DKN1997

I don't believe pentair and hayward are the same. Hayward is very popular around here and I love their pumps. the H series heater is very reliable if you get the electronic version. don't get any heater that's millivolt (standing pilot) they still manufacture them, but don't go there if you can, especially on a new install where running another high voltage feed is very cheap and easy. As far as pentair heaters, they used to be called Purex. Junk back then, and did not get better when pentair put their sticker on them. maybe they have come out with some new heater in the last year or two, but watch out for the minimax or mighty max or whatever they call it. bad heater and factory tech support is a joke. You could also consider Jandy. thier pumps are ok, their filters are nice and the heaters are good too. excellent tech support and thier reps really take of the dealers. that means the dealer will take care of you and not try to weasel out of warranty claims because jandy pays parts/labor pretty much no questions asked. also, I feel that their aqualink controller is the best out there. I know the new eos is better on paper, but you cannot beat the aqualink for reliability and it's still a solid design. just expensive to upgrade because it's hardware based, meaning any significant upgrades require the purchase of chips.

you could also look at the plug on the pump. or the outlet. if it's 110, it will look just like any other 110v device, with two slots parallell to each other, ground terminal round directly underneath. If it's 220, one of the slots will be perpendicular to the other....or it could be a twist lock with all terminals being in a circle, that's usually 220 also. or you could stab the outlet with a cheapie volt meter. home depot has them for about 20 bucks. very useful tool around the house.

What type of pool do you have? If it's vinyl liner, good luck changing the water after it's been installed for 8 years. When it's empty and you start filling it up, the sun will shrink it up and you will have some nice windows in that liner. I don't really see the logic in changing the water unless a very detailed water test indicates that draining must be done. as far as calcium clogging up the filter, I don't see that happening if your calcium levels are kept at proper levels regulary. that's not to say your pool guy is totally off base, plenty can happen to a filter in 8 years. sand wears out, (if you rub it between your fingers and it's smooth,it's done) DE elements start ripping, cartridges rarely last 8 years without replacement. I have seen calcium clog up the filter, but only when calcium hypochlorate (granular shock) is added to the pool through the skimmers over a period of time. I say if it looks good and the water tests check out, don't drain it.

I like the pentair sand filter, specifically the TR60 or TR100. It's up to you, but to save 400 bucks, let the pro install the salt gen. Not saying he will necessarily do a better job than you, but if you have any issues with it, it's on you now. I have found salt generators to be generall very reliable, but they are a machine that lives outside, so anything can happen. I don't know anything about the pentiar salt genny. I really liked the Goldline unit. we dont' sell it anymore, but I found it really easy to use. There is also a system out that zodiac sells called the Pro G. It is basically the old Nature 2 pure vision system integrated with a low dose chlorinator. it's a 2 chamber device with no electronics. one chamber is a low dose chlorinator that takes 3" trichlor tabs. the other chamber houses the nature2 mineral cartridge. It puts copper and silver into you water. your better algaecides have copper or silver in them, so you can see where they are going with it. the old Nature 2 system that my old company sold lacked the automatic chlorinator part, thus giving it a bad rap. the directions even said to maintain a 1.0 chlorine level by dosing the pool every couple of days with dichlor. not something most people feel like doing. I used to hate them. this new system seems to address the chlorination issue. the chlorinator part is not like a regular chlorinator, it's calibrated to deliver a lower dosage so you should not be able to screw up and jack your pool up to 3.0. I would go with a polaris 280, it's cheaper and works just as well. The 380's will go through belts depending on your water chemistry and use, easy to change, but you do have do a bit of disassembly to do it. The 280 does not use belts, totally gear driven. either unit will do an excellent job of cleaning the pool. Again, I would let the pro do it, besides, 1200 sounds like a decent deal to me. cost on the 380 with a pump is in the 7-800 dollar range, so if his price included running the pipe from the pool to the filter equ and plumbing the pump in, then it's pretty fair. If you elect to install the polaris yourself, make sure you read the manual before cutting anything. it will give you detailed plumbing instructions.

maintenance seems really daunting at first, but once you grasp it, it's very easy. Here is what I would do: Once/week, vacuum, service filter (sand:backwash, cartridge: rinse every 3 weeks, de: backwash and replace with fresh earth every 3 weeks or if your pressure rises 5lbs above initial startup on your gauge) test chlorine and ph, add chemicals according to the dosage listed on the container for your size pool once/month, take a water sample to wherever you buy chemicals, most have computerized testors. They can test alkalinity, tds,calcium, stabilizer, etc...they will test for free so you buy chems from them. You could also buy a good test kit to test all of these things yourself. If you see algae, immediately shock to at least 3-5.0, higher for really bad algea, then brush the entire surface, service the filter, and set time clock for 24hrs/day until pool clears up. vacuum up dead algae to waste, don't run it through filter. It would help if you listed what equipment you have, if you have a salt generator or ozone gen, or some mineral purifier, then that changes things a bit.

