Yes: Pools are worth it....

[freyguy 4265]

20 minutes ago, joe dirt said:

we’re very lucky. a lot of our hood is without. water on the other hand lost all pressure last night. it’s trickling out now but i might be resorting to pool water to flush toilets soon haha. 

That's where I am today.

[Skipper 6128]

I've maintained power but noticed today when pump flipped to spa mode it was running loud.  Went outside and didn't seem to be circulating and pumped looked relatively dry.  I flipped it over to service mode and put it in pool only which seems to be working fine (for now).  Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong?

[freyguy 4265]

Stuck valve, maybe a partially frozen line?

[Hate 20107]

I won't have to get pool water to flush as I put a cooler outside when it rained today and caught a bunch of rain water.  At least I'll be able to flush until I get my water repaired.  I'll try to turn on the pool tomorrow.  It hasn't started since we lost power Sunday.  I think it should be thawed out at some point tomorrow.  Maybe. 

[Skipper 6128]

1 hour ago, freyguy said:

Stuck valve, maybe a partially frozen line?

Valve seemed to move.  Partially frozen line makes sense although seems odd it started today which was the warmest it has been since Saturday.  I'm just keeping it in pool mode only tonight.  Hopefully that holds.

[Catpfish 618]

And the dice came up snake eyes. 28 hours, no power. I gambled on the shut down being short enough (everything had worked after 4 hour blackout before). After 3 hours, got nervous and went to drain the pumps, and I have an expensive ice cube. All pumps frozen solid. I'd bet the pool ice is now over 3.5" thick. Expecting major issues, but I'm not sure what else I could have done. I tried breaking ice but I would have to be out there for hours at a time.

[williemackgarza 1826]

Heres my water feature pump.
My pool/spa pump is still going strong.
Guess I need to cap lines on the suction and return sides of this busted pipe?

[Dutch 4465]

On 2/17/2021 at 2:49 AM, UT Football Fan said:

I wish I had shut things down Sat or Sun and drained the pumps, but when I got up Monday morning and it was all frozen over, it was just too cold and windy to go out there and do it.  Hands were too cold in seconds.  Next time this kind of forecast comes up I'm winterizing.  Another 70 years?  Now I'm afraid to sleep in case the power goes out.  Pumps are still running right now, fingers crossed.

Yep, I’m right there with you on both counts.  Should have drained Sunday night instead of relying on freeze guard. I’ll kick myself about that for years. Went to work like a dumbass on Monday, left @ noon, and it was too late when I got home to pull the plugs. I’ll never make that again. Wife’s cousin in Celina never lost power and her pool’s just fine. Urgh.

Allstate agent did say they would “probably” cover it under the plumbing section of my homeowners, but I’m skeptical. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Dutch

[Fudbelty 2788]

Went to bed Sunday and made sure water was still moving and was all good. Power went out at 1:15a as a rolling blackout and I figured I’d check the pool as soon as the power came back. 2:15a power came back and water was once again moving well. So I went back to bed expecting to have one or two more cycles of blackout then was going to bundle up and drain/shut everything down in the morning.

Wellllll, woke up to no more power (wound up at 62 hours no power) and everything had already frozen and broken.

[TexasEd 8066]

This is going to exacerbate the supply problems with the pool equipment companies.

Feel horrible for you guys.

 

[mchookem 16322]

ugh. i feel like we made a very, very expensive mistake and i just wanna cry about it 😔

same as above - reprogrammed pump to run 24 hours/day for the duration, made sure everything was clean, thought it was gonna be fine...and lost power 2:30am Monday, by the time it was light and the storm had stopped, it was too late. our equipment is still encased in ice. 

haven't looked at it in close detail like above, imagine it's about the same. so...just emailed our pool company to see if we can go ahead and get them out to assess once it thaws. 

i just feel awful. i mean...i just never, ever, EVER would have thought this would be a thing that would happen here. dammit! 😢

Edited February 18, 2021 by mchookem

[Hate 20107]

I haven't tried to turn my equipment back on yet.  I will try tomorrow when it warms up.  I cleared all of the equipment from snow and ice and I didn't see any ice leaking out anywhere so hopefully the pipes survived.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow. 

