I’ve now called 2 local awning/tenting companies, trying to discuss covering my 16×32 pool with an awning/tent with netted sides. This will reduce the amount of organic debris in the pool, saving me hours a week and extending our usuable season another 4 to 6 weeks. I guess it’s such a radical concept that they are scared of something new? Maybe the economy is so good, that they don’t need or want the business. Oh Well, more calls to come.

It’s march, it’s cold and snowy and i’m looking forward to summer. My apologies for disappearing, but the summer and fall lead to a number of problems at the day job. Mainly we were putting out IT fires, dealing with hackers and spammers on a much to regular basis.

This year i’m hoping to enclose the the pool with some sort of Awning/Tent like structure, with netting along the sides. This sort of set up shouldn’t have any zoning law issues and should be a cheap enough project to afford. Now, this obviously doesn’t give me an indoor pool. It does allow me to open my pool in early may and keep it open till early october, without constantly cleaning out maple seed pods, tons of “fish flies” and then leaves and nuts in the fall. I estimate that enclosing the pool area would save at least a couple of hours a week, reduce our chemical usage and reduce my robot usage to one day a week.

So, i’ve been filtering and backwashing for a month or so and there is still that blue/green copper coming out in the backwash. Fortunately, i’ve had no problems keeping the pool Ph, basic. I’m told the black/yellow stains on the liner, which seem to disappear when i chlorinate, are actually caused by the copper in the water. I’m also told that high chlorination helps to mask the copper.

Well i don’t know what to do about the stains, but i’m told, keep working the plan and wait till next spring. The good news is that despite the stains, the water is crystal clear and the new heat exchange combined with the hot weather has left the water at a nice 86F. Unfortunately, the onslaught of dying leaves is just a few weeks off and i’ve still not managed to enclose my pool.

Well we’ve tested the water and it was acidic, but since the pool place couldn’t test a PH below 6.8. So we don’t really know how acidic the water was, but the copper levels were lower than we (the pool place and me) would expect to find, given the failure of my heat exchanger.

Before the new heat exchanger can be installed, the water has to be fixed. $150 worth of buffer, ph raise, calcium and stablizer, my pool had a bunch of brown percipitate on the bottom and my PH was finally up to 7.2-7.6 range it needed to be. My new sand filter needed a backwash, the first time i had done so. Based on the green color of the backwash, i think we’ve found the copper that went missing.

I now know, keep your ph slightly basic or else.

Well, i can’ t say that i am a happy pool owner today. Last fall i bought a Hayward H250 heater for my pool. This year, when we opened the pool the pump was dead and we replaced with a new pump and sand filter. I was thrilled, my pool had new mechanical and heater and i was likely set for the next 5 or 10 years.

Or so i thought…..

There was leak in the pump house, which i had assumed was just a bad plumbing connection. It wasn’t. Somehow, in 4 weeks of use and one winter sitting, my heat exchanger has been destroyed. Yes, $800 worth of copper tubing was scoured and destroyed by the water in pool! Yes, the water was too acidic and my heater is now in need of a repair that will cost nearly 1/2 of what i paid for it.

In a word, it SUCKS!

When i get the water analyzed i’ll write up some details about that. At this point, i’m in search of information that might indicate a defect in the heater i’ve purchased.