again and they leave it for months before they address it.

My pool has a SWG so that takes a lot of the work out of it for me.

[Roger427]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Her second test showed FC of 0 which I took to mean her chlorine is being consumed and she needs to address now. In the OP she said her pool was 16,800 gallons.

At 16,800, each 8 oz puck adds 2.0 ppm CYA. Have to adjust if using smaller pucks.

[lewdog_5]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Oh, you're getting his assistance for free...that's a whole different story and he is a good guy.

Yea sorry I didn't state that very clearly.

He's spent 15-20 minutes at a time talking to me about having a pool and how to maintain it since I'm new to AZ and have never had a pool. He thinks 90% of the pool store products are rarely needed and really clued me in from the start to not trust what they tell you at those stores. Take the readings they give you but you yourself have to learn to decide what to add once you understand pool chemistry.

Lady at Leslie's pool store when seeing my CYA near 200 told me this.....A high CYA like that is great! It's like a higher SPF sunscreen that protects the chlorine. While a low CYA would be like putting baby oil on and going outside. That CYA isn't anything to worry about. I bet your chlorine is leaving your pool fast because you don't have our high quality pucks to put in.

LOL

[Roger427]

Originally Posted by Reedus

You guys are preaching about CYA like it is the end all be all. Like I mentioned before, by the time it gets out of control you need to drain anyways due to high TDS levels. Just because you are chlorinating with bleach doesn't exempt you from having to drain every 3 years. Where tabs are elevating your CYA, bleach is loading up your pool with salt and other hard minerals. Don't drain it and you will be paying me to come out and glass bead your tile line to get all the calcium hardness deposits off. Bleach is fine if you want to maintain your pool on a daily basis, but most people don't have that luxury or even the inclination. Pucks are by far the less hassle way to go, unless you can afford a salt system.

No it's not end all, all the chemicals need to be balanced. But CYA gets out of control too fast and you'll get so high you have to keep a higher level off free chlorine or risk algae. Keeping it balanced will reduce scale buildup. Yes pucks are easier but with that convenience comes a price and that price is Too high CYA. Or you could put together a stenner pump have not manually add every day. I was going through about 4 gallons a week mid summer which was 1/2 gallon a day. I didn't go with salt because of corrosive nature and I've got travertine coping and deck along with swim-up bar top so I didn't want the salt to eat it away. With our high hardness, the salt cells take a beating. My older system required weekly cleaning but I gear newer systems are better in that they reverse polarity regularly to help reduce the buildup on the cell.

[Roger427]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Sounds like you're doing it the right way...knock on wood, we built our pool seven years ago and it hasn't been green once. I listen to all my buddies at work complain about getting their pool cleaned up and two weeks later it is green again and they leave it for months before they address it.

My pool has a SWG so that takes a lot of the work out of it for me.

Had salt system at old house and worked well with fresh water but with the hardness it got to the point that I had to clean the cell at least weekly and had tons of crystals in the water that I had to vacuum out. I know the new systems are much better but we went with all travertine and builder would not warrant the travertine w/o a sealer and since we have travertine everywhere, including swim-up bar top, we left it out with the option to add it if the chlorine gets to be to much trouble. We already have the Pentair panel w/salt power supply so all we would need is the cell. The salt really wrecked our fence and our granite waterfall at the old house. Apparently they weren't the best boulders and the salt made them crumble. So far, we are OK with the maintenance of liquid chlorine.

[LBTRS]

We made the same mistake with the boulders we originally picked out. They were very porous and crumbled and made a mess at the bottom of the pool. We couldn't even run the water feature. I made Presidential Pools come out and replace the water feature and accent boulders with hard granite boulders and that made a ton of difference and eliminated the crumbling stones.

[kell490]

I use PoolRX and I only have to use 1 tablet of chlorine in a floater I looked into saltwater unit while it is nice not have to put chlorine in the pool the chlorine anode has to be replaced every 3 years at half the cost of a new unit. My pool is about 12k gallons I go though about $100 a year in tablets my ROI is $1500 installed plus replacing the anode. It would take me 15 years to break even.