We’ve had an above-ground pool in our backyard since 1991. We got the first one used from friends who put in a bigger pool when they moved. That lasted us about eight years, and then we bought a new pool. We’re on our third or fourth liner, and our second pump and filter, and we had to tear down and rebuild the pool one year after a big chunk of ice shifted during the spring thaw and the sides collapsed. I built a deck on one side about eight years ago, and we’ve enjoyed the pool every summer since our kids were still in grammar school (they’re all grown and two have moved out now). So this pool has been Dad’s obsession, more or less.
When we replaced the pool, or thereabouts, we switched to Baquacil instead of chlorine. Big promises. No red eyes, no smell, no constant feeding of chemicals. So we bought into it. And for the first few years, it was pretty good. The water felt clean, smelled mild, stayed pretty clear, and was low maintenance. But because we didn’t drain the pool completely in the winter, the chemicals apparently built up. So, by this year, we had a real witches’ brew in there. We were constantly adding gallons of that really nasty peroxide shock, adding five pounds of calcium, three pounds of sodium carbonate, and a quart of algaecide every time we tested the water at the store. Worst of all, we were waging a constant war against white water mold. The water felt sticky and slimy, smelled funny, and never really got clear. My eyes bothered me, and I swear I was getting fungus in my ears. We were spending 50 to 100 bucks every time we went to the pool store. My wife didn’t like swimming in it and started talking about taking down the pool.
The local pool store stopped carrying Baquacil, so I had to drive ten miles to keep buying the crap. I looked on the Baquacil web site to find out what causes the water mold, and they blamed the victim by saying we must have neglected something. Certainly not when judged by our expenses…
Then, two weeks ago, with the solar cover on and the filter running all week, and the Baquacil level up above normal (it never got below normal even though we hadn’t added any in about two months), I went out on Saturday and took off the cover to find the pool was greener than the Chicago River on St. Patrick’s Day, and smelled like the Des Plaines River. That was it. I’d had it. I got my son over, we pulled off the catch basin lid, and pumped out all the water we could from the pool. We had to stop when it got down to about a foot, for fear the sides would collapse again. We power washed the sides as best we could to get the algae and water mold off. Then I refilled it and dumped in two gallons of bleach to kill the rest of the Baquacil. The pool was still green and the sides grew a new coating of algae, but at least we had plain water in there. I had to wait a couple days to get to the pool store and in that time the algae grew back enough to make the water opaque. But we finally got some bags of chlorine shock and started dumping them (and half a bottle of polysyllabic algaecide) in the pool, and vacuumed and filtered for a couple days till it was clear. We backwashed our sand filter about ten times during this process, and the stuff that came out was nasty. But I never had to flock it.
So by this weekend it was crystal clear. I define that as clear enough to see the little rainbows on the edges of the ripples of sunlight on the bottom. And the water smells and feels clean. I no longer feel like I have to head straight for the shower as soon as I get out.
Now the weather has turned cool and it’s getting down in the high 50’s at night. But I don’t care. The pool is staying clean (with a quarter cup of chlorine granules or so every day) and even the solar cover smells better. The water is staying above 80 degrees, and I’m defiantly swimming when I come home at night. I know Labor Day is coming, and it’ll be time to think about winterizing again soon, but I’m relishing this one brief period of glorious, clean, chlorine-ey swimming that brings back memories of when I was a kid and went to the YMCA or the Elmwood Park High School pool or the Union League Club pool (on the 21st floor, where the naked men ordered half pound hamburgers by the poolside and the women weren’t allowed above the second floor). And I love being my own pool guy and relish this little indulgence, and I’ll fight to keep my pool at least another few years. Viva chlorine!
