Disinfection

Disinfection is the second subsection in the sanitation concept that sits atop our Golden Triangle. Here, we cannot talk about sterilization of pool water, as a sterile pool is not possible in reality. Dirt, dust, debris, organic and inorganic are always entering the your pool and there is a lag time, a latency period whereby for a certain period of time, microscopic life; a virus, bacterium, protozoa, or algae will still be alive.... even in the presence of swimming pool water that has been properly treated with chemicals, properly filtered, and one that has the proper circulation.

For instance: there is type of bacteria (Coliphage) that comes in human feces, one that is very resistant to normal concentrations of various disinfectants. This bacteria is one of the "bad" ones that can make you very sick. Because of this, lifeguards are required to shut down a commercial pool immediately upon sighting a piece of poop. After closing the pool the water must be super chlorinated for several hours. This bacteria is that tough! However, all forms of microscopic life have a certain amount of resistance to disinfectants, they don't die instantly! So... don't you drink pool water! Don't let your children drink pool water! Teach them to keep their mouths closed, and have them use nose clips and eye goggles. If I seem a little fussy here, remember how painful an ear infection, or an eye infection can be for a child or you! Certain skin conditions can arise also, but these aren't as critical. Check out this harmful bacteria chart: http://natsci.edgewood.edu/wingra/wingra_bacteria.htm

When we begin to talk about pool disinfection, it is obvious that disinfection is dependent upon and related to filtration and circulation. But at this point, I want to talk about which chemicals are going to be used to disinfect your swimming pool water, and not get side tracked into exploring these other relationships as of yet.

Chlorine is the chemical that is usually used to disinfect a swimming pool. The actual process that chlorine uses to disinfect water is called oxidation (the loss of electrons) and this is the same chemical process that you see when wood is burning or a piece of metal is rusting. It is this oxidation process that kills bacteria, viruses, protozoa, algae, and fungi.

Now would be a good time to describe the measuring protocols, or conventions, for water borne contaminates: dissolved and undissolved, organic and inorganic, mineral and chemical. All water except distilled, naturally contains these foreign substances. The concentration of these substances are measured in parts per million, parts per billion, or even parts per trillion. This is the generally accepted way of measuring "how much of anything is in water". Water test kits use this type of protocol. For instance: a chlorine test vial will have a color comparison chart that reads 1,2, or 3 parts per million.

Chlorine is the most commonly used chemical in swimming pools for disinfection. Chlorine is a member of the halogen family of chemicals, with bromine, iodine, fluorine and astatine finishing out the list. They are unique in that this particular periodic table group can exist as a gas, liquid, or solid on the earth's surface.

Iodine is used in swimming pools as an disinfectant when the swimmer, or swimmers have developed a sensitivity to chlorine. The main problem with iodine is that it turns the your pretty blue water, brown. Bromine is used sometimes in indoor pools when the smell of chlorine is intolerable due to ventilation issues. Bromine has a much heavier molecule than chlorine and so it tends to stay in the water and does not gas off as quickly as chlorine and so the odor from bromine is minimal.

Also, bromine is used therefore, in hot water applications such as spas and hot tubs. Chlorine, if used in spas and hot tubs, quickly becomes very annoying to you. When the spas blowers and jets are turned on, all your natural excitement, caused the bubbling and churning of the water, turns into a blue funk as soon as the chlorine begins to gas off, stinking up the area. They used chlorine gas in World War One after all! So don't use chlorine in your spa! Bromine in contrast to chlorine, will be barely detectable at all in the same exact situation.

Another negative quality that chlorine has is that once the chlorine has oxidized some organic material it becomes chemically changed into a compound that is not unlike tear gas! This changed chlorine is known as a "combined chlorine" or as a chloramine. Check out Wikipedia's article: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine). Chloramines are an unavoidable consequence of oxidation or the disinfection process. Chloramine is a very poor disinfectant. For example: ordinary table salt (sodium chloride) is a combined chlorine and we know that despite the fact that ocean water is salty, it would be some kind of joke to say that it has a minimal effect on the creatures that live there! Since it is actually absolutely necessary for their existence! Now, you and I know that if you increase the salt concentration above a certain threshold, as it is in the Great Salt Lake or the Dead Sea, then that will create an unlivable environment for all but the hardiest of creatures. Likewise, chloramines if allowed to increase past a certain level in pool water will cause eye, nose and skin irritation and will have an unpleasant odor. The solution to high chloramine levels is to super chlorinate or "shock" the pool in a very precise way, which will be covered in a later post.

This discussion about chloramine is leading up to the second positive attribute that bromine has over chlorine. That attribute is that once bromine has done it's job and a certain amount of bromine has been changed into a combined bromine, the combined bromine, unlike the combined chlorine, is still a effective disinfectant, and does not stink! So you get double duty from bromine!

So why is not bromine used in swimming pools instead of chlorine? Well, unfortunately, there is a real downside to using bromine as an disinfectant and that is bromine costs about twice as much as chlorine on a pound for pound basis. Although, in a spa or hot tub, the cost difference is negligible, in a swimming pool it becomes a real problem.

The next post will continue on with the positive and negative modifiers of disinfectant efficacy.

Non-Automatic Cleaning or Get Outside and Vacuum the Pool!

Vacuuming is the most boring part of swimming pool maintenance, and yet one that needs to be done from time to time even if you have an automatic cleaner. In the Sonoran Desert, during the so called summer monsoon season, dust storms can arrive every evening. Sometimes, several developing thunderheads are scattered around. Each one will send out a dust storm. Sometimes these thunderheads coalesce into one huge monster of a storm. These will just trash your pool up way beyond the load capacity of your automatic cleaner. There is no commercially available cleaner that can take kind of load. So that is why all pool owners and pool service professionals need to have vacuuming and netting equipment.

As these storms begin to occur, there is really no way to know just how severe they will become. So I would recommend that the swimming pool be turned on if it is not already running. If you have followed my blog posts from the beginning you know that I prefer to have the time clock set to run the pool in the evening hours anyway. If the storm becomes really severe however, you might as well just turn the pool off, since the skimmer, the main drain, and the automatic cleaner will all probably get plugged up with debris. No one likes to repeatedly empty out the skimmer basket, or the automatic cleaner while it is lightning and thundering! In this case, commonsense tells you to just let the debris in the pool accumulate and then settle to the bottom of the pool over night. You can get to work, in the morning !

The swimming pool cleaning sequence that you want to follow here is basically the same for a pool that is lightly or heavily trashed up. It's just that it will take much longer to complete the cleaning with a trashed pool.

The first step is to turn the pool on at the time clock, then walk over to the skimmer and remove the lid. Look into the skimmer basket. Always look first to be sure a critter of some sort is not in the basket area. Reach down and lift out the basket, it probably would be a good idea to wear some latex gloves while you are doing this. I have seen people fashion a wire clothes hanger as a hooking tool to lift out the basket, you can try that if you wish. Clean the basket out by tapping it on a fence or large rock and if necessary, rinse it out with a garden hose. Check the basket visually to see if there are any holes or cracks in it, if so, then go ahead and buy a new one.

Next, remove the diverter valve, look to it's underside to be sure that the flap is in place, check also that the float is moving freely. At this point, I usually put my fingers down into the skimmer and let the suction line pull on them, just to get a good reading on whats going on with the upstream equipment. If it feels like the suction line is going to pull my fingers off, then the pump and filter are probably OK. Replace the diverter valve, be sure that it sets flat against the o-ring on the bottom of the skimmer housing. Now put the skimmer basket back into place. Look to see that the weir is moving freely and that it is in it's proper place. Remember to look first before you put your hand into the weir area!

If you did the "fingers in the suction pipe test" you already know that things are OK upstream. If you didn't do that test, then you can check now to see that the action of the skimmer is good. You should be able to see a very good flow into it. If there is not a good flow of water into the skimmer, or if the suction in the "the fingers in the suction pipe test" felt weak, then the pump strainer basket may be full, or the filter needs to be backwashed, or if it is a DE filter it may need to be manually cleaned out, or a host of other problems may be the culprit. But for now, put the lid back on the skimmer and walk over to the equipment area and turn the pump motor off.

