r/swimmingpools

Pool ownership for me started with a lot of green water, wasted chemicals, and generic advice that never quite worked for my actual pool.

"Add a capful" doesn't mean much if you don't know what a capful does in a 45,000L pool versus a 10,000L one. And nobody ever told me the order mattered until I'd already ruined a few treatments by getting it backwards.

Once I'd actually figured it out, I built AquaCheck — you put in your pool's real volume and your test readings, it works out exactly what's out of range and exactly how much to add, in the right order. Free, no account, runs in the browser, also just went live on the Play Store.

Would love for people here to try it and pick holes in it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aquacheckapp.app. Genuinely happy to talk through anyone's chemistry questions in the comments too.

I have a waterfall basin that sits below my pool that is connected to an autofill to refill my pool via a waterfall pump. Sometimes when the waterfall basin is low (lots of splash out etc so water is being put back into the pool) I notice in those cases that my pool water gets lowered if the waterfall pump is turned off and I was wondering if it’s back flowing to the waterfall basin since the basin sits lower. The check valve in the pics is last check valve back to the pool from the water basin pump (the circled part). Does this check valve look like it needs to be replaced? Also do I need to replace the other check valves around the waterfall pump? Given this is the last check valve from the waterfall pump before it goes in the pool I imagine if that’s working and preventing backflow then there shouldn’t be any backflow back to the basin or are the others responsible for that also ? Thanks for your help!

Located in Alabama.

I had these stains start showing up in my fiberglass pool a few weeks ago. Won't brush up at all. I've treated the pool 4 times with Pool Stain Treat and it didn't touch it. Any idea what it could be and how to get rid of it?

Ok I recently took over my mom's house because she is sick. My brother and his family lived with her and ran the house....and pool in the ground. So these are pictures of the pool when I moved in and then I have a picture of it after. Which is leaps and bounds better and swimmable but there are dark patches that a shock, algaecide, and wire brush can't get off? And suggestions on what I can do to get rid of these patches ?

Think if I pull this apart it’s something repairable? A loose bearing or something terminal?

Hard to decide what steals the show here: the roof detail, the pool or the rock work

New to pool ownership. I know nothing about pools - it came with the house and I like having it. The previous home owner had no records on past work or renovations. He owned the house for nearly 10 years and I’ve had it for 1.5. The pumps and filters are working fine but will eventually need upgrades. The plumbing for water supply (to fill the pool) exists but doesn’t work. I have a hose connected to a tap/faucet nearby with which I fill the pool. The waterline tiles need to be replaced - some are missing and others are just in bad condition. I believe the surface material is gunite (it feels rough like cement). It seems to have had some repairs done a while ago as I can see some plastered lines in the bottom of the pool - likely to repair leaks. It doesn’t seem to be leaking any water now. Just standard evaporation losing about an inch of water every 10-14 days. I don’t know the volume of this pool. The deep end is about 8 feet and the shallow end is about 3.5-4 feet. I installed a new solar roof top heater which works fine but has a minor water leak. The stone tiling on the border of the pool (on the outside) is falling apart. Small chips are breaking up nearly every other day. I pay a pool maintenance company to clean (scrub the walls and shallow side, pH level checks, chlorine, filter clean out etc) the pool one a week at $180/month. I would like to renovate this pool including the flooring around the pool. There’s also a deck next to it but that’s party of another project I’d like to handle. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area - in the east bay. Apologies for using layman terms as I don’t know anything about this. Any rough estimates on what I should expect this renovation to cost? Not looking for super fancy upgrades. Just want to get it evaluated/reinforced for structural integrity and upgrade its look with plumbing fixes. I do plan on reaching out to companies and getting quotes. But if anyone has done similar projects recently and can provide ballpark estimates, that would be great. Also, please share names of companies in the Bay Area that you would recommend for this kind of job.

Pulled the basket out of my ecosurfer s2 this morning to dump leaves and put in a fresh chlorine tablet. That's about all I have to do these days. It gets leaves and junk off the surface, and I just keep a tablet in the basket while it's running. I still test the water and adjust the main floater when I need to, but I don't have to hand skim every day anymore. And how often are you changing the tablet and emptying the basket?

We got these really really cool pool lights that looks so cool when they're floating around but they always end up stuck around the skimmer.

I would like to put a little guard around it somehow but I don't want to restrict any water flow into the skimmer or restrict any debris from getting into the skimmer but I don't want my little lights getting stuck.

Any thoughts?

📍 Oklahoma (Hot hot summers and mild winters with potential of prolonged single digit temps)

Chlorine pool
Plaster with 50% quartz
Heater plumbed to spa and pool
Sand filter (thinking about switching to glass media)

We just had our pool remodeled about a month ago and I want your most unhinged and ridiculous maintenance tips.

Ok, maybe they don’t have to be unhinged, but talk to me like I’m new to this. (I am)

We’ve lived here for a few years and the pool plaster was deteriorating so fast. We couldn’t see the bottom after we got in and stirred it around.

I was under the impression that if the water was clear, we were good. I didn’t know I was supposed to test the water regularly or brush it. I brushed it when I saw spots forming. Which was all the time and I never was able to get the spots clean.

I want to DIY my pool maintenance but I want to knock it out of the park.

We have a dolphin robot vacuum and yesterday I bought a betta se plus robot skimmer. (I didn’t even skim the pool regularly, unless I wanted to use it🤦‍♀️)

We plan to add an in-line chlorinator.

I just saw an ad on Facebook for a sensor that will test your chemistry? Is that a real thing? These are the things I need to know about. Things that will make maintaining easy. I want to enjoy my pool but I’ve started to resent the that it exists.

Photo of my pool for oohs and ahhs 🤣 the coping was not redone, so don’t zoom in on that😂

Hi everyone,
I have an approximately 26000 gallon inground pool - irregular shape (roughly kidney). I'll attach a photo. I currently use a Betabot for the surface, Pool Blaster max for spot cleaning, and a Dolphin Nautilus CC plus for bottom and walls. I love the Nautilus for reliability and effectiveness, but hate the logistics with plugging in etc. I'm thinking about changing to a cordless. What would people recommend for my situation?

Corded cleaner recommendations. Just bought this yesterday at a pool shop - my pool picture is next to it. Just found out it is no longer in production, not opened it yet. Has anyone tried it? I need a vacuum that can do lots of cleaning. I get a lot of debris and satins on the vinyl.
Concern is if this breaks down it might be difficult getting parts or repairs , any other recommendations any one used it before?
Pool
Looks clean now but lots of trees/ seeds and im tired of manual cleaning