New Pool Owner In Search Of Advice

[Glock30]

All,

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

I purchased a home with a 20 X 40 inground pool.

It has a slide at one end and a diving bard at the other so I would assume for the pupose of these dicussions that it is 12' deep at the D/B end and 3' deep at the slide end.

When the home was foreclosed on 2 yrs ago, the former owners took the pump, filter, and heater with them.

This year, I would like to open the pool.

I need:

-Pump (preferrably not maxing out on horsepower. i.e. if min. is 1.5 HP for my pool size I would rather go with 2 HP)

-Filter-I think I want DE but could be convinced otherwise.

-Solar cover (16mil??)

-Solar Cover Reel

-Auto (Robot?) cleaner

I will probably get a heater next year if needed.

Please let me know your recommendations for these items and where the best place to buy is.

Brand names or model numbers would be especially helpful

Thanks In Advance

[ps558]

All,

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

I purchased a home with a 20 X 40 inground pool.

It has a slide at one end and a diving bard at the other so I would assume for the pupose of these dicussions that it is 12' deep at the D/B end and 3' deep at the slide end.

When the home was foreclosed on 2 yrs ago, the former owners took the pump, filter, and heater with them.

This year, I would like to open the pool.

I need:

-Pump (preferrably not maxing out on horsepower. i.e. if min. is 1.5 HP for my pool size I would rather go with 2 HP)

-Filter-I think I want DE but could be convinced otherwise.

-Solar cover (16mil??)

-Solar Cover Reel

-Auto (Robot?) cleaner

I will probably get a heater next year if needed.

Please let me know your recommendations for these items and where the best place to buy is.

Brand names or model numbers would be especially helpful

Thanks In Advance

First off not knowing were you live. Was the pool winterized? , holding water etc. I would hate to see spend all the money on equipment with a bad pool.

If you have 1.5 in pvc go no bigger than a 1.5 hp pump. I wouldn't go anything above that anyways. More HP is not better. It moves water faster but is harder on equipment.

De filters are the best when pool is clean. If you trying to clean a green pool DE require some cleaning while clearing up the pool.

cartridge filters are next in line. These contain big paper filter inside a tank and also require cleaning. These filters need to be taken apart for cleaning they do not use a valve. I do not like these filter just for the reason the cartridges will need to be replaced and are not cheap.

Sand filters are the easiest no fuss no mess. Sand will take longer to clear up water than a DE but work very well. There is no cleaning just changing the sand every few years.

The filter is were you can oversize the sq ft of surface area for the filter.

I prefer Hayward equipment but there is also Pentair and Jandy. You can get standard pumps, high effcient pumps, variable speed pumps. Control system to run everything and chlorine generator.

raypack makes the best pool heaters and as far as robot cleaner look into Tigershark from hayward or ones from Polaris.

here are links to some manufactures to give you a feel for what is available. I am guessing here. Your pool is around 45000 gallons and you want to pool to be filtered entirely in at least a 10 hour time. For filters look at ratings chart for turnover in a time period

http://www.haywardnet.com/inground/product...fm?ProductID=22 here is a example of a DE Perflex filter from hayward. In my opinion these are the best DE filters ever made. very reliable and you can order them with a base and a pump in 1 box

ask more questions if you have any.

http://www.haywardnet.com/

http://pentairpool.com/index.htm

http://polarispools.com/Default.aspx?AspxA...CookieSupport=1

[Glock30]

Thanks for your informative response.

To answer your questions:

Live in central Mass.

Before we bought the property, we had the pool inspected, we were told that it was properly winterized and it is holding water (liner looks good). Also, the fromer owners spent good money on a winter cover and that told the pool pro that it was probably kept up well.

[PoolManPete]

All,

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

I purchased a home with a 20 X 40 inground pool.

It has a slide at one end and a diving bard at the other so I would assume for the pupose of these dicussions that it is 12' deep at the D/B end and 3' deep at the slide end.

When the home was foreclosed on 2 yrs ago, the former owners took the pump, filter, and heater with them.

This year, I would like to open the pool.

I need:

-Pump (preferrably not maxing out on horsepower. i.e. if min. is 1.5 HP for my pool size I would rather go with 2 HP)

-Filter-I think I want DE but could be convinced otherwise.

-Solar cover (16mil??)

-Solar Cover Reel

-Auto (Robot?) cleaner

I will probably get a heater next year if needed.

Please let me know your recommendations for these items and where the best place to buy is.

Brand names or model numbers would be especially helpful

Thanks In Advance

If you are a novice to pools, stay away from DE filtration systems. They are huge pain in the butt if you don't know what you are doing. Add to much DE, pool is cloudy. Add too little and it doesn't filter properly and you risk ruining the grids inside. Forget to add DE after backwashing....etc etc. Cartridge are easier to maintain but require cleaning. Stick with a TR-60 or TR-100 Sand filter and use Zeolite (ZeoSand) media inside the filter as opposed to sand and pea gravel. It costs a little more but I love it. It has the filtration quality of DE (2-5 microns) with the ease of a sand filter. Once the pressure gets to a certain point, you backwash the tank. No need of unscrewing, pulling out grids hosing down etc. As far as pump, do not go with Hayward, very unreliable and temperamental. Go with Whispeflo.

[Cal-Hyper]

Whisper-Flo is good, Hayward Super-pumps are easy to repair. (If you do that sort of thing)

I really like a high rate sand filter(Sta-Rite, Pentair) with a "Zeobrite" medium. As stated above, it takes half as much media, filters down to DE micron(with the ease of use sand filters offer), and last 5-7 years if you keep chems good.

But the main thing is have someone inspect it, to make sure your not dumping money into a lost cause.