my family has a 6 way valve pump for the grand parents pool, and i can say that over the years the plastic can start to wear so if you cover it with a bucket to keep the uv light off it protects your investment!
@William - That's an awesome suggestion! I hadn't considered how the Sun will damage the plastic valve. I'll be sure to cover mine tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!
I have officially subscribed to your page sir! Your instructions on this filter was idiot proof! For the dads/moms trying to hit a home run with the family, you’ve taken us from “wtf have I gotten myself into, to BOOM!!!!” My twin 5yr old & wife won’t say thank you bc they’ll never know 🤫. But I think you very much!!!!!
@Hammstar - As far as the original water, that all ended up on the ground. I expected to scrub algae off the sides and bottom as I drained the pool but there was practically none visible as you see in the video. There was some algae under some places where the pool material overlaps at the seams around the circumference of the pool at the bottom. I put in some algaecide and scrubbed that a couple of times but it eventually stopped growing once the pool chlorine levels stabilized for a week or so. It was at that point, probably no more than a couple of weeks that the filter backwash stopped being green and turned mostly cloudy until it runs clear. Now it’s a weekly 1lb pool shock and 3” chlorine tablet and it’s stays clean except for the leaves that blow in and bugs that choose to die in the pool 🤷♂️. I can’t believe I messed with those filter cartridges as long as I did.
I cannot say. This filter/pump comes as a bundle, sized to properly match. A mismatched filter and pump setup may create higher back pressure that could damage your pump and/or filter. I really do not know what will happen with your setup.
Been there before! A pool your size, a sand filter and pump is the way to go for sure. I installed one of those big water filter baskets on my little 14x8 intex pool because I was lucky enough to have a 200lb sand filter and 1.5 HP pump on hand. Its major overkill for that small pool but its really nice to have. The best investment on top of that is an in-line chlorinator. They are way superior to the floating thing. From my experience, the least expensive part of owning a pool is the liner. Everything else like chemicals and other tools is where the hidden costs start to bite you.
I originally thought the pump/filter may be one size too large but I'm very happy with it. I'm not sure how large too big would be. This one keeps the water moving in a slow circular motion which takes the floating leaves and debris over to the surface skimmer. It has been a labor saver. As for costs, seems to be the chlorine has gotten a lot more expensive in the last couple of years. Thanks for watching!
I have had trouble keeping my pool clear. I switched to this same exact pump and I use zeolite sand and PR 10000. That stuff is amazing. I would highly suggest looking into it. Costly but it saves you in the long run from buying so many other chemicals to treat your pool. My pool stays crystal clear now.
@John - I'm not familiar with that sand or the PR product. I'm using plain pool sand and I'm adding about 1lb of pool shock and one 3" chlorine tablet each week which seems to be working. I'm running the filter about 8 hours a day, down from 12 hours when I made the video. How often do you have to add chlorine using those two products? What does your pump back pressure look like using the zeolite? Thanks for watching!
@@LivingCommonSense I don't use liquid chlorine, just the 3" tabs. The PR10000 kills the phosphates and the phosphates are what algae feeds on. No phosphates, no algae. Ever since changing my filter media to zeolite sand and using the PR10000, not one single problem. My pool use to stay green until finding the PR10000 and switching the filter media. Helped me tremendously, just thought I'd share. The pressure stays in the middle of the green. When it rises to the yellow I backwash.
@John - Thanks for sharing this. I'll check into the zeolite first time I change the sand. Removing the phosphates makes sense. I'm always a fan of using less chemicals
Honestly, great video. I ended up doing what you did last year and just drained the pool. This year since it's not QUITE as green I'm going to try the Green to Blue products since it was around $25 and refilling the pool is around $52 in water if I recall. Wish me luck
@JRich - I think it would have taken a week or so to clean it up with chemicals and I really didn't have the time do it properly. Also, I didn't have a lot of confidence I could get it done with the limited selection of pool products available near by but I do wish you luck and hope it works out good for you. Thanks for watching!
