Shallow End Bottom Wrinkles

I haven't been able to find a pertinent thread on the kind of wrinkles we have.

I drained the pool in October and went too far by accident. only an inch or two remained in the shallow end. All the winter rain would fill it a couple of feet, so I didn't add water. I noticed in January that three wrinkles had formed when the cold weather hit after Christmas. They form an x in the bottom with a raised ridge of about an inch high. I was told to wait until the weather gets warmer to try to get them out but fill the pool back up so more wouldn't form. No more have formed.

The pool is filled and now about 70 degrees. It's clean and chemicals are balanced. Now what? one pool company said to empty the pool and they'd stretch it back by hand. Another said leave the water in and use plungers to do something with it.

Any suggestions? Experiences?

Thanks!

The company I work for would drain the pool so that there was less than an inch of water on the wrinkles, work them out by hand and then use vacuums to reset the liner. I've heard of the plunger method, but the guy who told me about doing it said that you have to still lower the water a couple of feet.

The age of your liner is important, the newer the liner, the better chance you have of getting the wrinkles all out. Also the air/ water temp being higher will definitely help.

I just saw your pm while I was typing this - the info is all the same :)

Thanks for the reply. OK, I'll drain the pool.

The liner is only three years old. To reset the liner, do I disconnect it from the top edge or leave it attached and try to move the liner toward the bottom of the walls in the shallow end first?

If I detach it from the top lip, how hard is it to re attach it?

Where do I stick the vacuum hose? Must be a thread on this procedure..., but haven't seen anything definitive.

Too bad in NE Tennessee for this May, we are experiencing global cooling. Temps for the next week aren't expected above 75.

Sorry for the delay, I missed a few posts on the 16th somehow:confused:

You may be able to do it without having to use a vac (but have one handy just in case...) so try that first. It's a little tough to describe how I work them out, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Wear shorts, you're gonna kneel on the floor. Position yourself behind the wrinkle, facing the wall. Starting from either end of the wrinkle, use your fingertips to 'roll' the wrinkle towards the closest wall, working your way towards the center of the wrinkle. This is not a quick process, but as you go it should get quicker when you reach the wall it should just disappear (actually, the wrinkle should get smaller as you work it to the wall).

If you end up having to use the vac, untuck the liner from the track~ 1' and slide the hose down almost to the floor (it's a good idea to pad the end of the hose with some duct tape so you can't hurt the liner). Use duct tape to fully seal the gap where it goes behind the liner. When the wrinkles are out, refill the pool 1 -2 " and then remove the vac, tuck the liner back into the track and refill the pool the rest of the way.

If you need any more on anything I've said, just give a holler and I'll try to clarify:cool:

Someone in the past has also suggested using a bowling ball to help smooth them out. Don't know if it works or not, but it's worth a try!

Janet

The pool co. in your area may be able to "refloat" the liner without draining the pool. We do it 95% of the time to remove wrinkles.....but it takes practice to figure out the correct way to do it. If the liner is under 5 years old and the wrinkles haven't been there too long.....ask your local pool co. if they know how to do it. Hope this helps.

Great Advice! we knelt on the bottom of the pool for four hours, two of us, joined by two of our kids in the last hour. We had to work out the wrinkles inch by inch to the edge of the pool. the last few wrinkles needed help with a plunger to suck up the liner and stretch it toward the wall. No vacuum needed at all. We worked in about 8-9 inches of water. any less and the vinyl would have moved back into position. We may have been able to do it in 12 or more inches, but 8 worked fine.

The bottom has lumps because the sand/cement mixture on the bottom lost its compression due to the lack of water above it. i'm not sure how to get these out or if i need to until we get a new liner. my son's foot prints are in the angled side of the deep end where he was playing while the water was down. we didn't notice these depressions until after the pool was refilled. Oh well.

the age of the liner made a huge difference. Only three years old and very flexible. one of the reasons i didn't refill the pool sooner was because i didn't know the city would give us a break on water. they remove the sewer portion of the bill, about half, once a year. I have to remember to not only turn the pump off but turn the valve to off as well or the siphon effect from being on "waste" will drain the pool again.

Thank you again for your advice. The pool people in town didn't have a clue, and didn't want to spend the time doing this kind of service call. I can imagine they would have rather brought in a new liner or charge $100/hour.

Another plunger method I used last year (Computer room tile floor puller).

We had a ton of rain and the rain water ended up getting behind the liner. Here's what I did:

1. Bought a really cheap pump at Lowes that included a piece of garden hose, I put it behind the liner and I guess once you get the water just low enough...the force of the pool water all of a sudden pushes all the water back out in the rock area behind the pool.
2. Anyway, this left wrinkles in the shallow end so I brought one of the computer room floor tile pullers from work. (I don't know what they are called) I didn't drain any water and I was able to pull all of the wrinkles out of the bottom. It worked really well and I'm sure works similar to the plungers, but this worked so well because you can pull and push pretty hard before it releases from the liner.

Using plungers is the preferred method of the only pool company that was helpful. They also said don't drain the pool. I was not sure what they meant, but now would try the plunger method first without emptying any of the water.

The more expensive toilet plunger with the thin flange in the middle to get down in the toilet basin kept popping off and took a ton of exertion. The trick is to get a good suction then gently lift up on the liner. Then, slide the plunger toward the wall taking the liner with it. it's a bit of a trick to learn, but after an hour was wishing I had tried the plunger method first.

Caution!
Sliding the plunger along the vinyl could easily rip an older liner. Also, by pulling the liner wrinkle toward the wall, secondary wrinkles appear that can take a life of their own, but can also be worked out with patience. Just follow a path toward the walls of the shallow end and perpendicular to the wrinkle.