[Poolflood 845]

6 hours ago, TexasEd said:

This is going to exacerbate the supply problems with the pool equipment companies.

Feel horrible for you guys.

 

Stretched thin then snapped 

[troph 24781]

We lucked out and never lost power but when the water shut off the leak we discovered drained the pool to the skimmer low level We had to turn it off and drain it. Should be fine by tomorrow but who knows. By the time we turned it off it just started running dry.  Oh and yes pool water for the toilets. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by troph

[freyguy 4265]

First casualty (not big).  I thought it was a shitty design from the start, but I'm wondering if I can totally replace the section on the right with a loop of Pex.  Although I'd have to figure out weight support for the valve.

 

[mchookem 16322]

finally got a look today and it was as bad as expected...all we can really see is the pvc piping so far, and it's full of cracks. can only imagine what the pump innards look like. top to the basket unit was cracked as well.

at least it's only the pool equipment and it's self-contained. trying to stay positive!

[williemackgarza 1826]

Piping is not expensive. Its the pumps/filters/ heaters that can get really expensive.

[C-Man 27196]

Yep, I’m right there with you on both counts.  Should have drained Sunday night instead of relying on freeze guard. I’ll kick myself about that for years. Went to work like a dumbass on Monday, left @ noon, and it was too late when I got home to pull the plugs. I’ll never make that again. Wife’s cousin in Celina never lost power and her pool’s just fine. Urgh.
Allstate agent did say they would “probably” cover it under the plumbing section of my homeowners, but I’m skeptical. 

I’ll be surprised if Allstate covers it. Our high net worth carriers are not likely to cover outdoor pool equipment unless they decide “government action” was the reason for everybody losing power. We are still filing claims, though, in the event they allow them. However, it might help if you can provide proof that you did your best to keep the pipes from freezing — heat-wrap, blankets, etc. In the end it might not matter. I’ve never really known, or trusted, Allstate to do the right thing.

[Catpfish 618]

Piping is not expensive. Its the pumps/filters/ heaters that can get really expensive.

So I have that going for me which is nice. Cracks in the pump, filter, electric heat pump and two of the valves. I'm hoping the tiles made. The ice was still 3-4 inches thick in places this afternoon but beginning to crack up.

[Surly Bevo 24908]

Early Tuesday morning




Today



Lost power for 31 straight hours EARLY Monday morning to mid day Tuesday. I worked this thing over every couple hours through the whole week trying to keep ice broken up and not getting too thick (when it was -2 in DFW on Tuesday morning I was pretty discouraged by the battle) but ultimately kept it “flowing” and never thick ice.

I had pulled the plugs on the pump and took the lid off and released pressure on filter but was so tired forgot to pull plug on that. I had all the equipment covered from Saturday on. No cracks I can find in skimmers or any of pipes or other equipment and have obviously since opened filter drain. Decided to give it all day today and into tomorrow to really warm up and firing up tomorrow mid day.

Wish me luck and good luck to the rest of you working to get things back online.

[harold 81]

We built our pool in 2019.  10k gallons, no spa, with Hayward equipment.  We are on the frisco/mckinney border.  I wrapped the exposed plumbing at the equipment with towels, then a large drop cloth, and covered it all with a tightly secured tarp.  I pointed 2 work lights at the whole thing and prayed that freeze guard would work.  Our power was off and on for around 48 hours from early Monday morning until lunchtime on Wednesday.  I never broke up the ice but was vigilant making sure the water moved every time the power returned.  Somehow we made it out without any issues.

Our builder definitely screwed up plenty during our build and had to redo several things that were lacking but I’ll be damned if they didn’t make a pool that lived through a 100 year weather event.  Watching the pool was easily the most stressful part of the entire ordeal and I plan to add other structure coverage to my homeowner policy.

Had our power outages been longer than 40 minutes at a time I would have drained the equipment and crossed my fingers.

[freyguy 4265]

First pass at running the pump, discovered a crack in bottom of the uv bioshield vessel.  Ugh.  Guess I'll be buying some flex pipe tomorrow to bypass all that.