Unscrew the lid to the pump strainer basket housing, it may be tight. If you are using your hands, try turning it very slowly with steadily increasing force. If it is stuck, you can buy a pump lid wrench removal tool. The one I like is the metal one with a rectangular loop that fits around most lids. With the lid wrench, you still will use the "turning very slowly with steadily increasing force" technique. When you get the lid off, check that the rubber o-ring that it rests against is in good shape. Often there is a sticky goo that forms on this o-ring or in the groove within which it fits. Either of which may cause an suction side air leak, causing the pump to lose it's ability to pull the water from the pool. You can wipe the goo off with a warm, wet wash cloth or rag. If after the goo is wiped off, a lot of rubberized dirt comes off the 0-ring onto the wash cloth, then the o-ring is worn also, replace it with a new one. The next time you are in your local pool store go ahead and pick up a tube of Magic Lube, this is the lubricant that you want to put on the o-ring and the groove that it fits into. Accept no substitutes here, if the pool store doesn't have it, go to another one. Lubricate the o-ring, the groove that it sits in, and the screw like threads on the plastic lid.

Most newer pumps have "see through" plastic lids that enable you to look into the pump strainer basket to judge how full it is. From time to time check that this lid has not developed a crack that again may be letting air into the system, these can be difficult to see. Sometimes, there is a hole or crack in the pump basket housing area with the same negative result.

Lift out the pump strainer basket by grasping the metal wire handle and turning the basket while it is still in the pump. There will be two notches on the plastic basket that will line up with slots inside the pumps basket housing. Once you have the basket lined up, you can simply pull the basket out. If the handle is missing, or the basket warped, replace the basket. As I have said before, it makes this job a lot easier if you buy a second basket so you can let one basket dry out, and later easily dump the contents. Either way, inspect the pump strainer basket for cracks or holes, replace the basket if necessary.

[Whenever I have had a service call or repair call where the problem is that the pump's impeller is plugged, I immediately know that there is a good chance that the pump strainer basket or the skimmer basket probably has a hole or crack in it. Sometimes the service person or home owner did not take the time to see that the pump strainer basket was properly seated. In this situation also many times it is the skimmer basket that has not been seated properly or sometimes the skimmer basket begins to float when the pump is off, and when the next pump cycle starts up, it is pulled down by the water flow and rests cock-eyed letting debris to get around it. The solution for a floating skimmer basket is to replace it with one that is weighted at the bottom. I have often put a rock in the bottom of the skimmer basket to weight it down. Just be sure that the rock you use is much bigger than the diameter of the suction pipe at the bottom of the skimmer housing].

Now, put the pump strainer basket back in and don't forget to put the o-ring back in! I have several times been called out to a repair call where the only problem was that the pump lid o-ring was not put back in! Screw the lid back on. Do not bear down with a lot of force while screwing the lid back on! When lubricated properly, a hand tightened lid is sufficient. If you use your new lid wrench to do this, then you are going to be forced to use the lid wrench the next time you want to take the lid off. Turn the pool pump back on. Most modern pumps will suck air from the line going back to the skimmer in order to start the water flowing again. If the pump doesn't pull up the water, or if you don't have a modern pump, you may need to prime the pump at this point by pouring water into the pump basket area before putting the lid back on and starting the pump.

Once both the skimmer basket and the pump strainer basket have been serviced, and the water flow has started again, you will want to let some of the air that accumulates at the inside top of the filter out. So it is time to look at the pressure gauge that rests on top of the filter. There should be a small valve that you can turn to open. This valve is known a an air relief valve. If you open this valve, the air will begin to be released, followed later by water. Once the water shows up the air is obviously out of the filter and you can close the air relief valve. If this valve is stuck, then you can use some WD-40 and a small pair of pliers to work it loose. Be careful here. These valves are fragile. Use minimal force.

If your pool is really trashed up, and you own a sand filter or a cartridge filter, then you are going to want to backwash, or clean the the filter before you begin to vacuum. If you own a DE filter then you may need only to note the pressure as indicated on the pressure gauge, and later decide (after noting the resulting pressure increase), whether a backwash or clean out is necessary. In a later post having to do with filtration this step will be covered in much more detail.

For now however, walk back to the swimming pool, and while the pool pump is running, use your leaf bag to net out most of the surface debris. This in itself can be quite laborious, (remember to use the technique I talked about in an earlier post). If the pool bottom is really trashed then clean out the bottom of pool with the Jandy Leaf Master and then later when the dirt and dust have settled back down you can vacuum.

If the pool's bottom does not have a lot of debris, then you can prepare to vacuum. Bring out and begin to assemble the vacuum equipment. The vacuum hose, as well as the vacuum head should have been stored out of the reach of sunlight. The vacuum hose should have been stored in a circular pattern, to facilitate the assembling and vacuuming process.

While holding on to the part of the vacuum hose that is going to be attached to the vacuum head, push the rest of the hose (which should still have the stored circular shape) into the pool. Attach the vacuum hose to the vacuum head, then attach the pool pole to the vacuum head. Then push the vacuum head with the pool pole attached, into the deep end of the pool. While still loosely holding on, let the vacuum hose slide through your hand, feeding it from the remaining circular shape floating on the pool's surface, thereby dropping the vacuum head and the pole to the bottom of the pool. This will pull the vacuum hose down also. The vacuum hose should now be filled partially with water, and you, kneeling along side the pool, can push the yet unfilled portion of the vacuum hose directly downward into the water. When you have pushed the vacuum hose all the way in, water should start to come out of the end of the hose. (This is an advance technique, which again will be covered in a later post), an alternative technique is to fill the remaining empty vacuum hose with water by placing it up against an inlet jet. You need to fill the vacuum hose completely in one way or another so as to minimize the amount of air that will be introduced into the pump.

At this point, after the vacuum hose is filled with water, drag the end of the vacuum hose over to the skimmer, kneel down and put the hose into the suction pipe that leads back to the pump. You have a choice here, you can either put the vacuum hose over the deck and then into the skimmer suction pipe or you can put it in through the front of the skimmer, laying the vacuum hose on top of the weir. Even when you have done everything correctly, there is still always some air that is unavoidably introduced into the suction pipe. Wait until it has cleared the pump, then you are ready to begin to vacuum.

Use the pole to pull the vacuum head out of the deep end of the pool and start vacuuming the steps in the shallow end. This accomplishes two things. One, by starting in the shallow end and gradually moving to the deep end, the vacuum head is going to be much easier to handle. After all, you are going to be going downhill, (gravity here is our friend once again). Do you want to start vacuuming in the deep end and try to move that heavy vacuum head uphill? I think not.

Two, you want to save the worst of the debris and dirt for last, otherwise the suction for the whole job is going to be diminished, and where is that pile of dirt likely to be? Yup! At the bottom of the pool, so don't vacuum there first. So always start your vacuuming job in the shallow end of your pool.

This vacuuming process can be facilitated by the use of a swiveling type of connector that maybe already attached to your vacuum head. You can buy a vacuum head with or without a swivel connector. If you buy a vacuum head with a swivel connector then you can steer the vacuum head by twisting the pole as you move the vacuum head forwards or backwards.

If you purchase the type of vacuum head without a swivel connector, you can still move it over easily by using the following technique: As you push the vacuum head forward and you reach the other side of the pool, you will need to move it over to pick up more dirt. The best way to do this is to snap the pole back towards you, lifting the vacuum head momentarily off the floor of the pool, as it is still suspended, snap the pole in the direction opposite to where you want the vacuum head to go. The pole will act as a lever, with the fulcrum in the middle. In other words, if you snap the pole to your left, then the vacuum head will move to the right and if you snap the pole to your right, then the vacuum head will move to the left. Again, this needs to be done while the vacuum head is momentarily suspended. After you have drawn the vacuum head all the way back so that it is nearly under you, go ahead and lift it up slowly to clean the wall of the pool, then move it over to start again. Continue until the pool is cleaned.

