I know I am a bit late to the party and I have read some other posts including the YouTube video and post found here: Intellicenter Feature Circuits v Pump Speed [solved] but configuring this system is still confusing using the web app and the mobile app.

Now, I am a 20 year IT Professional, everything from building large scale network infrastructure to software engineering and I have to say, the user interface is confusing as heck. Here's what I want to do. If someone can tell me if it is possible and how to go about it, I would appreciate it. As mentioned in my introduction post, my brother is a 20 year pool service and repair technician with his own business and he installed the panel for me but I want to learn on my own and not have to rely on him because he is very busy so any help is appreciated.

Design: Rectangle
Age: 2 Years
Surface: Mini Pebble
Pump: Pentair IntelliFlo Pro3 VSF 3hp (no relay board)
Filter: Pentair 420 Cartridge
Size: 76' Perimiter (approximately 10,000 gallons)
Light: Pentair IntelliBrite 5G Color Changing LED
Num. Returns: 4
In-Floor Cleaning: None
In-Floor Drains: 1
Automation: IntelliCenter
Features: 2 Simple Deck Jets
Relays: 2 (one for deck jets using an automated valve and another for an external receptacle which will control yard lighting)
Valves: 1 (deck jets)

I would like to run the pump on a schedule from 7PM to 7AM, every day of the week at full flow / rpm (3450 rpm). During this same time period, I would like the deck jet vavle to open half way to cool down the water (we live in Arizona, if that was not mentioned previously). So that is program / schedule one.

The second program / schedule, I would like to run the pump at low flow / rpm (1150 rpm) during which I would like the deck jet vavle to be open full. This would run from 7AM to 7PM.

Yes, I plan to run the pump 24 hours per day, 7 days per week during the summer months (May through October). During the winter months (November through April) I plan to run the pump only at night (same as the first program / schedule but with the deck jets valve closed).

Next, I would like to turn the pool light on from 7PM to 12AM, every day of the week on white (with the option to manually change it).

If you're still with me, that is four programs / schedules in total.

TL;DR (Too Long, Didn't Read)

Program / Schedule 1:
Start: 7PM
Stop: 7AM
Pump Speed: 3450RPM
Deck Jets Valve: Half Open
Pool Light: OFF (manually controller)
Days of Week: All
Months of Year: May - October

Program / Schedule 2:
Start: 7AM
Stop: 7PM
Pump Speed: 1150RPM
Deck Jets Valve: Full Open
Pool Light: OFF (manually controller)
Yard Lighting: NA
Days of Week: All
Months of Year: May - October

Program / Schedule 3:
Start: 7PM
Stop: 7AM
Pump Speed: 3450RPM
Deck Jets Valve: Closed
Pool Light: OFF (manually controller)
Yard Lighting: NA
Days of Week: All
Months of Year: November - April

Program / Schedule 4:
Start: 7PM
Stop: 12AM
Pump Speed: NA
Deck Jets Valve: NA
Pool Light: ON - White
Yard Lighting: NA
Days of Week: All
Months of Year: All

Program / Schedule 5:
Start: 7PM
Stop: 12AM
Pump Speed: NA
Deck Jets Valve: NA
Pool Light: NA
Yard Lighting: ON
Days of Week: All
Months of Year: All

Any help is greatly appreciated. I shouldn't need a full walk-through for all of them, just the first one should be enough to get me started. I am OCD so I like to keep things nice and tidy.

Also, are there any devices available that will report the chemical levels to IntelliCenter so I can check them (maybe get notifications?) and just handle them manually? I am not looking to automate adding chlorine or anything, I just want to see the chemical levels without having to manually check them with my test kit.

And lastly, I have seen some skimmer lids with manual thermometers on them. Does one exist that is WiFi connected (preferably that can report to IntelliCenter to keep everything in one place)? If not, would this be something of interest to anyone? My brother did install two thermostats for me in my equipment but I wanted to see if there was one for a skimmer lid as well.

Thank you and sorry for the long post.

We are in the process of building a new pool. Our pool builder used the wrong color plaster. He gave us an option of either a credit for plaster or replastering with the right color. We want what we picked out, so we are going the replastering route. He says that they will saw cut below tile line, chip out below tile, chip out around all fittings, bond coat, and replaster. My problem with this is that we contracted for a new pool and we are getting a replastered pool. The build has been going on since January and they also used the wrong tile (same color just 1" by 2" brick instead of 1" by 1" square). We didn't push the tile issue because we liked it fine. My initial thought is that we should be issued some sort of credit for not getting a new pool like we contracted for and having to fill up a rather large pool twice. The steps on the pool also have a double row of tile on them. I think I am going to ask that those tiles be removed rather than cut around. That may be what he is planning on anyway as it would probably be easier to redo the tile than cut around them and I think that they plastered between the tiles rather than grouted. I'd like to hear some objective thoughts on whether we should push this issue further and any advice on the replastering plan. Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I'm from Pittsburgh, and am the new (to me) owner of a 24' round above ground pool!

