Pump/Filter Sizing Mytery

[kingbud]

"possibly narrow down your areas of concern for next season."

Thass what I'm talkin' bout! This whole morass of ignorance and anxiety about figuring out exactly what's "out there".... unfortunately it's not swimming pool hypochondria... actually, more like a bad dream. But you are being a really big help. (btw, I'm going to try to get a couple of snapshots for you to look at.)

"Fiberglass side walls" was a bit misleading. What these are are about 10' long sections that go from the elevation of the shallow end up to the tile, about 4" below the water line, and they are the same height all around pool: in the deepend and the slope they go to the top of the "safety ledge" we have already discussed. The safety ledge itself is masonry of some kind, as well as all the remaining surfaces. The vertical joints in my pool have been messily, and without doubt ineffectively, caulked by DIY people who had the pool for around 5 years before me, or even before that.

This leads me to the question of how much water am I losing. For an illustration of rate of flow, the pool was filled by recent heavy rain (Thursday/Friday - 4") to a mark I had previously made on the side wall. Convenient, yes? Today is Tuesday and at noon the water was down 2-1/2 - 3" from that mark, no equipment running...

I have a hypothesis that at the lowest the water will only drop to the level of the shallow end, which was dry when we first looked at the pool - the rest of it was full. The pool had not been touched in probably 2 years. We walked in the shallow end and launched massive chlorine bombs from the water's edge, which was actually where the drop to the deep end took off.

So my suspicion is those vertical seams, although as I mentioned I don't have a clue how they are anchored to the frame or whatever, i.e. some other unseen defect might be possible. I will find out about that from the installer. You'll see if I can get you a pic, they are a pathetic, ugly mess. (I know a little bit about caulking since I ran a good sized waterproofing job once).

The hill: I'm pretty sure water doesn't run into the pool. But dig this: This pool is 40' long. There are two serious cracks in one deck - the "hill" side - that both run on a slight diagonal outward, from the pool rim to the edge of the deck: imagine a shape with one side 18' long, the other side 20' long, with symmetrical ends angling out from the short side to the long side (the "hill" side.) They both start about 11' from the ends, measuring to the "short" side if you follow me. And the concrete between these cracks is dropped about 3/4", maybe less- I haven't actually measured any of this precisely.

So basically I have one solid section of deck dropped uniformly from these two cracks, well over 100 square feet. My first thought was that there was already a drainage system in place that had failed, but probing with a rod out to about 3' past the deck (up the hill) I didn't find any evidence, like filter fabric, gravel, solid pipe. I'm counting heavily on my meeting with the installer to shed light on this and help me plan a solution. I've thought about mud jacking, although I'm not very familiar with that... and of course the rehabilitation of the deck is not as important as figuring out the reason for the failure and fixing it.

My idea for a lateral drain tile would be to install it about 3 feet uphill from the deck, except to "peak" it in the center a couple of feet so I get my fall naturally from the hill, without having to grade my pipe - like a peaked roof, falling gradually from the center to both ends. Trouble is, that's great for future rainfall, but what about saturation?

let's take a short break........................... ah, there!

Still with me? Concerning the main drain, assuming I can prove the integrity of my return pipes, your idea about converting one of them into a suction makes any worry about the main drain pointless.

Cracks appear to be from about an 1/8th anywhere up to 3/8", maybe even 1/2", but I don't think that bad. I have two cracks in the bottom I have spotted that run the whole width of the pool (expansion joints?), plus a few other, lesser faults. You aren't going to believe this, but there was one that had a weed or a root hanging out of it. My wife thinks that the water loss started after she pulled it out, like pulling Johnny's finger out of the dike. Who knows? But I'm not that worried about my cracks, I feel that if I can just have a dry pool and decent weather to work in I can get them cut out, cleaned out, and patched. Thorite is most likely the right stuff, although I've also heard of "hydraulic cement" -- possibly just a generic description of the same stuff.

Testing procedure is straightforward and doable, although I have no idea if the pool loses more when the pump is running. I do know a few things however: the pump leaks when operating. The chlorinator leaks. The filter leaks/sucks air from the vent cock -- I should have fixed that already, but to what end?

On the subject of prime, well, you can't get the suction pot to hold water. You fill it up and it drains back to the level of the main suction pipe, which has a little cleanout plug you can stick a hose into, but you can't fill the line. I've got my shovels honed and oiled... Owners before me "replaced" all the pipes because they were "old". I'm not too worried about finding and repairing the broken pipe on the suction side, if not myself I have plumbers I can commandeer, good tough men. I will do all the excavation myself. Finally, concerning the returns, I have slightly fizzy, bubbly flow from the jets. Hopefully they are all okay because they are certainly deep.

Kah Flooey!!

Like I said, we knew we (I) were getting into a bit of work. But we got the house very right - national housing crisis, you know - and our deal included a certain amount of "warranty" on the pump and filter - not enough to completely cover, but it takes a bit of the sting out of it.

Thank you, muh bruh-thuh!!

Edit by Watermom: Kingbud -- a family-friendly forum, please. I deleted the questionable references to the previous owners.