Options / Decision Points
When building a pool, there are naturally a lot of decisions that need to be
made concerning various aspects of the maintenance, aesthetics, equipment,
etc. I'll try to cover the thought process of some of the bigger decisions
that had to be made:
- Filtration System - Sand vs. DE vs.
Cartridge: The first pool builder that I talked to was a huge
cartridge fan. The first thing the salesperson tried to do when I
walked into their showroom was to sell me on the virtues of the cartridge
filtration system. He showed me charts about how much better they are
at filtering out smaller particles over sand and how close
they are to almost matching the cleaning powers of DE. He then showed
me articles about how inhaling DE was a health hazzard and how I didn't want
to be messing stuff that can get lodged in your lungs. I told him that I'm not big into spending
a lot of time on maintenance and wanted something that I didn't have to futz
around with a lot on the weekends. He immediately mentioned how little
maintenance it was (e.g. spray it off every couple of months, no backwashing
ever) and how it much better it filters water than sand. After about a
half hour spiel, I was sold on the cartridge systems. Months had gone
by and I was still convinced I wanted to go with a cartridge system until I started
reading postings in poolforum.com. DE filters, while they were hands down the best for water quality, still seemed to
require the most maintenance time. People seemed to be forever messing with their
filters, changing stuff out, backwashing, breathing the stuff in.
Since low-maintenance was a key issue for me, I knew DE wasn't for me.
As far as Cartridge systems, I found that while it was true there was
no backwashing involved, there seemed to be a lot of people who had huge
problems trying to get the cartridges clean without tearing the
filter. Some spent upwards of an hour trying to get it clean enough to
be able to put it back into the housing. My mind immediately went back to
an experience I had with the A/C filters for our house ...
Since time began, we've
always went
with those cheap-o 0.99 cents A/C filters from Home Depot. One day I saw
this new fangled A/C filter for $30 that stated that it would forever
eliminate the need to buy any more filters. It was one of those 3M
plastic frame deals with special grilles that had a multi-layer micro-fiber
core that would eliminate microscopic allergens, reduce maintenance, solve world hunger,
etc. It said that every few months all I had to do was spray it off, let
it dry, then pop it back in. I ended up buying one. After about
a year, I had enough. Even though it was every few months, it was such a pain having to take it out to
back, remove the grills, spray it off, then notice that it wasn't quite
clean, then doing it over and over until I had spent close to hour trying to
get the darn thing clean. Then I had to dry it off before bringing it back in. The
maintenance was driving me crazy. After dumping it in favor of the 0.99 Home Depot
specials once again, I came to a
realization that Simple is often times better than New and Improved. Initially,
the idea of having to clean the cartridge filters every few months over
backwashing weekly had huge appeal to me. I'm not a maintenance kind
of a guy. My wife will be the first to tell you that. But after
reading about people's negative experiences, I pictured myself sitting
in the backyard, spraying the snot out of these cartridge filters, then
tearing it in my impatience, then having to spend a hundred bucks or so
getting it replaced. Moreover, I started to talk to people with Sand
filters. I asked them what is really involved with backwashing:
I wanted to know how hard it really was.
Their response was somewhat of a surprise to
me. Very few of them said they actually backwashed weekly. It
was like twice a month, depending on how heavy pool usage is. Then
they said that backwashing was nothing more than flipping a valve and
turning on the water for a couple of minutes. Thats
it? You mean you don't have to scrub anything or change
out anything weekly? Nope. Some said they considered
bringing out a newspaper to read while doing it but changed their mind
because it would probably be done before they finished the first
article. "Yeah, but what about the water quality? I
heard that cartridge systems filter out twice as fine particles as
sand." People started to tell me that its all relative.
It may be true that they are better, but if sand already produces crystal
clear water in the first place, what's the real advantage? I read of
how some people could read a date off a coin in 8ft of water filtered by
sand using a scope. Wow. One pool maintenance guy put it all in
perspective for me. He said that about the only time he can notice a
difference is at night when you look at the water through the pool
light. You will tend to see more fine-grained particles floating in the
water with a sand filter vs. a cartridge filter or DE. That's it?
Only noticeable under that condition? That was it for me. I had
converted from cartridge to sand.
Cleaning System - In-Floor
System vs. Pool Vac - Because I was expecting to save thousands by
GC'ing this pool myself, I figured that I could afford to spend more on
better quality components on the pool. I had found out about in-floor
cleaners from friends who had their pools done with them and they absolutely
loved it. The in-floor systems basically comprise of a series of
nozzles that pop-up in different zones of the pool and propel water in a
sweeping, 360 degree circular motion parallel to the pool floor. Other
"directional nozzles" which remain in a fixed position then pop-up
and influence the movement of dirt and debris (being blown around by the
other nozzles) toward an active main drain that sucks it all up. The
basic idea is that it "pushes" debris towards the drain, while the
standard pool vac is like a little underwater vaccum cleaner that walks the
pool and "pulls" or sucks debris into it. The in-ground
nozzles can be installed on benches, love seats, steps, spas so most
everything is kept clean. The difference between the two systems as I
started getting quotes back from the plumbing subs was approximately
$2000. Part of the reason is from all the extra plumbing that's
required. Also, there are only a few places that are authorized to
design the placement of the nozzles for your specific pool. They put
your pool through a computer program that determines the optimal number of
zones for your pool, the number of nozzles per zone, and the placement of
each of the nozzles in each zone. The thing that still bothered me
about in-floors was that you still needed to brush the sides of the
pool. the in-floors work by sweeping water in a horizontal motion so
that means that pool walls are excluded. What a bummer. I spent
a lot of time debating whether $2000 was worth it if I still had to brush
the sides every week. I also found out later that standard pool vacs
like the Hayward Navigator or Ultra can be configured to actually climb up
walls to some extent. I'm sure its probably true of most if not all
pool vacs. At that point, I decided that $2000 would be better spent
getting some sorely needed furniture for our house.
