Grumpy AG Pool owner wants to share his misery.

I have been pool cursed for years. Unfortunately this year I am financially cursed as well. In the past I would spend hundreds of dollars on chemicals mostly chlorine to get pool open. This past winter for whatever reason I noticed the cover caved in and only about a foot of water in pool in Jan. Since I heard that an empty pool will shrink the liner and having no way to refill I decided to grab the discharge hose from my basement sump pump and stick it in the pool. A few days later we had a freakishly warm winter storm and within a few days pool was full. Cover torn and floating on top. Pool still full so liner was not leaking never really figured out where water went. Now its time to open pool. currently dark green with large frog population. Since I cant spend hundreds of dollars on 5 gallon jugs of chlorine is there anyway to use bleach to get started then switch back to normal chems once I get it going, and advice would be appreciated I only ask that if you advise please be it out of real life experience as opposed to " i had a friend who"
thanks again

Almost everything posted here is based on "real life experience". I try to weed out the other stuff.

Regarding your problem: "less expensive", probably. Cheap: not so much -- cleaning swamps is neither cheap nor easy. If your pool is over 10,000 gallons, your chemical costs will probably be over $100, even using bleach, borax and muriatic acid.

If you want to proceed, the first thing to do is physically remove -- by skimming, leaf bagging, vacuuming, and filtering -- everything you can. Removing algae clumps and piles with chlorine uses a LOT of chlorine. Better to filter and vacuum.

With an AG pool, you can vacuum with a siphon, to remove the piles. With a IG pool and sand filter, you can usually vacuum to "waste".

Repost after you get that done.

Ben

It's hard to find any chlorine source that's cheaper than 5 gallon carboys of 12.5% Liquid Chlorine. It's equal to 10 1/2 gallons of 6% Bleach. Carboys run $17, so it's like paying $1.65/gallon of Ultra Bleach. Doesn't get much cheaper than that for chlorine unless it's being given to you.

Carl

I suggest you do anything else with your money but that. Your weekends and money will be spent trying to keep up a pool that gets used 3 times a year and fighing with your spouse over the cost.

last year we noticed at the end of the season we were loosing water so we hired a guy to check for leaks, repair them and close the pool. After checking for leaks he said dont waste money closing pool because the liner is shot. Wait until next year and replace liner. Well a year later and a year broker replacing liner is not an option. Teh pool had about a foot of water in it for most of winter whcih was the mildest winter on record. I am now in the process of vacuuming out the rest of the water leaves etc. I was thinking with the pool empty it would be pretty easy to patch holes and maybe get another year our of it in hopes that my better half comes to her senses and lets me get rid of the dam thing. My question Do liners shrink. Someone told me that when I fill it that has now shrunk willjust tear apart under the weight of the water?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

When you drain the pool, the liner will float, and you're not gonna be able to re-use it. You'd be better to keep a few feet of water in the shallow end and see if you can find/repair the leak before you fill the pool all the way up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by indoorairpro

I suggest you do anything else with your money but that. Your weekends and money will be spent trying to keep up a pool that gets used 3 times a year and fighing with your spouse over the cost.

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I'm not sure that's a fair assessment, unless you personally know this poster--my pool gets daily use in the summer, most of the time for several hours a day, and if you take a few minutes a day to stay on top of your water chemistry, the cost is much less than going to other places to entertain the kids all summer.

Mr Gallucci has had a bad pool experience, which so far as I can tell, has had nothing whatsoever to do with the PoolForum, but he seems to have a desire to make everyone else as unhappy as he obviously is. He does not seem to have an desire for help or advice; he apparently just wants to share his unhappiness in public.

I have no idea why, but I see no reason to let it continue and deactivated his account.

So, I've combined all his posts (from three threads) here.