@@LivingCommonSense yeah, from the online article I was reading they said about a week too. I ordered pool tester strips last night, will test and hopefully balance on Thursday, then shock and flocculant on Friday/Saturday, vacuum on Sunday, which would be 5 days since getting the pump on. Things I'm not sure on is do I leave the pump running 24 hours or 12 or less? Also, when I add chemicals to balance do I leave it on filter or the "recirculate" option. Things I'll have to figure out.
@JRich - I ran my filter 24 hours a day until I got it clear and then moved to 12 hours a day starting each morning. I only add water treatment with the pump running. Whatever is growing in the pump needs a shot of treatment too. I don’t add treatment directly on the pump intake though. It has worked well so far.
I was able to drain it in this case because it was above ground. There are some in ground pools that cannot be drained. I guess it is lots of money on chemicals for them. Thanks for watching!
So as a person who has never put anything together I think it would have been nice to have you explain how you put it together as you were doing it so I could do it along with you. You’re done and I don’t understand the book 😭
I really was just figuring it out as I went, mostly putting it together by how the pictures looked in the instructions. After that, it was basically looking at what direction the water should travel through the pump and filter and not get the hoses backwards. I would never want to steer you wrong and since this was the first time I'd seen this pump, my advice was to follow the directions provided with the pump.
Thx for the vid. How did you bond the pool (I’m guessing you didn’t)? I bought this same exact setup and was told by Intex there is no bonding lug and that I should just turn off the pump when in use. Terrible answer. I kept the tank but got a proper bondable pump.
I didn't bond either the pump or the pool. I didn't know I needed to. The pump has the gfci breaker on the cord and I also have it plugged into a GFCI outlet. Other than that, I hadn't really thought about it. I guess it wouldn't be hard to bond the pool frame to a ground rod since its basically a metal ring around the pool but I'd certainly consult a licensed electrician before I did anything regarding grounding. Thanks for the info!
what size pool do you have there and you think this pump would work with a 18' round pool? Trying to figure out which sandfilter / pump to buy the cartridge filters are junk
@tyson. This is a 18’ x 4’ deep pool and the pump/filter works great with it. It should have come with this unit because, like you said, the cartridge filter that came with is too small and junk. Thanks for watching!
I did not modify the liner at all. Eventually, all the blue hoses that came with the pool cracked, started leaking and one time, dropped the water level about 12 inches before I found it.. I replaced them all with new 3rd party hoses and I replaced the coleman supplied "filtered water return to pool" valve with what came with the intex filter. Again, no mods to the liner. It had a removable cap that enabled the aerator function to inject air bubbles into the return stream. (It's been a while and I don't recall the proper names for how all the plumbing parts were labeled.) Thanks for watching!
Putting the pump in the pool it’s not unsafe, the pump itself is insulated, otherwise you would have voltage potential in the water, and there is a GFCI plug that would protect you if it’s working properly, the job of the GFCI is to measure current between the hot wire (Black) and the neutral wire (white)both wire should have the same amperage, if it sees a different of greater than 4 to 6 milliamps at 25 milliseconds it will trip thus shutting the pump off. The operation of any submersible or any water pump is safe. If all protection devices are working properly and are adequate. GFCI plugs should be tested once a month to make sure they work properly.
Yeah, with the GFCI protection working, it is unlikely anything would happen but electricity demands respect always. Safety devices are generally good for protecting people from their own ignorance and lapse of judgements but no one should have jump in feet first with reckless abandon, relying solely on safety devices as a substitute for common sense....hence the advice I provided not to get in the water with a live 120v line in the pool. It's too easy to forget or make a mistake and the GFCI device is on $20 and they can fail. You are correct though, the protection devices would work and protect almost every time. Thanks for watching
@@LivingCommonSense I get your point, most pools with pump skimmer combinations, where the pump is completely submerged in water at all times, only depending on the construction of the pump and relying solely on the GFCI. Either way for anyone to get electrocuted you will need a path to ground, In which the pool liner provides enough insulation to Protect you. Am not saying go ahead and do it, but there is layers upon layers in which you will be protected.
