If so, do you do your own maintenance? I fired my pool guy in January to save money and I've been doing everything myself since then with no issue, but now I'm having a hard time keeping my numbers where they should be. Maybe the weather?
I do my own. This summer has been all about keeping the pool chlorinated at all times and the filters clean. Hasn't needed much acid. What are you having trouble with?
I clean mine and the wife makes sure the numbers are good. She takes a sample to Leslie's once a month and adjusts the chlorinator. I will add acid if necessary.
I'm using a chlorine tab almost every day - sometimes two a day. I'm having a hard time keep it up because it seems like the sun is just eating it all up. That stuff is expensive! Any way to make it last longer? Also, my PH is low but my total alkalinity is high, which seems odd since they are supposed to go hand-in-hand? Finally, my calcium hardness is off the chain high. Not sure if there's anything I can do about that though. The surface is 20 years old and our water supply is pretty hard.
I used to do my own and will once we build one at our new house. I strangely miss it. If you're out of balance, it's going to eat up the chlorine. Have you gotten it tested at a Leslie's or somewhere like that? You can actually use Borax to bring the ph up but not affect the alkalinity. Once you get them in sync, then you'd use muriatic acid to bring both down to where it needs to be. If the hardness is that out of whack, you might need to drain it some and put in fresh water. Proper levels of acid will help maintain that once you get it down. The surface being that old could be contributing as well. I'm surprised it's made it that long without issues. Again, if you haven't had it professionally tested, do so. It's free at most pool stores.
I have two tabs in the skimmer and two in the floater. And I add liquid chlorine at times. I also have more than half of the pool covered with a tarp. That probably helps a lot. If you want to bring your alkalinity down along with your pH you have to bring your pH up with soda ash or baking soda or borax and then bring both down together with acid. One of those brings pH up without raising alkalinity. What surface is your pool? Mine is plaster and high hardness at around 250 is okay with it. You could try to drain some water and replace it. The water at my house is hard, too, so I tie a rag at the end of the hose when I'm filling it.
Never had a pool, and this pool maintenance sounds involved. Some good sounding advice being given so hopefully it helps ima. I have a question for owners. Would a saltwater pool be easier to maintain?
I had a pool 10 years ago. Convert to salt. You can add the salt/chlorine generator inline to your plumbing. After I converted to salt, I only had to keep the salt levels up and throw some shock in every month or so. Better for your skin, doesn't sting your eyes, smells better, looks better. This is the best place for DIY pool stuff: https://www.troublefreepool.com/blog/
Oh, the more I do it myself, the more I love doing it myself (TWSS). I get it tested at Pinch A Penny. It's a real thorough test, but the kid there always tells me the same thing - add acid to deep end, wait 3 hours, shock with liquid chlorine. That works great for a few days, but then the numbers go right back to where they were. Is there a table to tell you how much Borax to use according to your pool size and/or PH number? Mine is 18,000 gallons and my PH is around 7.2.
Yeah, the sun shines directly on my entire pool from sunrise to about 3pm every day. I'm sure that's a big part of the problem. We lost a few of our good covering trees during the freeze a few years ago. Surface is plaster, but it's 20 years old and starting to come loose. Resurfacing is on my radar for the offseason. Good idea using a rag to fill the pool. Or maybe some kind of a hose filter?
Man, I didn't know water hose filters existed. There are some specifically for pools. I'm getting one.
I was but sold that house. If it’s saltwater get a company, if it’s chlorine it isn’t too difficult to maintain. I grew up caring for my parents chlorine pool and had no issues. When I had a salt water pool I wanted to fill that b**** in.
Maybe try a Leslie's or Texsun Pools if you have either of those reasonably near by. At least to see if you get a different answer because I don't think just adding acid is doing you any good. The sun definitely burns the chlorine. Do you have an auto feeder or just one of those floating things? Also, the amount the pool gets used is going to have a large effect. I've read 20 oz/5,000 gallons of Borax.
What type of chlorine are you using? What is your CYA (cyanuric acid) reading? Do you shock your pool weekly?
We have salt setup. pretty easy. my parents live in garage renovated to apartment and my dad does all pool stuff. seems pretty easy
Our guy was charging 400$ a month and started off really good , but as pool guys go (rep is there for a reason next to car salesman) started doing a **** job and left an algae attack for 10 days. been doing it ourselves here’s what I will say, the heat has made this really hard, we don’t use salt system anymore and use floaters. Nearly doubled the chlorine in there and having to mess with alkalinity regularly. I would check it every other day with the strips and make sure you have a robot/cleaner. It’s the hardest time right now to keep the numbers right All in all nobody uses our ****ing pool except the dogs. We didn’t build it (80-90K gallons) and would probably never build one given the headache
I always wanted a pool growing up, but now it doesnt seem worth it reading all of this. Plus Im sure your homeowners insurance goes up as well.
