Rocks911

Im plumbing in a new SWG and need a recommendation for a 2" check valve. I need it to be as short as possible. I have very little room to plumb a lot of stuff and the products Im finding are all fairly long. I need a good short check valve. Anybody know of the good one?

So I have noticed that there is DE in my pool. I think the simple answer is that my Jandy Ray-Vac Energy filter is broken. I use this to divert water to my Polaris 360 pressure side pool sweep. The top inside of the Jandy energy filter where the filter itself is supposed to fit onto (the X area in the diagram) has broken clean off. (I think when I had it replaced a cheaper brand was used because it only lasted 2 years before breaking, and the last one I had lasted eight years) Anyway, would that lead to DE leaking into the pool when I used my pool sweep?

I've had an inground pool to take care of for the last couple years and CYA is my primary nemesis. How does one go about keeping it at a reasonable level? The first year or two I thought to myself as I was dumping large amounts of granualar chlorine into the pool, "hey theres nothing to this" then I discovered the problems with high CYA as I couldnt keep algae under control. I drained the pool, power washed it and refilled it last year. I have used granular very cautiously since but today I tested the water and my CYA level is at 55+. Before summer gets here I need to find a solution to keeping the pool sanitized without having a CYA problem. Is there a commercially available chlorine source that doesnt have CYA as an integral component? How do people manage to keep CYA levels under control? Here in Dallas apparently we dont get enough rain to wash CYA out of the pool and regular backwashing doesnt seem to do it either, so how do I manage this?

I adjusted the Jandy valve wide open that diverts to the Polaris and it currently reads about 25-28 psi and I pulled the Polaris out and the wheels are turning but not as fast as they should and with darn little power. When I put it back in the pool the unit has just enough power to drive it into a wall where it stays until the backup valve dislodges it from the wall and then the cycle starts again, the unit drives to the wall and stays there until the backup valve dislodges it. Just not a lot of power. It seems like its a pressure/power thing but why would this suddenly become a problem after doing just fine for 3 years? I'll have to do a wheel rotation count when I warm up, because it is coooooold outside.

I have never had a problem with pressure. I have a 2 1/2 HP pump and it has always provided enough pressure, always. I have replaced the drive belts and the float. The unit lays on its side and the wheels dont rotate. I checked that the drive belts are working by pulling the unit out of the water and manually rotating a wheel. All the wheels turn when I manually rotate the one wheel, in other words the drive belts are fine and all the wheels turn. When I drop it back into the pool it lays on its side at the bottom. The pressure is more than adequate so it's not that the unit isnt receiving enough pressure to drive it. Any ideas?

Hello, is this thing on?

I have a Polaris 360 that is 3 years old, this summer would be it's 4th year to sweep the pool, unfortunately it's DOA. I dont want to go on and on about this but let me just say that this Polaris 360 unit is pretty bad. They have designed obsolescence down to an art form. Is there a better make/model that will give me more reliable service for a longer period of time? I do not have a separate booster pump, this unit works from the pressure of my main pump. Maybe the Pentair? I think I would like a 4 wheel model to eliminate the falling over and running on it's side that the Polaris does. Any suggestions would be much appreciated

I have an inground pool about 18,000 gallons with a DE filter system and a 2 1/2 horse pump. I have several trees that dump all kinds of leaves and other debris in my pool starting in the Fall, which I try very hard to keep out of the pool. This Fall I was not very successful and a lot of leaves accumulated and broke down into a lot of sediment. I managed to get all of the sediment out of the pool but am left with green water (somewhere I read something about chlorophyll leaching out of the leaves and into the water)which I cant seem to completely eliminate. I have been through about a box of DE in the last few weeks trying to get the water clear but just cant seem to get the last of the sediment out. I backwash my filter when the pressure increases by 10 pounds which doesnt take long, but after weeks of this the water is still green. The green is not algae, I have no algae in the pool, I think this is chlorophyll. At any rate, I cant get my pool water clear and I've never had this problem before. My water has gotten cloudy/green in the past but I've never had to try this hard to get it clear again. Do I just keep backflushing until it gets clear? A box of DE and still green? This is a little frustrating.

