[denisesykes]

I know that this is the kind of thread that is going to make you UK based folk groan but I need some advice about our swimming pool and spa.

We moved in last week and both pools are freezing cold.That has been ok for some days this week but we would like to use them every day not just on those hot sunny days which will probably now be few and far between!

Does anyone know the most cost effective way of heating a swimming pool and also , Should a spa be freezing cold? isn't the point that you can sit back and relax? If so how do we get it warm?

Any ideas gratefully recieved and once again I apologise for all still in the UK , i am not trying to rub it in honest!

Denise

[Dazza]

The most cost effective way of heating a pool I know is through a solar power, the initial outlay would be expensive but I would say running cost would be virtually nil.

Do a google search loads of info.

[jubjub]

You may need Moorf for the spa pool as she has one.. am dead jealous of your swimming pool though :( I LOVE swimming..

[Moorf]

What sort of spa is it - in-ground or "portable" (i.e stand-alone, plugged in to wall).

[StevieD]

Looking out of the window at the plants blowing in the freezing wind, I envy you lot!!
:mrgreen :laugh

[Mildred]

Denise,

Sorry to hijack your thread but did you hear about the armed robbery? Wondered whether your girls knew the poor boy who was held hostage, as he lived in Herne Bay?

[willsken]

Sorry, but I have to say I am sat here and I've turned GREEN!
I want one! :no

[Smiler]

Hi Denise

I'm close to the limit of my knowledge here :laugh but some suggestions as ours wasn't working when we moved in either.

Ours is inground and the workings are in their own little cupboard.

Can you hear yours coming on?
Are the bubbles flowing?
Is it on timer and the timer has been set wrongly, or not at all?

It may take a while to heat up, especially if older, so you may need to leave it on a bit longer.

It may be something spensive like the element, :wah but have you asked the previous owners what routine they had?

Can't answer the swimming pool one as I am too green with envy.

Deborah

[Moorf]

Just wondered if, like ours, you need the jets on for it to warm up. Plus, we spent a few hours with ours in bits as the pump/heater was kaput - it worked after neighbour hit it with a hammer! ;)

I would also recommend taking out the filters and getting them cleaned, you may be horrified at the state of them.... I was... bought new ones, not expensive, or alternatively you have take them to the local spa / pool shop and get them cleaned. You can also buy cleaning fluid and you bung that in a bucket along with the filter for a few hours.

And after all that you need your degree in chemistry to get the water chlorine/ph balance right! :D

[Smiler]

And after all that you need your degree in chemistry to get the water chlorine/ph balance right! :D

And those pretty coloured sticks. :p

[Moorf]

Oh god, yes, those bloomin' sticks.... I'm buying in bulk! :roll

Is it ready yet .. is it ready yet... :o

[Avalon]

Still on a pretty steep learning curve here - but

Heating your pool:

First things first - do you have a cover for the pool? If not - your best investment is probably a bubble cover. Not only does it stop quite a bit of muck getting in - which cuts down on cleaning :clap but it also raises the temperature of the water - often by as much a 6-8 degrees. In our case it gets the temp upto 26 degrees - which is perfectly pleasant on a hot day, and has been up to 29!

The filter runs with the cover on - and the only thing i have learned to my cost - is you must still check your chemical balance daily and act on it. The cover does NOT prevent algae attacks!

Our cover cost $500 and then we paid another 500 for the roller (you can use the cover without a roller). We have a fairly small pool.

Solar can be expensive to install - and according to our pool man (fount of all knowledge and the guy who is stopping me concreteing the damn pool in) is actually quite inefficient when compared to a heat pump. However - I have not really looked into it that closely - but do look at running costs of the 2 options as well as install costs. Solar looked quite expensive to install - but there is a new version out which are solid black "gates" for want of a better description. You need less surface area to give the heat (50% of the pool surface as opposed to 75% with a typical solar system), and because they are solid and much stronger - you can put them in the garden or even possibly on a wall.