This is a whole new world from me, so I'm trying to dive on in.. So far TFP has been awesome

Can't wait to enjoy the pool over the summer

I have a strange one for the group. Our gunite pool was replastered at the beginning of last season and was great all of last year. We had our pool company blow out the lines and close the pool in the fall. I opened the pool on sunday and everything looked good. The water level was high so i backwashed for five minutes, then ran the filter. Here’s where things started to go wrong. The next morning i noticed that the water had dropped a couple inches, but was still at an okay level because it had been high. I run the filter for another half day and notice another 1-2 inch drop. After shutting the filter equipment off, it drops below the filter line by evening. 24 hours later, it drops another 2 inches. Now I’m scrambling to figure out what is happening. It seems like a leak in either the return lines, light, main drain, or self-cleaner heads at the bottom of the pool BUT I can’t understand why this leak wouldn’t have occurred until I opened the pool. The only abnormal thing that happened during opening were a few bubbles in the self-cleaner return values at the bottom if the pool, but i just chalked that up to the air in the lines from the winer. Any ideas??!

i've been maintaining my pool following TFP methods since roughly july of last year, but i have recently encountered a scenario i'm having trouble figuring out:

- FC drops super rapidly, roughly 16 ppm on recent sunny days while running SLAM with no substantial visible algae
- TA appears to be rising notably during this process, going from 150 to 170 within a few days

i am struggling to keep my pool sufficiently chlorinated and algae free as a result of the rapid depletion of FC. historically, i have seen roughly a 3.5 ppm FC loss on a sunny day with CYA at roughly 40 ppm.

over the past couple weeks, i have noticed a rapid acceleration in the FC loss rate during the day in my pool. for many months, i have seen roughly 3.5 ppm FC loss on a sunny day during the warm season, but i was seeing a loss rate more like 6-7 ppm FC a few days ago. i currently have CYA at 50 ppm.

just today, i had FC at 20 at 0730, FC at 9 at 1330, and FC at 4 at 1730. at 1730, i had a TA of 170 and CH of 230. when i tested TA several days ago, it was at 150, so it is increasing instead of remaining nominally stable, as it has done historically.

i also just noticed the presence of what appears to be 2 nails or similar iron/steel pieces at the bottom of the pool. i will have one of my kids dive and fish them out shortly.

i have SLAM'ed this pool 2 or 3 times previously without event, and i did not experience this acute FC loss unless there was a substantial amount of algae present, which there is not in this case.

could this be the result of either the metal pieces or potentially FC reacting with pool plaster? i do have a decent amount of pool tiles that have come loose since i have been at this house.

thanks for reading

About a month ago I needed a new robot pool cleaner and I contacted Margaret at Marina Pool and Spa. My initial goal was to buy another S200 "style" robot as I have been happy with them so far.

Margaret suggested that I might want to look at a new line of robot cleaners that Marina is now carrying, the Aqua Products EVO. I was intrigued and so I opted for the EVO instead of the Dolphin robot. I have been using the EVO for about a month now and here are my initial thoughts...


I recently had the opportunity to use an AQUA Products EVO 614i Robot Cleaner. It looks like they are under the Zodiac Pool system brand.

I have been a faithful Dolphin robot user from many years, but I thought I’d give the EVO a chance to show me what it’s got.




On the surface it appears that both the EVO and the Dolphin S200 are about equally matched. In this initial review, I point out some of the notable differences. Not really a good and bad situation, just where I noticed different engineering.

1. Dual Drive motors. The EVO has a left and right drive motor. These drive motors can run forward or reverse. This means the EVO can spin on a dime, when the two motors are going in opposite directions. You notice this instantly when the robot makes its first turn.

2. Two Active Brushes. The EVO has Dual active brushes, while the Dolphin has one active brush.

3. Large Brushes with wear indicators. The EVO’s brushes are larger and appear to be much more robust than the ones that the Dolphin uses. Because there are two drive motors the brushes are split between the left and right sides. The brushes in the front are the same size as the brushes in the back. The Dolphin has a smaller brush in the back.



