Multiport Valve
Pools with a sand filter will have a multiport valve after the pump to change the direction of the flow of water depending on what you're trying to accomplish. This article will help you understand what each mode does.
Vinyl Liner Care
On average, vinyl liners last around 8-10 years. We want to make sure you're doing what you can to take care of your liner to make it last as long as possible. Here are some things to look out for:
Vinyl Liner Issues
Floating: A liner is held down by the weight of the water in the pool. Occasionally like after a big rain or if the water in the pool is lowered the ground water can become heavier than the water in the pool, causing it to "float" or push the liner away from the walls. Its not hurting anything in this state and it will go down once the ground water goes away but it typically won't go back perfectly and you might end up with wrinkles in the liner. The liner is easiest to move while its still floating, so you can take your pool brush and gently try to push the liner back to its corners if you can get the water behind the liner to move. Sunledges and steps can easily shift if you don't keep enough water on top of them. Keep at least 6-12 inches on them at all times.
Easy Touch App: Screen Logic
The automation panels can be ran virtually from your phone when Screen Logic is installed. They don't automatically come with this feature, but it can be installed afterwards. Once installed, there is an antenna inside and outside, along with a protocal adapter box inside connected to your internet router.
Cleaning Cartridge Filters
The cartridges inside your filter need to be cleaned everytime the filter gains 10lbs of pressure. Here are the steps to do that on the Pentair Clean and Clear filter!
Pool & Spa Modes
If you have a combination of a pool and spa, your automation panel will be programmed to isolate each body of water.
Light Controls
Turning the lights on is very easy once they are programmed. Easy touch has the auxiliary buttons up top that control the lights and intellicenter shows them on the home screen. If you want to change the color of them and you have Easy Touch, there is a lights menu. Under "colors" you can choose a singular color you want them to be or under "modes" you can choose from one of the preset light displays. They will default back to this selection each time until you chose another one.
Fixing an Air Leak
If your pump won't prime or it only primes halfway up the pump pot, there is an air leak somewhere on the suction side. That just means the pump is able to pull air from somewhere and its competiting with the water thats trying to be pulled. When this happens you'll see bubbles inside the pump lid or coming out of the return jets. There are a couple different places that you can look to fix the leak.
Emptying A Pump Basket
Emptying a pump basket is a little bit trickier than a skimmer basket but once you know the steps it will be second nature!
Winter Cover Care
When the pool is closed down for the season there are still somethings you want to keep an eye on when it comes to automatic covers. Just like in the summer you want to maintain a normal operating level of water. Low water level can pull on the cover stretching it out as well as putting strain on the cover tracks and coping.
Auto Cover Operation
Water level is the most important thing when it comes to automatic covers. The water in the pool supports the weight of the cover and reduces the strain when opening and closing it. If the water level is below the skimmers you're putting a lot of pressure on the track, ropes, and motor, which can cause the cover to not operate correctly. Just as important as the water below is the water on top of the cover. Anytime your cover is closed you should have a cover pump laying on top. If too much water collects on top of the cover it pulls the cover down once again adding strain to the track, ropes, and motor. Too much water on top of the cover or not enough underneath can both cause the cover not to open.
Automation Modes
The automation panels can be put in different modes depending on what you are trying to accomplish. We'll talk about the difference between the 3 in this article:
Weekly Maintenance
Once the pool is up and running there are a few things you should do weekly in order to properly maintain it:
How to Turn Your Heater On
If you heater isn't connected to any sort of automation, you'll always control it from the unit itself. Click the on button, and then adjust the temperature to where you want. If the water temperautre is below the set temp the heater should kick on.
Understand Your System
As a pool owner you should understand each piece of equipment on your pad and how water flows through them. When you know what each one does you can better troubleshoot any issues and protect your equipment from damage.
Taking Care of Your Heater
The heater is usually one of the most expensive pieces of equipment on your pad, so you'll want to make sure you're doing everything you can to take care of it. Water chemisty is very important with heaters. The heat exchanger on the inside is made of copper and is suseptible to corrosion when the chemistry is off. Low pH is very acidic and can eat through that exchanger causing it to leak. If this happens you'll have to replace the entire exchanger and thats about 90% of the cost of a new heater. Therefore, make sure pH always stays within 7.4-7.8. Its best to bring a water sample in to have us test it to make sure all the levels are balanced.
How to Test the Salt Cell
Sometimes there are instances where it seems like the salt cell is not producing chlroine. If all the appropriate lights are solid green on the salt cell and your chlorine is constantly 0, it might not be working properly. One thing you should check first is your Cya level. Cya is like sunscreen for chlorine so if the level is too low, your chlorine will get eaten up by the sun very quickly. If thats in check, here are some ways to test the cell.
Salt Water Chemistry
Salt water pools are very similar to chlorine pools and usually less maintanence to take care of. The chemistry of the water does have some tendancies that are important to watch out for and can easily go unoticed.
How to Clean A Salt Cell
Sometimes salt cells will get calcium built up on the blades inside and cause the cell not to work. If the cell light is flashing green it might need to be cleaned. Here is how!
Operating the Salt Cell
Salt cells are pretty straight forward on operation. The bottom row shows your "sanitizer output" which is how often the cell is running and producing chlorine. If you have 2 solid lights you are running the cell 40% of the time or 2 out of every 5 minutes. If you have two blinking lights, it means you're running it at a single digit output or 4% in this case. The higher the percentage the more chlorine it will produce. You can adjust the output by pressing the more/less buttons on the bottom. Pressing and holding the more and less buttons will turn on boost mode for 24 hours where it runs at 100% for a day. The lights will scroll continuously in this mode.
Salt Chlorine Generator 101
The salt cell uses a process known as electrolysis to produce chlorine. Its important to take note of what lights are lit up on the cell to know if its working or not. Every couple hours the cell will go through a process to test the water temperature, flow rate, and salt level. The lights will flash green/red and then settle once the test is over. The salt, flow and cell lights all need to be solid green to be producing chlorine. If they aren't solid green, the cell will give an explanation of what is wrong.
Pool Opening Steps
1. Remove all the winterizing parts. Take off the cover and remove the plugs from the skimmers and returns.
Water Leaking out the Backwash Line
Sometimes you will have your multiport set in 'filter' and it will still be leaking water out of the bakwash. When this happens, something inside the multiport isn't fully sealing. There is a spider gasket underneath the keystem (handled portion of the multiport), that usually needs to be replaced. If it gets moved or crimped it won't seal and it will leak. Turn off the pump, unscrew the keystem and you'll see the spider gasket. Sometimes they are glued in and you'll need to scrape out the old one with a flat blade screw driver or something similar. When installing the new gasket the flat side goes DOWN and the ribbed side goes UP. You can apply a couple drops of adhesive to the bottom of the gasket as well to help it stay in place. Don't overdo it with glue though! If the spider gasket doesn't do the trick we also need to look at the keystem. Look at the tension in the spring. If the handle doesn't bounce back after pressing it down, the spring probably needs to be replaced in order…
Pump Won't Come On?
When you turn a pump on and it doesn't do anything it could mean a couple different things...