You may have to clean the pump strainer basket out, backwash, and vacuum several times before the pool is cleaned up. This process will cause some of the dirt and dust to be suspended into the water again. Wait for a day or so, until the dust and dirt have again settled to the bottom of the pool and repeat the process, or begin to use your automatic cleaner.

This completes the cleaning subsection of the sanitation classification, that rests upon the top of our imaginary Golden Triangle. In the next post, we will consider the other subsection of sanitation which is disinfection.

Automatic Cleaners, Continued

Pressure Side Cleaners


A pressure side cleaner uses either water provided by the pool pump or a smaller booster pump to move about and accomplish it's job.


Arneson Pool Sweep

One of the first pressure side systems that I knew of was called an Arneson Pool Sweep. Anthony Pools in the 1960's and 1970's used this pool cleaner almost exclusively in the pools they built. This cleaner had a floating water propelled head to which several tentacle-like plastic tubes dangled down onto the floor of the pool, which in turn stirred up the dirt on the bottom of the pool, it did clean the pool to a degree, but not as well as the Master Pool system.


Jandy Porpoise

Another pressure side cleaner that was popular during the 1980's and early 1990's was the Jandy Porpoise, this device was usually driven by a ½ horsepower booster pump. This device was attached to a long hose that ran back to a fitting on the side of the pool. This cleaner had the fastest underwater speed of any automatic cleaner, it did indeed move around the pool like a porpoise. A stream of water came out the back of the device to propel it forward. There was a short whip attached, as well as jetted connectors placed every three feet, to hold the sections of the trailing feed hose together, and help stir up the dirt and debris, unfortunately for all of it's high speed activity, it did not do a very good job, but was better than nothing. Because of it's high rate of speed, the outer edges and head ball wore down quickly. Jandy did make a version of the Porpoise that did not have a booster pump, it ran by having a valve just after the pool pump, diverting unfiltered water to the cleaner. This type of Jandy cleaner never had enough pressure to work properly, and just put dirty water back into the pool, like the Paddock Pool's pop-up system did earlier.

A lot of my customers enjoyed watching the Jandy Porpoise move around the pool, and resisted my attempts to change them over to the best pressure side cleaner, the Polaris cleaner.


Polaris

The Polaris line of pressure side cleaners were the first pressure side cleaner that really made a noticeable difference as far as saving time and effort for the pool owner or service professional. Of all the pools that I had on my service route , the pools that I had been able to convert over to the Polaris pressure side cleaner, were always in good shape when I showed up and almost never needed to be vacuumed! Let me tell you I was really happy with that cleaner!

However, even this cleaner had some downsides. It was really finicky to set up. It was driven by a jet of water turning a water wheel type of turbine located near the center of the device. This jet of water picked dirt and debris up off of the pool's floor and deposited it into a net type bag on top of the device. It also had a rear facing jet as well, with three large wheels that were driven by the turbine.

As I have stated before, one of the problems with this cleaner was that was really finicky to initially set up. Getting everything balanced just right so it could climb walls was a pain. There was a float attached that had to be adjusted forward and backward to keep the nose of the device down, otherwise it liked to move forward with it's nose in the upward position.

There was also an adjustable rear jet that had be set just so, in order for the Polaris to be able to climb out of the deep end of the pool, if this jet was not pointing in the right direction then it would make continuous circles and never climb out. Annoyingly, customers would often make their own adjustments, throwing everything out of whack.

Another big problem with the Polaris was the tail whip, in order for it to be able to swing back and forth to deliver a sufficient jet of water to stir up dirt, the tail whip had to be fed a certain amount of water, as the cleaner climbed to the top of the pool wall and reached the line of tile, it would turn itself over to go back down into the pool, spraying water simultaneously into the air, from the tail whip, often times getting the decks wet as well as windows, and Arcadia doors. Sometimes, customers or I would be standing alongside the pool and be startled by the squirt. Polaris tried to address that problem by making a weight for that tail whip, but that slowed down the cleaning action tremendously, I never really found a solution to that problem. The best I could do is to never install a Polaris in a pool that was too close to the house.



Suction Side Cleaners


Kreepy Krauly

The Kreepy Krauly was the first automatic suction side cleaner. It was developed in 1974 by a South African father and son team, an hydraulics engineer by the name of Ferdinand Chauvier and his son, Daniel. Several million of these Kreepys have been sold internationally, Ferdinand Chauvier died in 1985. His son Daniel sold the company to PacFab which later became Pentair Pool Products.

When I saw this device for the first time I thought that it looked like some science fiction, alien type of life form. It still looks weird to me, and the name fits. Kreepy Krauly. The device moves about driven forward by a diaphragm that momentarily shuts of all the water that is flowing through it and snapping or perhaps vibrating the device forward, it does this more than several times a second. This device is big, noisy and ugly, but it does clean a pool and it has only one moving part! However, it will not clean steps, or the love seat area. At times, it will get stuck in a corner, wedge itself somewhere, or it will sometimes adhere to a wall that is uneven. When it adheres to a wall, the pump may be starved for water unless a special valve has been installed at the skimmer.

This cleaner has a very bad habit of wanting to come out and above the pool surface to start sucking air, and then not wanting to go back down until the whole hose and pipe running back to the pump is full of air! Once the pump loses its water, then the device sinks back into the pool, and the poor pump churns away trying to pull water from that great distance. Sometimes, it fails to draw water and overheats. At a minimum, there will be distortions in the pump housing or suction side piping causing air suction leaks. So the upshot here is that this is a cleaner that works, however, it will need to be continuously monitored when in use.

Not many pool service professionals install this type cleaner because of the headaches that come along with it. It is just too unwieldy. The majority of these devices are purchased by the pool owners themselves and just placed in the skimmer. My customers from time to time have purchased this cleaner without consulting me. I have had to ask them to take it back. If they refuse, I list for them the problems that will occur. If they still insist on keeping the device I had to let them go. Sometimes, the skimmer is shut down permanently by the customers action, and the pool owners neglect to remove the device once the cleaning job is finished. There are plastic covers that have been developed that cover the skimmer basket to which the 'Kreepy” can be attached, whereby the flow rate from either the Kreepy or the skimmer can be regulated, but they are not commonly seen and don't work very well.

I have complained to the Kreepy Krauly field representative about the device slowing down or stopping the skimming action altogether due to regularly improper installation by pool owners and received the retort: “Well you can't have everything! Which segways into my biggest gripe about all suction side cleaners and that is that they slow down the total circulation of the swimming pool. When you ask the pool pump to drive one of these devices that is the result.

The work around has been to install a dedicated line for these devices that runs back to the pool pump. By installing a Jandy 3-Way valve just in front of the pool's pump, you can easily control the amount of water that is coming from the suction side cleaner and how much water is coming from the skimmer. You can if you wish, turn the skimmer completely off and have all the water pulled from the cleaner or completely shut off the cleaner and have all the water pulled from the skimmer. This is a workable solution for all the suction side cleaners.


Hayward Pool Vac

The other suction side cleaner that I am going to talk about is the Hayward Pool Vac, originally called the Arneson Pool Vac. This is the best of the suction side pool cleaners. It is driven by a turbine located near the center of the device, just above the intake orifice. As the turbine spins the internal mechanism drives toggling foot pads or pods that rock back and forth very quickly and enable the device to move forward. Assuming that you have enough suction from your pump this device really cleans up the pool nicely. I always liked to install a in-line leaf canister with this cleaner, since doing that increased it's ability to clean up a really messy pool. If this device is installed on a pool that has a strong pump and if that pool has a dedicated line for the Hayward Pool Vac, I do not have any reservations in recommending this cleaner. Just be sure to install a in-line leaf canister to catch the leaves and debris before thy get to the pump.

Some things to be aware of here is that small rocks can be sucked up by the Hayward Pool Vac, either plugging or jamming up the turbine. So if the cleaner suddenly stops working, that is the first place you want to look. Also,(and this goes for all the suction side cleaners), if the cleaner stops working or seems to have not a lot of energy, check the hose line for cracks or tears, the pump maybe pulling water from these holes instead of the cleaner.