4. Filter basket. The EVO’s filter basket is about half the size of the Dolphin basket. It has a one-piece screen-like filter vs. the Dolphin which has a 4-piece pleated filter. I initially thought this would be an issue, as I have always used the pleated Dolphin filters. But, after many cleaning cycles, I’m beginning to like the screen filter better. I think my dislike of the screen filters is because I used them on the Dolphin and they lasted about a month before they got holes in the them and became useless. As much as I like the Dolphin’s pleated filters, the EVO’s screen filter was much easier to clean. Although the Dolphin has a much larger basket, I am not sure it matters as I doubt the Dolphin can fill the basket due to its inlet design.



5. Water Inlet Differences. The Dolphin sucks up debris into the center of their basket, through an open-ended cloth bag. The bag is to prevent the debris from leaking back into the pool when you pull the robot out of the water. It certainly helps contain the debris, but it does not stop everything. It has a negative side in that it can get clogged with large debris and then nothing can get sucked up into the basket. The EVO does it differently. It sucks up the debris through a tube and into the top of the robot and then drops the debris into the basket. When you pull the EVO out of the water, none of the debris go back into the pool.







6. Filter Area Design. The EVO has an almost water-tight area with the suction motor and impeller along with the filter basket. Not sure if this a plus or not. It does make the EVO harder to sink as it acts almost like a boat. You lower it into the water with the rear brushes pointing down. Where you can just throw the Dolphin in the pool, and it just sinks on its own. Edit.. To be clear the EVO sinks on its own, it just take a little longer than the Dolphin.

7. The Power Cord. The cord on the EVO is much larger in diameter and stiffer than the Dolphin’s cord. I had great hopes this would mean that the cord would not tangle. I was wrong. I have not had it long enough to know what will happen as it gets broken in, but running the EVO several times in a row, without removing it from the pool, induced the same basic tangle that I have seen in all my Dolphin robots. Edit. If I run the robot, like I normally do, and clean it after every run, the cable does not tangle.




8. The Swivel. The EVO has a much more robust looking swivel compared to the Dolphin. The EVO combines the cable float and the swivel in one device. Neither swivel seems to swivel enough to keep the cable from tangling.



9. The Power Supply Connector. The only thing on the EVO that appears a little out of place and rather cheap is the connector on the power supply end of the cable. It just plugs into the Power Supply with two little snaps. Maybe I’m just used to military cannon plug style connectors, but I like the Dolphin’s connector better. The EVO’s connector does appear that it could be replaced easier, while the Dolphin is more molded in place and does not look to be easily replaceable. Not sure I have ever seen bad one.



10. DIY Repair. I have some experience with the assembly and disassembly of the S200 style Dolphins and it is very easy. At first glance I don’t see how to disassemble the EVO or if repair parts are even available. Not something I plan to investigate until the EVO is out of warranty.

11. Water Line Cleaning. When cleaning the water line tile, the Dolphin moves sideway because a gate turns and causes water to shoot out of a vent on the sides of the plastic housing. This forces the robot to move along the tile line for about 2 or 3 feet at a time. The EVO does not have any directional vents, but does move along the tile line. It appears to me that the robot floats at a slight angle and while the brushes clean the tile line, they also cause the robot to move along the tile line.

12. The Power Supply. The EVO’s power supply allows you to select either floor only, or floors and walls/tile line. The cycle time is 1.5 hours for floor only and 2.5 hours for everything. Both the EVO and Dolphin power supplies are water resistance. The EVO’s power supply has a Power Light that is on anytime the power supply is plugged into AC power. You would assume when you pushed the Start/Stop button that it would light up, but it does not. The Power light flashes once when you push the Start button. I find that odd as it is hard to tell if the Robot is on or off. If you have the EVO 614i, then the Power supply has a Wi-Fi button. Edit.. It appears the idea is to use the app to start or stop the robot.. It works fine from the power supply once you understand the start stop button does not light up.



13. Wi-Fi Control. The EVO 604 and 614i are the same basic robot, but the 614i has Wi- Fi control. Not that it actually controls much. I am not sure what the App is for other than when you sign up for the iAquaLink app you need to give them just about everything including location of any birth marks. Quite invasive for what you get. The plus side is that it came right on line and connected once I entered the 80 pages of personal info. The app lets you change the cleaning mode from floors to floors and walls, and lets you start or stop the robot, but it does not allow you to ‘drive’ the robot around. It appears the drive mode is an option for the more expensive models. The app displays a big spinning clock showing how much time is left in the cleaning cycle. I pushed stop and it stopped. I pushed start and it did not return to work, it just started over. It does give you some info on the robot itself, like how may total hours run, S/N, F/W installed and other such info. I don’t see the value in what the app does, but it came with the unit. Edit... I'm told that the app for the 614i will be updated in the next few weeks to include the ability to drive the robot and to make it drive itself to the surface at a wall so it is easy to remove from the pool. I guess time will tell if this happens or not.