@tom - I’ve also heard that. I’ve never asked. I assumed the best time for them would be during regular business hours while I’m at work. Also I’m a bit out in the county so I’m not sure the nearby city fire dept would commit to allocating a truck that long for non emergency use. It’d be worth a shot if I was on limited well water.
His channel is called living common sense yet he didn’t use common sense and put an electrical device on a homemade flotation device and he wasted all of that water instead of letting the filter do its job to show how well that filter really works. So now his viewers have no idea how well that filter can make green water into clear water
I ran the filter until back pressure required running the backwash procedure. I could see no difference in the water. It would have taken a good amount of chemicals (and money) to kill the algae and then wait for the filter to remove the dead algae. It was less expensive to drain and refill the pool and made the pool usable much more quickly. So yes, we don't know if the filter alone would have cleaned the pool and that is part of the problem. How long would that have taken and how many water refills and chemical treatments would it have taken due to all the backwashing required? We know it would not have stayed clean without it. I showed you everything I did to make and keep the pool clean. Thanks for the comment! Each one helps the channel.
It would have taken a few days to filter the water. But very high chlorine levels is what kills the alge makes it set to the bottom of the pool. Then you use the sand filter to vacuum up the stuff on waste setting. Then you make your chlorine levels balanced
There is absolutely no problem with putting the pump in the pool with the set up he had. To his defense, the pump was built to be in the water. The pump comes equipped with a GFCI plug that would trip is it sees a difference of amperage between the hot and the neutral. So if the pump was to be submerged in the water nothing will happen, because the wires in the pump are insulated with ceramic. No problem here bud I would have done the same thing to speed up the draining process.
So I completely think I messed up! I filled my pool before putting the pump on! But that is because someone had stolen the pump out of our box and we didn’t realize it until the pool was full. However we’re doing a sand pump now and on the instructions for the sand pump it says to set it up before the pool is full? Can I do it or do I have to drain it
I suppose it depends on the pool. Mine was full of green water but as long as I kept the loose ends of the hoses above the water level, it didn’t cause any problems. I had a little water leaking about as I connected the hoses to the pump but it was no big deal. As long as your connections to the pool are already done and the hoses connect to the pump like mine did, I can’t imagine you’ll have a lot of trouble connecting the hoses. Thanks for watching!
You and me both! I've just about let it get out of hand again even with this filter running. This time I'll dump a bunch of algae kill and chlorine in to see if I can bring it back. Thanks for watching!
@Leek - I thought about trying that. I'm new to pool maintenance so I went with what I knew would work. I will try it your way if there is ever a next time.
I didn't know how much shock or how long it would take to clear up the water or if it would at all. I know the filter alone did not take of it so I went with water exchange.
Those strips are junk. Filled my pool did a test said CYA was high and I hadn’t added a single thing yet. Got a real test kit and shewwee I was outta balance. .
Those strips seem to come with a lot of color already showing right out of the box. After a same some of the colors don't look like the colors on the chart either. I may need a better kit too.
my family has a 6 way valve pump for the grand parents pool, and i can say that over the years the plastic can start to wear so if you cover it with a bucket to keep the uv light off it protects your investment!
@William - That's an awesome suggestion! I hadn't considered how the Sun will damage the plastic valve. I'll be sure to cover mine tomorrow. Thanks for the tip!
@@LivingCommonSense you can use UV spray protector for those too
@ulazerg - I imagine that would look more professional even if a little more expensive. Thanks for the tip!
I have officially subscribed to your page sir! Your instructions on this filter was idiot proof! For the dads/moms trying to hit a home run with the family, you’ve taken us from “wtf have I gotten myself into, to BOOM!!!!” My twin 5yr old & wife won’t say thank you bc they’ll never know 🤫. But I think you very much!!!!!
