Draining pool for the first time--need answer fast!

Factual Questions
1

When I bought this house last August, my boyfriend requested that we drain the pool for summer 2010 as the pool is now 7 years old and has never been fully drained. I agreed and the months went by with little thought given to the inevitable task.

Fast forward to this week and we discover that the hose attached to the pump we’ll be renting from Home Depot to drain the pool is HUGE (in diameter) and is meant to be placed in a ground clean-out which most people have somewhere in their backyard.

After many phone calls to the city, we’ve located the sewer line and checked everywhere from the house to the alley–no clean-out.

There IS a wall clean-out, but the opening is too small for the ginormous Home Depot pump hose and everything I’ve read online cautions against using this clean-out as the chance of backing up water into the house is too great.

At this point, boyfriend is prepared to REMOVE OUR TOILET and pipe the water down the toilet hole. I am, as you might imagine, not thrilled with this prospect. In fairness, we need to re-seal that particular toilet anyway, so the fact that we’re moving it isn’t a HUGE deal, but everything about this idea spells OMGDROWNINGINOUROWNEXCREMENT to me.

My recommendation is that we water the the trees (4 large) in the front and backyard as much as possible (we do not have any grass) and the put the rest down the closest manhole and cross our fingers that we don’t get arrested and/or drawn and quartered for our misdeed.

The city says not to drain into the manhole, into the alley, or into storm drains. This really doesn’t leave us many options short of shelling out 800 dollars that we don’t really have to have a plumber install a ground clean-out somewhere.

So let’s hear it, do you think this toilet hole idea is a wise one or is one of us going to be lucky to make it through this weekend alive?

If it matters, the pool is probably around 10-11k gallons (It’s a play pool) and is currently full.

2

Why?
7 years is not old, and unless you are having serious problems such as a leak or balancing the Ph, chlorine, etc… there isn’t really any reason to drain it.

Is it an inground pool? If so, depending on the climate, I would recommend not draining it completely, especially at this time of year.

3

Also, do not drain the pool to your yard anywhere near the pool!

4

I have to echo the quesion, why do you need to drain a pool? Mine is a lot older than 7 years and its never been drained and probably will not be.

5

Well, we were told that it should be drained every 5 years. Is that not so? Hmm. It IS awful dusty in there. We have automatic pop up cleaners as well as a manual broom but the water still seems a bit murky.

The pool people insist there’s no algae but the particulate count is a bit high.

6

What reason did they give you to drain the pool? I’m not sure where they would get the 5 years from. The water, as a whole, does not need to be replaced because it is gradually replaced over time through splash/cast off, evaporation, backwashing, etc… You should be draining and topping up your pool at a rate of 20Lper swimmer per day.
What climate are you in? Do you have a concrete, tile, or vinyl liner?

Are they talking about turbidity? If your “particulate count” is high, I would be looking at your filter first. Are you sure your pump, skimmers, vacuum and drains are functioning?
Are there trees, bushes, dirt, or sand that is being blown into the pool? How often have you been vacuuming and backwashing? What type of filter do you have? Have you cleaned your skimmer baskets and hair lint trap?

Otherwise you may have sedimentation from the water itself.
What are your Total Chlorine, Combined Chlorine, and Free Available Chlorine readings? You may need to “shock” or superchlorinate. Or you may have caused one unknowingly which would cause sediment.
Ph and Total Alkalinity? High Alkalinity will cause the water to be cloudy.
What was your Calcium Hardness reading? If the water you fill the pool with is “hard” (high in calcium and other minerals) this will also cause precipitate. In my experience, this is the only reason to drain a pool since the only way to lower calcium hardness is to dilute with “soft” water.

7

The pool is pebble-tec… I’m not sure at what rate it fills, but since I’m in Phoenix, it probably fills quite a bit in order to maintain the level with all of the evap that the Arizona Sun provides.

Perhaps we need a vacuum. Right now we have automatic pop up cleaners, a cartridge filter, three filter baskets (Well, a skimmer basket, the basket next to the filter/pump and one on the other side of the pool which no one else we know has… maybe it’s related to the automatic pop ups?)

Off the top of my head, I do not know this information. Last time we took the water in for testing, the pH was good, but the chlorine was low (our bad, didn’t realize you needed to keep multiple chlorine tabs in the float). On the advice of the pool supply store, we shocked the pool and now keep 2-3 chlorine tabs in the float.

Actually, this may have something to do with why they recommended we drain the pool. We do have a water softener for the water inside of the house, but I don’t believe this has an effect on the outdoor spigots. Phoenix is notorious for having terribly hard water. :confused:

8

The local pool store told me last year to drain my pool because the Total Alkalinity was too high. So I drained the pool and filled it back up, and the tap water’s Total Alkalinity was still too high. Another pool store just told me to add acid every day until the alkalinity started to drop. It took about 1/2 gallon a day of HCl for 2 weeks before the pH test went from magenta to peach.

So if that’s why you’re draining your pool, make sure to get a second opinion first.

Oh, and I didn’t put any thought into where to pump the water. My backwash goes to the curb. I hope I’m not breaking any laws by backwashing.