Thanks for the reply. Yep my drive belts needed replacement. Luckily I got a free set from a friends rebuilt 360. They had it rebuilt and it just never seemed to act right so they bought a new one and I asked for the old one, nice to get parts from, and to practice on. Not too big of a deal to replace the belts.

I was also looking for a recommendation for a pool light. Mine is pretty shot, I rehabbed it last year but it leaked again so I'm think of replacing it when I do the drain and clean. I was thinking about a colored LCD. I want it to be simple and reliable, thats pretty much it. Any recommendations?

So I suspended it in the pool to check it's operation and the right two wheels arent moving, is that a drive belt issue and if it is where can I find a repair procedure to fix the thing?

I've got a Polaris 360 that is just now in it's third season of use. The thing runs in circles, small circles. Last year I replaced the swivels. I know the preferred setting for the jet adjustment is at 11 o'clock but it doesnt much seem to matter it just goes in small clockwise circles until the hose becomes one big tangle. You would think at the price of these things they would work a little better. At the deep end of my pool on the floor I noticed some grit/dirt and after 5 hours of running the Polaris it was still there. Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks for the reply. What type canister mask? I know respirators can get expensive, so what is the cheapest mask that will work?

AFiremanFirst, Thanks for the reply, most helpful for sure. Oil might just make sense, never thought of that. The buildup you mention also makes sense as I cleaned the surface thoroughly 3 years ago and dont remember it being as pited as it seems to be, or rather relatively pited from buildup. Thanks for the process explanation very helpful. Also insofar as the water table and/or being situated at a low spot these are not really considerations that effect my situation as I'm high up on a hill just one lot down from the top. Thanks so much for responding.

Thanks for the reply. I did exactly that last year and didnt have great results. While my CYA levels did go down I was left with a ring around my pool down to the level that I drained it. It's kinda hard to axplain what the ring is because I cant get it to go away. It's not algae, at least not green which is what is the most common in my pool but rather it's kinda dark, not quite black but some kinda staining probably in the piited areas of my plaster. After the partial drain and refill I expected the surface of the pool that was exposed to the air to be fairly pristine but it actually took on the stained appearance. I have no idea what to think. I thought that the air/light exposure would have killed everything but instead I have more of a problem in that area. So I want to drain the pool completely and clean it so there is no viable algae or other organism, so again, whats the best way to clean the plaster that is not too destructive? I saw something posetd about boric acid, is that right? What should I use that will kill everything, maybe whiten some of the staining and not be too destructive to the plaster?

O.K. so I have a 1 1/2 horse pool pump that is a bit noisy. What would anybody think of covering the pump with something to deaden the noise? The pump is water cooled right, so I dont see that air circulation is important? My thought is adapting an old beverage cooler I have to fit over the pump. Thoughts?

First of all my Polaris is working but I dont understand why so much pressure is blowing from the wall. The pressure relief valve is blowing by a lot of pressure but I have the valve at the pool equipment opened jst enough to give the Polaris what it needs to run so why the major blow-by? The pressure relief valve on the wall is designed to blow by excess pressure by opening up to divert pressure or there is a dial out feature to open the relief valve manually to do the same. It would seem to me that the automatice blow-by should't divert pressure if I have it opened correctly at the main valve at the pool equipment. It sometimes does this and sometimes doesn't. No Rhime or reason is apparent. No matter how relatively clean or dirty it just acts up when it wants...whats that all about? Second year into a pool, thinking about filling it in with dirt. These things are really precarious. Do everything you can to have a nice pool and things break and funk grows and there seems to be no end to the maintenance and tweaking. Please excuse the rant I'm just a little frustrated. By the way anybody know of a pool cover installer in the Dallas area? I dont want to have to go through another fall and winter like last year, my God the work to keep leaves out of the pool was mind-numbing!

