Going on vacation...

[poolmom06]

I live in Texas and we are in the middle of a heat wave, our daily high temps are about 103... I lose about half an inch of water each to evaporation. We are leaving Wed(tommorow) and will get back on Sunday, I am very concerned about my water evaporating below the skimmer and I will run my filter dry. We aren't having anyone take care of the pool, however my BIL is going to come over and feed the dog and cats. Is there anything I can do to insure the water level doesn't get too low? Or should we just see if BIL can add water about Friday and/Or Saturday? I don't think he would mind but if there is any way I would love to do it and not worry about him not showing up, ya know??
Also, should I just pour some extra bleach in the pool, and vaccum it good today??
What would you do??

[jnorris]

Do you have a main drain? If so, you can turn off your skimmer(s) and have the pool only draining through the main drain.

If your BIL has to come feed your animals, won't it be bad for them if he doesn't show up?

[Gracy101]

Hi - I live in South Florida and have similar variables as yours. We'll be going away next week for 5 days. After reading through alot of past posts on travel/vacations/hurricane preparedness and whatnot, Ive pieced together the following plan:

1) Vacuum my pool and clean the filter and pump basket thoroughly.
2) My filter runs on a timer so that shouldn't be a a worry.
3) Shut off the skimmer and leave only the main drain open as a precaution. Fill the pool to the top of the waterline tile.

Note - I'm worried about my plaster being exposed. We just filled the pool a month ago and I haven't been able to get a straight answer on wether it would damage it if the water evaporates too much. Although we get some rain every day, when we don't, I lose about 1/2" to 1" of water to evaporation. I'm not too worried about overflow, the water will drain out.

4) Based on my CYA, I'll shock the pool a bit past "shock" level the morning we leave. From what I've read, you lose Cl faster at shock levels so I want to overcompensate a bit. Besides that and my average Cl loss due to sun exposure I'm guessing I'll come back, at worse, to a pool with low chlorine. Give my water a bonus cleaning in the process
5) Because of all the rain, my ph rises every other day, so I'll have my sister add a premeasured amount of acid on Friday. I figure it will probably be a little high by then.

Sounds like a plan on paper - we'll see "in the real world." If any pros read this and want to comment I'd appreciate it. I was going to post it independently in a few day to get some feedback.

Now if I could just figure out what to do for vacations longer than 5 days

Hope this gives you some ideas!

[dawndenise]

Poolmom...I am also in TX and know what you mean about water levels!! Every 4th day or so, I fill 'er up for about 1/2 hour. If we had to leave, I might just use our old hose/sprinkler timer that fits on the water spigot. If I set it for maybe 5-10 minutes every day and left the hose end in the pool wrapped in a towel or sock, that would give me about the same water addition as I would do manually.

Just another option.

Sandy

[rbonin]

You need one of these:
http://www.mysimon.com/Garden/9000-1...mlpid=29229774

I don't leave mine on all the time, but it is easy for someone to stop by and turn it on for a day and then turn it off the next. Don't risk overfilling due to absebtmindedness.

~Rick~