Pool care on the cheap: OT

[northparkbuyer]

Pool Maintenance Tips —

Ah yes, I remember cleaning the DE filter the first time. Trust me, it gets easier each time. Most important thing I learned: remove and clean the filter elements ONE AT A TIME. I remember it was like a puzzle getting them all back into position after I pulled all of them out.

I crunched the numbers once on replacing an old pump with a new/efficient model, and based on how long I run my pump, the savings just wasn’t enough to justify the cost. But in this area YMMV.

Here are the basic things I learned doing it myself:

1. Invest in a robotic pool vacuum (I like Aquabot, about $900) that costs pennies a day to run, but lets you get away with running your main filter only a couple hours per day. Pays for itself quickly in SDG&E country.

2. Pool maintenance companies will tell you otherwise, but you don’t need any chemicals beyond regular laundry bleach (Costco) or powdered pool shock (Costco, but only available in Spring and early summer) and cyanuric acid to keep your water conditioned. If you get an algae outbreak (because you neglected the pool), you might need some YellowOut.

3. Get a high quality pool brush (low quality ones lose their bristles) and brush the walls often. I’m too lazy to follow this one myself, but it is really the best thing you can do to break up algae colonies and keep the pool clean.

4. Cover with a solar blanket (pool cover) when not in use to keep the water clean and toasty warm in summer, and to retard expensive water loss via evaporation.

5. Get a good book on pool maintenance, or join troublefreepool.com and ask for advice when you have a problem.

6. Get a basic water chemical test kit at a pool supply store.

When I tell people I pour Clorox into our pool and not much else, I get some surprised looks. But we’ve been maintaining our pool this way since moving to SD in 2003, and have had no problems.

I have kids, but even if I didn’t, my family gets so much enjoyment from our pool that I can’t imagine living in San Diego without one. They are not that hard to maintain yourself on the cheap once you figure it out.

[scaredyclassic]

Thanks so much for the troublefreepool tip. That’s my kind of chat group. I think I am going to spend some time figuring out the cheapest possible way to do this. Very helpful tips also! Thanks. Maybe obsessive pool care can temporarily replace drinking as my hobby.

[scaredyclassic]

Thanks so much for the troublefreepool tip. That’s my kind of chat group. I think I am going to spend some time figuring out the cheapest possible way to do this. Very helpful tips also! Thanks. Maybe obsessive pool care can temporarily replace drinking as my hobby.

[scaredyclassic]

Thanks so much for the troublefreepool tip. That’s my kind of chat group. I think I am going to spend some time figuring out the cheapest possible way to do this. Very helpful tips also! Thanks. Maybe obsessive pool care can temporarily replace drinking as my hobby.

[scaredyclassic]

Thanks so much for the troublefreepool tip. That’s my kind of chat group. I think I am going to spend some time figuring out the cheapest possible way to do this. Very helpful tips also! Thanks. Maybe obsessive pool care can temporarily replace drinking as my hobby.

[scaredyclassic]

Thanks so much for the troublefreepool tip. That’s my kind of chat group. I think I am going to spend some time figuring out the cheapest possible way to do this. Very helpful tips also! Thanks. Maybe obsessive pool care can temporarily replace drinking as my hobby.

[njtosd]

[quote=walterwhite]Scaredy attempted to clean a diatemacious earth filter this weekend. It was a nasty experience. He managed to survive and reassemble the beast but just barely. It probably wouldve been worth 130 to have an experienced hand have at it. Now I kind of know how to do it though so if I write down a few critical mistakes it might work out next tome w half the effort.

Are there any tips on maintaining a pool on the cheap?

Can I run the filter 4 h instead of the 8 I’d been told? I am attempting to do everything myself and any moneysaving ideas are welcome

should I replace the 2 hp old pump for a new efficient one?[/quote]

We had a pool when we lived in San Diego (relatively low maintenance) and now have one that is surrounded by 150′ oak trees (high maintenance – especially squirrel removal). I am the chief pool maintainer and have gotten more helpful information (including sources for replacement parts) from poolcenter.com than any other site, and it’s free.

How long you have to run the pump is related to the power of the pump and the size of the pool. The general suggestion is to run an amount equal to the volume of the pool each day (you can look of the flow volume on the internet). But I have also heard that that might be more than necessary: See this article called Saving Money Around the Pool from poolcenter.com – which looks pretty good: http://blog.poolcenter.com/article.asp?articleid=6057; it suggests that you can get away with less. On the other hand, if you have a solar heater, you may not get the benefit of it without the pump running . . . Also, if you have an automated cleaner that needs the filter pump to be running, you also lose out on that part.