Chlorination System - Ozone vs. Salt
Water vs. Standard Chlorinator - You've probably noticed that
all my choices so far have been back-to-basics. Given that, you would think that this decision
would be a no-brainer. I probably would have been totally happy going
with the standard chlorine tablets that have done people just fine for so
long. I decided instead to go with a salt-water chlorinator.
A salt-water chlorinator works by taking slight salted (have to add salt to your pool water) water and passing it through a housing unit that contains a series of metallic plates that a current runs through. Chlorine is produced when the electrical field between adjacent plates separates the sodium from the chloride. The separated chlorine is then used to disinfect your pool water. What this means is that all your chlorine is automatically produced and replenished each and every night when your filtration system turns on - i.e. no more addition of chlorine tablets and chlorine maintenance. The unit that was recommended to me (Zodiac Clearwater LM-24) also has a super-chlorinate option which performs the same function as shocking a pool. This can be achieved by pressing a button on the unit, which will increase the amount of chlorine produced during that cycle to 'shock' levels.
From what I've read
about Ozonators, ozone acts as a powerful oxidizer and reacts with organic and nitrogen containing compounds much faster. It does not combine with other compounds but instead causes these compounds to break apart. Thus, through the use of an ozone system the need for chlorine is reduced by a significant amount. However, my understanding is that you *still*
have to add chlorine tablets to supplement the system. If that's the case,
then why not just go with chlorine tablets from the get go?
Interior - Plaster vs. Pebble-Tec
- This was probably the easiest of all the decisions. Being from
the Hawaiian Islands, I wanted to get a taste of that back here in the
desert. Going with pebble would help to achieve that tropical lagoon
look that I'm after. When researching the differences between the two
surfaces, I found out that plaster is much more smooth and gentle on the
feet than a pebble surface. I heard a lot of horror stories from
people who went with pebble interiors whose kid's feet were ravaged by the
pebble surface after a couple of hours in the pool. Even though the
pebbles themselves are smooth, they are slightly elevated/raised from the
bonding material on the pool. This causes an abrasive action to the
feet especially given how water softens skin after hours of being submerged
in water. This was definitely a consideration since I've got kids
myself. During my research, I found out that while plaster interiors
are much smoother and easier on the feet than pebble, plaster typically
starts to deteriorate much sooner than a pebble surface and usually needs to
be repaired or replaced in less than 10 years. This was a huge
consideration. Pebble-Tec is actually a trade-mark brand of Pebble pool
interior products. It happens to be the first pebble product that came
out on the market and they responsible for popularizing pebble pool
interiors, but they are certainly not the only brand of Pebble out
there. Its kind of like Band-Aid, Xerox, Jell-O, or Kleenex - very
well-known brands whose names are often confused with the generic products
(of bandages, photocopying, gelatin, and facial tissue, respectively), but
certainly not the only brands out there. The reason I mention this is
because while getting bids from interior subs, I noticed that the way that
competing off-brand pebble products are marketed, they seem to always have a
selling point on why their brand is better than Pebble-Tec. One brand was
Baja
Pebble. They
advertise that their application process of the pebble onto the bonding
material forces the pebbles to be more flush with the surface, thereby
creating a smoother surface, and less abrasion to the feet. On top of
that, I discovered that the difference of using real Pebble-Tec as opposed
to a competing off-brand pebble product is close to $2000 in my case.
I think that was enough to sway me from going with real Pebble-Tec.
Shucks - I can't technically tell people I have a Pebble-Tec pool. I
have to say its just a pebble-interior pool. :) The same company that does
Pebble-Tec also came out with a product in recent years called
Pebble-Sheen. Its supposed to be a higher-end form of Pebble-Tec that
uses smaller pebbles and doesn't cause the same kind of abrasiveness as
Pebble-Tec. I've talked extensively to pool builders, Pool
Contractors, and subs alike about this. They all tell me unanimously
that the jury is still out on this product. Most say that only about
5%-10% of their customers request it. They say that they are still
perfecting the technology. The biggest complaint I've heard about it
is that because the pebbles are smaller, the product give it a very
unappealing look from far away. It has a "shattered" look to
it, looking very similar to regular concrete from far away. They say
that no one wants to pay the exorbitant premium for this and have their pool
look like concrete. Anyways, I didn't pursue this heavily. I heard
so many negatives about this product that I figured it wasn't even
worthwhile to do research into it.
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