[woohorn 1131]

Pool is set to run 24/7 in freezing temps, but our first power outage was long enough to freeze pipes/pump. I didn't think to kill breaker and once power returned, I think the pump burned out. Hard to believe there isn't some failsafe for a modern pump to stop if water is frozen, but it looks and smells fried. Pulled heater, polaris, pump, and filter drain plugs for when it thaws, but I haven't even looked at skimmers or tile line yet.

[HookEm 2463]

Now I have a cool filter shaped ice sculpture!

The ice cracked the top cleanly around the whole thing. Three check valves are toast. Booster pump cracked. I drained the main pump and water feature pump and they look ok. Lots of cracked PVC. Overall I have spent $450 on parts so far on things I KNOW are broke. Hopefully the heater isn’t screwed up.

[Spur08 382]

In Prosper and I agree that the pool was the most stressful part of all this shit. Luckily, I kept electrical the whole time but my gas cycled. Despite the constant electricity, I developed solid chunks of 4" ice around the edge that I had to keep breaking up. There were a few times that I came out and the skimmer was pulling minimal water through the line due to a chunk of ice blocking it. Moved the ice and it started pulling again. Pump seems fine just a little loud.

[markersmake 15]

Tomball here, pulled plugs on everything once we lost power, it was off for about 20hours, so just left it until today. New pool, and trying to do all that at 2:30 in the morning\freezing ass cold I forgot about the heater plug... busted manifold. Pentair Mastertemp 400. Seems they are no where to be found online... Will try and “temp fix” it or bypass the heater. Until I can locate one. Also have a cracked actuator tee.  Fun times. Could have been worse.  
Good luck to everyone thawing out. 

[C-Man 27196]

5 hours ago, harold said:

Our builder definitely screwed up plenty during our build and had to redo several things that were lacking but I’ll be damned if they didn’t make a pool that lived through a 100 year weather event.  Watching the pool was easily the most stressful part of the entire ordeal and I plan to add other structure coverage to my homeowner policy.

Had our power outages been longer than 40 minutes at a time I would have drained the equipment and crossed my fingers.

I've never seen a homeowners policy that didn't include "Other Structures" coverage. It's usually 10-20% of the Dwelling value and can be adjusted to fit an insured's needs. Most, however, will not let you take it down to less than 5% of Coverage A. Also you'll need to check and see how the policy responds to pool equipment that is frozen.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10229]

I luckily decided to drain mine a hour into power loss seeing that this wasn't going to be a short term thing. New owner and figured worst case I learned how to winterize since I was just referring to internet for what to do. I did open the chlorine puck canister and saw ice still yesterday, so I think I'm going to let everything warm up until maybe next weekend. No need to rush to get it back now. I want everything to definitely be thawed out before trying a restart and keeping my fingers crossed.

[PantsTent 2002]

I also pulled all drain plugs at 2am Sunday night after power went out.  The valves did all freeze but with everything open I think it had plenty room to expand.  I was able to get them to turn freely yesterday. At that point I checked the chlorine and it was < 1 ppm.  Also a new owner and had everything pretty much perfectly balanced and crystal clear and didn't want to start all over if algae started.  Fired everything up around 5pm yesterday and no issues observed.  Assuming I did everything correct, at least I now know how to charge and coat the DE filter and prime pump.

 

[Storm the Field 5294]

All my equipment froze over as well. We gave the system a trial run after thawing out yesterday and saw water spraying from a crack in the vacuum cleaner pump. If that's the extent of the damage, I'll consider myself lucky. We'll see what pool guy says when he stops by this week.

[Surly Bevo 24908]

Well got one drip (that frankly was there before and was about to have looked at). Seems a little worse but still a “drip”. No gushers

[immamac 42838]

Pump housing fucked. Everything else seems fine. Was trying to find a body shop to heat weld it for limp mode till new housing arrives. Anyone in Austin with a plastic heat welder hit me up. 

 

[Fudbelty 2788]

Todays finds

[66BUFF 2562]

6 hours ago, immamac said:

Pump housing fucked. Everything else seems fine. Was trying to find a body shop to heat weld it for limp mode till new housing arrives. Anyone in Austin with a plastic heat welder hit me up. 

 

Try JB Weld

[markersmake 15]

Tied going the JB weld route on my heater manifold.... didn’t work. Started splitting back open as soon as I started torquing the 10 bolts that holds it on. Going to bypass my heater so I can run the pump until I can locate another manifold. Kicking myself in the ass for forgetting to drain it, plug is sticking right out in the open. 
 