@Survival - Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you found the information useful. Good luck with you pool and filter. Thanks for watching!
I'm in the same situation my brother. This video confirms what I need to do. I'm on the right path. Thanks for the video
Glad the video was helpful. You got this!
@@LivingCommonSense How did you get the dead algae out?
@Hammstar - As far as the original water, that all ended up on the ground. I expected to scrub algae off the sides and bottom as I drained the pool but there was practically none visible as you see in the video. There was some algae under some places where the pool material overlaps at the seams around the circumference of the pool at the bottom. I put in some algaecide and scrubbed that a couple of times but it eventually stopped growing once the pool chlorine levels stabilized for a week or so. It was at that point, probably no more than a couple of weeks that the filter backwash stopped being green and turned mostly cloudy until it runs clear. Now it’s a weekly 1lb pool shock and 3” chlorine tablet and it’s stays clean except for the leaves that blow in and bugs that choose to die in the pool 🤷♂️. I can’t believe I messed with those filter cartridges as long as I did.
😆 I super enjoyed your video!! It was so to the point with our a fkn back story to every step like those other channels!!!
@Alicia - I m glad you liked the video and hope you found it useful. Thanks for watching!
You know what sucks. I think my pump being a 1,5 HP is too much for my sand filter. Do you know what will happen?
I cannot say. This filter/pump comes as a bundle, sized to properly match. A mismatched filter and pump setup may create higher back pressure that could damage your pump and/or filter. I really do not know what will happen with your setup.
Been there before! A pool your size, a sand filter and pump is the way to go for sure. I installed one of those big water filter baskets on my little 14x8 intex pool because I was lucky enough to have a 200lb sand filter and 1.5 HP pump on hand. Its major overkill for that small pool but its really nice to have. The best investment on top of that is an in-line chlorinator. They are way superior to the floating thing. From my experience, the least expensive part of owning a pool is the liner. Everything else like chemicals and other tools is where the hidden costs start to bite you.
I originally thought the pump/filter may be one size too large but I'm very happy with it. I'm not sure how large too big would be. This one keeps the water moving in a slow circular motion which takes the floating leaves and debris over to the surface skimmer. It has been a labor saver. As for costs, seems to be the chlorine has gotten a lot more expensive in the last couple of years. Thanks for watching!
I have had trouble keeping my pool clear. I switched to this same exact pump and I use zeolite sand and PR 10000. That stuff is amazing. I would highly suggest looking into it. Costly but it saves you in the long run from buying so many other chemicals to treat your pool. My pool stays crystal clear now.
@John - I'm not familiar with that sand or the PR product. I'm using plain pool sand and I'm adding about 1lb of pool shock and one 3" chlorine tablet each week which seems to be working. I'm running the filter about 8 hours a day, down from 12 hours when I made the video.
How often do you have to add chlorine using those two products?
What does your pump back pressure look like using the zeolite?
Thanks for watching!
@@LivingCommonSense I don't use liquid chlorine, just the 3" tabs. The PR10000 kills the phosphates and the phosphates are what algae feeds on. No phosphates, no algae. Ever since changing my filter media to zeolite sand and using the PR10000, not one single problem. My pool use to stay green until finding the PR10000 and switching the filter media. Helped me tremendously, just thought I'd share. The pressure stays in the middle of the green. When it rises to the yellow I backwash.
@John - Thanks for sharing this. I'll check into the zeolite first time I change the sand. Removing the phosphates makes sense. I'm always a fan of using less chemicals
Honestly, great video. I ended up doing what you did last year and just drained the pool. This year since it's not QUITE as green I'm going to try the Green to Blue products since it was around $25 and refilling the pool is around $52 in water if I recall. Wish me luck
@JRich - I think it would have taken a week or so to clean it up with chemicals and I really didn't have the time do it properly. Also, I didn't have a lot of confidence I could get it done with the limited selection of pool products available near by but I do wish you luck and hope it works out good for you. Thanks for watching!
