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-   -   Swimming Pool maintenance (https://britishexpats.com/forum/france-76/swimming-pool-maintenance-905382/)

Dancy61 Nov 2nd 2017 10:47 am

Swimming Pool maintenance
 
My wife and I are pleased to have purchased a property with a pool. There are many concerns to explore but I thought the easiest way to get used to this forum and be successful (?) is to ask for an idiots guide to maintaining a swimming pool. It can be heated and it has a 'robot' but since we aren't arriving until late November it won't be hands on until then. Does anyone know a good and effective guide? Thank you in advance.

chawkins99 Nov 2nd 2017 10:56 am

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/1-pool-school

Read, digest and read again.

All you need is chlorine (plain old bleach) with occasional additions of Cyanauric Acid (stabilizer) and Muriatic Acid to control PH.

dmu Nov 2nd 2017 11:59 am

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 

Originally Posted by Dancy61 (Post 12373261)
My wife and I are pleased to have purchased a property with a pool. There are many concerns to explore but I thought the easiest way to get used to this forum and be successful (?) is to ask for an idiots guide to maintaining a swimming pool. It can be heated and it has a 'robot' but since we aren't arriving until late November it won't be hands on until then. Does anyone know a good and effective guide? Thank you in advance.

Hi, as you're arriving at the end of the month and presuming it's not an indoor pool, surely you'd best "hiverniser" (winterize) it when you arrive, with hivernisation products obtainable from all DIY stores, and wait until next Spring to maintain it? With chlore or Eau de Javel in various forms, anti-algues, pH+ or pH- (I've deliberately left the terms in French so you can find the products quickly). If there are a lot of dead leaves etc.. (even with a cover), a flocculant would also be necessary, for the robot to be more efficient. If you're in an area where it freezes in the winter, it would be more economical to float a few plastic bottles to keep the water moving, rather than keep it above 0° by heating...
I'm certainly no expert, but I helped OH with the chores for many years when we had an outside pool.;)

petitefrancaise Nov 3rd 2017 2:20 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 

Originally Posted by chawkins99 (Post 12373269)
https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/1-pool-school

Read, digest and read again.

All you need is chlorine (plain old bleach) with occasional additions of Cyanauric Acid (stabilizer) and Muriatic Acid to control PH.

:thumbsup:

I love this website too. I've followed their guidelines for 3 years and it is spot on. Well worth ordering their kit as it will last a whole season. They also have a section on winterising the pool.

chawkins99 Nov 3rd 2017 2:46 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 

Originally Posted by petitefrancaise (Post 12374075)
:thumbsup:

I love this website too. I've followed their guidelines for 3 years and it is spot on. Well worth ordering their kit as it will last a whole season. They also have a section on winterising the pool.

Yep. I also have their test kit. Unfortunately, with the OP being in France, that is probably not available to him.

Chatter Static Nov 4th 2017 6:41 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
Pee in it on every 3 Sunday of the month and sacrifice a Koi carp on every 5th Sunday of the month, Louis XVI swears by it.

uk_grenada Nov 4th 2017 8:04 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
You can test in 3 ways.

Test strips are cheap but useless fullstop
Liquid reagents are accurate-ish but a hassle
Tablet reagents and a digital colorimeter are over time [expensive device to buy however] a bit cheaper than liquids, a lit quicker and very accurate. In europe palintest or lovibond make them. Taylor is the biggest us based maker of all kits.

There are numerous schemes of chemicals to manage a pool, but essentially they must include -

A sterilising agent eg bleach
A way of protecting the sterilising agent from UV in the sunlight [a pool sunblock if you will]
A way of increasing PH
A way of reducing PH
A way of increasing calcium hardness
A way of reducing calcium hardness
A way of killing mould and similar

What confuses some is that sometimes chemicals are used that impact several parameters at the same time.

Smartphone apps like pool doctor or pool cloud will offer several methodologies with accociated chemicals. You test, tell it the pools capacity and it tells you what to add and keeps stats.

Personally i use pool clouds weekend warrior plan, test twice a week, using

calcium hypochlorite [chlorine] in powder form - also used as pool shock
Muriatic acid - dangerously strong form of hydrochloric acid ph lowering
Sodium carbonate - soda ash - raises both ph and alkalinity
Calcium chloride increases calcium hardness but impacts ph too
Sodium bicarbonate is an antacid - raises alkalinity with almost no impact on ph
Cyanuric acid chlorine sunblock

Seperately i use copper sulphate pool mould killer, its a small quantity - pretty much the same as you use for killing spores on plants.

Typically, the chlorine gets killed over time and you add more weekly, you maintain calcium to stop the water leaching material from the pools walls in a plaster/concrete/tiled pool or to keep it comfortable for users in a plastic pool. PH keeps the water comfortable and hostile to bugs. Cyanuric acid and some other levels will not dissapate, if levels rise too far you have to partially empty the pool and refill. Schenes that use trichlor or dichlor blocks get this problem eventually.

petitefrancaise Nov 5th 2017 1:26 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
In 15 years of pool ownership, I have never had to increase pH. Only lower it.

I use
Bleach ( 8.25% sodium hypochlorite).
Muriatic acid to reduce pH as needed.
DE for the filter.

that's it.

I buy this kit TFTestkits.net ( the XL one lasted a very long Texas summer) and even importing it from the USA will be cheaper than buying all the crap at the swimming pool store.


If you are using tablets for sterilising then they are chalk ( calcium) so that will increase your calcium measurements so you may need to replace some water each year. Depending on how much rainfall you get. if you end up having to pump out water a few times a year due to rainfall then you are probably ok. Rainfall /Tap water is generally ok and no need to add calcium.
If you are using tablets then your cyanuric acid will go up and you may need to replace water. Again, depends on how much rainfall you get and if you have to pump it out.

uk_grenada Nov 5th 2017 2:42 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
Rainwater and our tapwater has a low ph, you can also lower ph usung di/trichlor.

