Pool Hoses / Fittings Leaking

[ssmith1627]

Guys, any ideas on pool hoses for an above ground pool ? I have constant dripping even without the pump turned on. There are 6 connections altogether and 4 of them are fine but two just want to leak no matter how tight I make the hose clamps.

I had some cheaper, thin-walled black hoses and I thought I was upgraded to a much more substantial hose. There are PVC fittings at the skimmer, the return to the pool and then on the filter and pump. The fittings are threaded on one side and I've used teflon tape there with good results.

Trying to get a pool up and operating. Bought this house a few months ago and inherited a green swamp. I swear wood-working is simpler !

Thanks for any feedback. Searching the net hasn't yielded much information.

Steve

[crokett]

Woodworking is a LOT simpler.

I just started putting water into our pool today. check out troublefreepool.com and the forums there. Lots of great info and they can help you get that swamp all clean and sparkly. They may also have some ideas on how to stop the leaks.

[chopnhack]

I second troublefreepools.com as well. The folks there are mighty informative and friendly! Good recommendation Crokett.

[crokett]

Thanks. They helped me clean up an algae-infested pool last summer.

Steve, the basic process for cleaning up the swamp is get the pH balanced, then get a lot of bleach. Keep the chlorine levels > 30 ppm, keep the pump on 24x7 and change/clean the filter daily. They also recommend vaccuum daily and discharge the water to waste. Of course you have to refill your pool if you vac to waste. I cleaned up my algae infested pool in about a week with this method. You can balance the pH with Borax and muriatic acid, both of which are much cheaper than any chemical the pool place sells. There is more info + chemical calculators over at troublefree pool.

For the leaky fittings, if you can stiffen the walls of your hoses, rubber fernco connectors will work to stop the leaks.

[ssmith1627]

Thanks guys. I just signed up for that website and I'm starting to wade into the water there......pun intended !

Whew, this is like my first few days here all over again......

Thanks again !

Steve

[crokett]

Steve,

One more tip - have your tap water (or wherever you get your pool water from) tested at a pool place for metals in the water. If you are on city water they may/may not be there. If you are on a well, they most certainly are. If there are metals you need a chelating agent added to the pool water, else the metals will react with the chlorine and turn it brown. Most people then think they need more chlorine which makes it browner so they add more.... etc. meanwhile the chlorine is busy reacting with the metal and not doing what it is supposed to be doing, which is killing nasties. So eventually you end up with brown, algae infested water. DAMHIK.

[ssmith1627]

Thanks again. It will be on city water, not well water, but worth looking into. Once I get this hose thing sorted out, my next step is to get the water tested. My brother-in-law recommended that as the easiest way to go saying you can spend a lot of money trying to figure out what to put in the pool. Much easier to let them give me a schedule of what to add when and in what qty.

My worry is something I read about just too many dissolved solids in the water to ever get it cleaned up. Maybe that's just not true or not the case here. But goes back to just getting the water tested so I don't have to guess any more.

No response on the other forum. Was hoping for some feedback. I'll tinker some more tonight and see if I can get my leaks stopped. I don't want to fill the pool to the proper level until that's resolved because if I have to take the hoses off again at that point, water is just going to be pouring out of the skimmer. Best to fix it now while the pool level is just below the skimmer.

Steve

[crokett]

Where are the leaks (ie) what are the hoses connecting to? As I mentioned, if you can figure out a way to stiffen the walls of your hoses I would try rubber ferncos. I've got them in a few places at home and they haven't failed yet.

For the dissolved solids, you can get a clumping agent that will make them clump together and precipiate out of the water. Then either the pool filter will catch them or you can vaccuum the pool.

[ssmith1627]

Some of my questions probably seem very basic and I may be making things harder than they should be. Just how my mind works I guess. I'm new to this one so I have a thousand questions. These books on pools you find in the book stores on pools leave a LOT to be desired. And amazingly I haven't found much on the net. I finally have the right parts and understand how the hose is to be hooked to the skimmer to vaccum. Lots to learn.

Getting some responses on the other forum now too so that should help.

