Richard320

You need a skimmer diverter. Looks like a flying saucer, costs about ten bucks at the pool store. It has a sliding flapper that allows you to adjust the proportion of skimmer/main drain water getting pulled in. Seems to be trial-and-error setting it where you want it. I have mine over 50% blocked. I still have movement in the skimmer but I know the main drain has suction because I can brush stuff at it and it gets pulled in.

No, not the same. K-2005 does most tests the same. K-2006 has a really accurate Chlorine test. No color matching - just watch it go from Barbie Pink to clear with the magic drop. Depending on sample size, you can test in .2 or .5 ppm increments.

Pardon my ignorance, but how do you get such precise numbers? I'm wondering if some of your problems couldn't be caused by testing error?

When I lived in a condo, the pool service guy wheeled in a hand truck with a Honda gas-powered water pump and some sort of filter, and hooked his hoses to that to vacuum. It seemed to work well, plus it didn't matter what pump or filter system each of his clients had. Heck, the filter didn't even have to be running to vacuum!

My guess would be moisturizing lotions. Several years ago, about a dozen of us rented a vacation house in Lake Tahoe - with a hot tub. The air up there is really dry, some people were really slathering themselves with lotion. After skiing, we went to soak while the snow fell. After dinner, some of us went back. Gross. A layer of foam with scum clumps on the surface. We left the filter on all night. It looked better the next day. Until one individual hopped in for a while. This one was the major moisturizer, and sadly, it was a guy... Instant foam.

Oooh! Ooh! I know the answer to this one! Yes, it is all the same CYA. My pool suffers from a surplus of CYA thanks to the previous owners' apparently exclusive use of a tablet floater. So yes, if you get the CYA level up to some point using the fgloater, you don't need to buy special stabilizer powder

I took a sample to the local Leslie's store and had it tested today. It wasn't as bad as I'd feared. I knew pH was still a little high - 7.8. I was planning to pick up some more acid on this trip anyway. This after adding ten pounds - the whole bucket - of dry acid over the last 2 months or so, waiting for the color to change. Chlorine is way high -8. I smelled as much. I have a theory that the pool service (who are about to lose an account) overdid the tablets to keep the Chlorine up. Now that the pH is in a decent range, the stuff is more effective, hence the higher levels. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that Total alkalinity is 180. Calcium hardness 400+ No surprise there; I was expecting worse. You ought to see the crust on my showerhead! CYA is high. 100. Again, no surprise. I expected that from a steady *** of stabilized tablets and hardly any water replenishment. What did surprise me is phosphates at 300. The previous owner was a widower, no little kids peeing in the pool. I suppose it could be runoff from the raised garden beds. There are lots of odds-n-ends of various fertilizers in the shed. Where else could it come from? I brought the sample in a plastic nalgene bottle that has been through the dishwasher a few times. Could dish soap residue do it? I rinsed it several times in the pool, then drew the sample from the other end.

I bought one of those blue bubble wrap covers for the pool. I need to cut it to fit now. There's a floating tablet chlorinator tethered to one wall. Can I put the cover over it, or shall I cut a hole for it?

I fixed it! The valves were in the proper position. But the other day I thought I'd play with them some more. I noticed sort of a binding, scratching feeling when moving it. So I worked the valve back and forth a few times. Something must have been stuck in there - debris or scale. (The pH was off the scale when I first checked it, been adding acid for weeks, a little at a time and now it's in the safe zone.)The valve seals fine now. I let it run on spa only for an hour, water level stayed the same. So I fired off the heater. It was ready in about 45 minutes, so the wife and I used our new pool for the first time since we moved in two months ago! My skin feels fine today, so I must have the chemistry pretty close!

I bought a house about 2 months ago and it has a pool. The pool guy guesses it's about 15K gallons; it has a hot tub that spills into the pool. He serviced the pool for the old owner, said it was all redone a couple years ago, only got one summer's use out of it. I'm not totally ignorant of pool maintenance; I activated and maintained one at a scout camp for three summers many years ago. But I had pool man show me what valves go where and what switches work what rather than risk damaging something. Currently, suction is from the pool, return is to the hot tub, where it then spills into pool. He showed me what valve to move so that I could suck and return just the spa portion so I could heat it without heating the whole pool. So I tried it. It started emptying the spa into the pool. To the point where the pool almost started spilling into the spa! I figure the 3-way valve on the return line must leak. They say Jandy Neverlube on them. Do these leak? Is it repairable? I found the exploded diagram online. I see some O-rings that seal the lid and the stem, but nothing on the diverter. Is it soft rubber or something? How does it seal? And more importantly - can it be fixed or do I need to replace the valve?