In a dry place like SD, there is a lot of heat loss through evaporation, so a good way to try to save money on heating would be to try the liquid solar blanket (also reduces need to replenish water). I’ve looked into this a bit and the science behind these seems pretty good; when used as directed they are supposed to maintain the average pool at a temp about 5 degrees higher than otherwise – although there are a lot of factors to consider. Reducing evaporation (such as by leaving the waterfall turned off when not needed) is another way to save heating money.

DE filters have a very fine filtration, so if they get clogged up you can lose a lot in terms of pump efficiency. One thing that I’ve stopped using are flocculating agents – they bind to the dirt, which helps filtration, but then the resulting junk seems to bind to the DE in the filter to make sludge.

If you have any problems with rust stains, bulk vitamin C (at about $50) is wildly cheaper than a drain and clean ($1200) and works like magic. Its the active ingredient in a lot of the rust stain removers – much cheaper to add a little from time to time than to buy the prepared formulas.

I also buy my chlorine on the internet and have it shipped – it’s cheaper than buying it at the pool stores around here. Most of the chemicals are, but you have to shop around a bit.

Finally, my experience has been that you get more accurate water tests from pool stores that use individual cuvettes to test the water, as opposed to the ones who use the paper strips. That helps you save in terms of the volume of chemicals you buy. It also avoids having to drain water from the pool to lower chemical levels that have risen too high (such as cyanuric acid, which never breaks down).

That’s all I can think of right now – except it’s really good to keep squirrels and bats out of your pool ;). I’ll post more later if I think of anything.

[njtosd]

[quote=walterwhite]Scaredy attempted to clean a diatemacious earth filter this weekend. It was a nasty experience. He managed to survive and reassemble the beast but just barely. It probably wouldve been worth 130 to have an experienced hand have at it. Now I kind of know how to do it though so if I write down a few critical mistakes it might work out next tome w half the effort.

Are there any tips on maintaining a pool on the cheap?

Can I run the filter 4 h instead of the 8 I’d been told? I am attempting to do everything myself and any moneysaving ideas are welcome

should I replace the 2 hp old pump for a new efficient one?[/quote]

We had a pool when we lived in San Diego (relatively low maintenance) and now have one that is surrounded by 150′ oak trees (high maintenance – especially squirrel removal). I am the chief pool maintainer and have gotten more helpful information (including sources for replacement parts) from poolcenter.com than any other site, and it’s free.

How long you have to run the pump is related to the power of the pump and the size of the pool. The general suggestion is to run an amount equal to the volume of the pool each day (you can look of the flow volume on the internet). But I have also heard that that might be more than necessary: See this article called Saving Money Around the Pool from poolcenter.com – which looks pretty good: http://blog.poolcenter.com/article.asp?articleid=6057; it suggests that you can get away with less. On the other hand, if you have a solar heater, you may not get the benefit of it without the pump running . . . Also, if you have an automated cleaner that needs the filter pump to be running, you also lose out on that part.

In a dry place like SD, there is a lot of heat loss through evaporation, so a good way to try to save money on heating would be to try the liquid solar blanket (also reduces need to replenish water). I’ve looked into this a bit and the science behind these seems pretty good; when used as directed they are supposed to maintain the average pool at a temp about 5 degrees higher than otherwise – although there are a lot of factors to consider. Reducing evaporation (such as by leaving the waterfall turned off when not needed) is another way to save heating money.

DE filters have a very fine filtration, so if they get clogged up you can lose a lot in terms of pump efficiency. One thing that I’ve stopped using are flocculating agents – they bind to the dirt, which helps filtration, but then the resulting junk seems to bind to the DE in the filter to make sludge.

If you have any problems with rust stains, bulk vitamin C (at about $50) is wildly cheaper than a drain and clean ($1200) and works like magic. Its the active ingredient in a lot of the rust stain removers – much cheaper to add a little from time to time than to buy the prepared formulas.

I also buy my chlorine on the internet and have it shipped – it’s cheaper than buying it at the pool stores around here. Most of the chemicals are, but you have to shop around a bit.

Finally, my experience has been that you get more accurate water tests from pool stores that use individual cuvettes to test the water, as opposed to the ones who use the paper strips. That helps you save in terms of the volume of chemicals you buy. It also avoids having to drain water from the pool to lower chemical levels that have risen too high (such as cyanuric acid, which never breaks down).

That’s all I can think of right now – except it’s really good to keep squirrels and bats out of your pool ;). I’ll post more later if I think of anything.

