We opened the pool already...

[FormerBromineUser]

Wow! If things are tight, hope the gas bill didn't skyrocket! But I am jealous that you opened and got a swim in! I had in-home independent caregivers so I could get away for a break. Did it twice with no regrets. Better for loved ones over nursing homes if you can afford it. Hats off to the wife. Tough job.

[DennisP]

Actually, it cost about $60 to heat the pool. With my schedule becoming less and less predictable I needed to take the opportunity sooner than later to get it done. And, given the fact that I am able to skip the liner replacement this year, the offset from expected expenditures is a non-issue.

Add to that the fact that the gas bill has been pretty low due to a ton of efficiency things I did over the past couple of years, I am still quite a bit lower on gas cost for the size of the house compared to others.

Re: the wife, thanks... She really does enjoy her job, so she doesn't view it much as a job... Which I have to keep reminding her she needs to, since it takes her away from all the rest of her responsibilities.

[FormerBromineUser]

Yikes! $60 for a Spring swim? Well, I do the same crazy stuff myself. You can't take the money with you, but you can take the memories. Good for you!!!

[DennisP]

Yeah, well, considering all we haven't been doing in the past few months with money being tight, and considering how much the kids all love swimming, I figure it served two purposes really... In that the kids got to have a good time and I got to verify I don't need to spend big bucks on the pool this spring... Win-win for all cases...

And the kids really did enjoy themselves...

[DennisP]

I forgot to ad, I did make one mistake, that was not putting the baskets back in the skimmer/pump... sucked some ice "fingers" in while it was running, made some nasty crunching sounds... I scrambled and found the baskets and put them back in ASAP... But, I really hope I didn't do any damage to the impeller.

Pressure didn't seem to be much different, so I am hoping if there is any damage it is minimal... On high the system still shows 12psi of pressure at the filter... It is 11-12psi with clean filters, so I think I am OK. If anything I know the pump I have is a newer model (Pentair Dynamo 1.5hp 2-speed), so I will make a note and when I do a filter cleaning this summer (I cleaned the cartridges just before winterizing) I will see about disassembling the impeller housing and checking it out... I do believe a new impeller isn't very expensive, so if there is any damage I will just replace it...