@@LivingCommonSense yeah, from the online article I was reading they said about a week too. I ordered pool tester strips last night, will test and hopefully balance on Thursday, then shock and flocculant on Friday/Saturday, vacuum on Sunday, which would be 5 days since getting the pump on.
Things I'm not sure on is do I leave the pump running 24 hours or 12 or less? Also, when I add chemicals to balance do I leave it on filter or the "recirculate" option. Things I'll have to figure out.
@JRich - I ran my filter 24 hours a day until I got it clear and then moved to 12 hours a day starting each morning. I only add water treatment with the pump running. Whatever is growing in the pump needs a shot of treatment too. I don’t add treatment directly on the pump intake though. It has worked well so far.
Your right about wasting money on the chemicals 👍 it would be more expensive
I was able to drain it in this case because it was above ground. There are some in ground pools that cannot be drained. I guess it is lots of money on chemicals for them. Thanks for watching!
So as a person who has never put anything together I think it would have been nice to have you explain how you put it together as you were doing it so I could do it along with you. You’re done and I don’t understand the book 😭
I really was just figuring it out as I went, mostly putting it together by how the pictures looked in the instructions. After that, it was basically looking at what direction the water should travel through the pump and filter and not get the hoses backwards. I would never want to steer you wrong and since this was the first time I'd seen this pump, my advice was to follow the directions provided with the pump.
Great video well done and thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Thx for the vid. How did you bond the pool (I’m guessing you didn’t)? I bought this same exact setup and was told by Intex there is no bonding lug and that I should just turn off the pump when in use. Terrible answer. I kept the tank but got a proper bondable pump.
I didn't bond either the pump or the pool. I didn't know I needed to. The pump has the gfci breaker on the cord and I also have it plugged into a GFCI outlet. Other than that, I hadn't really thought about it. I guess it wouldn't be hard to bond the pool frame to a ground rod since its basically a metal ring around the pool but I'd certainly consult a licensed electrician before I did anything regarding grounding. Thanks for the info!
Very good water treatment
It’s still working for me. Thanks for the comment
Great video! New Sub.
Thanks for the sub. Glad you liked the video!
what size pool do you have there and you think this pump would work with a 18' round pool? Trying to figure out which sandfilter / pump to buy the cartridge filters are junk
@tyson. This is a 18’ x 4’ deep pool and the pump/filter works great with it. It should have come with this unit because, like you said, the cartridge filter that came with is too small and junk. Thanks for watching!
Did you have to do anything to the liner to add the filter aerator?
I did not modify the liner at all. Eventually, all the blue hoses that came with the pool cracked, started leaking and one time, dropped the water level about 12 inches before I found it.. I replaced them all with new 3rd party hoses and I replaced the coleman supplied "filtered water return to pool" valve with what came with the intex filter. Again, no mods to the liner. It had a removable cap that enabled the aerator function to inject air bubbles into the return stream. (It's been a while and I don't recall the proper names for how all the plumbing parts were labeled.) Thanks for watching!
9 out of ten snakes are harmless bro!!!
Probably but I still don't want them bedding up around or getting inside the pool.
Putting the pump in the pool it’s not unsafe, the pump itself is insulated, otherwise you would have voltage potential in the water, and there is a GFCI plug that would protect you if it’s working properly, the job of the GFCI is to measure current between the hot wire (Black) and the neutral wire (white)both wire should have the same amperage, if it sees a different of greater than 4 to 6 milliamps at 25 milliseconds it will trip thus shutting the pump off. The operation of any submersible or any water pump is safe. If all protection devices are working properly and are adequate. GFCI plugs should be tested once a month to make sure they work properly.