Dude!!! dont' click that again....look at the title!! the **/**** crowd has infiltrated this site!!

you can buy sheer decents that have the lighting in them already, they look very nice. For me, Fiber optics are the best way to light up water features because you can actually put them in the water, there is no electricity where you see the light. also , water features generally need accent lighting, which Fiber optics is perfect for. LED's are pretty new to the pool industry, and they suffer a similar problem to fiberoptics in that they just don't provide as much or many lumens/brightness as standard incandescents. You certianly can light the pool with led's, but you will end up using more. Personally, I actually prefer that. I never liked the old school way of one big single light in the pool. My company has been using 2 or 3 smaller lights for 15 years now and I like the look better. you might be able to get the same light if you use multiple led's. I would say in a 16x32 pool, 2 or 3 led lights would probably do fine. cost would be more, but you would almost eliminate bulb changes. They are now making LED conversion bulbs to retrofit into old incandescent fixtures too. so if you went that way, you could switch to led in the future.

If you want the extended warranty, usually you have to go with all new stuff, which in your case means the pump too. at least that's how jandy works it. My personal choice, Hayward DE4820 DE filter, Waterpik/Jandy LD400 heater. I will say that I have heard great things about the starite stuff too. I know I love their dynaglass pump and I spoke with a competitor recently who swears by their heater too.

agreed!! it will not look right. best to leave the tiles that are there. the only option I see is possibly cutting out the hole a bit "big" and then using a marbledust type mix of a different color that accents both the tile and pool finish.

on water jobs (high risk of ground water) we install weep lines and the aforementioned hydrostatic relief valves in the botton. the weep lines go under the pool and come up out of the ground in the filter area. when we need to drain one of these high risk pools, we bring an extra pool pump, hook it up to pipes and run it for the duration of the work being done. To pop a pool that has hydrostats, unless you have a serious water condition (like living right on the water) is hard to do. you would really have to work on it. We routinely drain pools for winterizing 18-20" and have never popped one out of the ground doing this. this may have to do with the soil conditions in our area and we also don't drain anything after protracted periods of rain.

My experience with pool salesman is that you could write a book on what they don't know. I do not have much experience with fiberglass pools, but I have serviced hundreds of fiberglass spas. They get heated to 104 for months and years on end and I have never seen one damaged by heat.

the beam is the vertical wall behind the tiles, it's what the tiles are stuck too. if that beam is crumbly or pooryly constructed, the tiles will fall off. the expansion joint is a space in between the patio and the coping (top stones on top of tiles) it allows the patio to move independently of the pool. At this point, it would be easier for you to have a professional come in and get a quote to fix it. estimates are free and he will most likely at least tell you what caused this to happen.

IN an of itself, the "leaning" would not necesitate ripping the whole pool out. sounds like the beam has to be fortified and rebuilt. but the leaning could also mean that the pool was poorly constructed and the shell might not be sound, but that's jumping ahead. Check your patio/deck. if it's a masonary patio, make sure that there is an expansion joint of at least 1/2" between the patio and the coping/shell. expansion joint is a space left in between, usually filled with some sort of flexible sealer. this allows the patio to move without pushing on the wall of the pool and pop your tiles off. If you have proper expansion joint, then the tiles and leaning are probably caused by poor construction techniques. maybe not enough, or no rebar, poor concrete mix, or it burnt a little before they shot it. before you take any course of action, you need to determine what actually caused the problems. you don't want to rip the pool out only to discover that it was fine and that a poor or missing expansion joint caused your problems. I almost forgot...the leaning of your pool...is the high side higher than the surrounding patio, or lower. if it's higher, then some sort of undeground water condition (water table or underground stream) could have "popped" it.

Here on Long Island, NY, there are not a lot of vermiculite hard bottom pools. If you tamp them hard, sand bottom pools are fine and you can get very sharp crispy lines too. I know because I have personally installed about 50 vinyl liners in sand only bottom pools. However, the hardbottom is better. the main reason is that when the time comes to change the liner, it is so much easier. on a 20 x 40, it can take 2 guys 2-3 hours to rettrowel sand. with hardbottom, you could do the whole job in that amount of time. I have no idea why the hard bottom never really caught on here. Maybe because it's such a "boom" area and contractors had more work than they could handle? sand bottom is certianly less work/time at initial install.

Yes you can. but it's not easy. the individual anchors for the cover should be anchored into concrete. The best way I have seen is to obtain, with your cover, or from your cover manufacturer,what's called 'anchor in pipe' assembly. it's a standard mesh cover masonary anchor machine pressed into an 18" long aluminum tube. This alone won't make the cover safe or wear resistant. Fit the cover to the pool and simply hammer the assemblies in. once you are satisfied with anchor placement and fit of cover, get a can of marking paint. mark each anchor point. Then the digging begins. What you want is to anchor the assemblies into concrete. If it were me, I would get some 3" pvc to use as forms. I would cut them so they were at least 20" long and sink them into the ground at every anchor point. then fill with cement, insert anchor and pipe, pass go and collect 200 dollars! The reality is that most people will just whack the anchor in pipes into the grass and call it done. while this works, the cover always ends up saggy once it gets a snow load on it, once the snow melts, the cover is loose because the anchors got pulled in. Also, consider that failure to anchor at least 80% of your anchors properly will not only void your safety warranty, but also your wear warranty. These mesh covers have hard plastic wear guards sewn in on the seams at the outer edges. these are there to prevent your coping from wearing holes in the cover. once the cover gets loose, there is too much movement and possibility of the cover moving so much that you are no longer riding on the wear straps.