Welcome to Pool Care Secrets - A Regular Weekend Warrior’s Guide to Keeping It Blue
We purchased our first home nearly a year ago, and with it came an in-ground swimming pool. I was excited to do a lot of swimming, because the weather here in Sarasota, Florida is gorgeous year-round. Little did I know that I’d spend more time caring for my pool than swimming in it.
It’s this constant struggle that led me to put together a compendium of the Web’s (and print’s) best (and worst - where noted) information on taking care of that big hole in your patio, the one that insists on being anything but clear, blue, and inviting.
PoolCareSecrets is somewhat of a misnomer, because there are NO SECRETS to having a sparkling blue swimming pool. At least, that’s what they keep telling me.
Filed at 7:38 pm under Chris' Pool Blog and Nifty Gadgets by Chris
When I saw the Water Wand cartridge filter cleaner in a Pinch-A-Penny ad we got in the mail, I thought, “This has got to be one of the most brilliant ideas I’ve ever seen.” I MUST have one.
Since it was Saturday and I need to refill my jugs anyway, I motored down to the store with flyer in hand and said to Ken, “I’m going to bet that these are already sold out, right?” He nodded, and said “Yeah, they sold out earlier this morning. We just introduced them today. We expect to get more on Wednesday.”
Fast forward to Wednesday.
Now I’m back at Pinch-A-Penny, again with flyer-in-hand, and lo and behold they HAVE one.
My wife gets home from work and I exclaim “HONEY, look at this thing! They HAD one. It’s AWESOME.”
Then, I tried it out. What a sad experience. I screwed it onto the end of my garden hose and turned on the water. Water began shooting out in all directions from the housing. Through the seam on the front end, around the screw-fitting at the hose, and in six directions (three of which were on me) from the On/Off thumb-lever.
Am I going crazy? I’m not THAT mechanically uninclined. Is it screwed on right?
So I call Pinch-A-Penny back and tell them that though I was super-excited to get the Water Wand and try it out, I was horribly disapointed with its performance. I’d Googled around for ‘water wand’ and found a number of sites claiming that “due to this product’s abysmal performance and high rate of returns, we aren’t offering it anymore.” I explained this, and was assured I could return it for a store credit.
Last weekend I took it back and said to Ken, “Man, what a disappointment.” He then produced a piece of paper with a little baggie stapled to it, containing three rubber washers. “I got this in the mail from the manufacturer.” He was kind enough to give me a photocopy of it, and one of the washers, since I’d agreed to guinea-pig the “corrections” per this technical bulletin.
Apparently, the manufacturer had gotten enough complaints to send this memo out to stores carrying the Water Wand, in hopes that they could correct the increasingly widespread impression that this thing was a piece of crap. The explanation said that there are so many different types of garden hoses, that the majority of the problems lay in the hose not sealing properly to the Water Wand, and pressurized water would get into the plastic housing and go spraying everywhere. Implementing this washer, most of these connection problems could be overcome.
It worked. The rubber washer helped keep the pressurized water inside the right places inside the Water Wand, and the only place water sprayed out was from “the business end.” I was pleased.
So then, I tested it on my woefully dirty cartridge filter. I was only marginally impressed though, since the pressure of the water emitted is nowhere near the force with which I can use my thumb on an unadulterated garden hose. If it was more pressurized, it would work better in my opinion.
For LIGHT DUTY, this thing is great. For dirtier filters, especially those with clumps of pet hair in them (like ours), I’ll probably stick to using my thumb and call the Water Wand a brilliant idea in theory, but somewhat disappointing in practice.
Filed at 5:15 pm under Chris' Pool Blog and Happy Pool by Chris
So today things are back to normal, and the pool is happy again. So am I.
It turns out that a good brushing, 1 gallon of liquid chlorine, a bunch of Stop-Green and 24 hours did the trick. This morning I woke up to a very pretty, inviting swimming pool.
I caved in before writing this and dove in, floating around with my Bubba-Keg and tempting my dog to jump in. He’s a big weenie and refuses to jump in, even though he’s got enough Lab in him to make him practically a duck. Oh well, his loss.
Filed at 5:43 pm under Chris' Pool Blog and Green Pool and chemicals by Chris
My Dad’s always (mostly) given me good advice. I grew up with a big swimming pool, and fondly (mostly) remember my childhood pool chores. Sweep the pool. Clean the Aqua-Queen (a real bitch of a robot). Backwash it. Hohum.
When we moved into this house and were thus indentured to this pool, one of the first things Dad suggested for the perennial “green pool syndrome” was something called Stop-Yellow. I tried this a few times and had good success… brushing, shocking with liquid chlorine, and then sprinkling a smallish packet of the stuff around the pool. The next day, the water’d turned crystal clear and all was well in Swimming Pool Land.
But it didn’t last. Hardly ever does.
I just got back from Pinch-A-Penny, where I get my chemicals and water tests roughly once a week. I got about $40 worth of chemicals this time. Stop-Green, a small tub of Big Aspirins (what I call stabilized chlorine tablets), muriatic acid, and jug refills.
The Stop-Green is different, since now I’m starting to see greenish spots on the sides of the pool, like little verdant flecks in the marcite, which begs its own post some other time. I just brushed the sides and bottom, added 2 quarts of acid, a gallon of chlorine, about 2lbs of stabilizer (all I had left) and then sprinkled about 2lbs of Stop-Green around the pool. It’s incredibly cloudy now, as expected after the vigorous brushing. I’ll run the pump all night for circulation and report back tomorrow.
Filed at 2:15 pm under Chris' Pool Blog and Green Pool by Chris
Since this IS a blog of sorts, this is my inaugural post.
The pool’s green at the moment, and is too full because it rained cats and dogs yesterday. I need to run to Pinch-A-Penny to get the water tested and refill my jugs. My guess is, it’ll need a good shock and some algaecide.
I’ve been following their directions and while the pool turns nicely clear and blue, it generally doesn’t stay that way for more than a few days. I know I’m doing something wrong.
News as it’s available, and thanks for your patience with the actual information pages. I’ll be added that stuff as it becomes available and time permits.
Cheers - Chris
