ok.....BACK ON POINT...if you are going to install a softner, it most definately should be hooked to all of your appliances....what Subzero is saying is IF you have a malfunction in the brining rinse during a regeneration phase and IF your icemaker demands water at that time and sends a high dose of salt to the icemaker and IF you fail to notice this for a very long time and IF you fail to address it.....the salt CAN have a damaging effect on the ice tray.....for a little education for those arguing....softned water is water that has been thru ion exchange resin...positily charged ions from the regenerant (whether it is salt or potassium) are exchanged with the dissolved rock in the water..NOT THE ENTIRE SODIUM MOLECULE.....that is all....it's not rocket surgery...how much sodium you get in your water is a direct result of how hard your water is....most people will never notice a taste different....people with high hardness, say 35 - 45 gpg will notice a brackish taste....as far as an R/O is concerned....there HAVE been cases that R/O water has caused copper tubing to leak...it is beleived that the water is so pure it does to the copper tubing what water does to everything....it absorbs it....I have an R/O hooked to my fridge and have never had pressure problems.....if you do it is usually a matter of repressurizing your holding tank...which is a peice that all true residential R/Os have.....as far as the type you should buy....your house, your money, your investment.....DO NOT James36 install a carbon filter of any type instead of an R/O....for that matter, do not follow the suggestion made earlier of an R/O with a 5mic prefilter AND a carbon filter before the membrane.....you are on well water and a carbon filter will only cause you problems.....if you want to chlorinate your system by permantly installing a chlorinator then by all means use carbon prefilters....the only place you will have one is AFTER the R/O holdin tank and before the point of use...this is only to polish the water and ensure you don't taste the rubber bladder the water has been sitting in.....one other suggestion....make sure you really look at your Subzero....some models have copper tubing running in the fridge...personally I would not risk hooking up to one.....

Automatic pool cleaners are really intended for maintence and are not going to fix your pool by themselves. If it hasn't been opened in a year or more, I imagine that you have a pretty rough task at hand. Get as much of the debris that you can out of the pool yourself (try dipping it out with a leaf bag net). You will probably have to add water to the pool so that the filtration system can work. The water needs to flow in the skimmers. Then you are going to need to balance the water chemistry. Take a water sample to a local pool supply store. They should be able to test it and let you know what you need. Buy yourself a test kit so that you can test it at home. All pools look pretty bad at startup. (Even new pools usually turn green before we get them balanced right.) Hire a professional to open your pool for you if you are nervous about it. Then get an automatic cleaner to help keep it clean. Check the water chemistry every few days and adjust accordingly. Also, you may want to look at automatic chlorinators or salt-water chlorinators to help you keep the water chemistry balanced. Just a suggestion, try to get those leaves/ debris out of the pool this year before they reach the bottom. A little bit of skimming each time you are at the pool goes a long way! Good Luck! -Renee

jscozz....from your posts on my thread a couple weeks ago, you're pool is going to have a beach and benches..correct? Have you considered an in-floor cleaner. Ours always keeps the beach, benches and sunshelf spotless. And there is no hassle with a cleaner or hoses that can be an eyesore and eventual maintenance expense. We have a 2 speed pump which uses about 500 watts at low speed that provides floor cleaning, chlorination and filtration to our pool for about 12 hours a day in the summer. High speed is used for about 1.5 hours to clean those hard-to-reach areas in the deep end every other day. Everyone always comments how clean our pool is and the shallow areas, which are most noticeable, are always spotless. Not sure how today's pool cleaners do on benches and more intricate interior pool features...my guess is they will have problems getting some of these areas which are most visible because they are shallow areas of the pool. With all the homework and planning you've been doing, just wanted to mention this option to consider also....we have no regrets after 6 swim seasons.

It's hard to give you a concise, detailed answer as there are many variables to consider, plus this (pool hydraulics) is a fairly complex subject. However, simplistically speaking, using 2-inch pipes on a 2 hp Whisperflo isn't a good idea. Pipes that size restrict too much flow, which means that your pump will be working too hard. It'll be too noisy, you'll spend more than needed on electricity, you'll have higher long-term repair costs, etc. Plus, just from a construction standpoint, an installation like this will most likely not conform to nationally recognized standards: line velocities will be too high. And for someone serious about their business, flaunting standards is something you shouldn't do. In a spa, though, 2-inch pipes on the suction side of the pump (i.e., from the drains to the pump) is really BAD idea. The velocity of water in this line will exceed 6 feet per second, which is beyond the standards for prevention of suction entrapment. If you go to 2.5-inch pipe on the suction side, you'll slow the water down to right around 6 ft/sec (and 3-inch is even better). If you use bigger pipes on both suction and return, you'll quiet the pump, etc., plus you'll be moving more water -- more gpm -- so you may be able to add another jet or two. You'll get similar results on the pool plumbing if you open up the pipe sizes. This is something, though, that many pool builders seem to resist for some reason. I don't know if it's ignorance, intransigence, or both. Ask your builder about enlarging pipe sizes and see what he says. If he is resistant, maybe it's time to look for someone else. Here is a link that might be useful: poolnerd.com -- free pool construction/design info