Also the pipe running back to the pump may have become plugged with debris, this happens frequently when any suction side cleaner is used without a leaf canister attached. What happens in this case is that a twig or something similar gets stuck in the pipe inside of a pipe elbow and then smaller more pliable debris begin to wrap themselves around the twig or more rigid obstruction. This will continue until the flow to the pump has ceased.

I remember one time I got a call from a pool owner who already had a rotor rooter guy out who tried to clear out the skimmer line- to no avail. I brought my tank of carbon dioxide gas to blow out the line. As I blew out the line, quite a bit of garbage came out, but it wasn't completely clear. So, the customer and I resorted to using a toilet plunger, we took turns with it and after a few minutes, out pops a small toy car. It just goes to show you that sometimes a low tech solution works! That was the first and last time I had to use a toilet plunger on a swimming pool!

One last word on suction side cleaners: WARNING: Do not use your cleaner to clean a clean pool! Whew! In other words, don't run the cleaner all of the time. Just run it when the pool is dirty. It won't wear out as quickly.



Robotic Cleaners

Robotic cleaners are the newest thing on the market as far as automatic cleaners are concerned. They are driven by household current that has been converted to low voltage. Because these robotic cleaners have their own built-in filter, the use of the primary filter is reduced. If the pool pump is turned off, and after several hours, any suspended dirt particulates will have settled to the bottom of the pool, and then when the robotic cleaner is turned back on, the effect is enhanced and the primary filter's usage will be reduced further. These cleaners are able to be adjusted so that they can clean tile too.

Some of the robotic cleaners can be steered from poolside controls. The only downside here that I can see is that these cleaners are very expensive, up to $1400. The last point to remember here is that you can't avoid some work when you use any of these automatic cleaners. You will still need to clean and service the cleaner.

Automatic Cleaners

Pop Up In-Floor Systems

Prior to the introduction in the Phoenix area of automated swimming pool cleaners, the only mechanism that provided an actual cleaning assist for swimming pools was an in-floor pop up system developed by Paddock Pools, or the turbo head in-floor system utilized by Master Pools later to be called Shasta Pools. Other pool construction companies used their own proprietary systems or those provided by manufacturers or wholesalers.

The Master Pool's in-floor system worked with a water valve that supplied clean, filtered water to the turbo heads. The Master Pool water valve operated by way of plastic gearing, not unlike the gearing within a mechanical clock. The water upon entering the valve, spun a small fan like turbine that drove the rest of the mechanism. The clockwork took the high rpm output of the turbine and gradually geared the movement down to a rate that was very slow and usable. The mechanism at that point would slowly open, one by one, six different valves over a period of say 15 minutes or so. Each valve would in turn shoot a stream of water through it's own separate pipe down to beneath the floor of the pool, activating a couple of turbo heads simultaneously, causing a jet of water to shoot out from each individual turbo head and thereby stir up the dirt or debris in it's way. As each turbo head repeated this cycle, the head would come to rest in a slightly different position in it's base whereby the jet of water would issue out in a slightly different direction during it's next cycle.

The Master Pool system was quite good at doing it's job. A certain amount of dirt and debris would become suspended in the pool water and leave the pool by way of the main drain or skimmer. But not all of the dirt. The remaining dirt usually accumulated on the love seat or step area and in dead spots on the pool floor, and when the filter approached being plugged, the walls collected some dirt too, all of which were annoyances to the pool owner or service professional. But most of these problems were understood to be a residue of the turbo heads frenetic activity and were easily solved by backwashing the filter and then brushing off the steps or dead spots or vacuuming once in a while.

Just by luck, I met and was able to talk to an individual who claimed to have originally designed and marketed the water valve used by Master Pool, he said that he had originally designed it to be an irrigation valve. He said that the problem with it was that the individual valves could not be adjusted to run within a variable time frame, and with areas of landscaping having different watering needs, the device failed to perform it's intended use. So it was adapted to swimming pool cleaning needs.

Almost all of the swimming pools that were built by Master Pool did not have an alternative way for the filtered water to return to the pool. The turbo heads were in operation whenever the pump was turned on, whether or not the pool was dirty. This tacked on additional wear to the turbo heads and the water valve's internal parts that supplied the water to the heads. Yet this system's individual parts would last for years before replacement was necessary.

The pools built by Master Pool really did need to have a parallel inlet jet system that could have been turned on by hand, or turned on by a electric actuating valve. This would have enabled the in-floor turbo system to be turned off when the pool was clean, and yet let the skimmer to continue to clean the surface of the pool. As it was back then, the turbos action actually made the surface activity of the pool chaotic, and prevented some debris from even getting near the skimmer. This as you may know from an earlier post of mine, this is not optimal surface action – we want to have a whirlpool action on the surface.

The Master Pool system of turbo heads even with the additional wear could last for years before a replacement was needed, and when needed, the turbo head was modular so often all you needed to buy was one small replacement part.

After Shasta Pools either bought Master Pool or perhaps just changed names, Shasta began to install inlet jets in the new pools that they built. This was an improvement. However, Shasta Pools replaced the turbo head system in their new pools with an inferior in-floor pop up product that did not approach the durability of the old Master Pool system. The new pop ups were fragile and tended to get stuck in the up or down position quite easily by becoming worn out, or by debris or a small rock fragment becoming lodged between the moving parts. This occurred because unlike the turbo head which had a low profile, the entire pop up head came up out of its casing for it's job to be done, and any small nearby rock or debris that was not in the way of the jet stream was liable to be ensnared in the pop up when it quickly went back down. This situation also caused the pop ups to wear very easily. The turbo head in contrast did not pop up above the pool's floor, it stayed semi-sealed within it's protective casing and seldom jammed up.

This situation was annoyingly worsened by Shasta Pools when they began to pressure customers who owned the Master Pool turbo system to replace that system with the new pop up system. I have talked to customers of mine who were unhappy with the result of the switch over. Shasta even made it difficult for me and Master Pool owners by restricting the availability of the replacement turbo heads in order to motivate customers to switch. Perhaps they still do.

Paddock Pool's in floor system has many similar deficiencies. But in addition to the problems that were similar to Shasta Pool's system's difficulties, for some reason Paddock liked to divert unfiltered water straight from the pump to drive some of their systems. This caused accelerated wear to the water valve and the in-floor pop ups, and made the “cleaning system” put dirt back into the pool! Wow! Whats' up with that? I had a “discussion” with a long time Paddock Pool technician over this situation, the best answer he could come up with was: “We've done it like this for thirty years!” Great. I suppose by diverting water before it gets filtered, they obtained an increased gallons per minute flow rate through their “cleaning system”. But I wouldn't let a mangy dog swim in that pool.


Pressure Side Cleaners (to be continued)

Sanitation

Within the sanitation classification, there are two subsections of activity. These are cleaning and disinfection. A properly sanitized pool is cleaned on a regular basis, and a properly sanitized pool is treated with disinfectants on a regular basis. So a properly sanitized pool will have a rigorous cleaning and a rigorous disinfection program in place. In this post I am going to continue on to discuss what the cleaning process entails: the tools used and the correct way to manipulate these tools to achieve the desired effect. Disinfection will be saved for the next few posts.

The tools that you will need are a vacuum hose, a vacuum head, a pool brush, a telescoping pole to attach the vacuum head and other tools to, a leaf net, a Jandy Leaf Master (a garden hose driven leaf bag) and an automatic cleaner of some sort, if your finances and swimming pool pump can handle the extra load.


Telescoping Pole

So let's discuss the proper pole. What you are going to need is an aluminum, telescoping pole, one that when fully extended can reach completely across the bottom of the pool, with plenty of extra length for you to hold on to and manipulate as you are vacuuming, brushing, or netting up debris. I am going to strongly suggest that you purchase the type that has an internal cam that will lock rigid the two sections of the telescoping pole. Purchase a good pole, one that is used by professionals. In fact, all of these tools should be of a professional grade, they will be more usable and last a long time. The internally locking cam type of pole will be less likely to loosen up in the middle of a job. Do not buy the type of telescoping pole that uses a plastic threaded connection. This type of pole comes loose way too often and furthermore the plastic threaded connection only achieves rigidity between the two halves by having to be screwed (by hand) so tightly that it is difficult oftentimes to unscrew the the connector when the job is finished and you want to collapse the pole.


