Drain AG and refill?

Hello everyone. It has been quite a while since I posted on this forum as I usually stay away during our winter months. It is hard to read about others enjoying their pool while I look out at mine with 3 feet of snow on top!
The big Ice Cube has now melted and I look out at a lovely green water pool.
I was thinking that maybe I should drain that green water out, scrub the liner and refill. I know it will take a couple of days to refill, but I think it will be alot cheaper than using all the chemicals to get it back to "clear water".
Has anyone done this?
Hope to open the pool on the long weekend in May. We don't have a heater, so there is no use opening it before than as the weather and water will not be warm enough until middle of June.
Tks
Mary
27' AG

You should never completely drain a liner pool. Just hit it with the bleach and brush!

ETA: scoop out any junk first!

The problem with draining a liner pool is that it often will destroy your liner. Once drained, your liner may no longer fit properly. It probably won't be as bad to clear your pool as you might think. Just shock it and sustain the high chlorine reading. Test it as many times a day as you can - 3x a day is good - and each time, add enough bleach to take it back to shock level based on your cya reading. Also run the pump 24/7 while you are working to clear the pool. Watch your filter pressure. If is rises 8-10 psi, then backwash. By the way, welcome back to the forum!

Take a look at the pics in this thread. Note the time frame on the pictures. It is pretty amazing how quickly bleach can get a pool under control!

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1180

There are two alternatives:
1) You can drain the pool down so that there's a foot of water left, put on high rubber boots, and scrub the exposed walls. Be sure to make sure you support the walls from the outside, like with tent ropes and stakes.

2) You can use Poconos' method of water exchange, involving covering the entire surface with plastic, and putting new water in on top as you drain the old water from the bottom. This keeps the liner stretched and prevents the walls from imploding.

Or you can spend a little bit of money on bleach to clear the water and not risk having to replace the liner.

Carl, I love option 2. I must have missed that one. It sounds like a great option for everyone opening up the pool for the season and finding nasty green stuff.

To many liners are ruined by draining, cleaning and trying to refill. Liners shrink when emptied.

Any chance you or Poconos could tell us more about this method. Why the plastic? How does the fresh water stay seperated from the green stuff? How long should this take? Do you siphon or pump from the bottom?

Such a great concept, I need to know more. :)

I must defer to Al on this. But my understanding is that it's designed to keep the old and new water from mixing, while maintaining the pool structure. I presume there's SOME slight mixing as the plastic is pulled down, but I've never tried it.

I can never get enough of looking at those pictures! I can gratefully say that I have never had my pool turn green in the spring at open (knock on wood!) but it was really cloudy once with some green on the sides when I entrusted lazy teenagers to maintain the pool while DH and I went away for 4 days - I freaked out for 1 min, then regained my wits and started dumping bleach and brushing - a few hours later it was back to sparkling clear.

That set of pictures should be in some type of sticky or slide show as a "truth in advertising" ad for BBB.

I don't care HOW green a pool is in spring, even if the water has become the consistency of Gel, it is always revivable - that's the beauty of water.
My neighbour's will be a good experiment this year, it's greener than Shrek and in a 4' deep pool, you can't see the bottom - if we get to it this weekend, it'll be clean by mid week.

I wouldn't waste water just to clean up a pool. That plastic sheet thing would be reserved for chemical dilution as would be the case with way high CYA where the only decent option is to drain and refill. I saw a neighbor fussing with a big plastic sheet a few years ago and assume that's what they were doing. Idea is to keep the new and old water separated so you get a 100% replacement. You can either find a huge plastic dropsheet or tape or bond several sheets together to cover the pool with a lot of slack around the edges. Fill on top and use a submersible pump to suck from the bottom. I suspect duct taping sheets together, using lots of duct tape, would hold for whatever time it would take to fill the pool. The technique was mentioned somewhere on the old forum that crashed by someone else and I never had to do it or try it. Should work though.
Al (ajs-1)

Thanks Al for the comments. I have always said there is nothing that running the the filter 24/7 and using the proper chemicals won't cure.

Am I wrong in the case of high CYA? What is it and does it happen often in vinyl pools? Would draining to 6" and refilling be OK?

Matt, any updates on the neighbor's pool?

Strange, I am loaded with questions tonight. Actually, it's way past my bedtime and I am questioning everthing. :eek:

later, Dennis

Update on Neighbour's pool!!!! -- Greener than yesterday!!!
I have no idea when we're getting to it, maybe mid summer?!?!
No, just kidding, should be some time soon though - this thing wintered with a dillapidated solar blanket on it, so imagine all the nice shreds of solar blanket we will have to fish out.....
Maybe I'll take some pictures of this transformation......

Ooooh, can't wait to see THOSE!

Thanks for all the responses. OK...It's May 17th and guess what I woke up to find covering the ground...Yup...Snow:eek: ! I can't believe it! I WAS going to get the pool going this long weekend, but it is supposed to rain all weekend and it is still so cold out! This atlantic province weather is insane!
Matt...how's the weather over there?
Mary

Hi Mary!
The weather's been pretty good here, our son took the first swim about 1-1/2 weeks ago, water was around 70, he stayed in for close to an hour! We've had a few cold days, a little frost in the mornings but nothing too bad, pools still hovering around 66-68, going to hook up the solar panels this weekend right after I fix a leak that reapperared from last year (my dog keeps doing the "shortcut" across them)!