14. Warranty... Both the EVO and the Dolphin have a Two-year warranty.

15. Unknow life expectancy. Dolphin 3 to 5 years. Edit. This is key in my mind, but we won't know how reliably the EVO is for several years...

16. Main Drain Hang Ups. So far, I have run the EVO for about 50 hours and it has never hung up on the main drain. The Dolphin would hang up on the main drain about 10% of the time. I believe that because of the dual drive motors, that the EVO will not have this issue, but time will tell.

17. I did not find anything that would keep me from buying this unit again. See #18

18. I assumed you could run the unit on weekly schedule, but I now realize that is not an option. For me that is not an issue as I normally only use the robot two or three times a week, but it will not work for a lot of pool owners. You’d think it would be an easy App fix. I also do not see where you can control it from an automated electrical outlet. Edit. The app is supposed to be update (automatically) but my understanding is that the timer option is not part of this update. This makes no sense to me, but we will see.

Thanks,

Jim R.

We have a cement pool with a light niche that we do not want to reuse for a light.

Looking for options on filling in the large hole. We currently have the pool completely drained, as we are painting the surface, so this is the ideal time to fill in the niche.

Help please! What do I use to fill it in?

Hello everyone,

We had out pool finished since March, 2024 (filled at the end of March), and I've been following TFP since we opened. Everything is going great so far. However, the other day I noticed a very light discoloring (brownish) under the autofiller jet in the deep end. It almost looks like something trickled out of the jet, as the stain is long and skinny. It's hard to see in the attached picture, but it's faintly visible in person. I've tried brushing the past couple of days, but it doesn't seem to be fading. Any idea what this could be? Any idea how to remove it? I swear it wasn't there until a couple of days ago. My numbers are as follows (as measured every other day with Taylor K-2006):

PH - 7.6-8.0
TA - 70
CYI - 45
TC - 4.0
CH - about 350

I'll try to keep this brief. Here's what I've been doing:
I've been slowly bringing down my TA for a few days (using the process taught on this forum). I've raised my CYA with stabilizer (hung sock of it in front of jet). I'm using liquid chlorine (was using trichlor pucks also until my CYA got to where it is now). Initially I used Cal Hypo shock (last week), total of 6x 1lb bags over 3 days. I'm using MA and aeration for the TA reduction (still in progress). Other than that no other chemicals have been added.

Here's my current pool conditions:
Water looks clean, but some white cloudiness still. Can see bottom but it's a little blurry basically. Filter sand is new this season, pressure looks good (backwash/rinsed recently).

Current readings
78 deg F
FC 8.0
CC 0.5 (we just swam in it for the first time yesterday, that could account for this?)
CYA 40
PH 7.3
TA 170
CH 100

FC is a little high because I added extra LC last night because at that time CYA was still off the chart low (less than 30; I couldn't hide the black dot in the view port with it full during the test), plus I figured extra chlorine wouldn't hurt. I didn't get my CYA up until late this morning.

So here's what I need some help with - I've come across a post in this forum stating high TA can cause cloudiness. I also understand the cloudiness could be algae. Should I continue lowering the TA as long as all my other numbers look like they do and see if that clears it up? Or should I just go ahead and SLAM? Or am I missing something completely?

Thanks!

I'm shooting to open my pool this weekend. In the midst of traveling for work time is not on my side. I usually purchase new flexible grey hoses each year for pump/heater/return. This year the price jumped drastically. I was going to go the PVC route but I'm only home for the weekend so I'm looking for a quick alternative. Is there any other hose I can buy at home depot or lowes that will work for me. Thank you.