 

[freyguy 4265]

On 2/20/2021 at 8:00 PM, freyguy said:

First pass at running the pump, discovered a crack in bottom of the uv bioshield vessel.  Ugh.  Guess I'll be buying some flex pipe tomorrow to bypass all that.

And a cracked manifold in the heater.  

Home Depot pipe threads don't mate up with the union (always something...).  Found a pool repair guy who'll help me figure it out later in the week.

Replacement heater manifold is affordable, although looks like it'll be a bitch to swap out.  No option for just buying a new vessel for UV bioshield.  Looking at ~$1000 to eventually replace that....uuuugh.

[freyguy 4265]

1 minute ago, markersmake said:

Tied going the JB weld route on my heater manifold.... didn’t work. Started splitting back open as soon as I started torquing the 10 bolts that holds it on. Going to bypass my heater so I can run the pump until I can locate another manifold. Kicking myself in the ass for forgetting to drain it, plug is sticking right out in the open. 
 

 

I'm blaming the wife for wanting a hot spa in the winter.

[tokamak 6395]

I'm blaming the wife for wanting a hot spa in the winter.

Still a lot cheaper than having a kid.

[McFly 606]

Just moved into a house with a pool. We never lost power but found a crack in a check valve that was seeping water until a program switched to spa mode and it started spraying everywhere. Repair guy can’t come until next week. How bad is it to keep the pool running until it’s fixed? Anything I can patch it with as a temp fix?

Also went ahead and ordered a replacement for fear they’d be selling out. Price had gone up 25% from yesterday. Let the gouging begin. 

[williemackgarza 1826]

I need a replacement Pentair pump. Amazon says warranty only 90 days if bought online.
Gonna buy it from FWP as I have an account there but sure it will be higher$ be and take forever.
Will get full 3 yr warranty.
Damn, white people problems

[Poolflood 845]

4 hours ago, williemackgarza said:

I need a replacement Pentair pump. Amazon says warranty only 90 days if bought online.
Gonna buy it from FWP as I have an account there but sure it will be higher$ be and take forever.
Will get full 3 yr warranty.
Damn, white people problems

How do you have a wholesale account? 

[williemackgarza 1826]

I am a builder/GC and have an account.

[Quagmire 2147]

My brothers filter , told him to duct tape it

[mchookem 16322]

^holy shit! 😯 glad we (seem to have) avoided that!

[HookEm 2463]

Seems like the filter is the main source of problems for a lot of people.  It will be 2-3 weeks before I can get a new one in.

[Catpfish 618]

My insurance company is going to cover about 40% of the cost after deductible, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

My pool guy snagged (according to him, so who really knows) one of the two Pentair electric heat pumps his supplier had in the Austin area yesterday.  He's sending someone to New Braunfels to pick it up and I should have all of the equipment replaced and up and running by the end of the week.

Never hurts to check with  your agent to see if it's covered under Other Structures.

 

[Anastasis 23464]

This thread has turned into a snuff tape. 

[Skipper 6128]

I never lost power so things appear to be fine except some issue (likely a valve?) when in spa mode.  Guess I'll see what my pool guy says but I'm certainly not a priority.  It was pretty surreal being out at Midnight/4AM/7AM both Monday/Tuesday breaking up chunks of ice.  I'm probably going to do a lot of things differently if we ever see a forecast again like what we saw last week but #1 will probably be draining all equipment, turning it off, and draining pool down past the tile line.   Even though it worked out the pool was way too much added stress on top of everything else.

[gyroprotagonist 2592]

my main filter line cracked, but the water fall/fountain pump kept going so the pool did not freeze.  Power or something stopped the pumps for about 3-4 hours and that's all it took.  have not opened up the filter yet, but it seems ok.  damage is in the in-line chlorinator and one section of pipe around a check valve.

if I had to do it again, i would just drain and cover the pipes and throw in pool floats and stuff to try and keep the surface from freezing.  

[HiggyBaby 2529]

My brothers filter , told him to duct tape it

My FIL’s is toast too, but not that bad. I told him find somewhere online that has the lid in stock and order it. Local shop says expect delays.