New Opening

[BurnoutScott]

I am so glad I found these forums. I recently lost my parents and have now gained a new house (with a pool) from them. Now, I don't know the first thing about opening up the pool. I got the cover off and used the net thing to get most of the floating green stuff off the surface of the water.

This is an inground pool, by the way.

Anyway, I *think* I primed the pump but I am going to try again. What I do notice is my guage going all the way to 45psi when I backwash, recirculate, and filter. This thing scares me going that high.

The pump and filter was installed in 2003, used rather well in 2004, not used at all during 05.

Should I be so worried about that 45psi?

And where do I go from here? The water looks black as night and I don't know the first thing about what chemicals to buy and how to use them.

[Pool Help]

The pressure you mention is dangerous. Check that all the valves are open and that there are no winterizing plugs left in the return lines.

I recommend you drain the pool and give it a thorough cleaning before refilling. There may be things going on that would be easier to "fix" when the pool is empty (stains, surface issues).

You should also clean/check the filter. What kind of filter have you got?

The more info you can supply, the easier it will be to guide you.

[BurnoutScott]

No winterizing was done from what I can tell.

I've checked and cleaned the filter, again, from what I can tell.

It's a vynil, in ground pool. Hayward super pump and sand filter.

Let's see, what else....there's a glass bottle looking thing sticking out of the pump that water seems to cycle through. It's got something built up in there. I attempted to remove it, but it made a strange sucking noise so I tightened it back in.

What else would you like to know?

[Pool Help]

The problem may be the sand filter. If you are in a hard water area, or the pool was regularly dosed with chlorine shocks, the calcium levels may have been high. In conjuction with (a possible) high pH, the sand in your filter may have scaled up to form a big lump of "rock" which is not allowing the water to pass through.

Close all the valves, open the filter lid. I think that the filter lid is what you meant by "a glass bottle looking thing sticking out of the pump that water seems to cycle through". Opening it will release some water initially, but this stops very quickly so don't be alarmed.

Dig your hand down into the sand to feel for any clumping. If the sand is real mucky or has lumps, get some filter sand cleaner and use it according to the directions. It will bubble and froth as it dissolves the gunk and scale.

This seems to be the most likely problem. If not, post back here and we'll work through other possibilities one by one.

[BurnoutScott]

Well, some new revelations today.

But first, your response:

The glass thing I mention sits just behind the pressure gauge.

And the new thing I discovered is the gauge itself. I forgot to mention the other day that before I started the pump, the guage was resting at 20psi.

This afternoon, while off, the needle sits at 30psi. I am thinking I may have a bad gauge....or is it not supposed to rest at 0 while off?