Questions for those who have an in-ground pool

[RoxMonster]

My parents just bought a house in our city (well their offer was accepted but they officially close later this month) and it has a beautiful in-ground pool. It was NOT something my mom wanted but the market is so competitive and the house is gorgeous, so she is going ahead with it even though she isn't thrilled with the pool upkeep lol. We told her we are happy to help out with the pool upkeep especially since we definitely will be making use of the pool.

She knows she wants to hire a company to open and close it each season. We live in the midwest so the season is pretty much only May-Sept. But she'd like to try and do the chemicals ourselves. I'm thinking to start we may want to bring samples in to a pool place until we figure it out ourselves? Is it pretty easy to learn to do the chemicals correctly or do you mostly use a company? How did you learn to do the chemicals on your own? The local pool place says they don't give lessons (which makes sense as it's business for them lol). Are there reputable YouTube videos on this? 

The owners are leaving their pool cleaning robot/vacuum thing. Besides running that, figuring out the chemicals and the open/close each season, are there other pool tasks you have to do? None of us know anything about maintaining pools.

[dale]

The best thing we ever did was convert to salt water. The initial outlay was a little pricy, but has saved us soooooo much in chemicals and cleaning. We have a guy who does our opening and closing for $400 each. I only needed to replenish the salt twice this year. I vacuum a couple of times a week because we get a ton of crickets and laternflies who can't swim very well.

[dexteroni]

I would hire a company to do the chemicals for the first year. I know they said they don’t give lessons, but whichever pool tech comes out each time may give you a little info if you chat about your pool. We don’t have a pool, but we have our lawn treated in the summer, and they always give us a little summary after each treatment. So you may learn from that too. Like ok this time we added X ounces of chlorine, or you have algae so we’re treating it with product Z, etc. And they’ll probably make recommendations of how often to do certain treatments and procedures. That would give you at least some basis to go on. Good luck! I would love to have a pool.

[mokes]

What kind of pool is it? Salt water, chlorine? Also what material —does it have a vinyl liner? Concrete/gunite? Some things will be different depending.

I don’t find the chemicals to be too difficult. They’ll get a test kit and test the water and it will tell them what’s too low or too high and then they’ll adjust the water per the package directions for the size of the pool. So if pH is too high, they can use pH down to lower it.

The pool place can definitely test the water and tell you what it needs, though in my opinion they go to the extreme and recommend a lot of chemicals. (It’s a computerized system so I’m guessing similar at most places.) They might consider hiring an independent pool guy who will teach them how to maintain the system. My husband handles the actual mechanical maintenance of the filter.

We have the robot vac that runs automatically and then I have a small battery vac I use for spot cleaning, stairs, benches, etc.

When you write it all out it sounds overwhelming but I probably spend an average of 10-15 minutes a day. Most days I’m just testing the water balance and emptying the skimmers.

[cville]

I have a saltwater pebbletec pool and a robotic vacuum (love you Dolphin!). When I did my own chemicals, it was like use dip straps to test the water and confirm it's ok when we were going to use it, bag of salt a few times/year, sometimes a little muriatic acid. I'd just take a sample of the water to the pool store and they'd help.

We've had to replace one pump for ~$150 and are replacing the salt cell this year for ~$800. That's literally it beyond routine costs in 15 years.

I'm in charge of pool stuff. We got a pool service when I was pregnant with my son and vomiting regularly. And, oops, I just never canceled it. They come e/o week and handle all the chemicals now. It's obviously more expensive than doing it ourselves, but we don't open/close the pool and there are numerous giant trees that drop leaves year round so I say it's worth it.

[RoxMonster]

Sept 8, 2024 11:49:45 GMT -5 mokes said:

What kind of pool is it? Salt water, chlorine? Also what material —does it have a vinyl liner? Concrete/gunite? Some things will be different depending.

It’s definitely chlorine. But I’m unsure of the material. They have the home inspection tomorrow, so we might be able to ascertain then (or if not, then when they have the separate pool inspection for sure). That’s good to know too that the test kits make it pretty straightforward!

[RoxMonster]

For those who have salt water pools, what’s involved with getting it switched from chlorine to salt? Maybe this is a silly question. Is it literally just draining what’s in the pool now and refilling with salt water?

[dale]

Sept 8, 2024 12:39:28 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who have salt water pools, what’s involved with getting it switched from chlorine to salt? Maybe this is a silly question. Is it literally just draining what’s in the pool now and refilling with salt water?

They don't drain it.  They change something out on the pump and add in what my guy calls the computer. It's a box with a digital display of the salt level and has a knob so you can increase or decrease the chlorine output. We did the change when they came to open our pool for the year so instead of adding chlorine they brought bags of salt instead.