Vacuum Heads

Moving on to vacuum heads, here again aim for a professional device. You will be able to recognize the higher quality vacuum head from the other lessor types because of several differences. The higher quality vacuum head will have wheels made of a hard clear plastic, not unlike inline skates, the wheels will turn on axles supported by steel ball bearings so when you give them a spin they continue to rotate for a few seconds. This feature enables the vacuum head to glide easily along the bottom of the pool, it always been surprising to me how much this one feature eases the effort needed to vacuum. These wheels will also be adjustable up and down within the frame of the vacuum head. This feature enables you to move the wheels in a upward or downward position in reference to the pool's wall and floor. If the walls or floor are uneven then the vacuum head can get stuck, so you would adjust the wheels downward to lift the head up for more clearance, also if the pump's suction is too strong then raising the vacuum head up helps prevent it from getting stuck. In those cases where the swimming pool's pump is not very powerful or if the vacuum head is just too high off the floor of the pool and not pulling in enough dirt, you can adjust the wheels upward and lower the clearance. By experimenting around a little bit you can find what's best for your pool, making your job easier.

The last attribute of a quality vacuum head is that it is very heavy, much heavier than the cheaper models, when pushed into the pool, the cheap models will tend to be pulled up by the floating vacuum hose, whereas a heavy vacuum head will immediately sink to the bottom of the pool (where it should be!), vertically pulling the vacuum hose down, reducing tangling problems and keep itself on the floor of the pool. A cheap model is difficult to keep on the floor of a pool and can cause the vacuuming of your pool to be a frustrating experience.


Vacuum Hose

A professional higher grade vacuum hose will be different in several recognizable ways, just as the professional vacuum head was. Try lifting up the hose. The professional quality vacuum hose, like the quality vacuum head will be much heavier than it's cheaper counterpart and yet this type of hose will have an increased floating ability. This heavier hose will pull up much more, maintaining the tension between itself and the heavy vacuum head. That is a good thing!

Open up the box and give the higher grade of vacuum hose a pinch or squeeze, you will find a lot of resistance because it will be built tougher. This reduces the chance of the hose kinking up or collapsing under a vacuum load. The cheaper models can be pinched or squeezed easily and collapse much more often. The higher grade of vacuum hose will feel slicker to the touch, it will slide over itself much easier, reducing tangling problems.

The quality vacuum hose will likely come with a rotating cuff connector to be attached to the vacuum head. The rotating connector, the slicker surface, and the increase floating ability means that the hose will not get entangled with itself as often as the cheaper models.





Leaf Net or Bag

The leaf bag is attached to the end of the telescoping pool pole in the same manner as the vacuum head. I have always purchased the Aqua Pro brand of leaf bag. It is more costly than the other types, but it has a couple of features that I like, ones that the cheaper models do not have.

The first feature is that the bottom plastic trim of the bag has a projecting edge that enables you to pick up leaves on the bottom of the pool with just two little snappy pushes. The technique here is to cause a small underwater wave to form initially in front of the leaf bag, this will momentarily lift the leaf or leaves up off the floor of the pool, and timing it just right, you can again snap the leaf bag forward once again to catch the leaf or leaves, depositing them within the bag. You can even pick up small coins and rocks in this manner or even just shove the bag forward and these items will just slide into the bag via the projecting plastic edge. This technique can be learned in just a few tries. You can even scoot the bag along the whole floor in this manner.

Two other cleaning techniques that I used with this bag are as follows: When the pool is full of debris, after a strong dust or wind storm, I maximized the amount of debris that gets into the bag by throwing the Aqua Leaf Pro bag out into the pool, while simultaneously rotating the pool pole 180 degrees so that the bag will land face down in the debris, if you steadily pull the bag toward you, leaving it upside down, the bag will fill up much more quickly and easily than any other way and if there is still room in the bag, you can repeat this process several times before the bag is full. I could get the bag so completely full with this technique that is was hard to get out of the pool!

The second technique involves cleaning the tile off. Often times even if the surface of the pool is clean, debris of various types adhere to the tile along the water line. What you do in this situation is to stand next to the edge of the pool. Set the Aqua Pro leaf bag in the water and rotate the bag so that the bag is setting at an oblique angle to the tile, with the pole and attached bag vertical to the pool's surface. While holding and pressing the narrow side of the bag
against the tile, begin walking along the tile, in the direction necessary to cause a small wave to form in front of the bag as it moves along the line of tile, the debris will be then lifted off of the tile and be deposited within the bag. Whew! That was hard to describe in words, but would so easily shown in a video or in a picture. It has been suggested to me that I should put up some pictures. That I will do in the future, but for right now I want to post up as much content as I can.

The next feature that I like about the Aqua Pro leaf bag is that although it is more expensive, the bag and the frame as well as various parts when worn out can be purchased individually from the Aqua Pro dealers or the manufacturer. I do not like the smaller leaf nets that look like a large fly swatter - they are a waste of time.


Pool Brush

The pool brush is a simple and yet an important tool. This tool is used to brush off dirt, bacteria, and algae that have settled against the walls of the pool. By dislodging them, the filter can remove the dirt and debris and the disinfectant used has a second chance to kill these microorganisms.

The vacuuming that you may do, or the automatic cleaner that you may use, cannot remove or get at all the pool's dirt and living organisms. Some of these critters use the roughness of the pool wall or bottom to hide out in. The brush can. The technique here is simply to brush downward vigorously against the wall or bottom of the pool.

The brush can also be used to move dirt towards the main drain. If you have your pump on and the skimmer's divertor valve is set to draw water from the bottom of the pool, a substantial portion of that dirt will leave the pool via the main drain and get trapped by the filter.


The Jandy Leaf Master

You can think of the Jandy Leaf Master as a leaf bag that is powered by the tap water from your backyard faucet. This device again is attached to the end of your telescoping pool pole, with a regular garden hose connected to the device. Water squirts through a circular ring of holes, this draws in debris from around and under the device and deposits the debris into a lightweight bag connected to and encompassing the circular ring.

The Jandy Leaf Master is a handy tool to have around when there are a lot of leaves at the bottom of your pool. The device is moved slowly around the bottom of your pool, as it does it's job just be aware that it does stir up dirt and dust too, dirt and dust that blows right on through that bag. There are two options concerning that bag, a bag that just collects just larger objects and another that is called a silt bag, made with a finer weave.

It is a little tricky getting out of the pool. Don't turn the water off when it is still in the pool, the leaves and other stuff that has been collected will start to float out of the bag. So lift it out of the pool first, while it is still squirting water out, set it down on the pool's deck and then turn the water off at the faucet. There may be a valve to turn off the water on the device or you may be able to purchase one from a hardware store. At this point you can turn the device upside down, turn the bag inside out and empty the contents into a garbage can or bag.

Please note that this tool tends to tilt upwards, nose up. I have known pool service professionals to glue or affix a metal weight to it's forward edge, this helps quite a bit.



Automatic Cleaners

Automatic cleaners have removed a lot of the drudgery when it comes to keeping your pool clean. Before these devices came upon the scene, a pool owner or service professional had only a few options when it came to keeping a pool clean. No matter how well the swimming pool's in-floor pop up systems were working, they still had to vacuum up dirt, time to time, in the pool's "dead spots". There are three types of automatic pool cleaner: suction side, pressure side and electrically powered robotic. Automatic cleaners will be covered in the next post.

The Golden Triangle

What is the Golden Triangle? It is a memory enhancement image that helps us remember the three most important factors that will concern us from now on. All of the problems that arise and all the problems that are resolved concerning your swimming pool fall into one of these three classifications.

So imagine a triangle. At the very top, put the word sanitation, in the lower right the word circulation and finally in the lower left, the word filtration. Obviously, it doesn't really matter where you put the words, or if the words are inside or outside the triangle. It is your choice.

