5/19/22 Pool Is Looking Like A Million Bucks?

     Last year, I was one good deal away from pulling the pool out of the ground and replacing it with a new one.  The main thing that kept me from doing that was the crazy cost of things nowadays.  It turns out that a new pool would at minimum cost us somewhere around $50,000 and the ones I was looking at with hot tubs, and ledges was closer to $100,000.  That sobered me up really quick.  Wife was even pushing me on the idea of just filling it with dirt and making it a putting green.  Not that I am a golfer, but the examples we saw online looked really good with the fake grass.

    I am glad I took the Hail Mary attempt and just went around the pool and patched every stupid little crack, which I honestly just assumed were hairline cracks of the upper surface of gelcoat.  I guess one or two of those cracks were actual cracks that went all the way through and that is where it had been leaking.  Once I covered all those "cracks", I noticed the pool held water, and it did so all through the winter.  It looked so good during the winter that I even went outside and cleaned it a couple of times, so the leaves and debris from the surrounding trees wouldn't make the water turn a dark nasty green like happens every year.

    This week, I decided it was time to get the pool summer ready, so I swept out the big particles, and fired up the pump.  All week, it has been getting cleaner and cleaner, so much so that today I decided it needed a permanent vacuum cleaner to keep it clean.  I went out and bought a Polaris 360, which attaches to the return side of the pump and works by pumping water through 3 small jets into the body of the machine.  This in turn pushes small dirt and debris into a mesh bag to capture it and clean the pool bottom.  It is also running up the walls and agitating the surface, so it is really supposed to help keep the pool clean.  So far, it is doing a decent job.  I have to figure out a way to reduce the pool pressure, since the water is now pumping through the Polaris unit, and it seems like it is moving way too fast.

    There are ways to reduce the pressure, but honestly, as usual, I am always working under pressure.  As soon as I got it going, I needed to go shower, I had been in the pool for about 30 minutes doing the attaching, so I could go pick up Mijo from school.  Upon picking him up, I was thinking I would get back in the water and fidget with it some more, but he volunteered us to go help clean the place where we are having the wrestling banquet tomorrow (writing this a day late, on Friday).  Tomorrow (Saturday), will pretty much get consumed with the party, which we have been waiting for since the wrestling season ended.  Maybe I can get back to adjusting the Polaris unit on Sunday.