Hi all,

The home I just moved into has a ~17,000 gal pool. The pump is a single-speed Sta-Rite Dura-Glas P2RA5E-124L with Century HSQ125 motor (I think it is 230V 1-phase). I'm guessing the pump is around 2 ft above the pool water surface, and the pump is located around 6 ft from the corner of the pool. There is a Hayward C9002 cartridge filter, 1.5" plumbing with three suction lines (L to R in photo): pool drain, skimmer, and vacuum. And no, the pump and piping are not level or plumb. The pump is tilted as much as 5 degrees from horizontal. The suction pipes are not vertical, so I'm guessing the whole mess just settled over the years and it is what it is unless I can fix it with 11-degree fittings or something. The vacuum is a Hayward Navigator Pro W3925ADC. The previous owner had a solar pool heater on the roof, but removed it when they changed shingles. Water is piped from the pump outlet to the filter, then from the filter it goes through the old heater pipes to the left, up to the diverter valve, then back to the right and into the chlorinator before I assume it goes underground and on to the pool returns. There are 5 outlets around the perimeter of the pool. The previous owner was running the pump 3 hours a day, which I suspect is not even close to sufficient and was probably done to save money with the single-speed pump. I would like to replace the pump with a VS model, and was thinking about buying one of the Calimar options since they are supposed to be the same as the B&D (and others) but for much lower cost. I'd still consider the B&D if better or if 2hp is the "right" size for me to use. I was going to just go for the 3hp VS pump, but I read some things about 1.5" pipes that worried me a bit. I would have thought I could just run the pump at lower speeds and then schedule it to run for 2 hours at whatever max speed is needed to equal the current flow rate, then 10 hours at a mid speed and 12 hours at low to keep water circulating 24 hours a day.

I plan to do the work myself, and am also planning to install a salt chlorine generator, possibly a CircuPool Core-35 or Core-45. I'm also planning to remove all of the 2" plumbing that used to go to the solar heaters since it's just creating unnecessary headloss at the moment and gives me more potential locations for leaks in the future. I will also remove the pin timer for the existing pool pump since the VS pumps have their own control panels with 4 speed settings that I can program.

I would really appreciate any recommendations/explanations. Thanks!

Demo complete. This was probably overdue by a few years but thankfully no serious structural issues so far. Fingers crossed.

Hello Folks,

About a month ago, I bought a house in Fort Wayne, IN, and the house came with an in-ground swimming pool. It was not my intention to buy a house with a pool – I bought mostly due to the location. The pool was closed due to the winter -- it was winterized with anti-freeze, etc --, so the machinery was turned off and disconnected. Don’t know much about pools in general (besides the very basics), but I have a background in engineering and have many different interest (plumbing, mechanics, etc). Did not have much time to do anything with the pool, beside skimming every other day (when I am in town) and pouring a jug of chlorine in it a few times a week to minimize the problem. As of now, the pool situation is bleak and it is green and it is dirty (it gets dirty every day given that there is no circulation and filtration and also due to the fact that there are lots of trees and plants nearby). Probably has lots of stuff accumulated on the floor of the pool. Looking at the city website for permits, it shows that the pool was built in 1996 and is 21'x35' and its deep sideis probably around 8 ft deep.

It is more than time to tackle that situation with the pool, so I developed a plan of action based on some research, etc. But there are some uncertainties and doubts, and I have a few questions and doubts:

<>Firstly, the chemical test strip results (will redo it soon in better conditions):

Total Hardness ppm => seems to be low or very low (difficult to distinguish by the color), but more likely low

Free Chlorine => seems to be 1 (which according to the chart is ok). Due to the poor conditions of the pool water, I have been pouring 1 jug of chlorine around the pool about 3 times a week.
Ph is rather low: the strips indicates 6.2 or 6.8. An electronic probe device used to measure the Ph shows it as been around 6.5.

Cyanuric Acid seems to be close to 0.

Alkalinity on the other hand looks rather high at about 180. Alkalinity keeps the Ph in check (help maintains and keep the Ph level).

=> To be more effective, the chlorine needs a balanced Ph, so the goal is to increase the Ph and then superchlorinate the pool with the pump running. Then, brush the walls and floor. Next day would vaccum the floor of the pool.

Below is a pic of the pool:




<> Checked the basket inside the pump and the skimmer.

Previously, the skimmer had some anti-freeze jugs jammed into it, due to winterization -- I guess. Removed the jugs, found out the skimmer basket in a garage's closet with other pool related things. The skimmer basket seems to come along with an insert that may go inside it – heard that it act as a door for the skimmer (replacing the flap door thing). The pic below depicts the situation:




(Plastic insert thing that floats inside the skimmer and above the skimmer basket)



(Previous situation, with jugs jammed inside the skimmer)

The basket is not shown in the pics above, bu it is in good shape.

The pump had its basket removed, cleaned and reinstalled. No water in the pump as is to be expected, so it should need to be primed. Can the pump be run without any water just to test it?


Also, the connection between the main pump body and the pump multi-port valve next to the pump body (as shown in the pic above) seems to be made by some type of epoxy and resin? Is that properly done. Looks kind of flimsy.

And to make things difficult, there is not labeling in the pipes going underground from the pump. The arrows point to them. Which likely would be the drain and which would be for the skimmer?