[njtosd]

[quote=walterwhite]Scaredy attempted to clean a diatemacious earth filter this weekend. It was a nasty experience. He managed to survive and reassemble the beast but just barely. It probably wouldve been worth 130 to have an experienced hand have at it. Now I kind of know how to do it though so if I write down a few critical mistakes it might work out next tome w half the effort.

Are there any tips on maintaining a pool on the cheap?

Can I run the filter 4 h instead of the 8 I’d been told? I am attempting to do everything myself and any moneysaving ideas are welcome

should I replace the 2 hp old pump for a new efficient one?[/quote]

We had a pool when we lived in San Diego (relatively low maintenance) and now have one that is surrounded by 150′ oak trees (high maintenance – especially squirrel removal). I am the chief pool maintainer and have gotten more helpful information (including sources for replacement parts) from poolcenter.com than any other site, and it’s free.

How long you have to run the pump is related to the power of the pump and the size of the pool. The general suggestion is to run an amount equal to the volume of the pool each day (you can look of the flow volume on the internet). But I have also heard that that might be more than necessary: See this article called Saving Money Around the Pool from poolcenter.com – which looks pretty good: http://blog.poolcenter.com/article.asp?articleid=6057; it suggests that you can get away with less. On the other hand, if you have a solar heater, you may not get the benefit of it without the pump running . . . Also, if you have an automated cleaner that needs the filter pump to be running, you also lose out on that part.

In a dry place like SD, there is a lot of heat loss through evaporation, so a good way to try to save money on heating would be to try the liquid solar blanket (also reduces need to replenish water). I’ve looked into this a bit and the science behind these seems pretty good; when used as directed they are supposed to maintain the average pool at a temp about 5 degrees higher than otherwise – although there are a lot of factors to consider. Reducing evaporation (such as by leaving the waterfall turned off when not needed) is another way to save heating money.

DE filters have a very fine filtration, so if they get clogged up you can lose a lot in terms of pump efficiency. One thing that I’ve stopped using are flocculating agents – they bind to the dirt, which helps filtration, but then the resulting junk seems to bind to the DE in the filter to make sludge.

If you have any problems with rust stains, bulk vitamin C (at about $50) is wildly cheaper than a drain and clean ($1200) and works like magic. Its the active ingredient in a lot of the rust stain removers – much cheaper to add a little from time to time than to buy the prepared formulas.

I also buy my chlorine on the internet and have it shipped – it’s cheaper than buying it at the pool stores around here. Most of the chemicals are, but you have to shop around a bit.

Finally, my experience has been that you get more accurate water tests from pool stores that use individual cuvettes to test the water, as opposed to the ones who use the paper strips. That helps you save in terms of the volume of chemicals you buy. It also avoids having to drain water from the pool to lower chemical levels that have risen too high (such as cyanuric acid, which never breaks down).

That’s all I can think of right now – except it’s really good to keep squirrels and bats out of your pool ;). I’ll post more later if I think of anything.

[njtosd]

[quote=walterwhite]Scaredy attempted to clean a diatemacious earth filter this weekend. It was a nasty experience. He managed to survive and reassemble the beast but just barely. It probably wouldve been worth 130 to have an experienced hand have at it. Now I kind of know how to do it though so if I write down a few critical mistakes it might work out next tome w half the effort.

Are there any tips on maintaining a pool on the cheap?

Can I run the filter 4 h instead of the 8 I’d been told? I am attempting to do everything myself and any moneysaving ideas are welcome

should I replace the 2 hp old pump for a new efficient one?[/quote]

We had a pool when we lived in San Diego (relatively low maintenance) and now have one that is surrounded by 150′ oak trees (high maintenance – especially squirrel removal). I am the chief pool maintainer and have gotten more helpful information (including sources for replacement parts) from poolcenter.com than any other site, and it’s free.

How long you have to run the pump is related to the power of the pump and the size of the pool. The general suggestion is to run an amount equal to the volume of the pool each day (you can look of the flow volume on the internet). But I have also heard that that might be more than necessary: See this article called Saving Money Around the Pool from poolcenter.com – which looks pretty good: http://blog.poolcenter.com/article.asp?articleid=6057; it suggests that you can get away with less. On the other hand, if you have a solar heater, you may not get the benefit of it without the pump running . . . Also, if you have an automated cleaner that needs the filter pump to be running, you also lose out on that part.

In a dry place like SD, there is a lot of heat loss through evaporation, so a good way to try to save money on heating would be to try the liquid solar blanket (also reduces need to replenish water). I’ve looked into this a bit and the science behind these seems pretty good; when used as directed they are supposed to maintain the average pool at a temp about 5 degrees higher than otherwise – although there are a lot of factors to consider. Reducing evaporation (such as by leaving the waterfall turned off when not needed) is another way to save heating money.

