Considering these upgrades...new VS pump and salt system....few questions
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You've got a lot of good questions, some of which I can answer, some of which others can answer, but what you DON'T have, which I will answer, is the right FIRST question:
"How do I maintain my pool simply and comfortably without driving myself crazy?" That's because ALL your questions are circling around this but not hitting it.
Your problems stem from beginning and end due to (sorry to say this) your NOT understanding how to balance your water's chemistry. From the chlorine irritation of your eyes to the almost instantaneous emergence of algae if you are going nuts with maintenance all stem, and I mean ALL from NOT understanding water chemistry and balance. You need to learn this FIRST.
That's the bad news.
The good news is it's really, really easy, not expensive and may, just may make your desire for a SWCG unnecessary. (nothing wrong with an SWCG--I just put one in for last season--and I love having it--but more on that later).
At the end of this "rant"will be the 4 Things I want you to take away from this....
Since you've come here looking for answers the first two things YOU need to do is get a GOOD test kit, and learn how our B-B-B system of pool maintenance works. The quick thing to do, is go to our sister site: www.poolsolutions.com and start reading. "B-B-B" stands for "Bleach, Borax and Baking Soda"--three of the 5 key ingredients anyone needs to maintain their pool. The other two are Muriatic Acid (Dry Acid can be substituted) and Stabilizer, aka, CYA, aka Cyanuric or Isocyanuric Acid. Since you own a concrete pool, you'll need Calcium Carbonate (or some other calcium additive).
Notice that only two of these require a pool store or a pool section of a Walmart/K-Mart type store. The rest are in your local supermarket's laundry section.
Yeah.
Bleach: Regular, unscented, in any strength (5.25%, 60%, 8.3%, or higher) This is your chlorine source. ALL chlorine is the same in the water, whether from bleach, tablets, powder, or an SWCG. But only Bleach and the SWCG add simply chlorine, and not other ingredients. Pool stores DO sell higher concentrations of bleach as "Liquid Chlorine" (LC). It's a simple calculation as to which is cheaper to use. I use LC because the one store I get it from has very high quality stuff and the price is more than competitive. But 12% LC is merely double-strength 6% bleach.
Borax: 20 Mule Team Borax is the best chem for raising pH when it's too low. Pool stores sell "ph Up!" and other similar stuff. Ironically, that's just Washing Soda, Sodium Carbonate.
Baking Soda: The old Arm&Hammer in the orange box (or orange bag from Costco) is how you raise your "Total Alkalinity" if you need to. Pool stores sell it with all kinds of fancy labels, and list the ingredients as "Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate" or "Sodium Acid Carbonate" but don't be fooled....those are merely alternate names for good old Sodium Bicarbonate (not to be confused with Sodium Carbonate--Washing Soda or Soda Ash).
Muriatic Acid: The regular stuff, used for etching glass and cleaning stone or concrete. It's Hydrochloric Acid and while EXTREMELY corrosive, in the water it adds nothing harmful. Be VERY careful with this stuff. Wear goggle and gloves, and I always pour it into a 5-gallon bucket of pool water before putting it in the pool. ALWAYS ADD THE ACID TO THE WATER, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! Alternatively, you can use Dry Acid which comes in various names from pool stores. It's a lot easier to handle but you must STILL be careful with it.
Stabilizer/CYA: Cyanuric or Isocyanuric Acid. It's a slow-dissolving white powder. Stabilizer protects your chlorine from breaking down too fast, but also slows its actions. If it gets too high, it becomes difficult to adequately chlorinate your water. This is why you get algae so quickly. Most of your tablets and powders add CYA. Bleach and SWCGs don't.
Calcium: Needed in concrete pools to prevent the water from leeching calcium from the walls.
Algaecide: Nasty, useless stuff that almost always does more harm than good. Chlorine is the best algaecide. The ONLY one we recommend as a preventative, is "Polyquat 60%". If the algaecide bottle has its only active ingredient, "Poly...<something long and incomprehensible>... 60%", that's the stuff. EVERYTHING ELSE WILL MESS UP YOUR POOL!!!!
