z400wood
We just bought a house in MI with a 16x32 inground pool. I am getting ready to buy chemicals for it. The pool has an automatic chlorinator and I am wondering whether or not to buy 3" or 1" tabs or the sticks or whatever else there is. Also how many pounds of chlorine will I go through in the summer running the pump for 12 hours a day. Any other pool tips or chemical advice would be greatly appreciated.
Answer
You definetly DO have to chlorinate a private residential pool, otherwise you will very quickly have a swamp rather than a swimming pool. Go with the 3" tabs, they dissolve less quickly so you won't have to add tabs but about every one to two weeks ( I have some pools on my route that I only have to add once a month). As far as how much to buy, as with everything, the more you buy the more you save. It does not expire so if you have some left at the end of the season, just store until the next.
As far as other tips, the key to keeping a nice pool if preventative maintenance ( as with any investment).
I recommend taking one day a week (only an hour or so) and perform maintenance:
*clean the water line (with a tile/vinyl cleaner from your local pool store)
*Remove large debris from bottom of pool with a leaf rake (large deep net that attaches to the end of telescopic pole)
*empty skimmer and pump baskets
*vacuum pool
*clean filter according to filter type (backwash sand filter, *clean cartridge elements in cartridge filter, and for DE backwash and recharge with DE)
*Test chemicals -- Test Chlorine and pH weekly, Total Alkalinty biweekly, and Calcium Hardness monthly.
Recommended chemical levels:
Chlorine: 1-5 ppm
pH: 7.2-7.6
Total Alkalinity: 80-120 ppm
Calcium Hardness: 200-300 ppm
In addition to chlorine, you will need to purchase other chemicals for balancing, namely Sodium Bicarbonate (for Total Alkalinity), Soda Ash (for pH), and Calcium Chloride( for calcium). If you would ever need to lower the pH, use Muriatic Acid.
You can buy these chemicals at your local pool store. They will most likely try to sell you BioGuard or some other brand of pool chemicals. The ones that I named are what we call bulk chemicals, they come in 50 lb. bags and are much less expensive. They are the exact same thing, you're just not paying for advertisement. Again they do not go bad, so you can save them for years. Just make sure you store chemicals out of the elements.
I recommend getting yourself a good test kit (the best is made by Taylor). Do not use test strips as they are difficult to read and often wrong.
I see that you are in michigan. If you happen to be near the Saginaw/ Bay City area there is a great company there called Cherokee Pools. They have a retail store and also do service if you would ever need any repair work done.( My husband got his start with them years ago and we now own our own business in Myrtle Beach).
If you have any other questions I would be more than happy to answer them.
You definetly DO have to chlorinate a private residential pool, otherwise you will very quickly have a swamp rather than a swimming pool. Go with the 3" tabs, they dissolve less quickly so you won't have to add tabs but about every one to two weeks ( I have some pools on my route that I only have to add once a month). As far as how much to buy, as with everything, the more you buy the more you save. It does not expire so if you have some left at the end of the season, just store until the next.
As far as other tips, the key to keeping a nice pool if preventative maintenance ( as with any investment).
I recommend taking one day a week (only an hour or so) and perform maintenance:
*clean the water line (with a tile/vinyl cleaner from your local pool store)
*Remove large debris from bottom of pool with a leaf rake (large deep net that attaches to the end of telescopic pole)
*empty skimmer and pump baskets
*vacuum pool
*clean filter according to filter type (backwash sand filter, *clean cartridge elements in cartridge filter, and for DE backwash and recharge with DE)
*Test chemicals -- Test Chlorine and pH weekly, Total Alkalinty biweekly, and Calcium Hardness monthly.
Recommended chemical levels:
Chlorine: 1-5 ppm
pH: 7.2-7.6
Total Alkalinity: 80-120 ppm
Calcium Hardness: 200-300 ppm
In addition to chlorine, you will need to purchase other chemicals for balancing, namely Sodium Bicarbonate (for Total Alkalinity), Soda Ash (for pH), and Calcium Chloride( for calcium). If you would ever need to lower the pH, use Muriatic Acid.
You can buy these chemicals at your local pool store. They will most likely try to sell you BioGuard or some other brand of pool chemicals. The ones that I named are what we call bulk chemicals, they come in 50 lb. bags and are much less expensive. They are the exact same thing, you're just not paying for advertisement. Again they do not go bad, so you can save them for years. Just make sure you store chemicals out of the elements.
I recommend getting yourself a good test kit (the best is made by Taylor). Do not use test strips as they are difficult to read and often wrong.
I see that you are in michigan. If you happen to be near the Saginaw/ Bay City area there is a great company there called Cherokee Pools. They have a retail store and also do service if you would ever need any repair work done.( My husband got his start with them years ago and we now own our own business in Myrtle Beach).
If you have any other questions I would be more than happy to answer them.
We have wrinkles in our above ground swimming pool liner?
chickibabe
Is there anything we can do for this? Will it ruin our pool?
Answer
If there's water in there, there's nothing you can do. I'm assuming you just filled up a new pool and didn't push the wrinkles out. Kinda important to do that before you have more than 1/4 inch of water in there. If this is a brand new liner and you have wrinkles that have a sharp ridge on them and you eventually plan on using an automatic cleaner, it's worth the time and effort to drain that pool, push the wrinkles out in conjunction to using a liner vac and fill slowly, watching for any further wrinkles to show. Pounce on them immediately. Once you have an inch of water in there...that's it, no need to keep watching for bottom wrinkles, just make sure that the liner on the wall has to stretch a bit and no wrinkle will form there.
The reasons you may want to do all this are twofold:
1/ A sharp ridge wrinkle and an automatic cleaner do NOT get along. The cleaner will eventually wear a hole in your liner on that ridge.
2/ Wrinkles are unsightly. Makes it look like the installation was sloppy.
If there's water in there, there's nothing you can do. I'm assuming you just filled up a new pool and didn't push the wrinkles out. Kinda important to do that before you have more than 1/4 inch of water in there. If this is a brand new liner and you have wrinkles that have a sharp ridge on them and you eventually plan on using an automatic cleaner, it's worth the time and effort to drain that pool, push the wrinkles out in conjunction to using a liner vac and fill slowly, watching for any further wrinkles to show. Pounce on them immediately. Once you have an inch of water in there...that's it, no need to keep watching for bottom wrinkles, just make sure that the liner on the wall has to stretch a bit and no wrinkle will form there.
The reasons you may want to do all this are twofold:
1/ A sharp ridge wrinkle and an automatic cleaner do NOT get along. The cleaner will eventually wear a hole in your liner on that ridge.
2/ Wrinkles are unsightly. Makes it look like the installation was sloppy.
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