Thanks so much for the reply, something to think about

I live in the Dallas area and need a pool cover for the off season. Every leaf in the neighborhood ends up in my pool and I cant take another year of it. The pool is more or less kidney shaped I would want it to be of a material that allows water to pass thru. Any opinions about manufacturer or if a Dallasite an installer, or just general thoughts would be very much appreciated. If affordable I would like to get it done, or being as I'm pretty handy I could do it myself.

Thanks for the quick reply, I already have purchased the Vulkem caulking so thats where I'm going with this. Now that you suggest that I give it a lot of drying time it seems that caulking in the immediate future (the next couple of days) is out of the question. So is it okay with the joint exposed to use the pool, or even if it rains? How critical is filling the exposed "crack"? Also, cleaning? it would be purely cosmetic but after removing the old caulk and wire brushing the joint it looks kinda funky as the steel wire left behind a sorta grey sheen, is it necessary to clean that up, and how? Pressure wash? I wanted also to mention that there is foam between the deck and pool wall in pretty good shape so I'm just going with that. Thanks again for the fast reply.

I am rehabbing an older pool and have removed the old "caulking" in the expansion joint between the coping (brick) and the deck. I have some Vulkem 45 that I am going to use to refill the gap. A couple of questions though. After tearing out all I could by hand I took a wire wheel on my drill and cleaned up the joint really well. Now there are dark areas that show because of the wire wheel and also because the joint had become discollered from inattention. Is there a good way to clean the brick/joint/deck? I was thinking power washing but was afraid it would be too powerful for the joint. Maybe scrubbing, but with what? I havent allowed myself enough time for the Vulkem to dry so I wont be able to re-caulk for a few days. My wife has a party planned in 2 1/2 days, would it be a problem to leave the expansion joint as it is or should I cauk it with the Vulkem and risk it not curing in time? I thought that the Texas sun should help it cure pretty quickly but if it is no big deal I though I'd wait until I was sure I had enough time for it to cure. Thanks in advance for any reply, Rocks

Here's a follow up question to the backwash procedure. How much D.E. is washed out of the filters? To backwash I run the pump in backwash for 2-3 minutes, then normally for 2-3 minutes, then repeat a couple of times. How much does this procedure wash away? I ask because I dont want to overload the filters, but then again I dont want to not have enough D.E. either. When I rehab'd the pool I had a pool guy come out and he did a filter service and put 10Lbs of D.E. in. I later found my filter owners manual on the web and it stipulated no more than 5.3 pounds. The manual mentioned that the space between the filter grids would be filled with D.E. if too much was added which reduces the effectiveness and can damage the filters. I've already had to backwash a couple of times (I live in a near forest) and I'm concerned that too much D.E. might accumulate. So how much is washed away and should it introduce a little less D.E. with each backwash?

Pool Clown, Thanks, that got it! I really really appreciate the help.

Update, I removed the valve stem, lubricated it and reassembled it and it is leaking at the stem. I guess I wasn't looking closely enough, it's always been leaking at the stem. So, new stem?

I'm new to this and for the most part seem to be doing O.K. thanks especially to the help of this forum. Now for the problem, my backflush valve is leaking at the top. I was backwashing the pool and went through a couple of cycles when I pushed the valve handle down and started the pump. I started the pump and water started leaking from the top. It seems as though the valve has been awfully hard to work and something I read indicated that it has to be lubed every once in a while, I think that has a lot to do with why it's leaking. So how does one go about disassembling the unit? Remove the screws (however many there are) and what...pull up on the handle to remove the "guts"? Should the handle be up for backwash or down for regular operation? I have the handle up, I removed the screws and it really doesn't want to come out. Does it? I'm sure for those that know it's pretty simple but I dont want to force anything. Any help would be appreciated. By the way I have an inground pool with Sta Rite S8D110 filter system.