Please Help me

[Julie5]

My name is Julie. I am from Southern Ohio. I apologize for the length of this post in advance. A year ago we contacted Viking about a fiberglass pool. They gave us the name of the closest person to us who could install for us. He lived about 2 hours away. I paid him a lot of money (and I do mean A LOT) to install a freeform fiberglass pool, freeform fiberglass spa, an automatic motorized cover, and do a a load of concrete work. He was very efficient, worked alone, and was very nice. Our contract stated that he would install, open and close the pool and spa the first year and provide chemicals for the first year. He also stated that he would go over with us in detail how to troubleshoot any problem we might have before he was done with us and explain how things in a pool "work" as we have no clue. We are a young couple. Neither me or my husband have ever had a pool. I couldn't tell the the first thing about how this thing even runs.

Long story short, he installed, made many trips after to tweak things and finish things up, even coming back toward the end of the summer to fix some things that had gone bad or wrong. At the end of the year, in November (the pool is also heated so we swam until late in the year) I called him to come close us up and start the "explaining" process. No call back. I have done everything in my power for the past 7 months to get a hold of this guy and nothing. We had no problems for a while. Left the pool running all winter. Started putting chemicals back in this spring. Now things are starting to happen that we do not understand. The pool cover for one, is having problems. A bigger problem is the equipment over there (notice I say equipment because I don't know if its the filter, pump or what the difference between those two things are). It is running extremely loud. And I think some things are not working properly. I can not be sure of this.

Again, because I don't even know how any of this works. I have contacted every pool type store in our area. Problem is, we live in an area where there are no pool installers who do fiberglass, hence me going out of town. Because of this, no one will even touch my pool. I do not know what to do. I am trying to find someone in my state who could come and service my pool that this ******* put in and left me high and dry with. I need lessons if you will to understand how to use and troubleshoot this stuff too. I am in Southern Ohio, near Portsmouth but am willing to pay someone to come in from a different part of the state, or possible even West Virginia or Kentucky. I am desperate. I know this may have not even been the right place to post this, but as I said I am desperate. I will be posting it on many forums all over the internet. Thank you for any help any of you might be.

Julie

[Poconos]

Welcome to the forum. I deleted the thread in the Construction and Repair forum because it was a duplicate. Thought a little more appropriate here.

First off the fact that it is fiberglass doesn't affect basic operation. They all have the basic components. Skimmer and maybe main drain, pump, filter, heater in your case, and the returns.

For starters go to this link in the poolsolutions website.

http://www.poolsolutions.com/tips/10things.html

This will give you the basics of the chemistry.

Do some reading of the 'stickys' at the top of each forum. There is a bunch of info in these too.
Get us the following info for starters so we know what we're working with:
The chemicals you have been using. Details.
How do you test the water? Test kit, pool store?
Make, models, and other info on the equipment especially the pump and filter.

We may break this into two threads for best exposure but not yet. Chemistry issues will go in the appropriate forum. Equipment issues stay here.

Let's get a dialog going and we'll walk you through this. Shouldn;t be too hard. Pools are actually quite easy once you have a basic understanding.

Al

[RobDHW]

Julie,

I'm in E. Central Illinois, so I can't really get there to help you BUT - I can lend words of encouragement. I'd never owned a pool before we bought our house. We've had problems. I used to use the local "pool stores" but they weren't a lot of help and cost $$$. I always watched what they did, asked a ton of questions, and did research on the web. I now feel confident doing much of my own work. I only use them to help me close up for the year, since I don't have anything to blow out the lines with.

If you are willing - you will learn too. You CAN do it!

It might help if you posted any information on what the labels on the equipment says, as to brand names & model numbers. The folks here are awesome & can help you sort it out. I'm by no means an expert, and have a concrete pool, but for what you're experiencing - construction material doesn't matter.

[hzz]

I think from what you posted it is possible for you to learn how a pool runs and how to maintain it, but you are going to have to do a lot of reading and searching on the internet. Since you have no clue as to what your equipment is, it's going to be a long process. if you had someone come out and show you and explain it all to you, it would be a much easier learning curve, and if some of the equipment is indeed not working properly I am not sure you have a lot of time to learn.

As others have said, the type of pool you have doesn't really matter, the basics and the equipment are the same. Maybe you could try searching for an independant pool serviceman, you don't necessarily need a pool store. I know in my area there are lots of people who have their pool opened and closed by independant service companies.

If any of your neighbors have pools, who services theirs?

And as an aside, I would contact Viking and tell them about the installer they recommended.

That's the way I would go about it, anyway.

Good luck