firefighterjake:
I’m personally getting a kick out of reading a thread about swimming pools when I’m looking outside at close to 3 feet of snow on the ground still. . . .
I kind of agree, I'm certainly not planning on swimming any time soon! But this is something I have to fix one way or another before we open the pool, so I have to think about it now, not wait until opening season...
Ugly
I use an old swimming pool filter I bought at an auction to clean sugar beet juice prior to putting it in a dairy tank for fermentation. I replaced the mesh screen with stainless steel mesh and attached it to the support frame on BOTH sides using JB weld. Two years later and it’s still working and at a lot higher pressure than they are designed for. I bought the stainless dutch weave at Mcmaster Carr.
Ultrafine-Filtering Type 304 Stainless Steel Dutch-Weave Wire Cloth
I’m one of those guys who always tries to make it better than it was when I got it if I have to take it apart. Hope that gives you an idea.
It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it would work in a pool environment - The chlorine in a pool is really nasty to pool parts, and they are VERY fussy about what you can use in contact w/ pool water - I think I can count on one hand the number of metal parts in our entire pool system, and they are among the higher replacement frequency items... Not only is direct corrosion an issue, but they also worry about even minute trace amonts of metal serving to feed algae and so forth... Stainless might work, but I'd be real worried about the JB Weld... Perhaps some other form of adhesive, or maybe sewing?
tenax
here’s one of my 2 favorites..they helped me a lot when i was doing a bunch of renovations and upgrades to my pool.
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/index.php
Thanks - haven't registered there yet, but they do look good from just the list of forum areas...
CTwoodburner:
Sounds like you are doing things pretty well aside from this issue. I am still waiting for a response on grid material and ideas from a my buddy.
Sounds like the pressure is good when clean and chlorine is in check. I do like the auto chlorinators hayward makes. Just drill a hole in the pump discharge piping for the water feed and drill one in the return line after the filter for the chlorine to flow and hook it up - pretty simple. They do need some annual maintenance though - orings/gaskets, tubing and all in that chlorine get beat up.
That Meyco cover - mesh I assume? We only installed loop-locs. either way the covers sag if leaves pile up and you do get all the blowing dust and pollen in the pool that gives that tea like quality in the spring. I always recommend throwing in 5 gallons of CL in there in April/May prior to opening it up to help keep it cleaner for opening.
I wonder if you could just sew some patches on them with fishing line when they rip/get holes?? You could use new material or some of the old??
Yes, the Meyco covers are mesh. Not neccesarily a bad thing, as it means that even though I had to pump the pool down about 2 feet to close it, by the time spring opening rolls around, we are usually topped up between the rain and snow melt... Our cover mostly does a good job of keeping the crud off, as advertised, the leaves blow off pretty well when it's dry. They generally don't start to build up until we get some rain that cakes them down, and then the weight of the wet leaves pushes the cover into the water and keeps them from drying and blowing away... Putting the air pillows in the pool helps, but doesn't completely cure the problem, especially since they often leak or break...
I've thought about patching the filter fabric, but have been hesitant as taking apart a DE filter mid season is a REAL PITA... I don't want to go back in if the patch doesn't work... I've also noticed that once the grid gets a hole in it, it seems to "run" like a sock, and generally be pretty fragile - I don't know that a patch would hold.
At any rate, thanks for the suggestions, I will probably also try asking over on that forum that Tenax pointed me at...
Gooserider