DE filters have a very fine filtration, so if they get clogged up you can lose a lot in terms of pump efficiency. One thing that I’ve stopped using are flocculating agents – they bind to the dirt, which helps filtration, but then the resulting junk seems to bind to the DE in the filter to make sludge.

If you have any problems with rust stains, bulk vitamin C (at about $50) is wildly cheaper than a drain and clean ($1200) and works like magic. Its the active ingredient in a lot of the rust stain removers – much cheaper to add a little from time to time than to buy the prepared formulas.

I also buy my chlorine on the internet and have it shipped – it’s cheaper than buying it at the pool stores around here. Most of the chemicals are, but you have to shop around a bit.

Finally, my experience has been that you get more accurate water tests from pool stores that use individual cuvettes to test the water, as opposed to the ones who use the paper strips. That helps you save in terms of the volume of chemicals you buy. It also avoids having to drain water from the pool to lower chemical levels that have risen too high (such as cyanuric acid, which never breaks down).

That’s all I can think of right now – except it’s really good to keep squirrels and bats out of your pool ;). I’ll post more later if I think of anything.

[njtosd]

[quote=walterwhite]Scaredy attempted to clean a diatemacious earth filter this weekend. It was a nasty experience. He managed to survive and reassemble the beast but just barely. It probably wouldve been worth 130 to have an experienced hand have at it. Now I kind of know how to do it though so if I write down a few critical mistakes it might work out next tome w half the effort.

Are there any tips on maintaining a pool on the cheap?

Can I run the filter 4 h instead of the 8 I’d been told? I am attempting to do everything myself and any moneysaving ideas are welcome

should I replace the 2 hp old pump for a new efficient one?[/quote]

We had a pool when we lived in San Diego (relatively low maintenance) and now have one that is surrounded by 150′ oak trees (high maintenance – especially squirrel removal). I am the chief pool maintainer and have gotten more helpful information (including sources for replacement parts) from poolcenter.com than any other site, and it’s free.

How long you have to run the pump is related to the power of the pump and the size of the pool. The general suggestion is to run an amount equal to the volume of the pool each day (you can look of the flow volume on the internet). But I have also heard that that might be more than necessary: See this article called Saving Money Around the Pool from poolcenter.com – which looks pretty good: http://blog.poolcenter.com/article.asp?articleid=6057; it suggests that you can get away with less. On the other hand, if you have a solar heater, you may not get the benefit of it without the pump running . . . Also, if you have an automated cleaner that needs the filter pump to be running, you also lose out on that part.

In a dry place like SD, there is a lot of heat loss through evaporation, so a good way to try to save money on heating would be to try the liquid solar blanket (also reduces need to replenish water). I’ve looked into this a bit and the science behind these seems pretty good; when used as directed they are supposed to maintain the average pool at a temp about 5 degrees higher than otherwise – although there are a lot of factors to consider. Reducing evaporation (such as by leaving the waterfall turned off when not needed) is another way to save heating money.

DE filters have a very fine filtration, so if they get clogged up you can lose a lot in terms of pump efficiency. One thing that I’ve stopped using are flocculating agents – they bind to the dirt, which helps filtration, but then the resulting junk seems to bind to the DE in the filter to make sludge.

If you have any problems with rust stains, bulk vitamin C (at about $50) is wildly cheaper than a drain and clean ($1200) and works like magic. Its the active ingredient in a lot of the rust stain removers – much cheaper to add a little from time to time than to buy the prepared formulas.

I also buy my chlorine on the internet and have it shipped – it’s cheaper than buying it at the pool stores around here. Most of the chemicals are, but you have to shop around a bit.

Finally, my experience has been that you get more accurate water tests from pool stores that use individual cuvettes to test the water, as opposed to the ones who use the paper strips. That helps you save in terms of the volume of chemicals you buy. It also avoids having to drain water from the pool to lower chemical levels that have risen too high (such as cyanuric acid, which never breaks down).

That’s all I can think of right now – except it’s really good to keep squirrels and bats out of your pool ;). I’ll post more later if I think of anything.

[scaredyclassic]

We seem to be catching a lit of mice in the pool

[scaredyclassic]

We seem to be catching a lit of mice in the pool

[scaredyclassic]

We seem to be catching a lit of mice in the pool

[scaredyclassic]

We seem to be catching a lit of mice in the pool

[Author]

Posts