Spa Pools Heating

Ok - forgive me if this trite - but do check the spa is actually switched on and running. If the water is cold - then the heater is not on. The heater should run at the same time as the filter: so if you have the spa continuously filtering and the water is not heating up - then there is something wrong with the heater. Also - bear in mind it can take a few days for the water to warm up ( in our case it took 3 days of continuous running to get from 17degrees to 37!)

Ours is a portable spa - and now we find that having the spa on a timer 8 hours overnight keeps the temp at around 34 degrees. Then we just switch it back on when we want to use it so we have the jets, and if we know in advance, then we turn it on a couple of hours earlier.

So - if you have just moved in - I would say - run the spa continuously for a few days - dont just switch it on when you want to use it. If its not incresing in temp after the first day then there may be a problem with it.

Couple more things

Find a friendly pool shop! You have NO idea how much help I have been getting from a guy called Lou in Carterton.Ive been in ther frequently with batches of questions about chemicals - heating - water - you name it. And though he sometimes has a laugh with me - he never treats me as if im stoopid. If you can find someone like this - you will enjoy your pool and spa more.

I bought a pool thermometer (Lou thought I was nuts). I want to know just how cold it is before I pop my tootsies in. 24 degrees is about as cool as I want - 26 is heaven 28 is even better!. OH can manage as cold as 19 but he has a wetsuit!

Hope that helps

[mossum]

Hi a bit of a cheeky post but .....

To all in ch ch - please use portable spa specialists in Ch Ch - its my little brother - he does pools & spa repair & maintainance tel 03 9428076 & my mum will take a message .

Ok I said it was cheeky

vic x

[Moorf]

Thanks for that Vic :nice1

As with pool cover, a spa cover is essential to keep in the heat - we can leave ours overnight with the cover on and only lose 1 or 2 degs.

Also remember to sanitise it daily as you get out of the spa. Saves having to "shock" treat it weekly and means you can use it straight away the next day.

[denisesykes]

Once again thanks so much everyone for all your fantastic information,it was so useful.We have run the spa for a day and it is lovely and warm, waiting for my OH to get it from work to use it though cos I can't lift the cover!
As for the pool , we actually have a cover on a roller but have not bothered to put it on as we have been in every day! Never considered it would help with the heating!Doh!
So we shall start to cover it when not being used and maybe we won't need to go to any other expense!
Thanks once again for all the vital information, it is nice to be able to ask a question about such a nice topic rather than visas! Nice to hear from you Frances,
I will PM you tonight.
Denise

[Moorf]

Denise - have you run it with the chlorine/bromiding tabs and got your ph etc sorted (whichever you are using)? You can catch nasty bugs from un-sanitised spa's .. sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs.... :o

Not only that, I had an impatient moment a few weeks back and jumped in before the chlorine had a chance to dissipate a bit... I ended up with a $40 jewellry cleaning bill as it all tarnished within a few mins of jumping in :o

[Avalon]

Couple of things i learned the hard way which may be useful if, like me, you have never owned a pool before (this is for swimming pools - not spas):

1. The filter on the pool should be run at least 8-12 hours every day. We have ours on a timer for 8 hours at night.

2. Run the filter for about 1/2 hour after adding any chemicals.

3. you should backwash the filter every few days or at least once a week. This cleans the filter and the water goes to waste (usually somewhere in the garden).

4. Do NOT backwash the pool for 3 hours! Usually a few seconds is all that is needed (depending on the filter - there should be a "sightglass" - on ours its near the back of the filter near the handle - when backwashing you will see water running through and it goes from mucky to clear - that means the filter is clean)

Backwashing for a long time leaves the water level low and air gets sucked into the filter. :(

5. Make sure you have the following : a vacuum (we have an automatic one and a manual broom type - I really only use the manual one), a leaf rake for getting crud off the bottom and a skimmer seive for getting crud off the surface. You only really need to vacuum when there is dirt on the bottom

6. Running a hose and pointing it in the corners is a good way of dislodging dirt from areas that the vacuum cant reach. We have a "patent pending" devise to make this easier - we taped the hose to a broom handle so we could direct the flow.

