Trouble-shooting Your Automatic Pool Cleaner
When it comes time to open pools in the spring, we get lots of calls from customers saying that their automatic pool cleaner is not working properly. More often than not, the cleaner seems to get stuck in a pattern where it only cleans part of the pool. Here’s a helpful hint: when you store you cleaner for the winter, don’t roll up the hoses if you can avoid it. If the hose is actually a series of small hoses that slide together, separate them and keep them straight. If you have a single hose, try and avoid rolling it up. If you have to, unroll it in the spring and let the sun warm it before rolling it back up the opposite way. Pool hoses are a lot like your garden hose-they develop memories and if they aren’t given a case of pool amnesia, they won’t let the cleaner go everywhere. Cold water contributes to the stiffness so the cleaner always works a little less than perfect in cold water. Lastly, remember that an automatic cleaner is designed to keep a clean pool clean, not to clean a filthy pool. If you had a cover disaster and your pool is loaded with debris, vac it out by hand first. It will extend the life of your automatic cleaner and in the long run, your pool will get straightened out quicker and with less hassle. -Stacey
Dreaming of Summer
We are now into March and, even though the cold weather doesn’t seem like it will ever end, spring is on the way. It feels as though this winter has dragged on longer than any I can remember, but there are signs of spring everywhere you look. The tree in my front yard has sprouted buds on the branches, and I found my first weed growing in my mulch bed. Normally you don’t celebrate finding a weed growing but in this case it gives me hope that the warm weather is around the corner. I find myself longing for those days of summer lazily swimming in the pool. I can still remember as a child how much fun it was when my brothers and I would get in a huge water fight, and then we would run and hide when our mother would yell at us for splashing the water out of the pool. Looking back on those hot summer days makes me smile and its luckily one of those memories my brothers and I can share with our families. Its wonderful to see my brothers and their children having the same water fights and horsing around in the pool even when we know we shouldn’t. I know that many things in my life are hectic and sometimes responsibilities seem to be a little much, but when I have those wonderful summer days with my family it all fades away.
- Thomas
