Going on vacation...

[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~