[cville]

Sept 8, 2024 12:39:28 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who have salt water pools, what’s involved with getting it switched from chlorine to salt? Maybe this is a silly question. Is it literally just draining what’s in the pool now and refilling with salt water?

Mine was built that way. But you need a different pump system with a salt cell, it's not changing the water. You don't need to drain and refill to convert.

Saltwater pools do have chlorine. That's what the salt cell does, convert salt to chlorine. But the chlorine levels are much lower, the water is softer on your skin, and the salt also helps keep it "cleaner."

[mokes]

Sept 8, 2024 13:11:59 GMT -5 cville said:

Sept 8, 2024 12:39:28 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

For those who have salt water pools, what’s involved with getting it switched from chlorine to salt? Maybe this is a silly question. Is it literally just draining what’s in the pool now and refilling with salt water?

Mine was built that way. But you need a different pump system with a salt cell, it's not changing the water. You don't need to drain and refill to convert.

Saltwater pools do have chlorine. That's what the salt cell does, convert salt to chlorine. But the chlorine levels are much lower, the water is softer on your skin, and the salt also helps keep it "cleaner."

This!

[origami]

if she lives near a pool store that tests the water it's super easy to maintain. the store near me does free water tests and prints out a list of chemicals/amounts needed when something's out of whack. But if I'm good at keeping up the chlorine it doesn't get far out of whack to begin with. Some of the chain stores (eg Leslie's pool supplies) lets you rent their little water tester machine (you pay but you get store credit for chemicals) so you don't even have to go to the store for your tests if you don't want to. I tried DIY testing in the past and found it hard to get right. In-store testing is probably overkill but I feel better about it. We get rainy weeks and big temp fluctuations so it's slightly harder to maintain in this area than in warmer/consistent climates

ETA: mine's not salt water
ETA2: I always have a company open/close everything. I'm not dealing with the cover and getting water out of pipes, etc. I only do the robot vaccum cleaning & put in chemicals during the season

[Deleted]

We had a saltwater pool, and it was super-easy.

However, there are apps that are a huge help, also for chlorine pools! We used the Clorox system. You buy the test strips, take a photo of the test strip through the app, and it analyzes the colors to tell you your levels. Then it tells you which products you need, and if you enter the dimensions of your pool it will tell you how much of each product you need to correct whatever problems there are. You can even order products straight from the app (though we never tried this).

[mae0111]

We have had a home with a pool for 11 years. We do/have done most things ourselves, but we started paying a company to open an close a few years ago. The cover was just too heavy for DH and I to manage ourselves.

We had a company do the chemicals one year, and it was a complete waste of money, IMO. DH now has a chlorine monitor in the pool that he can read from his phone, and added a chlorinator as well. We converted to salt last year and that's saved us a ton on chemicals.

To get the balance right, we always go to a local mom and pop pool store. They're amazing! They test the water sample and tell you exactly what to do and when.

The pool robot is great for sure - it's nice to throw it in overnight and let it go. Ours stinks (Aquabot - the previous owners left us one that broke all the time, and DH got really good at fixing it, so when it finally died he got another and it's been a pile of garbage and now Aquabot is out of business so we can't get parts anymore), but a good one is fantastic!

We have a DE filter that requires a full take apart and clean a couple times a year, so it would be great to find someone to do that part for you. DH just replaced all of the fins in it. We have a second pool at our beach house with a sand filter, and that one seems to be a little easier to maintain.

[georgeglass]

Yes to saltwater (a million times, yes) and Yes to Dolphin robot vacuum (a million times, yes). Those two things made it so manageable for us.

Saltwater conversion was way easier than I thought - we didn't need a new pump and now we have to test and deal with chemicals 1% as much as before.

[sparty04]

The chemicals are not difficult. If a pool store will test your water, they will tell you how much you need of whatever chemical you need and if there's anything special to do with it. DH and I worked at a pool store through high school and college so we are pretty well versed in pool care but we do hire a company to close it. DH opens it himself but it's just taking the cover off/balancing the water and hooking everything back up. The Bioguard website probably has pool care tips and you might even find a pool store that offers a pool care class at the beginning of the season

[jwright]

We pay $275 a month for a service that does weekly cleaning and chemical service. It’s also nice that they are “on call” if we have a question or larger issue. Our company is certified in repairs for our brand of pool equipment.

[RoxMonster]

This is all great info! Thanks so much for the tips. By the time they close, the season will be over and the pool will be closed for the year so we have some time before we have to start with the upkeep. I think taking samples to a store is definitely what we’ll do to start off. I’ll also mention to my mom the possibility of converting to saltwater.