I have seen the light.. err leaf rake

Just wanted to share an experience I had with something very simple that today made my life much easier when it comes to cleaning the pool.

First off, I live in west central FL, USA. We have "sprall" or "fapring" where the leaves on the oak trees drop in what northerners describe as "spring".

I bought a house last July with a pool (my first pool, btw)! It was a short sale, and I never got to talk to the owner. So I had to figure out all the pool operation stuff on my own (with the help of this forum and the pool store).

Well, not knowing anything about pools I decided to use what was on hand initially. There were a few poles, a vacuum, a suckey thing that cleans the bottom of the pool, and a worn out skimmer thing that goes on the end of the pole as well as a worn out brush.

I went to the pool store and picked up replacements for the skimmer thingy and the brush, and all seemed well until I went to the store today to look at solar covers when I noticed something on the wall.

"Leaf Rake" Net thingy: http://store.pinchapenny.com/product...e/02130193.jpg

vs the net thingy I had: http://store.pinchapenny.com/product...e/02120475.jpg

(hope these photos are ok to post links to).

When I got home with the skimmer and tried it out I found it was probably 4x as fast (maybe more) than the flat one. Google shows tons of companies make and sell these things, making me feel a bit foolish for getting/using the flat one the first time around. In my defense, I submit that they did not have the leaf rake type at the store when I went and I never thought to look into it further.

Moral of the story? If you're using one of those "flat" skimmer nets like I pictured above, go try and find a larger one that has like a bag net. It didn't even cost significantly more than I paid for the flat one.

Thanks for sharing your post. That is what makes this a great forum -- lots of people sharing information about what works. Glad to see you back around the forum!

It makes a world of difference, doesn't it? With the forest my next door neighbor has in her back yard, I end up with a pool full of leaves every year in the winter even though I have no trees--and I used to use the same net as your second pic--until I found one like your first pic that has a squeegee thing on the lip of it. Now it's SO much easier and quicker to get rid of the piles of leaves!! (I also discovered that if I run the pump for 4-5 hours and shut it off first, it piles all those leaves up into two distinct piles on the pool floor so I don't have to "fish" for them!)

Janet

Don't throw away the flat skimmer yet.

While it isn't really suitable for scooping leaves off the bottom of the pool, it is hugely useful for skimming the water surface to pick up anything that floats: yellow pollen, birch tree bracts, cottony pollens, dandelion tufts, etc. IOW, everything that will get caught in your skimmer or skimmer sock and make a gooey mess can be skimmed off the surface with the flat net.

My leaf rake is like Janet's, with the squeegie on the edge. I've learned that if I prod the leaves just a tiny bit, just enough to create a little water pressure, they swirl up a couple of inches and are easy to catch with the net bag. I have another leaf rake with a brush rather than the squeegie and don't like it. For the brush to be effective you have to push a little harder and that displaces the leaves too much to catch them easily in the bag.

Hurry summer!

lol.....wish I had read this earlier. We also dipped out a ton of leaves with the top skimmer net before we discovered the leaf rake. I couldn't even see my bottom, but by the time I could, I had most the leaves out. My hubby was ready to choke me with the skimmer net : )

Would it be helpful to a bunch of people if I put together photos and videos of how to clean / brush / vacuum / backwash a pool?

I now, thanks to EPB Fiber (30Mb month up/down no bandwidth limit), no longer have to worry about how much bandwidth photos and even videos eat up. (However, I'll probably post the videos on YouTube).

. . . just wondering.

Ben

I think, with the number of new members we have added recently, that this would probably be a helpful thing for many people new to pool ownership.

Yes, especially the details of vacuuming both an above-ground and an in-ground pool.