Clarifier, Flocculents, metal removers etc: Generally useless crud you will NEVER need UNLESS one of our chem whizzes here says use it. Then follow their directions, exactly.
TEST KIT!!!!!: CRUCIAL! Without a proper test kit EVERYTHING else is just wasting your money and you might as well hire a pool service to mess it up for you. The good news is the BEST kit is available for between $50 and $80 on-line and it WILL be the BEST investment you make in your pool, (besides the time reading poolsolutions.com).
We recommend the Taylor K-2006 or K-2006C kit available from various sites. If you look at PoolDoctor's signature, he has a link to a good source (that helps support the Pool Forum as well). But there are other places, including Taylor itself. Leslies sells the same kit online as their own brand and calls it "Chlorine FAS-DPD Service Test Kit" IMHO, it is seriously over-priced at $85, but is the K-2006 in a Leslies box--same Taylor tools and chems. There IS a huge difference between an FAS-DPD chlorine test and a DPD chlorine test. Don't be fooled. The FAS-DPD test is the best.
All this comes back to pool chemistry: And that is Chlorine and pH control. The rest is ancillary to it.
Free Chlorine (FC) sanitizes your pool and results in Combined Chloramines (CC). CCs smell like chlorine, irritate your skin and eyes and are only good for telling you that you need MORE chlorine, of the FC variety (from bleach, powder, tablets or an SWCG). Chlorine kills stuff. Bad stuff. Like the fecal bacteria every human has when they enter your pool that if not instantly killed can make you sick. It also kills algae, breaks down skin and various oils, including sun tan lotion. You NEED chlorine to keep your water sanitary. National standards and pool store suggestions of NEVER going over 3ppm are worse than useless. They are dangerous.
pH is how acidic or alkaline your water is. Labs say pH of 7 is neutral, but for complicated reasons I don't understand or care about, in pools, that range is really 7.2 to 7.8. Sometimes the 7.6 to 7.8 range can also help make water less irritating.
Stabilizer levels protect chlorine, but your ideal chlorine level must match your stabilizer level. Pool stores and general guidance are WORSE than useless on this. To give you the idea of how STUPID the guidance is, the Government suggested maximum level for swimming pool chlorine is 3 parts per million. Yet for drinking water it's 4 parts per million, with acceptable levels up to 10 parts per million! Water you can drink isn't safe to swim in?????????????????????????? We have our Best Guess Table to help with that.
SWCG: I have one. I love it. It's great. What it does is take the salt in my water (which feels good, even if you do NOT have an SWCG) and breaks the salt into Sodium and Chlorine (NaCl is salt), using the Chlorine to chlorinate your pool. Same chlorine as bleach or anything else. But you STILL have to understand all the water chemistry I've talked about ^^^^ if it's to be effective. Mine (an AutoPilot) runs off the same clockwork timer as my pump. I COULD have wired the pump to it but...the manufacturer said this is just as good. I'm not using the SWCG's timer and pump control, but...that doesn't matter. It doesn't save me money, but I'm away a lot and it allows me to "neglect" my pool a bit safely. Alternatively, I would have someone add a gallon of bleach every other day regardless and that would keep the pool good for 2 weeks at a stretch with no problem. I did that with my first pool and for 10 years with my current pool.
So...if you follow up on the chemistry and learn how to take care of your pool, your decision making on expensive additions (like an SWCG) will be far better informed as to what it will bring you.
I've left off discussions of Total Alkalinity and Calcium Hardness, metal in the water, etc, because YOU can learn that on your own and it's not critical at this point.
Remember these 4 things as your take-away:
Chlorine = Sanitation
pH = Acidity/alkalinity
Stabilizer=determines ideal Chlorine levels.
Test Kits save you time, money and trouble
Hope this helps.
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