9

We’ve had a pool for 27 years and have never drained it. For $5. or $10. you can pick up a package of test strips at Walmart. Check your readings for chlorine, Ph and alkalinity. The chemicals to bring your pool water into proper balance are not very expensive.

Once you have the water in balance, add some clarifier. It takes the microscopic particles of grit, algae, etc and binds them together and helps them sink to the bottom of the pool so you can vacuum them out. Find out how your filter works - there are several different types. Mine requires manual backwashing periodically. YMMV.

Once your pool is clean and in balance it should only take about an hour a week to keep it clean.

10

Most municipalities do not allow draining your pool in to the storm sewer systems as it introduces alot of chemicals and/or contaminants into wherever they drain into, usually rivers, lakes, etc. as it is supposed to be rain water run-off.
Draining into your septic is accepted, I believe. It’s risky though, the amount of water might back up the system.

You should never drain it completely unless there are repairs to be made to the liner, tile, etc…
More importantly, do not drain to the area immediately surrounding your pool or in any season where the ground is saturated with water unless you want a raised deck!:smiley:

11

Hello Mr. malkavia,

I am a bit late here but still want to contribute something. As you can see above, all the members are suggesting you not to drain the pool because it is really not necessary. Check the alkalinity, algae or any other damaging and harmful stuff in the pool. You can get rid of these stains/stuffs by following the appropriate procedure but you don’t need to drain it at all. You must have done your exercise because its been a long time you posted this question. Please update us here about your activities.
Thanks

“Going High”

12

Even later, the pool my mother has hasn’t been drained in at least ten years. No need.

Take a sample of your water to a competent pool store and have it analyzed.
The store should have an expert to give you recommendations of what to do to get that crystal clear water everyone wants. If they don’t have an individual to do that you aren’t at the right place.

As stated above you need some type of vacuum or pool sweep to get that “stuff” at the bottom. The pool store might be able to give recommendations on that too.

Keep your filters clean and your ph balanced.

13

Sorry to bring this up again but folks here are giving really bad advice about not draining a pool. I serviced pools for 10 years in Arizona pool Capital of the world, and I have never seen a pool go for more then 5 years without needing draining. The problem is your Cyanuric Acid will continue to rise there is no way to lower it. This is the stuff you put in when you first fill a pool it stabilizes the water you only add recommended amount. This happens faster in pools that have cartridge filters because no back washing is done. You have to watch out in areas with high water tables if you live in those areas your pool can pop out of the ground because weight if the water keeps the pool in the ground. Always consult a pool service company if you don’t know what your doing. You can damage your pool surface if you let chemical get too far out of limits costing 1000’s. If you take your water in to get tested they should test chlorine, PH, alkalinity, and Cyanuric Acid. They also should test hardness once in awhile. If your not getting tested for that go somewhere else.

14

I’m sorry but you are wrong, cyanuric acid is easily lowered by dilution.
If you are following the proper make-up water procedure (approx. 20L per swimmer per day plus any water lost by cast off or evaporation) any build-up should be controlled.

15

IMHO There’s no reason to drain your pool unless you need to do repairs. The pool water gets refreshed through evaporation over time and other natural processes. Our pool is about 25 years old and as far as I know has never been drained, even when the water was full of algae and other contaminants. The key (I’m told by pool guys) is to keep the water chemically balanced (i.e. alkalinity, chlorination, ph, hardness) and clean through the filtration process and vacuuming. I considered draining my pool as well when I bought my house and this is what I came up with. But I’m just a pool owner, not an expert.

16

Have any of you heard of using salts rather than chemicals? ie: alkaline pools

17

About 1990 we bought a used round 25,000 gallon above ground pool with a center drain which the previous owner had installed. I connected the central drain to the pool pump so about half the water came from that drain and half from the surface skimmer. I usually cleaned the pool with an ordinary broom pushing the debris into the central drain = much less work then using a pool vacuum. I then back washed the sand filter onto the lawn. It likely took a whole year to replace the amount of water in the pool, but there was no need to drain the pool. I did care for a an in ground pool for about a year, and concluded that extra work with an ordinary broom substituted for a lot of chemicals. In each case we used tricolor which does add slightly to the cyanuric acid. When the ph was low, I used Clorox bleach or equivalent pool chorine, as the sanitizer, so I rarely needed to do ph correction other than changing sanitizers.

18

Thought I would address a few comments on here in while this thread is near the top.

  1. You should NEVER trust a pool store’s recommendations. They are in the business to sell chemicals, not give good advice. Pool stores are notorious for getting both the tests and recommendations wrong.

  2. Never trust the chemical test strips. These too are notoriously inaccurate. Invest in a good test kit, especially one that will test for the CYA levels and include a FAS-DPD test for FC, CC, and TC levels.

  3. A properly maintained pool will never need draining. Period. Draining should only happen when you need to do repairs, lower calcium or CYA, or if it is a very small pool that has turned into a swamp.

  4. A clear pool can have algae and be on the verge of an algae bloom.

19

You don’t need to drain the pool, because it’s not too much old…

20

Well it’s 4 years older now.