But what is really important here is that you remember that if you have good sanitation, good circulation, and good filtration, you are the proud owner of a pool that is very swimable. Conversely, if any one of these three items is deficient, then you are going to have to stay out of your pool, otherwise you could get sick, very sick.

Sanitation, circulation, and filtration, are the words that the corners of our imaginary Golden Triangle point to, let that image burn into your mind. Why is it golden? Because if you take the time to memorize this image, you will save money. You will save time. You will save work, both mental and physical.

For instance: When I went into the backyard of a potential customer whose pool had been limping along for years, I held the Golden Triangle in my mind, and automatically made the following assessments …. Does this pool have proper sanitation? Does this pool have proper circulation? Does this pool have proper filtration? The answers to these questions would lead me quickly to solutions for the customer.

I may be boring you with the repetition of these classifications, but it is that important, because from within this theoretical framework, this Golden Triangle, we will move away from ignorance and confusion and move towards having more understanding and control over your pool. So with that in mind, the next post will begin to cover sanitation.

Mother Nature's Directive Concerning Pools

Do you know what Mother Nature is trying to do? She is desperately trying to change your clean, clear, and very swimable body of water into a green pond. Yes, a slimy green pond containing not only algae, but with mosquito larva, various forms of bacteria and viruses, tadpoles, ducks, and even fish which have been thrown into the mix by the very helpful Maricopa County Health Department. The fish eat the mosquito larva by the way. So...In the Sonoran Desert, (with it's extreme weather conditions: the day after day of seemingly unending sunlight, heat, dry air, and summer dust storms), conspires to press forward the natural agenda, which is to fill up your pool with critters of the pondie, swampie type.

All of your swimming pool's equipment, the pump, the filter, etc., and all of your personal effort and money are directed towards preventing that from happening. You are battling Mother Nature here, or the "natural elementals" if you prefer. She is a very tenacious, persistent antagonist. You will have your work cut out for you!

In dealing with many pools, I can tell you that some of the rules of swimming pool operation that are effective in a more moderate climate are useless here in the Sonoran Desert. What I have learned from "in the field" observations and experiences is going to sometimes contradict what you may read in a book, on the internet, in a product manual or in literature that was developed and printed for the areas of the country along the Atlantic Seaboard, the Midwest, or the Californian Mediterranean climate. The authors of these publications may have impressive credentials, and may be giving out correct information for their local conditions, but what I am going to tell you about is " What just simply works here in the desert" and this information will probably not be valid elsewhere.

For instance: I remember in 1983, that was the year I began my own pool service business. I had read all the educational material I could find. I followed to the letter all of the manuals that came with the major, well know chlorine test kits. I applied their rules to the servicing of my customer's pools.

Can you guess what began to happen? As the warm weather began to occur in March and April of that year, the pools that customers had placed in my trust, the pools that I claimed to be able to take care of, began to turn green. Do you want me to describe these customers facial expressions of annoyance to you? Do I need to describe the humiliation I felt? I was at a loss, incapable of explaining to them what happened.

I went to my wholesaler in Phoenix at the time, Superior Pool Products, and told my story to a counterman who was of no help, when a fellow serviceman, who had that worn out "been through it all look" turned to me and simply said "Run your chlorine levels a 3 parts per million." I said "What? All the manuals, and the testing kits say 1 to 1.5 parts per million max." He retorted, " If you run your pools at 3 parts per million, your pools won't turn green anymore." You know what? After I adjusted the chlorine levels higher by regularly adding a bit more chlorine, they never did turn green anymore! That was a revelation for me. Things are different here! Wow! But I already knew that! Car batteries wear out faster, car paint oxidizes, everyone tans or burns much easier here, the sky stays blue, sidewalks are too hot to walk barefoot on, it doesn't rain much, dust is everywhere, people vacation in the winter here and on and on. So...No Duh!

Well I began to talk to other local servicemen that have been around for a while and I began to experiment to find out what works and what doesn't and I am letting you in on what I found out. The next post will cover the Golden Triangle.

Desert Landscaping for Desert Pools

You notice I didn't title this post: Landscaping for Swimming Pools, that's because the very best landscaping around your pool is none whatsoever. A Zen Buddhist garden would perhaps be nice. What I am getting at is don't load up the area around your pool with a lot of vegetation that is going to sooner or later get inside the pool. Nothing is more annoying than to go on a service call and into a potential customers back yard and find that their pool is surrounded by Eucalyptus or Pine trees, Bougainvillea, or Oleander bushes. These plants shed like crazy, the leaves of the Eucalyptus in particular appear to be designed specifically to plug up the pool skimmer and Pine tree needles are very difficult to scoop up off the pool bottom. Bougainvillea bushes can shed their pink fake blossoms all over the surface, Oleander leaves are poisonous. These are the very worst plants around a pool. I have asked pool owners to cut down trees and bushes, in order to make their pools usable.

The sequence of damage that can occur has been covered in an earlier post but happens often enough that I want to say it again. That is that once the skimmer becomes full then the pump begins to pull water from the bottom of the pool and/or the automatic pool cleaner. The debris either plugs the main drain or the cleaner, and then the pump becomes starved for water. Now, the pump may start to pull debris through the main drain for a while, and start to fill the pump strainer basket. But at some point that basket is going to be filled and the pump will overheat and a melt down will occur. Then you will have a warped pump housing and perhaps warped pipes. So, the more vegetation you plant around the around the swimming pool the more likely, and the more often you will have this problem. If you want some shade, invest in a large pool umbrella, if you do this, don't buy one that comes with a glass table, they do get toppled, during dust storms, onto the cool deck or into the pool, and the resulting broken glass is not easily removed from the deck or from within the pool. Another shade solution is to build a gazebo nearby, or have a portion of the pool, covered by a patio overhang.

Another problem that occurs frequently is because of the great need of non-desert plants for water. If you plant this type of vegetation and water it often, as you must, or if you plant a lawn that comes right up to the the side of the pool and water the lawn properly, what you will cause to happen ultimately, is for the cool deck to break or chip away. Water will get under the cool deck, even if there is vapor barrier, and efflorescence will occur. As the water soaks the concrete it will ultimately evaporate from the concrete's surface causing minerals to wick up from the ground and from within the concrete. This will leave a white powdery substance, between the concrete surface and the coating of cool deck. This will break the bond between the concrete and cool deck. I am sure that you have seen this white powder on sidewalks around town, that is efflorescence. That is the same process that happens to your pool deck. So again stick with desert landscaping.

Also, try to avoid using crushed rock in the area around the pool. It always seems to get kicked in and usually jams up the automatic cleaner or gets sucked up through the main drain, and sneaks pass the pump strainer basket to plug the pump's impeller.

One last item here, there always has been and will always will be a struggle between the lawn service and the pool service people, the lawn service is seemly always determined to mow grass clippings into the pool, don't allow that to happen if you are a home owner that employs these businesses. The next post will cover Mother Nature's Directive concerning pools.

Inlet Placement and Direction

Your swimming pool water, after it has been sanitized and filtered returns to your pool by way of inlets that have been strategically placed around the pool's perimeter. These inlets if they have been improperly aimed will cause two or more eddies to form. The downside to this situation is that it prevents some dirt and debris from ever reaching the the skimmer area.

What you want is for all the dust, dirt, and debris that falls into your pool to keep passing in front of the skimmer area until it is drawn into the basket and none left to become waterlogged and sink to the bottom of the pool. This idealized situation can be approached if you adjust your inlets accordingly. Obviously, all the inlets have to be aimed in one direction so that they will be working in concert with each other to accomplish this objective. What you want here is for the pool water to rotate as one large whirlpool.

If the inlets are all set to move the pool's body of water in one direction you must look at the shape of the pool and decide what direction is going to be best. Sometimes the shape of the pool makes one direction better than another due to steps or a love seat alongside a skimmer.

