- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,576
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Had a gorgeous 70-80° day yesterday at the end of April. Pool is still upper 40s / low 50s but I went ahead and opened.
It was pretty clear. Lots of debris on the bottom but so be it.
- Deep cleaned the sand filter. Went way longer than normal, a good 60-90 minutes of flushing it out. Got a lot of gunk out of it.
- Vacuumed up with a leaf vacuum first all around the pool, the anchors, the straps of the cover, the edge of the patio surrounding the pool to get rid of as many pine needles as possible. Only then used a leaf blower to move the rest. Seemed to help minimize what got in the pool during opening.
- Removed the pool cover. We tried to keep it out of the water as much as possible, but like last year, there was enough snowfall and rain to basically refill it to just above the skimmer opening. So it was pretty much impossible to keep out of the water. Luckily it was a very nice and sunny day so it dried off quickly on the grass and I was able to put it away pretty quickly.
- When I removed the plugs for the intake and the returns, I felt water rushing in behind the plugs. I figured this is a very good sign and meant that there was air behind them that was being pushed out through the pipes water filled the pipes behind where the plugs were.
- Pool gizmo in skimmer seemed to do its job and the antifreeze in the skimmer was all still there. So I’m pretty confident no plug leak there either.
- Put the two plugs back in the heater, the two plugs back in the pump, the salt cell in for the dummy, had previously put the plug for the filter back in before I deep cleaned it. Fired up the pump and while it took about five minutes it did prime the first time.
- Got the heater running and set it to 65° to warm the water overnight. Blew out the heater with the leaf blower and I got nice strong strong blue flame with no yellow/orange to indicate any sort of issue with the gas flow.
- Water was very clear. Lots of gunk on the bottom - leaves, pine needles, dust/dirt, and the steps were as nasty as always, but less debris than past years (I attribute this to using the leaf vacuum a couple of times to clean up during the winter).
- We also pulled all of the cover anchor inserts all the way out, cleaned them off, ran a brush / vacuum in the anchors in the pool deck, and lubed up the anchors with Super Lube (synthetic grease). Hoping this helps to prevent some of the problems we’ve had with them stripping out in the past. The threads on many were pretty worn down but they still work. Still, getting new anchors in case they’re needed.
- Only real hitch came during vacuuming. The basket support ring in the skimmer was cracked and so the basket was sucked down into the bottom half of the skimmer during vacuuming. I put it back best I could, ordered a new ring, and kept going. This time I had the 12-yo sit with his tablet by the skimmer opening and put constant slight pressure pulling on the vacuum hose going to the skimmer vacuum plate - he alerted me each time it had trouble with the suction holding the plate down. First time it was the pump basket filling (from when the skimmer basket fell through the ring, I assume). Second time we were puzzled a bit until I checked the PSI on the filter and saw it had gone from about 10 to about 17. Backwashed, better. Had to backwash twice during the vacuuming. Apparently the deep clean did its job so the filter could do its job.
- After vacuuming the pool was much cloudier, but that was to be expected and I will now let the pump and filter do their jobs.
- Threw the solar cover on to keep the heat in the pool and threw the robot in to do more cleaning work once the bottom was completely vacuumed.
Today I will grab a water sample to balance the chems. I learned last year that it can take a full day of mixing to really get the pool homogenous for a good sample.
It was pretty clear. Lots of debris on the bottom but so be it.
- Deep cleaned the sand filter. Went way longer than normal, a good 60-90 minutes of flushing it out. Got a lot of gunk out of it.
- Vacuumed up with a leaf vacuum first all around the pool, the anchors, the straps of the cover, the edge of the patio surrounding the pool to get rid of as many pine needles as possible. Only then used a leaf blower to move the rest. Seemed to help minimize what got in the pool during opening.
- Removed the pool cover. We tried to keep it out of the water as much as possible, but like last year, there was enough snowfall and rain to basically refill it to just above the skimmer opening. So it was pretty much impossible to keep out of the water. Luckily it was a very nice and sunny day so it dried off quickly on the grass and I was able to put it away pretty quickly.
- When I removed the plugs for the intake and the returns, I felt water rushing in behind the plugs. I figured this is a very good sign and meant that there was air behind them that was being pushed out through the pipes water filled the pipes behind where the plugs were.
- Pool gizmo in skimmer seemed to do its job and the antifreeze in the skimmer was all still there. So I’m pretty confident no plug leak there either.
- Put the two plugs back in the heater, the two plugs back in the pump, the salt cell in for the dummy, had previously put the plug for the filter back in before I deep cleaned it. Fired up the pump and while it took about five minutes it did prime the first time.
- Got the heater running and set it to 65° to warm the water overnight. Blew out the heater with the leaf blower and I got nice strong strong blue flame with no yellow/orange to indicate any sort of issue with the gas flow.
- Water was very clear. Lots of gunk on the bottom - leaves, pine needles, dust/dirt, and the steps were as nasty as always, but less debris than past years (I attribute this to using the leaf vacuum a couple of times to clean up during the winter).
- We also pulled all of the cover anchor inserts all the way out, cleaned them off, ran a brush / vacuum in the anchors in the pool deck, and lubed up the anchors with Super Lube (synthetic grease). Hoping this helps to prevent some of the problems we’ve had with them stripping out in the past. The threads on many were pretty worn down but they still work. Still, getting new anchors in case they’re needed.
- Only real hitch came during vacuuming. The basket support ring in the skimmer was cracked and so the basket was sucked down into the bottom half of the skimmer during vacuuming. I put it back best I could, ordered a new ring, and kept going. This time I had the 12-yo sit with his tablet by the skimmer opening and put constant slight pressure pulling on the vacuum hose going to the skimmer vacuum plate - he alerted me each time it had trouble with the suction holding the plate down. First time it was the pump basket filling (from when the skimmer basket fell through the ring, I assume). Second time we were puzzled a bit until I checked the PSI on the filter and saw it had gone from about 10 to about 17. Backwashed, better. Had to backwash twice during the vacuuming. Apparently the deep clean did its job so the filter could do its job.
- After vacuuming the pool was much cloudier, but that was to be expected and I will now let the pump and filter do their jobs.
- Threw the solar cover on to keep the heat in the pool and threw the robot in to do more cleaning work once the bottom was completely vacuumed.
Today I will grab a water sample to balance the chems. I learned last year that it can take a full day of mixing to really get the pool homogenous for a good sample.
