SAME THING HAPPENED TO US TWO weeks ago on Mother's day weekend!! Our new pool and the filling of water became a stressful situation. Our PB told us to turn off the pool pump until someone could come out on Monday. Our spa had a pipe that was not hooked up and as the water filtered from pool, filter, spa it was leaking out quickly. PB said a couple days of drying was not critical that the plaster would be ok. We did have plaster issues when all was said and done (it took seven days to identify the problem). Our pool would lose water, the PB would think it was fixed, and then we would drain again over night. Kept going on and on. PB was responsive, however, they were fooled into thinking it was taken care of because there was actually a second problem (seal was not plastered tight in spa around the drains). The finish in the spa was stained and dirty. The PB sent out the plaster guy and he was able to beautify my spa. The first step into the pool is still stained and has a couple small pin holes in the plaster. PB plans to fix it after the original plaster finishing curing. However, our plaster is different then yours (Florida gem). Hopefully your PB will call back and advise you on what to do over the weekend. If you have a reputable PB, no matter what the current issue and if it affects your finish, they should be able to rectify the situation. GOOD LUCK!

Gardenchick, I just put a hose on that valve on the pump, and then stick the other end out in the drain in the street... it's not too difficult, I just wondered if other people had to do it. Arbisi, this is really good to know about the creepy crawly & the SWG -- we have a Diamond Brite finish and we're supposed to be letting it cure for the first 28 days, so we haven't put the salt in yet or used the Hayward Navigator... but when we do, I can totally see why we then wouldn't want to let water out... GK5040, I can't believe you haven't been getting these rains. It seems like the last few weeks it storms all the time in Central Fla... :( Hope some comes your way soon.

I just rerouted the condensate from one of my two A/C evaporators (the other was too far) and an Aprilaire dehumidifier. PVC pipe painted to match a downspout brings the condensate from the 2nd floor attic to a rain barrel I've set up to catch it. Hose connected to the rain barrel faucet allows me to empty the condensate into the pool--and then hide the hose when I need to. My hope was to have enough to keep the pool topped off with 7.0 pH water (pure water is 7.0; our city water is 8.2; ideal pH for plaster pool is 7.2-7.8). Initially I collected the condensate in a 5 gallon pail for testing. Turns out the water has a pH of 5.8, which I learned is due to carbon dioxide dissolved in the water from the air. That's not a problem. In fact the small amount of 5.8 water will barely raise the pH of the 15,000 gallon pool. Right now, I'm getting only about 8-10 gallons a day, but this is fall, and the AC runs less than summer. I should get 12-15 gallons in the summer. I don't know if that will keep the pool topped off, but it will help with both quantity and pH. My other water tests showed, not surprisingly, -0- chlorine, -0- calcium hardness, -0-total alkalinity, -0- salt, and -0- cyanuric acid. CDC recommends treatment of AC condensate if used for other than watering plants and other applications that don't require potable water, as the AC evaporator can carry in-home viruses and bacteria. Well guess what? A swimming pool has built in water treatment: chlorine. I use a salt water chlorine generator and keep the pool at 4-6ppm chlorine level, which is well above CDC's recommended minimum of 2-3ppm (CDC is only concerned with health issues, while pool owners also want to prevent algae.) Reuse of AC condensate is likely to become more important in the future. Consider in Houston, there are about 2 million "housing units" and 110,000 business in Harris County according to the Census. Just consider how much water is created by AC units and then piped right into the sanitary sewer system every day at 10 gallons per household. 20 million gallons--and that's just Harris County Texas. I know a few people who capture the condensate and use if for gardens (5.8pH is perfect for most flowering plants.) There are 82 million single family homes in America. Do the water math and see how much we're throwing away every day. The cost of routing AC condensate out to a container instead of into the sanitary sewer would be almost zero for new construction. It cost me $150 for the AC guys to do it. I know I won't live long enough to get my money back in savings on my water bill and reduce use of muriatic acid for pool pH. I just wanted to know if it would work. I'm doing a tiny bit to save water.

sharon2975, I just measured mine. It is 44 inchs to the top of the bullnose coping in the shallow end. We have 3 steps. 1st into the pool from the coping is 10" high, 2nd step is 12" high, 3rd is 11" high and the height from the 3rd step to the floor is 11". HTH