I blogged a few months ago about my Ecosmart pool. I was super happy with it, but then someone asked me for an update, and I was really upset with the struggle I was having. I was really thinking there was something wrong with the product.
The short story is that was not the case! It took some digging for their wonderful support people to help me uncover the issue, but we are back on track and loving it!
Here is the fuller story.
This is our first pool. Neither of us have any pool experience so it's been a steep learning curve. Couple that with trying to learn a unique system so the advice at the pool store when we're picking up products is confusing, and, well, you can see it's hard on a newbie. At first, I was calling them up quite a bit. We had stopped using a pool service when we bought the house and it took me a few weeks at least to decide on the Ecosmart system. So by the time we got it, the pool was pretty green. After a few miraculous phone calls and trips to the pool supply store, it was back to stunning blue and ran smoothly the rest of the first year.
Over the winter, we got tired of paying for the pool pump so we stopped running it. We figured that the pool could recover from being a swamp.
Not really.
We tested and had a few phone sessions with their support and it appeared we were getting somewhere. We had a blue pool three times. Each time, it cost us at least $60 in products. And each time, it started going green again within a day. It never tested algae free and we never got the numbers right.
The last guy we spoke with said to start diluting the water because the copper levels were too high. Now, I don't know how you're supposed to drain a pool. Maybe you're supposed to go rent a pump from the pool supply store. I just went the cheapie route. For a few days, I continued to run the pump while refilling the pool and draining off the top few inches. I had to dig up the drain line and attach a hose to it so I could drain it to different places each time. After no progress, it occurred to me to turn off the pump, put the hose to the bottom, and let the water be stagnent, only draining off undiluted water from the top. This went on a few more days and when I thought I saw the color start to get lighter, I started up the pump again.
The next day, the water was clear! Still green, but clear!
The next day, aqua!
The third day, blue! Crystal clear beautiful blue!
And we added no chemicals. We have been sweeping it and scooping out debris. We feel like we are finally getting a handle on the pool monster.
Next year, I think we may do this by design. I'm going to ask them what they think. I'd rather spend a week draining off and replacing the green swamp than running the pump and testing all winter. Emptying the basket in the cold is particularly nasty. It's warm enough here that we don't close down the pool but cold enough that we have many nights below freezing.
Anyway, I'm thrilled with this system, again, and my husband is so happy with me.
I recently read this book that has helped me understand basic pool maintenance. According to that book, you need to shock your pool every 2 weeks and put chemicals in weekly. I could be wrong, but I think we won't have to do all that. We shall see!
6 comments:
Hi,
We've got an ecosmarte system too and every year we think we have a handle on it but always seem to have problems. We work really hard to keep the PH at the right level and this year we have started adding a weekly maintenance of algeacide 50 and that has seemed to help with the algea blooms. We just added water this weekend and now have a cloudy but blue pool - have you had this happen before? We usually add non chlorine shock every couple of weeks but we wait 24 hours if we've added anything else. Still not sold on this system but it was installed in the pool before we bought our house in NC. The previous owner was able to keep this pool crystal blue all the time but he was retired so maybe he had more time to spend on it than we do.
I have seen the cloudy but blue. We saw lots of things this spring. It's still a mystery to me. I do think it pays for itself; I was never aware of how much you'd spend on chemicals to maintain a chlorine system.
Hi,
My husband and I just purchased a house with a pool. And between the 2 of us the sum total of what we know about maintaining a pool is negative ZERO! (LOL)
I appreciate the info you've shared. I have just started the hunt for alternatives to chlorine, and ran across the ecoSmart system too.
I just wanted to ask how did the pool fair this winter? And here in SC, it's pool season again, so I know in Florida y'all are ready! Have you mastered the maintenance routine for this season? And if so, can you share the steps in simple English that even I can understand?
Thanks!
Cynthia, I do not have it down to an art yet. The local pool supply store sold some book that helped me understand more about how pools work in general, but obviously it's mostly about all the chemicals that you do NOT need in a non-chlorine system so not all entirely important if you go the ecosmart route. I am pretty sure there is now a cheaper competitor but I'm not going to look into it and feel bad. I haven't fully gotten our pool up and running properly this year because we did the foolish thing of just leaving it stagnant all winter to save electricity and not run the motor. I think I should have somehow closed the system. I believe I got algae into my filter so I am going to likely have to do an overnight chlorine soak there. Trisa, if I do shock, I use actual chlorine, not non-chlorine, which may not really work. When I call them for help, they say that algae is a big problem in Florida so I have come to expect that I need algaecide regularly. But if I keep on top of it, not much else. I just don't always keep on top of the testing. For some reason, I hate to test it. Cynthia, pool stuff is a learning curve but once you get the hang of it, not as hard as it initially seems. Sorry I don't have the book handy but it is a book with all pages laminated so you can read it while you are near your pool. Hope that helps a bit.
I purchased the Ecosmart system in Jan 2010, we had nothing but problems, no customer support, we called many times and they just give us the run around. I know at least 5 other homeowners in Las Vegas having problems too. We are getting rid of the system!
Wayne, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. That's not been our experience at all. I usually get through to someone right away and get it all explained. I finally this year took the trouble to really study the manual and got it all working properly and I am certain it saved me lots of time and energy, not to mention giving us water with no chlorine. I love it more than ever, now that I'm using it properly.
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