7. When the filter is on - if you gear a "gurgling" noise - that seems to indicate you need to add more water to the pool.

thats about it - when i figure out the whole chemical balance thing - ill let you know. Im currently trying to figure out Cyanuric Acid as my levels are too low and I cant seem to get them up!

[Moorf]

Hey Av, have you tried the "fixers"? They basically "fix" the chem level for up to a few weeks from when you finally get it right... they work fine in the spa, not sure on how they'd perform in a pool but they do have a pool version .... just a thought. ;)

[Smiler]

Moorf

Did you get your chem fixers from the spa pool shop. I've been buying my spa stuff in Bunnings and Warehouse as it is a lot cheaper.

What brand are your fixers please?

D

[Moorf]

Smiler - the brand is Spa Care and prices range from $16 - $30 for standard spa sizes. Our kit cost around $90 in total and comprised ph Increaser, ph Decreaser, Fixer, Brominating Granules and 2 lots of dip sticks, from a spa shop on Moorhouse Ave in Chch.

Moorf

[Moorf]

Found their prices online....

I used the wrong terminology for the fixer - they call it an anchor....

http://www.pumpland.co.nz/products.php?tc=10

[Avalon]

Moorf

havent used an Anchor before so ill look into that. I have found though that once I get the pH and alkalinity in the right ranges - they tend to stay put quite well anyway (we arent using the spa much at the moment so that may make a diffierence)

My biggest problem at the moment is stabilising chlorine - for which you need cyanuric acid levels to be between 50-100 ppm. Since the algae attack - its been at 0 and despite adding over a kilo of cyanuric acid - it aint getting to where i need it. Which means im using a lot of chlorine. The Spa is fine as I use SpaChlor which already has teh stabiliser in it.

Off to see the pool man again on wednesday for some more advise!

[Smiler]

Thanks Moorf, just got out and am all washer woman wrinkled up. :laugh

Will have a look for those products and a degree in chemistry when I next whizz past the pool shop. Not sure about the rose fragrance though, I'm more a rosemary and lavender girl myself. :D

[denisesykes]

Oh my God, I never realised it was so complicated!
I have contacted Wellington Pool Services and am awaiting a return call so we can get a man in to take us through all we need to know (which appears to be an awful lot!)
I couldn't find any kind of pool shop or servicing up here on the Kapiti Coast though.
Once again thanks heaps for all the info
Denise

[DB]

Oh my God, I never realised it was so complicated!
Its fun, not complicated :)

We've got one of those toy above ground pools, about 10K litres. And a $60 (I think) testkit, which allows one to get pH right by titration, and thus working out from the chart how much acid or alkali to bung in to get the pH right.

Chlorine is harder, it dissapears very quickly, so I just bung a single big pill in a floater in on a (mostly, when I remember) daily basis, and the thing stays algae free, even though the chlorine level most of the time reads as zero. When I forget for a few days the pool goes green, I shock the thing according to the instructions on the big bucket of chlorine pellets, leave it a day, then back to daily pills.

[Simon & Emily]

It may be a bit complicated, but sooooo worth it once you've gone from a cold swimming pool to a wonderfully hot spa. A couple of glasses of wine later, and you never want to get out. (Can you hear the tears from there - we're selling both ours behind in with the house :wah :wah :wah :wah )

Just a thought about the water - and again it may be obvious to you - if you have a lot of people in, you'll need to top up the chemicals more frequently, esp in the spa, which can grow an amazing amount of nasty bugs. We seem to be always adding chlorine to that, especially if there are lots of kids.

I know I've said it before, but the 'Floatron' works wonders in the pool, and it reduces the chemical smell / taste as it turns in virtually into mineral water. No red eye, no green hair, no horible smells on you skin, and best of all, never having to shock it and be unable to go in.

Enjoy the fragrances,

Emily