Previous all equipment was disconnected and some of parts (skimmer basket, plugs, o-rings, etc) were stored in a closet in the garage. Below is a pic depicting the situation before all connections, etc, were done:




Today, I managed to reconnected everything. Lube all the o-rings and put all plugs in place. Once upon opening the pipes protruding from the ground, I noticed some anti-freeze still present. Could the residual anti-freeze be a problem? Below is a pic of the whole thing assembled:



Basically, the idea is to bring the Ph back to normal levels in order to maximize the effects of the chlorine (liquid chlorine jugs with 10% chlorine content). I plan on using 3 or 4 jugs of chlorine after the Ph is at a proper level. Brush the walls and floor of the pool manually. All that should be done when the pump and filter is running.

Also, threaded two small black plugs on the side of the heater (assumed it is necessary to have them once the thing is running). I was wondering if there is way, besides installing new plumbing, valves and fittings, to bypass the heater? Does the heater has the internal capability (through solenoids) to internally be bypassed?

Thanks any input.

Does anyone know why there are two sizes for the O ring on the filter housing clamp?

Thank you

Howdy! new guy here, and I want to get this right. We are getting a new hardside pool, 18' diameter. Really stoked to get it set up!!

Questions I have:


We had a softside pool that we used interlocking soft foam 2'x2' tiles wth taped seams as a base. Are these appropriate for a hardside, assuming i trim them to fit inside the tracks? Would hard foamboard be better? My wife likes a soft feel to the bottom if possible. We could custom trim a gorilla pad to put on the foamboard for a bit of softness I suppose?


Since we live in a frozen wasteland, is there any way to leave it set up, and at least partly filled year round? We do have a massive wood boiler that we heat the pool with in the summer, and I suppose we could keep it above freezing with it in the winter. We do get to -40 celcius at times.


Any helpful tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Many thanks in advance!

Hello from southeast British Columbia. We're replacing our 16' round water bladder with an 18' hardside above ground. Very excited!!

New to hardsides, but have had great success with the baggy pool. No algae blooms, keep it heated with a wood boiler, and crystal clear.

We'll heat the new pool as well, plus add an inline chlorinator, and a good deck. Hopping to make a more permanent setup.

I have troubles entering decimal values in PoolMath. European locale character for decimal is , “comma”. That is also the only character available on the numeric keypad popping up in PoolMath. When entering a decimal value, the app removes the delimiter making e.g. pH 7,6 into 76.

Any plan to fix this bug?

Hi there. Trying to get some troubleshooting done. My local pool company can’t seem to figure this out.
We have a 2 year old in ground pool with a Hayward pump. Every time I vacuum the pool, the pump loses prime. The section where the basket is, before I start to vacuum, it’s primed and full of water. As soon as I start to clean the pool, and set the pump to “CLEAN” mode and I connect the hose to the filter/skimmer box the pump section with the basket is almost 1/3 of water. I can see water flowing in from the pipe, but not enough to fill that section. After about 20 minutes of vacuuming I will see air bubbles coming from the return jets in the pool.

Is this normal or do we have an issue?

I have just discovered my filter sucks air in from the waste pipe when the pump goes off and there are loads of bubbles from the return jet at start up. I suspect it has been happening for a while and the air has been leaking out of the pressure side pipe from the filter but I have greased and tightened that at the union so the air now has nowhere to go and today it stopped the pump from priming. I also noticed a few weeks ago that water was coming from waste when on recirculate so I opened the multiport but it doesn't seem to have a replaceable spider gasket. Also, if I lift the multiport handle when the filter is off all the air goes into the pump bucket. My filter is a Pentair Azur and it is hard plumbed.

I’m taking over my pool maintenance from my pool guy. This site / forum has been an awesome resource!!! Love it, thanks so much to the team and community for making this available for free!!!

I’m wondering if folks are willing to comment on my proposed plan and help me with my open questions?

Test results from the TFTestKit:

• FC: 6.5
• CC: 0
• Calcium hardness: 225
• Total alkalinity: 80
• CYA: 100
• PH: 7.7

Current state of the pool:

• Plaster is approx 25 years or old
  • The plaster is starting to wear off, can see some spots where its completely gone. If you brush, you get bits of plaster
• Water is clear
• There are spots of black algae throughout the bottom and stairs

Last year, I completely scrubbed the black algae spots off with a wire brush (took me like 5 hours) and had my pool guy do a shock. The black algae spots were completely gone last year and came back this year.