Even if you have your inlets aimed to accomplish this, there is still the possibility that they may be aimed to high or too low. If the inlet jets are aimed too high then there will be an excessive amount of turbulence on the surface, causing dirt and debris to thrash around, becoming waterlogged or submerged almost immediately. If the inlet jets are aimed too low then the desired rotation will not occur. The proper positioning of each individual inlet jet is to aim the inlet so that the returning water to the pool just obliquely glances the surface, moving the debris along without sinking it.

Most inlet/return jets can be adjusted by loosening the ring that fixes the inlet/return mechanism to the threaded return pipe. A small pipe wrench can be used to loosen an overly tightened ring, be aware that these are plastic parts and are fragile, often times these tighten down rings will break before they loosen. Then a trip to the local pool store will be needed for a replacement. Once the inlet ring has been loosened, you can insert a philips screwdriver into the "eyeball hole" and carefully move the eyeball sideways or up and down. Again, this part is fragile too and may break.

The whole point of this post is to try and force the pool to clean itself and concentrate the dirt and debris into the skimmer basket, minimizing the service time for you the pool owner. The next post will cover Desert Landscaping for Desert Pools

Swimming Pool Orientation and Skimmer Placement

In the Phoenix and Scottsdale areas, for that matter in all of Maricopa County, all pools should have an East/West orientation. Actually the best direction would be in a East/Northeast to West/Southwest position. So if north were at the twelve o'clock position on a clock face, then the pool would be angled from about the two o'clock to the eight o'clock position. For most of the year, the wind comes from the west/southwest. During the summer monsoon, often the dust storms originate from the northeast or easterly mountain ranges, occasionally from the southwest plain. The whole point of this discussion is to place the skimmers in that part of the pool where the wind is going to blow debris.

Although, as I pointed out before, nothing gets blown out of your swimming pool, it sure does get blown around inside of it! So the idea is to let mother nature blow the debris towards a skimmer. So what you really want here is to have two skimmers, each one of which is located at both ends of a oval pool. During most of the year, and especially during the spring, the wind in Arizona blows from the west or southwest, this will blow most of the floating debris towards the skimmer located on the east end of the pool. Obviously, during the monsoon season, the wind will usually blow from the other direction, whereby the other skimmer will pick up most of the debris.

If both skimmers are attached to the same pump the water flow from these skimmers can be regulated by a three-way valve just prior to the pump. My choice would be for a Jandy 3-way valve to be installed here. This way the suction from one or the other skimmer can be completely shut off, or left so that there is suction from both. Having two skimmers installed in your pool is preferable for several reasons, the first is what I indicated above, the second is that they will store more debris, the third is the fact that you can, if necessary, use the second as a connection for an automatic suction type of cleaner, if you don't have a dedicated line.

The above information concerning monsoon wind direction is applicable only for the Glendale, Phoenix and Scottsdale areas, the more distant you are from these cities, the more likely your local monsoon dust storm/wind direction will diverge. Also realize this is an idealized design. A lot of and maybe most pools in the valley here are of a modified rectangular shape, with the skimmer being placed on that part of the pool that is closest to the pump and filter area. The next post will be about inlet placement and direction.

Swimming Pool Skimmers

The most difficult job on a regular basis that you pool owners or professionals have is just keeping the pool clean. The first line of defense against the dirt that gets in the pool is the skimmer. [Warning: New knowledge ahead!]....Have you ever noticed that when the wind blows during the spring's windy season or the summer's monsoon, dirt and dust are blown around? I'm sure you have!.... thats because it doesn't stick very well to concrete or any hard surface, even other dirt. But boy does that stuff ever stick to the surface of water. Have ever you noticed no matter how hard the wind blows, it never blows anything back out of your pool? It is a one way street here, garbage in, garbage never comes out. So, the skimmer's only job is to pull dirt, leaves, insects and all sorts of nasty debris off of the surface of your pool and deposit those items into the basket. That basket gets to be emptied by you.

I've always tried to avoid doing a too close of an analysis of the skimmer basket's contents.... NOTE: [Warning: All warnings from now on are real!]....[Warning: Sometimes live/dead rattlesnakes, other colorful snakes, dogs, cats, Scottsdale rats, frogs, rabbits, skunks, birds, scorpions,and weird insects are found inside your skimmer basket! Sometimes these dead animals, and insects want to bite, or sting you, but mostly they are in the process of moving toward a bad state of decay and tend to fall apart and stink really bad!] Yuck! This is one of the reasons I gave up pool service and got into pool repair! You have to watch out for insidious plant (Triffid like) debris too: sometimes there will be a sharp thorn in the skimmer, sometimes there will be a poisonous, irritating, or blistering leaf in the skimmer. Always dread taking the lid off the skimmer. Always dread having to look into the basket. Always dread having to look into your pool, you may see something moving around, something you don't want to deal with, anyway:

Use latex or vinyl gloves to clean out the basket or use an old pool serviceman's trick, that is to have two baskets. One to pull out of the skimmer and let dry out, and the one laying around the pool equipment from last time you forced yourself to service the pool, the one that is already dried out, which now is easy to dump the contents out of, by tapping it on the fence or something. Sometimes you find the skimmer basket and diverter valve ajar. This is not a good sign. It will be covered in a later post. But just note that because of this, sometimes these critters get sucked up and stuck in the pipe running back to the pump, or get deposited and compressed into the very small pump strainer basket. Yuck #2.

There are different makes of skimmers out there for residential pools, but over the years it appears that the basic design has settled down to the following parts: there is a lid that should be flush with the cool deck, if you pull the lid off and look down you should see a basket. (NOTE: If the sun has been shining on the lid it may be hard to take off, just pour some pool water on the lid, that will cool it off and shrink it making removal easy). Go ahead and pull the basket out. Once the basket is out of the way there should be a water control valve, sometimes known as the diverter valve, below the basket. It should be about six inches wide and look like a mini flying saucer, or maybe it is the size of a flying saucer. It's job is to regulate the suction of water between the skimmer opening and the main drain at the bottom of the pool. If you turn the water valve aka diverter valve over, you will see a plastic or metal flap that may be partially covering an opening. This is the actual water control mechanism. If you don't see that flap, go buy another one. A metal one if you can. They are stronger, and don't break, just bend. That flap is an important part. Get one. Don't forget to buy the stainless steel screw that you need to attach it, any other type of screw will rust quickly and you may be hunting later for that metal flap. It will either be in the pump strainer basket or stuck in the pipe between the skimmer and pump.

If you move that flap completely over the opening at the bottom of the diverter valve, and place it back into it's original position and turn the pool on, the skimming action will be almost completely shut down and most of the water will be drawn by the pump from the bottom of the pool via the main drain. The times you may want that flap in that position is when, for instance, you have just finished brushing down the pool, or when the pool water itself has become full of suspended dust from a dust storm.

If you move that flap completely away from that opening, and place the diverter valve back into it's original position, nearly all the water will be drawn by the pump through the front opening of the skimmer and very little water will be pulled in from the main drain at the bottom of the pool. So the skimmer opening at the water line will be the only source of water for the pump. You will want the diverter valve to be set in this position, and the pool on, during windy conditions or dust storms. Many times I have set the flap to be in a in between position, so that some water is pulled from both the main drain and the skimmer at the same time. Another thing to look for is a rubber o-ring at the very bottom of the skimmer housing, against this o-ring the divertor valve should rest. If this o-ring is missing or worn, replace it with a new one.

The last part of the divertor valve that I will talk about is the hollow float in it's center. If you hold the valve upright in your hand and shake it, you will see that float is loose and not connected to the rest of the valve. When your swimming pool's water level gets too low, do to some problem and air is detected by the float, the lack of water will cause it to drop down against the bottom of the valve and shut down the skimming action. The pump will now draw water exclusively, but temporarily, from the main drain at the bottom of the pool. Hopefully, you will be around to take corrective measures. Otherwise, the water level may continue to lower and the pump may be starved for water due to debris being pulled up from the main drain and being deposited directly into the very small pump strainer basket. Depending on how long this condition lasts, that small basket will fill up. If not cleaned out in time, a melt down in the pump housing will ensue. You may get a warped pump housing, wherein or whereon there may be several water or air leaks. A very fascinating and artistic, piping situation in and around that over heated pump may present itself: you may be the proud owner of warped piping that now looks like it belongs in a famous Picasso painting.

