Filling pool with firehose???

A friend of mine has access to the tools and firehose to connect to the firehydrant outside my house. He said he has refilled his pool this way in only about 40 minutes and has offered to let me do the same when filling our new pool.

My concern is that this will obviously be a very high volume and pressure stream of water. Would it be safe on the new plaster to fill the pool that way? I was thinking that maybe I should let it fill about 20% with my hose and then put in the fire hose so that it would just be pushing against more water and not directly against the plaster. Thoughts?

Could you lay a big blanket on the bottom of the pool, put a sheet of plywood on top of the blanket, a couple of cement blocks on top of the plywood (so it won't float), and then let the firehose blast away against the plywood?

I hope you checked with the municiple water authority (unless you plan a "dead of night filling":eek:

They will, at the very least, want to charge you for the water. I believe there are also some laws on the books which prohibit you from doing this too, That is why the job requires some special tools.

Sorry to be a "kill joy" but what is right is right:rolleyes:

you'll be sorry with all the dirt and contaminates you get from that line.

SeanB,

If you have the other issues worked out, dirt from the line will not be a problem. I fill my pool from my pond......the dirt and junk get filtered out in fairly short order. You'll need quite a bit of chlorine.

Eljefe's idea worked for me. I layed a 4x8 sheet of plywood on the floor of the pool (with concrete blocks on top) and allowed the water to fall directly onto it. It diffused the blast nicely. I was not smart enough to use the blanket....that's a nice precaution.

PS - If the other issues are not worked out, you may want to check the quality of the food at the county jail before proceeding further.......or perhaps your spouse can bring you some fried chicken on Sundays.:D

I like Eljefe's idea. That should give adequate deflection.

Last I checked, they don't lock you up for misdemeanors, although fried chicken does sound pretty good. ;) Don't worry, I've got my bases covered.

Does this make me a willing accomplice?

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Originally Posted by eljefe281

Does this make me a willing accomplice?

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I aint no stoolie! :D

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Originally Posted by haze_1956

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2...s/Poolfill.jpg

So Fast, So easy, Order Yours, TODAY !!

.

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I see you found my supplier. :cool:

Classic.

Well, I've talked myself out of this idea. I spoke with a guy I work with who is a volunteer fireman and he echoed Philbo's comment about getting pretty dirty water. He also said that when they use a hydrant it stirs up a lot of sediment and unless they flush the line for quite some time afterwards, your neighbors are likely to have dirty water coming out of their faucets.

We are in a new house with new neighbors and I certainly don't want to start out on the wrong foot, besides I wouldn't be too happy if that were done to us.

I guess I'll be stringing out the hoses.:)

It won't take it as long as you think it will to fill a 13K pool. You'll be surprised at how quickly it will go.

I used the backyard garden hose and the pools fill line to fill my 15K pool in a little more than 24 hrs.

It used to take less time, but when they replaced all the water meters in the neighborhood, they installed a more restrictive flow valve.

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Originally Posted by Watermom

It won't take it as long as you think it will to fill a 13K pool. You'll be surprised at how quickly it will go.

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The thing that bugs me is my water company no longer gives a sewage discount for people filling pools. :mad:

I made a $50 donation to the local volunteer fire department and they were happy to come out and fill mine from the hydrant on the corner of my lot. They pay a set rate for their water. I went ahead and filled it about 1/4 of the way full with a garden hose to solve the deflection issue and the fire department filled it the rest of the way in about 45 minutes with a fire hose. I know some people have sediment issues, but the water out of the hydrant here was perfectly clean and clear.

I would worry about rust or other contaminants staining the plaster. I know the fire stations in most towns around us stopped filling pools because of all the law suits associated with rust coming from the water out of the trucks. Not sure if you get a similar problem with water in the hydrants.

John

My pool is 25,000 gals and I ran a hose from the frt and back. It took a day and a half. I called the water co to ask how much that would cost. It was $145. The local water trucks wanted $900. I decided to save a few bucks.

Our 16,000 gallon pool was filled from a fire hydrant (our pool contractor coordinated with the city fire department) after it was built about 3-1/2 years ago and did not have dirty water nor complaints from neighbors (or ourselves) regarding sediment in the tap water. I suppose this is one of those things that is sometimes a problem and sometimes it is not.

I wasn't around while they filled the pool so don't know what they did to avoid the pressure of water hitting the walls, but since it was the pool contractor that coordinated this, I'm sure he did something, but don't know exactly what.

Richard