The plan
Based on the CYA/FC calculator [The Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship] and Ideal chemical levels [What Are My Ideal Pool Levels?]:

• Calcium harness is low - should be closer to 350-550
• CYA / FC is way off
• Alkalinity & PH are OK

My plan:

• Part 1
  • Fire the pool guy
  • Get a Dolphin M600 that I’ll use for routine cleaning
• Part 2
  • Partially drain the pool to reduce CYA
  • Retest CYA & FC, shoot for ~40 to 50 CYA and ~3 to 5 FC
• Part 3 - after CYA & FC fixed
  • Follow this guide: Black Algae

Open questions:

• Is this the right order? Or should I do Part 2 before Part 1?
• How much water should I drain? My pool is 15x30 and 3’ to 6’ deep.

THANK YOU!!!

I have read all of the threads about SWG and Travertine and it’s hard to determine if it’s safe. I have travertine coping and a wall with waterfalls that have splitface on them (below the fall is tile but to the sides splitface).

My wife is more open to an SWG conversion (was headed down the sterner pump route).

Hoping there are more recent updates and longer term experiences than previous threads.

Hi - hoping to find some expert guidance - not very handy with electrical. Pool light worked great until the end of last season. Bulb started to flicker, and eventually stopped working. Dropped the pool level, replaced the bulb. However, no fan no light. The fuse is good (tested with a multimeter for continuity) - I can’t seem to find any GFCIs around the pool area that are tripped - lights around the pool are working etc. I have toggled the switches up/down and have a remote for this unit, with no luck. There is a mains box in the pool shed pictured, I have everything up. how do I check to see if the unit is getting power?any other typical issues I can look for? I love the light when it worked. Thanks

Hello,

We finally have our pool builder nearly selected. After getting quotes from several builders and sharing them on this forum, a TFP-recommended list of equipment was provided and we sent that back to the builders.

Due to a number of challenges in our backyard, we are limited on how big we can build the pool. The current design is a 10'x22' pool with a feature wall which includes 3 scuppers. No spa.

I reviewed the quote of the builder that we are leaning towards and saw the following:

Pool Equipment (copy/paste from quote):

• Pentair 1.5 HP Whisperflo Variable Speed pump for pool
• Pentair 1.5 HP Superflo Variable Speed for shear descents
• Pentair Quad-Cartridge CV580 Filter
• Polaris 280 Cleaner w/ Booster Pump
• Easy Touch PD4 Remote system w/ full pool automation
• Pentair Salt System
• Includes Gas Heater 406,000 BTU

Given the proposed pool size, does the above make sense? Should we get the Pentair Intelliflo 3 Variable Speed Pump instead for the pool itself or is that too powerful?

I have no idea what an 'Easy Touch PD4' system is. Searching online I see there is an Easy Touch PL4' model. I did some research on this site over the weekend and see that Pentair is actually moving away from the EasyTouch products and migrating everything to the IntelliCenter line. I assume that we should insist on IntelliCenter, correct? When I asked this builder last week about IntelliCenter he said the EasyTouch "has all the technology you need for a pool your size and features you'll have". I want to get this right given it's a new build so I appreciate any advice on choosing the right equipment for this pool. Thank you!

I know to remove cya it is cheapest and best to do a partial drain on our aboveground pool. We did the partial with our pool a 6 times before closing it and drained it down a below the return when we closed it. 5 partial drains were only below the skimmer and 1 partial drain was about half way. My CYA is still at 140. No clue how high it truly was last year since I was reliant on the pool store and they never mentioned it, but their tests topped out at 100. This year I am ditching the pool store, chlorine with stabilizer, and bought the taylor k-2006c test kit. I am wondering though if anyone has used the green story global pool and spa filter to remove cya. The reviews are very mixed. I was debating on trying it because we have well water and I am worried about the strain on our well pump and some homes around me are having issues with their wells drying up. The minimum to have water brought in is $500 so that is not an option. Would there be any harm to use it? Has anyone used it with success or tried it and had failure? I do understand if it does work it will be a lot slower than draining.

• 4/22 start to open. Water temp 58F. Lotta worms in the sweeper this year. Very cloudy blueish water but not green—could not even see the sweeper when it was on the bottom. Used Polyquat at close in Oct (with relatively high FC if I remember correctly).
• 4/22 to 5/8 CYA 20; SLAM at 10 FC. Started at 7.2 pH. Slow progress but eventually got clear water, but could never get OCLT to pass. Usually, it was a 1-2 FC loss and 1 CC.
• 5/9-5/21 Temps & sun starting to be more consistent, so decided to bring up CYA to 50 and continued to SLAM at 20 FC. Water still clear and still failing OCLT at about the same amount as above. Got tired of buying LC and lax on OCLT rigor so supplemented with SWCG during the day; some of this was to make sure everything was working OK for the season. During this time, I also bought Taylor K1106 Phosphate test kit; tested at 4000ppb. Was wondering if this could be contributing to the FC loss problem. But I had added Jack’s purple stuff late last summer, so this could affect the phos level (?). I did not treat for phosphates after the 4000ppb…don’t want to deal with that unless I have to.

