Wonderful stroke of luck!

[Sumo1]

Happy Memorial Day, everybody! Went to a pool party yesterday, had lots of fun, and came away with a free 60 sq ft DE filter with new grids!! The pool owner had a bad experience with torn grids and DE in the pool soon after it was built and even after replacing the grids they switched to sand. I offered to buy the filter and he said just to take it away! My system currently runs at 20psi so I'm excited to see how much the size increase will lower it. Not sure I did anything to deserve this but... every now and then a blind pig finds an acorn
Hal

[waste]

Hal, it's God's way of saying 'thank you' for taking care of the church pool

[Sumo1]

Thanks, Ted. I've always liked reading your posts. I've wanted to ask you whether you feel any conflict about servicing people's pools with the 'pool store' method versus BBB. I try to keep myself from being "preachy" and trying to convert everyone I talk to about pools. I find myself really fascinated by pools and can imagine myself operating a pool service business in the future, perhaps as I reach retirement in my current job. A lot of people move into lawn service/landscaping but I think pool service would be more enjoyable for me.
Hal

[leejp]

Nice!!!

Could you potentially lose the booster pump for the cleaner? Or do the Polaris units work on pressure and not flow?

I upgraded from a 3/4HP + 27sqft filter to a 1HP pump + 48sqft one this year. I bought a thepoolcleaner pressure side cleaner and will not install a booster pump.

[Sumo1]

Polaris works on the pressure side, thus the booster pump. Since I never really use the spa, my main pump might be enough but I'm happy with the Polaris performance as is. I may go to a 2-speed pump next season, for some energy savings. Thepoolcleaner looks very interesting. Please keep us informed about your experiences with it. How much did it cost?
Hal

[Sumo1]

Well I was reading the label on the filter and was surprised to see in the instructions that "rinse" should be done after backwashing! No one ever told me to do that with a DE filter. I thought it was only for sand filters. Does the 'rinse water' go back into the pool or out the waste line? I never even noticed that the multiport had a rinse position at all. Gee, I thought I was paying attention....
Hal

[tphaggerty]

Rinse goes to backwash/waste (not to the pool). The idea is to rinse out all of the DE and other junk that is still lying around in the valves and such after backwashing and to prevent any of it from going into the pool.

My PB was pretty good about showing us this and the instructions that came with my DE filter were pretty clear on this as well. Our normal procedure (which I only do maybe twice a season) is to backwash, rinse, backwash again (much shorter time), then a final rinse and then back to filtering. When you rinse, you need to check the sight glass to make sure the water is running clear before going back to filter.

Another important thing which has been mentioned in these forums before is that you need to add a little LESS DE after a backwash as not all of the DE is removed from the filter during a backwash. My filter normally takes a fresh charge of 7.5 lbs, I use about 5lbs after a backwash. (If you have ever cleaned your DE grids at the end of the season, you will see chunks of DE stuck at the bottom of the grids.) If you continue to add the full charge each time, the DE builds up and can clog up the filter.

[waste]

Thanks, Ted. I've always liked reading your posts. I've wanted to ask you whether you feel any conflict about servicing people's pools with the 'pool store' method versus BBB. I try to keep myself from being "preachy" and trying to convert everyone I talk to about pools. I find myself really fascinated by pools and can imagine myself operating a pool service business in the future, perhaps as I reach retirement in my current job. A lot of people move into lawn service/landscaping but I think pool service would be more enjoyable for me.
Hal

Hal, I ranted a couple of times last year about not being able to 'spread the word' on BBB Ben posted on one of them, something to the effect: 'Even the Bible allows dishonesty if it's to be able to eat', and that I should try to come up with something that would allow my boss not to loose $$ on chem sales while still being honest. I've thought a good deal on it and can't find a way (other than pointing out the problems caused by 'set-and-forget' puck feeders and that a SWCG might be a better alternative for certain customers). I also DO tell some of the customers, who seem to actually care about their pools and don't buy their chems from us anyway about BBB (& this site and the new 2 sites- and who I am [I ask them never to mention my companies name in connection w/ me - as that would cause me an ethical dilemna, I don't want someone to realize that I was in their backyard a week ago and added chems that I don't recomend here ]).
After a while I figured out that most of our customers don't want to be bothered with taking care of their pool - all they want is to throw a couple of pool parties each summer and, if someting goes wrong, they call us and we fix it - no matter the cost or how preventable it could have been!!!! I always tell people the truth about their pools but, unfortunately - sometimes it has to be the 'company line' (use pH+ and not tell them about the washing soda they could get for ~1/2 price,- sins of omission)
In the meantime, I TRY to explain to my boss why what we're doing isn't right - but he's 'old school pool' and doesn't get, why the things that used to work don't now (it's because they only worked by luck) - I'd love to lock him in a room with chem-geek for a couple of hours :-)