The hose I just bought (25 feet of it) is white flexible PVC. So it's very thich walled already and stiff. I thought that was a much better solution than the very thin walled stuff that was on there -- the old hoses resemble the hoses for my shop vac. The hose clamps just don't seem to tighten enough to give me a good connection there.

Where do you buy fittings for this type of hose ? A pool place ? Online ? Or can I get this kind of thing in the big box stores ?

Thanks for the information on the dissolved solids. That does make me feel like the water can be cleaned up no matter how nasty it's good. That gives me hope. I had seen where you can't drain too much from an a/g pool without the liner shifting or even the structure collapsing because it's the water that holds things in place.

Appreciate the hand holding here. Clearly I need it !

Steve

[crokett]

Steve,

I got my first pool last summer and made plenty of mistakes. The only good thing is it has a vinyl liner so not much you can do to hurt it. A couple tips:

1) there are chemicals to fix just about every water problem and a pool store would love to sell them to you. Most of them you don't need. I straightened my pool out and kept it clear with ordinary bleach. I use Borax and muriatic acid as necessary to tweak pH. The only stuff I buy at the pool place is stabilizer and filter cleaner. The algaecides don't do squat.

2) with a pool, prevention is priceless.

I would look into those ferncos. I have my pool pump intake hooked to the drain (don't ask) and used a piece of thick wall PVC placed inside the thin plastic intake hose to stiffen it for a fernco to make the connection. It works great.

[ssmith1627]

Hey guys.

I went to that hose that I bought online because I thought the hoses that were there were cheap and wouldn't last long. One was already cracked but I had an extra. I just thought I was "upgrading" to a better hose that would last. Since I could never get them to seat quite well enough to get a tight fit, I went back to the black hoses that I started with. They're the corrugated hoses that are similar to shop vac hoses but have a flat area on each end to mate with the fittings. I was able to clamp these down tight and now I have no leaks. Big waste of time with the other, thicker-walled hose. That flexible-PVC hose was bought from a pool supply place online though so it's not like it was completely the wrong application.

These connections all seem tight now. Replaced that on the lid for the strainer basket at the pump so no leaks there. Before I feel like I was getting air into the lines because there were obvious bubbles in the water coming back into the pool. I don't see that now and it's amazing how much more force the water comes out with. Much more pressure there which will be good to circulate the water in the pool better. I just have one return and one skimmer.

I even figured out how to prime the vacuum hose and get it connected last night so that I can vacuum so I'm making progress. I guess I'm just dense. This stuff is hard to figure out on your own ! Got my pool filled to the proper level last night. Going at lunch today to get my water tested and I'll start adding chemicals tonight according to whatever schedule they give me. Wish me luck.

Thanks for listening and for the advice. Half the battle was getting up the motivation to tackle this again after not having much luck the first go round !

Steve

[crokett]

Steve,

Glad you got the leaks fixed.

I highly recommend checking out the BBB method over at troublefree pool. Getting your water tested at the pool place is a good idea but before you buy their chemicals read up on BBB. Using that method I cleared up an algae bloom in my pool last summer after pouring several 10s of dollars of pool store chemicals in it that did squat. I also helped my neighbor clear up his pool which was a lot worse than mine was.

[ssmith1627]

Got your link there. Thanks very much. I'm reading through that right now.

What kind of time frame should I expect ? When you started with this BBB method was it days ? A week ?

I'm just about ready to take a half day off work so I can get started !

I really do appreciate your time. Thanks for walking me through some of this.

Steve

[ssmith1627]

I like how they say this article is for beginners. WHEW ! Lots to absorb.

I have a pool test kit but I think I'll try to upgrade that to one of the ones recommended today. The better results I get from that, the less guesswork will go in to making the corrections.

One challenge I had in reading the test results before for Ph level was when to read it. The immediate result would look fine but there'd be a substantially different result in the color 15 minutes later. That always made me question where I really stood.

Steve

[crokett]

Steve,

Read the immediate level on your tests. The only test I know of (at least according to the instructions on my test kit) that you wait for is CYA (stabilizer) and then it is only a 3-5 minute wait. I suggest taking a water sample, using some of that to test with whatever kit you end up with then take the sample to a pool place and have them test it to make sure you get consistent results. This is how I found out last year that the chlorine reagent in my kit was bad.