3-week vacation

[vw4motion]

Hi all, what a great forum.

Any advice is appreciated. Learning a lot about the pool maintenance, but am now facing something I have
not done before. Will be out for 3 weeks.

1. Thought of placing leafnet cover to prevent leaves coming to the pool
(is it better to consider placing hard mesh cover that is typically used in winter
time?) If hard cover is recommended, is there any issue if pump is working?

2. will have friend come on a weekly basis to check things out - put chlorine in chlorinator, maybe
clean skimmers, pool pump filter, add water to the pool if needed etc. does my friend need to come
more frequently, just in case?

Am I missing something? Thanks a lot.

[aylad]

My biggest concern with an absence of 3 weeks is either the water level getting too low and burning up the pump, or debris clogging up the skimmer, stopping the water flow, and burning up the pump--everything else can be solved with little problem. If you use a leafnet or mesh cover, it would stop the debris from getting into the skimmer, but not stop the water level from getting too low. Usually when I leave, my "pool friend" comes by daily to make sure everything is okay before she turns on the pump, but then again we have HUGE evaporation rates.

If you're using trichlor tabs as your only source of chlorine, I'm betting your CYA is very high, and you are very likely to come home to green water.....you might consider adding a dose of Polyquat 60, then shocking the pool before you leave. Your shock level, though, is gonna be based on your CYA level (see the "best guess chlorine chart" link in my sig for more explanation and the chart.

My concern is that if something goes wrong with the pool, leaving it "wrong" for a week is likely to have expensive consequences!

[ej1989]

I am in the same situation and I too am worried about the water level. What I am planning on doing is shocking the pool before I leave with a good amount of bleach, and then shocking it again when I return and leaving the pump OFF in my absence. I however don't have someone who can stop by once a week. I too am planning on covering it.

If I were in your shoes, and I did have someone who could come once or twice a week, I would fill the pool as high as you can and put mesh over the skimmer to prevent it from filling up w/ leaves, and leave the pump on. Our evaporation rates aren't too bad, so as long as someone checks ours once or twice a week here I would be ok. But unfortunately I don't have anyone as I just moved in...

I know they sell "automatic water levelers" - - but my fear is that if the thing didn't shut off it would just keep going for weeks while i'm away and cause a huge mess.

[CarlD]

When I'm gone for two weeks (never 3) I have someone add 1/2 gallon of LC (12% bleach) every other day. I have them check the water level and that's usually all it takes.

You may want to up your stabilizer level and then shock the pool before you leave, letting your maintenance person just add LC.