Am I the only one??

[DreamlandW]

So I have been struggling with my in-ground pool for years. I never owned a pool growing up and this has been a learning cube for me. I still don’t know how to answer all those numbers questions you guys always ask. Right now I know my Ph is good and my chlorine is good. That’s it.

So we have a funky system. The previous owners had trouble with the plumbing and now we have an above ground return pipe on the deck to get the filtered water back into the pool. I don’t know if this is the main cause of all my frustrations but I have the hardest time vacuuming the pool. I cannot clean the entire thing with out losing suction once or twice and having to stop and redo the whole set up. I also feel like the vacuum does not pick up well with a head attached to it- so I vacuum with just the tube taped to the skimmer pole. If I could vacuum this way I would not complain- it’s that plus losing suction that makes this a hateful frustrating task.

So! This brings me to my newest frustration. My husband just bought me a Dolphin robotic pool cleaner to try and ease my frustrations. Great reviews on amazon. Everyone loves it. Me? Not so much. In my opinion I’ve watch it bounce around the pool and miss debris on the ground, while also stirring up some of the dead algae and making the pool cloudy. If I was vacuuming by hand I would go carefully over the piles and suck them up- the robot just churns it. The filter has been on for more than 4 days at least 12 hours and the vacuum has been dropped into the pool for a 2 hour cycle at least 10 times but I feel like we are in a redundant cycle of the particles setting and then getting churned up by the vacuum and then settles again and so on.

So where am I going wrong? How am I the only person on the internet unimpressed by this robotic vacuum? I can’t help but feel like I could do a better job myself- albeit go insane doing it.

Ok. Manifesto over- what do you all think?

[Denniswiseman]

Robot cleaners are OK to leave and work but you an do a quicker job manually
A vacuum losing suction is because of a suction side air leak
When you vacuum do you notice the pump basket with air in it
The No 1 cause of the air leak is the pump basket lid "O" ring or the pump inlet union, check and lubricate with silicon grease
You really need to get yourself a decent FAS/DPD test kit (Taylor K2006c or TF Testkits TF100 in the states) to get accurate results as maintaining an appropiate shock level means testing quite often during the day
They fully explain how to get the correct numbers
Use these common products to balance your pool
Liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite or plain bleach)
Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to lower pH and TA
Bicarbonate of soda to raise TA
Aeration will raise pH only
Soda ash will raise pH and TA