Pollen on Pool Surface

[Nancy]

Hi, new pool owner here again! We're doing great with our pool and water level. Had the water tested today at the shop up the street, and they said the pH was slightly low, but things really looked great! Alkalinity, Calcium, Hardness, Chlorine...all well in the range. Yay.

Okay, so there's pollen, I assume that's what it is, on the pool surface. It's tough to get rid of. We skim all the time and are taking good care of the pool, but every day, the pollen floating just looks nasty to me. First timer here, so I never really noticed before, is it just this TIME of the year? Does the pollen flying through the air settle down once we get into the hot part of the summer. Oh, sorry..I'm in Southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia. Seems that everyone's sneezing and such, but I can't remember if this is just peak pollen time or if this is what we'll get all summer. Hope not. I know it's fine to swim, and we can skim as much as possible, but it's just bugging me. Our porch is covered too, even though we just hosed it down last weekend. Grrrr!

Any thoughts? I'll go check out weather.com and see what I can find as well. Thanks, Nancy :-)

[Adam Russell]

Make sure the water level is not too high for the skimmer.

[Nancy]

Thanks, it definitely is not. We're real aware of our water level, due to the loss we were having at first, and we keep it right at the mark. Nancy :-)

[Richard J Kinch]

Your skimmer should clear a pollen load on a windy day in a matter of hours. If you're getting a constant dusting, then there's not much else you can do. That's one reason you're paying $40/month in electric bills to run a pump.

Perhaps you've heard, "nature abhors a vacuum"? Well, vacuum is just a special case of what nature really abhors: purity.

Pool care is a constant, lifelong struggle against nature, backbreaking and expensive. Just wait til the novelty wears off and you don't use the pool very often. It's worse than a sick, unloved pet. You can't just put it to sleep. I have taken care of lawns, landscaping, septic tanks, roofs, tile, wet basements, every imaginable household repair and maintenance task. A swimming pool is incomparably more work that is never finished. You are basically in charge of running a complete water treatment plant, but you're not allow to let it look industrial. The only hope is if you are so filthy rich you can just hire it all out, and pay two or three times to correct incompetent help on occasion.

It's kind of a fun challenge in the beginning, and you're getting a lot of entertainment from the pool. This pollen thing is just the beginning of the nuisances to follow. Welcome to pool ownership.

[LugoMan]

You could try adjusting the eyeballs on the return lines to create some surface movement.

[ameijers]

(snip)

Chuckle. Good description of why I go right past the 'for sale' ads that talk about the pool in the backyard. As much as I love pools, around here the swimming season is Memorial day to Labor day unless you heat, and it Just Ain't Worth It. Only exception might be if you have teenage kids, and you a reason to keep them and their cohorts hanging around where you can keep an eye on them. (of course, the flipside to that is that you can never leave the kid Home Alone when you are out of town...)

aem sends....

[Nancy]

Thank you, will do that! Nancy :-)

[Bill]

Sounds like Richard may not be what we would call a "pool lover"! You do have to maintain your pool Nancy but it is a labor of love if you are a "pool person"! My Dad had all the reasons not to get a pool itemized for me 10 years ago when I got my first pool. You see, Dad doesn't give a hoot about having a refreshingly cool pool to plunge into on those hot sweaty days of summer. I love to jump in mine when I'm real hot just after doing yard work like mowing the grass.

By the way Nancy, I never heard if you found the leak in your pool. Where was the leak?

Bill

(who is on his second pool...the ex-wife got custody of my first pool!)

[Richard J Kinch]

Oh, I like it just fine. Just not at the cost of $40/session to the wallet, and the occasional maintenance crisis that interrupts your life at inconvenient times.

Pools cost several $1000s/year to own and operate. Divide by number of swim sessions per year (after the novelty wears off). Ouch. Not for the middle class.

Here in South Florida, the pool capital of the world, most of them are hardly used, and true costs/session run $100s to $1000 or more. There are plenty that own them and *never* use them, but are stuck with the maintenance.

[Nancy]

Hey Bill! Yes I remember you and your story! I agree, we just love our pool, and we are also people who take pride in our things and take good care of our things, so we certainly understand the work and maintenance that goes in! Would not have taken the "plunge" if we weren't prepared for the work that goes along with it! Yesterday, my husband finishing mowing/edgine/weedwhacking, and he said....hon, I'm gonna go jump in the pool!

Well, the pool installer came out and removed an eyeball from the jet on the steps. Apparently these little things stay in on the jets of the spa lounger, but with the steps, these come out. He also tightened some screws around the skimmer plates and wherever else. From then on, we've had no problem with water loss, maybe a half an inch over a week and a half, I figure due to evaporation and splashing. What a relief. Not sure what the problem WAS, but it's fixed!

Let me know when you'll be over for a swim!

:-)

p.s. As far as the pollen goes, it seems that certain very dry/windy days it's worse. We had a little rain overnight on Saturday, and Sunday the surface wasn't at all covered with pollen. I guess it's just the season.

[Richard J Kinch]

Yes, you have "evaporation", which is the pool contractor's technical term for "slow leak that we can't locate". Sounds like you're still leaking about 10,000 gallons/year, about $100/year in our locale. Not fixed, just small enough that one would put up with it rather than sue 'em.

[Dorot29701]

We are in the Tampa Bay area and this has been a very bad year for pollen - plus there's a lot of oak trees here and little seed pods open and fall through the screen enclosure, into the pool. The only thing that seems to help is to wash the filter more often. There is also "clarifier" - it's a dark blue liquid sold at the pool store in small (2 oz.?) sizes....you put it in the water and it makes very small particles cling together and go into the filter.

Two years ago, we had our pool refinished and at that time, a new drain cover was added to bring the pool up to code. It is solid in the middle with small openings around the outer edge for water to go through and into the drain, filter etc.

The idea is that nobody gets their hair or hands, feet caught in the filter. But it does not circulate the water as fast or as well as the old type, and it's made keeping the pool clean a harder job. (IMHO).

Dorothy

[Nancy]

Interesting. Thanks for the info! Nancy