Water is still crystal clear and swimmable, but still can’t get OCLT to pass. Lots of cottonwood seeds, pollen and oak catkins as we live near big timber. These gets swept daily and I have a knee-high sock over the skimmer, cleaned daily as well.

Have removed and cleaned every piece of white plastic in the pool and no signs of algae. Also cleaned and sprayed the auto cover well with chlorine/water mix, as that gets pretty gunky. Underside of autocover is clean.

Had a couple air leaks that just got fixed Saturday. One was the 2” PVC between filter and heater. The other were Jandy swim jet lids and main pump lid needed Teflon lube or a new o-ring. No leaks now.

Water tests last night: FC 19.5, CC 1, CH 400, TA 70, CYA 50, Salt 3800. pH was 7.2 when I started this a month ago.

Questions: I know passing OCLT should be achievable, but wondering if the spring air stuff is a hindrance to that? I don’t think the air leaks would contribute to FC loss? I would like to raise the CYA to 70-80 in the next few weeks before it gets hot, but then SLAM gets more inefficient. Any advice? One month of SLAM with no change in OCLT seems odd.
Thanks for any help!

We pay someone to open and close and otherwise I do TFP methods. Our guy retired and we have a new one. When they opened the pool yesterday it is emerald green. I have never in almost 12 years had green in my pool. We close late and open early before and after warm weather. close late October and open Early May in New Jersey.

Do you all think they didn't put enough chlorine in the pool to last the winter. Is there any other reason this would happen.

All the levels are ok except it needs some cya. The chlorine level is at 2.5. In ground vinyl

Now I will have to do the slam thing which since we have had the pool I have never needed.

Nancy

Hi all - just found this forum and I’m reading more than I did in college! I’m new to this but really want a beautiful sparkly blue pool. Determined to get there.

I have a 10x20 oval above ground pool so somewhere around 4,500 gallons. I have it set up with a proper pump and sand filter. Just got it cleaned up after winter here in north Idaho and got it from super nasty green to a sort of cloudy clear weird minty green. I don’t think there’s any metal in the water since we have a whole home filter system.

I may have added too much chlorine because the reading tonight was some 380ppm. pH is 7.2. Not sure how to get the other readings that I’m sure someone is going to ask me for!

I’d love any and all direction anyone wants to give me!

Hi all, I've got all the stuff to add borates to the pool on order. having researched, couple questions.

I am adding boric acid to the pool. my ph is currently about 7.5. we've had bad weather recently so I havent been able to run the fountains overnight to bring the PH up to 7.6-7.8 where I like to keep it. my question is this.

1. should I bring the ph up to 7.8 because the boric acid will make it drop a bit? It is my understanding that ph is more difficult to change after adding the borates.

2. I saw the recommendation to bring the TA to the low part of the recommended range before adding borates. I did not think that adding the borates did anything to the TA. OR, is this the difference between the Boric acid vs borax method? My TA is currently at 70.

These are two things that have eluded me in my reading.

So, my current plan is to add the full amount of boric acid to the pool with a starting PH of about 7.8-7.9. if the boric acid brings the ph down by 2-3 points, I should be ok. what say you?

We built our pool in very early 2017, it was filled on Valentine's Day. In the summer of 2020, I noticed dampness under the pump which was attributed to a leaking shaft seal. By the time the new shaft seal arrived, the leak had stopped and I didn't think it was worth tearing into the pump to replace the seal since the leak had stopped. Fast forward to this morning when I noticed a wetness under the pump and saw a healthy level of corrosion about the motor where it mounts to the pump body. In hindsight, I should have replaced the shaft seal back in 2020. I can do that now. Is it worth trying to replace the motor, or just bite the bullet and get a whole new pump? If the new pump is the recommended direction, stick with the 3HP model or could I go down to the 1.5 HP model? We are currently run the pump at 1600 rpm, every when we turn on the water fall and bubblers. Thanks in advance!

Just opened our pool a week ago. Having trouble getting out pool numbers correct. We are using the WaterGuru. The picture below of our readings was taken tonight. We have added PH up and shocked it. No change. Pool is blue, but cloudy. Help!!