Here, our climate is thermostable. The pool sits at 78-84 degrees year round and is never winterised.

Surfaces are mixed glass and polished/resin infiltrated green sukabumi [indonesian] stone tiles with epoxy grout. Its raised off the ground by about 10 ft, [in a deck] but it still gets leaves etc in the constant breeze and here there are some exotic moulds so thr copper sulphate is recommended. We get very heavy rains in wet season, i Regularly get 2 inches in the pool in a day but waters cheap so evaporation isnt too much of an issue.

I keep free chlorine and hence cyanuric acid actually very low but tightly regulated 1.5ppm. Ive never tried it but a neighbour keeps it at 1ppm plus UV and has guppies and peppermint plecs [ 6-9 inch long living vacuum cleaners] in his pool, they seem happy...

Refill religiously every 6 months, and apart from new fill, never shock unless some disaster happens [once found a dead armadillo...]

Have you seen luminous tiles - latest toys here, mosaic that soaks up the sun and lights up green by itself at night. Like most of the tiling innovations - from spain.

Apart from the cost of taylor reagents, some arent allowed on planes, the tablets are -and are much cheaper. Professional grade colorimeters are so much more accurate than by eye and use tablets. In a big pool, using the chemicals accurately saves money.

petitefrancaise Nov 5th 2017 2:48 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 

Originally Posted by uk_grenada (Post 12375194)
Rainwater and our tapwater has a low ph, you can also lower ph usung di/trichlor.

Here, our climate is thermostable. The pool sits at 78-84 degrees year round and is never winterised.

Surfaces are mixed glass and polished/resin infiltrated green sukabumi [indonesian] stone tiles with epoxy grout. Its raised off the ground by about 10 ft, [in a deck] but it still gets leaves etc in the constant breeze and here there are some exotic moulds so thr copper sulphate is recommended. We get very heavy rains in wet season, i Regularly get 2 inches in the pool in a day but waters cheap so evaporation isnt too much of an issue.

I keep free chlorine and hence cyanuric acid actually very low but tightly regulated 1.5ppm. Ive never tried it but a neighbour keeps it at 1ppm plus UV and has guppies and peppermint plecs [ 6-9 inch long living vacuum cleaners] in his pool, they seem happy...

Refill religiously every 6 months, and apart from new fill, never shock unless some disaster happens [once found a dead armadillo...]

What's your cya ppm?

Guidelines are that FC should be a minimum of 3ppm and then raised according to cya level.

The only time I emptied or refilled a pool was when the defective pool liner was replaced.

I think that your advice from Grenada is possibly not the best advice for someone living in a different climate. Even here in Texas, I don't winterise but since I lived in France for 11 years with a pool, I feel I can give relevant advice.

The water bill for refilling for the OP's pool would be absolutely eye-watering and for me in Texas, ruinous.

uk_grenada Nov 5th 2017 3:37 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
100k us gallons of water is about 150 us dollars here, possibly a bit more. The pool cloud app will work anywhere, the algorythms and user base are really impressive, look it up online, i think its a great solution. The copper may not be needed.

CNA is really low, 10-20, rainwater washes it out in the summer. Proof of the pudding, never had an issue, and TC and FC remain almost identical, sort of 1.55/1.65 - 1.50 - and never had anything less than glass clarity. I could burn out the TC but 6 monthly renew seems easier/less chemicals used. The only problem with my setup is Calcium hardness, it has to be high enough not to etch/leach out the quartzite but that level also discolours it at the waterline, even the resin impregnation doesnt entirely eliminate it, but underwater it looks amazing...

petitefrancaise Nov 5th 2017 5:20 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 

Originally Posted by uk_grenada (Post 12375230)
100k us gallons of water is about 150 us dollars here, possibly a bit more. The pool cloud app will work anywhere, the algorythms and user base are really impressive, look it up online, i think its a great solution. The copper may not be needed.

CNA is really low, 10-20, rainwater washes it out in the summer. Proof of the pudding, never had an issue, and TC and FC remain almost identical, sort of 1.55/1.65 - 1.50 - and never had anything less than glass clarity. I could burn out the TC but 6 monthly renew seems easier/less chemicals used. The only problem with my setup is Calcium hardness, it has to be high enough not to etch/leach out the quartzite but that level also discolours it at the waterline, even the resin impregnation doesnt entirely eliminate it, but underwater it looks amazing...

please go to troublefreepool.com and learn how to look after your pool.

AlexandraG Nov 14th 2017 4:51 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
We got a pool cop, it is so easy. It sends you alerts to your phone when you need to do something to the pool, plus it automatically regulates all the chemicals. Basically makes it as simple as can be. It is 2017/2018 forget the manual testing just install one of the pool cops. 💪🏼 Then actually enjoy your pool.

uk_grenada Nov 14th 2017 5:34 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 
Lol, at that price plus subscription, better hope so! Pity it cant manage all the variables but im sure the installers offer a supplemental service if you have issues.

petitefrancaise Nov 15th 2017 5:18 pm

Re: Swimming Pool maintenance
 

Originally Posted by uk_grenada (Post 12382048)
Lol, at that price plus subscription, better hope so! Pity it cant manage all the variables but im sure the installers offer a supplemental service if you have issues.

what was the price?

it did make me laugh about claiming to reduce by 50% the usage of chemicals. This is science, not art. It's either the correct level of chemicals or not. Like being pregnant or not.


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