The next part of the skimmer you need to know about is the weir. Lay down on your tummy on top of the skimmer area. Look over the side of the pool into the skimmer opening at the side of the pool. You should see a rectangular flap of plastic about six inches across. This is the weir, it is attached by screws to the walls of the skimmer opening. It happily floats to wherever the water level is. Its function is to enhance the flow of water into the skimmer (skimming action). When the pump is off, the weir should be floating partially above the surface of the water. If you turn the pool on and the weir is properly installed you should see that the position of the weir has changed. Now the weir is completely submersed below the water line with no less than about 3/4 of an inch of water rushing over the top of it. By restricting the flow of water to a smaller area, the speed of the flow/skimming is increased tremendously.

Sometimes the weir or the walls of the skimmer opening to the pool become warped through the years, because of exposure to the summer heat. The weir may get stuck in an up or down position in this case, either stopping the flow of water or reducing the effectiveness of the skimmer. Go to your local pool store and get a smaller, spring loaded weir.... if you buy a exact duplicate of what you have, it may be hard to get it screwed back in and it may just get stuck again. The downside to the spring loaded weir is: now you will have to check it on a regular basis. It has a tendency to move upward in the skimmer. Remember to install the new weir in the proper direction. The hinged part is nearer the pool itself, the other side, the one that moves up and down the most and is closest to the water's surface faces towards the skimmer basket. If you put the skimmer's weir in backwards, it will immediately rise up, seal off and block the flow of water into the skimmer, as soon as the pump is turned on. Also try to install it in the same place as the original. I have, in a pinch, temporarily replaced a weir with an appropriately sized and shaped rock or rocks! If you do this, be sure that the pool's water leveler/filler is functioning properly. Rocks do not float up and down as well as weirs.

You would be surprised at how many times I have been in a customer's backyard, doing a repair on some part of a pool, only to discover that some part of the skimmer is missing. Perhaps the weir, basket, or the diverter valve is missing, broken, or just set up wrong, or the basket is completely full of debris and restricting the flow of water to the pump.

Another problem I ran into repeatedly is that during the summer, some pool owners try to save money by not running the pump long enough. Don't you do that! Not running the pump is going to cost you in other ways, the water will not be filtered as well, the skimmer won't work properly, you or your kids or grandkids may get odd infections, and guess what?....You will be spending a lot more time cleaning your pool. You don't like doing that do you? So the skimmer must have the pump on to do it's job! If you want to save money on electricity, do it in the winter when the water is refrigerated, and the pool isn't being used, even turn the pool off in January, it will be OK.

Now, I know that the cost of the electric bill gets sky high in the summer. Running the pump eight hours a day will cost you about twenty five to thirty bucks a month. Be aware that refrigerating your house is why your bill is high, not because you are operating your pool's pump. When is the best time to run the pool in the summer? If money is no object, then all of the time, if noise is a problem for you or neighbors then adjust the time accordingly. If money is an issue, then run the pool between the hours of four in the afternoon to midnight, Why? Because windy conditions occur in the Sonoran desert during or just before this time. Why wait until all the dust, dirt and debris from the latest dust storm become waterlogged and sink to the bottom of the pool? Now that stuff is going to be harder to get out. An annoying problem in this regard, (Am I complaining too much?......Nah!) is when some pool owners subscribe to an electrical program that rewards them with a discount for using electricity during certain parts of the day. Run your pool during the evening anyway. Remember: The skimmer is your first line of defense against a dirty pool. Use it! The next post will cover skimmer placement and pool orientation.

Pool Vessel Shape

It is an old joke in the industry that you only tell your enemy to get a swimming pool! That's because it takes a surprising amount of effort to keep your pool properly maintained, and once it has been installed it is not going anywhere. So... let's start with the design of what is termed the pools vessel, or simply that part of the pool that actually contains the water.

You pool owners or professionals out there know that the most annoying part of your swimming pool maintenance program is the cleaning of the pool, it is hard to do and takes up a lot of your time. So the vessel design or shape that is going to be the easiest to clean is going to be a simple circle with the deepest part in the center of that circle, with the whole thing approaching the shape of the bottom half of a sphere, Why? Because if all of the inlets are set in one direction then the water will move with a circular "whirlpool" movement, and all of the dirt and debris that gets into the pool will tend to move towards the center and/or drop out by the deepest part of the pool, thereby concentrating the debris and dirt into a small area, making netting and vacuuming a much less time consuming process for you the pool owner. Gravity is our friend this time!

Another helpful feature of having a circular pool is that obviously that it does not have any corners! In a boxy, rectangular pool, corners interfere with the circulation of the water, and dirt and debris tend to bunch up in the corners and fall to the the bottom under each corner. You can't clean corners easily. Automated cleaners can't clean corners easily. So no corners allowed.

Now, how many of you out there have or want a circular pool? .... Nobody? Well, thats because circular pools are ugly. Proof of that statement is: how often have you seen an in ground circular pool? I have only seen a couple in my life. You do see many above ground pools in that shape but that is because it is a strong shape for that type of pool. But still, you want to avoid getting a rectangular, box shaped in ground pool, for the reasons stated above. So the compromise, one that I would recommend is a an oval. It is a pleasant shape to look at, especially one that is constructed with the Golden Ellipse in mind, http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt669/student.folders/frietag.mark/homepage/goldenratio/goldenratio.html. Happily, there are many of them around and you may own one. With an oval pool you will still basically get the same benefits of a circular pool, one that is esthetically pleasing.
Unfortunately, usually the bottom of an oval pool is not in the center, but off set to a large degree to make the pool more usable.

What if you already own a rectangular pool? Well that would be not be something that can be fixed easily and would come under my classification of a swimming pool with a guess what?... a "structural problem" However, an owner of a rectangular pool can still aim the inlets in a circular direction and force the water to flow in a whirlpool like motion to a certain extent, thereby modifying the structural problem somewhat. Inlet positioning will be covered later. The next post will cover skimmers.

Swimming Pool Maintenance in the Sonoran Desert

Welcome to my Swimming Pool Maintenance in the Sonoran Desert Blog. My name is Nick Owens and I have been in the swimming pool repair and maintenance business here in the Scottsdale and Phoenix areas since 1983. I am now retired from the business, however I am still interested in the field. It is my intent to explore all the facets of swimming pool ownership here in Arizona, and in particular the rather unique problems that occur with swimming pool ownership in the Sonoran Desert. Please note that all of this content is Copyrighted 2011 by Nick Owens and is not to be used in or by any other website except for small excerpts with a credit and link back to this blog.

The first topic that we need to discuss is that of swimming pool design. If you are a Arizona resident and an owner of a pool here, you already know of some of the problems that occur on a repeated basis: extremely high temperatures and high water evaporation rates, repeated trashing the pool by dust storms during the summer monsoon season, blooming of the pool into a green pond, seasonal overloading of the swimming pool, sometimes poor maintenance by professionals, repair problems, and the list can go on. As the years went by and my experience grew, I became convinced by my "in the field" observations of customers swimming pools that there sometimes are what I call "structural problems". Some pools just cannot be fixed without perhaps ripping the whole thing out and starting over.

I remember one lady in north Scottsdale who was nearly in tears because the pool was just too complex. The pool equipment was below the water line and the piping was a rats nest. The pool was one with an negative edge, and the water flowed over the side of the pool into a trough. The home was new and very expensive, and the pool was designed by an architect which explained a lot. As an example, because the filter, pump and most of the piping was below the pool's water line, every time she wanted to clean out the pump strainer basket she would have to turn two large valves to keep the water from squirting out of the pump, another problem was that the water (due to the extreme hardness of tap water here) had already deposited white calcium onto the waterfall area and to top it off the whole pool was controlled by a remote control system that was difficult to use, with a user manual written and printed overseas.. Unfortunately, I had to tell her that there was not much I could do for her....so optimal swimming pool design will be the first topic that we will explore.