Fiberglass - thread repair - sand pool filter tank

[bp71k5]

I'm all ears. This madness has me considering going to a saltwater setup. So I'd be curious unless your setting me up with a joke IE visit the cat website to book a backhoe rental.

Nope no joke. I’d also recommend the saltwater chlorine generator. I’ve been happy with mine and have saved tons of money not having a pool service.

If you’re using trichlor pucks or dichlor, those include chlorine stabilizer (CYA) that doesn’t go away unless you drain water. But it also lowers the effectiveness of the chlorine. Once the CYA builds up over time it takes more and more chlorine to keep algae away. A better way is to use liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) which doesn’t have CYA. You can also use a saltwater chlorine generator to get the same thing. Then add the CYA separately so you can manage the appropriate level. A popular misconception is that a saltwater pool doesn’t have chlorine in it, but it does. The chlorine is just generated from the breakdown of NaCl with electricity.

They have some pool school articles here.
www.troublefreepool.com

 

[fear_nothing]

Past

 

[fear_nothing]

Present

 

[rampage]

Looks like you had to do a bit of replumbing for the new tank.

 

[fear_nothing]

Looks like you had to do a bit of replumbing for the new tank.

The new tank is quite a bit bigger & old pipes were pretty much just repair couplers at this point.

 

[Fordum]

What is that new cylinder with the removable top? Looks like it might be a final filter to catch sand fines or something.

Also, I notice that you have a few PVC unions in the system.
I have lots of them in my water well system, since every ball valve is a true union valve. They cost a little more than a standard PVC ball valve, but make things so much easier when it come time to work on stuff.

Also, if you will be careful to pick one brand of valve and stick with it, you can change out a leaky or failed valve with pretty much no effort. Just unscrew the unions and swap out the center part.

The sand trap collection pipe is attached with union valves, so I can just close off the valve, unscrew the bottom union and take the pipe outside and wash out the sand. Which I have to do regularly.

This reveals a problem with those unions. PVC on PVC threads tend to bind and it gets hard to take them apart. With metal unions, you just grab it with a pipe wrench and its done.
If you try that with PVC, it squeezes the nut and really binds it up.
I had been using a pipe wrench carefully by using just the teeth and not letting it lock like its supposed to.

Then, I noticed this:

https://www.autozone.com/shop-and-garage-tools/oil-filter-wrench/p/performance-tool-2-1-2in-to-4-5-8in-slip-joint-handles-oil-filter-pliers/141500_0_0

Works great. The teeth grab the slots on the union nut and you can control how much squeeze you apply. Long term, it does mark up the nut slightly, but as long as you don't put any pressure on it, its fine.
I keep it next to the valve, and it lets me spin the nut off fast, and back on easily. Since I am dumping sand out, sometimes a grain or two stay in the threads despite my care in washing the threads out.
If its a lot, I go back and rewash. But if its just one or two, it does not lock up the nut, just makes it a little harder to put on. Which the filter wrench handles just fine.

J.

 

[rampage]

This reveals a problem with those unions. PVC on PVC threads tend to bind and it gets hard to take them apart. With metal unions, you just grab it with a pipe wrench and its done.

I have a small inline filter on my water system too, nothing like that but it is some sort of plastic. What I do on the threads is put a thin coat of Vaseline on them. It use to be a chore to unscrew it but with the Vaseline it much easier, although with your system having sand in it, the sand would probably stick better to the Vaseline.

 

[fear_nothing]

What is that new cylinder with the removable top? Looks like it might be a final filter to catch sand fines or something.

Also, I notice that you have a few PVC unions in the system.
I have lots of them in my water well system, since every ball valve is a true union valve. They cost a little more than a standard PVC ball valve, but make things so much easier when it come time to work on stuff.

Also, if you will be careful to pick one brand of valve and stick with it, you can change out a leaky or failed valve with pretty much no effort. Just unscrew the unions and swap out the center part.

The sand trap collection pipe is attached with union valves, so I can just close off the valve, unscrew the bottom union and take the pipe outside and wash out the sand. Which I have to do regularly.

This reveals a problem with those unions. PVC on PVC threads tend to bind and it gets hard to take them apart. With metal unions, you just grab it with a pipe wrench and its done.
If you try that with PVC, it squeezes the nut and really binds it up.
I had been using a pipe wrench carefully by using just the teeth and not letting it lock like its supposed to.

Then, I noticed this:

https://www.autozone.com/shop-and-garage-tools/oil-filter-wrench/p/performance-tool-2-1-2in-to-4-5-8in-slip-joint-handles-oil-filter-pliers/141500_0_0

Works great. The teeth grab the slots on the union nut and you can control how much squeeze you apply. Long term, it does mark up the nut slightly, but as long as you don't put any pressure on it, its fine.
I keep it next to the valve, and it lets me spin the nut off fast, and back on easily. Since I am dumping sand out, sometimes a grain or two stay in the threads despite my care in washing the threads out.
If its a lot, I go back and rewash. But if its just one or two, it does not lock up the nut, just makes it a little harder to put on. Which the filter wrench handles just fine.

J.

I like your idea but I'm moving on at this point. To answer your question, yes the top is removable. If I wasn't in such a hurry to get the filter back online, I could of worked some thread-on unions, but that ship has sailed.

I'm blown away at how well the new filter works, the pool was solid green yesterday. Two jugs of Chlorine & its been running for about 8 hours and the pool is clear again.

 

[Fordum]

I had to read your reply a couple of times to understand it.
Finally realized we were talking about two different things.
I was asking about the cylinder with the four tabs on top attached to the output side of the new system. It looks like a small filter housing.
I was thinking it was a screen type filter to catch fine sand particles from the new filter until they all get washed out.

And the unions I was talking about are the ones already on the system now.
The two on the output valves and the one on the suction side of the pump. If you have to remove them, the tool makes it easier.

And yep, @rampage already tried the Vaseline, and it did just that. Made more sand stick.

J.

 

[fear_nothing]

I had to read your reply a couple of times to understand it.
Finally realized we were talking about two different things.
I was asking about the cylinder with the four tabs on top attached to the output side of the new system. It looks like a small filter housing.
I was thinking it was a screen type filter to catch fine sand particles from the new filter until they all get washed out.

And the unions I was talking about are the ones already on the system now.
The two on the output valves and the one on the suction side of the pump. If you have to remove them, the tool makes it easier.

And yep, @rampage already tried the Vaseline, and it did just that. Made more sand stick.

Gotcha - the piece in question is the Chlorinator.

 

[Fordum]

Gotcha - the piece in question is the Chlorinator.

Man, I should have known that. Its been a long time since I worked on my pool.
My system had a piece of thick wall clear plastic pipe threaded into a base with a screw-on top.

The base had a mechanical timer with a solenoid valve with start and stop tabs on the timer wheel.
I could set the times and duration of the solenoid valve. It would come on and off during the day and night dissolving some of the sticks in the pipe.
Since it was clear, I could tell when to add some sticks, and it had a manual on switch which I could use to over ride the timer when it needed more chlorine.