Yeah, with the GFCI protection working, it is unlikely anything would happen but electricity demands respect always. Safety devices are generally good for protecting people from their own ignorance and lapse of judgements but no one should have jump in feet first with reckless abandon, relying solely on safety devices as a substitute for common sense....hence the advice I provided not to get in the water with a live 120v line in the pool. It's too easy to forget or make a mistake and the GFCI device is on $20 and they can fail. You are correct though, the protection devices would work and protect almost every time. Thanks for watching
@@LivingCommonSense I get your point, most pools with pump skimmer combinations, where the pump is completely submerged in water at all times, only depending on the construction of the pump and relying solely on the GFCI. Either way for anyone to get electrocuted you will need a path to ground, In which the pool liner provides enough insulation to Protect you. Am not saying go ahead and do it, but there is layers upon layers in which you will be protected.
In middle of doing this right now... lol
Good luck! It works great once it all gets going and the water and system are all stabilized.
Next time check the local fire dept and ask if they will fill the pool, some will.
@tom - I’ve also heard that. I’ve never asked. I assumed the best time for them would be during regular business hours while I’m at work.
Also I’m a bit out in the county so I’m not sure the nearby city fire dept would commit to allocating a truck that long for non emergency use. It’d be worth a shot if I was on limited well water.
@@LivingCommonSense always worth a shot, nothing to lose. 73
His channel is called living common sense yet he didn’t use common sense and put an electrical device on a homemade flotation device and he wasted all of that water instead of letting the filter do its job to show how well that filter really works. So now his viewers have no idea how well that filter can make green water into clear water
I ran the filter until back pressure required running the backwash procedure. I could see no difference in the water. It would have taken a good amount of chemicals (and money) to kill the algae and then wait for the filter to remove the dead algae. It was less expensive to drain and refill the pool and made the pool usable much more quickly. So yes, we don't know if the filter alone would have cleaned the pool and that is part of the problem. How long would that have taken and how many water refills and chemical treatments would it have taken due to all the backwashing required? We know it would not have stayed clean without it. I showed you everything I did to make and keep the pool clean. Thanks for the comment! Each one helps the channel.
@@LivingCommonSense yeah and putting electrical equipment on a mischief flotation device is a good idea
It would have taken a few days to filter the water. But very high chlorine levels is what kills the alge makes it set to the bottom of the pool. Then you use the sand filter to vacuum up the stuff on waste setting. Then you make your chlorine levels balanced
There is absolutely no problem with putting the pump in the pool with the set up he had. To his defense, the pump was built to be in the water. The pump comes equipped with a GFCI plug that would trip is it sees a difference of amperage between the hot and the neutral. So if the pump was to be submerged in the water nothing will happen, because the wires in the pump are insulated with ceramic. No problem here bud I would have done the same thing to speed up the draining process.
So I completely think I messed up! I filled my pool before putting the pump on! But that is because someone had stolen the pump out of our box and we didn’t realize it until the pool was full. However we’re doing a sand pump now and on the instructions for the sand pump it says to set it up before the pool is full? Can I do it or do I have to drain it
I suppose it depends on the pool. Mine was full of green water but as long as I kept the loose ends of the hoses above the water level, it didn’t cause any problems. I had a little water leaking about as I connected the hoses to the pump but it was no big deal. As long as your connections to the pool are already done and the hoses connect to the pump like mine did, I can’t imagine you’ll have a lot of trouble connecting the hoses. Thanks for watching!
I was hoping to see the filter clean the water
You and me both! I've just about let it get out of hand again even with this filter running. This time I'll dump a bunch of algae kill and chlorine in to see if I can bring it back. Thanks for watching!
Ok I thought I was trippin there was no way the sand filter was gonna clean that green water 😳🤔
@Comment - Yeah I’m new to pools and thought it might work but nope. Had to go another route 😆
My pool was like that I shocked the hell out of it ran my sand filter cleared right up
@Leek - I thought about trying that. I'm new to pool maintenance so I went with what I knew would work. I will try it your way if there is ever a next time.
A sand filter won't get out algae but I guess you know that now. A cartridge filter will... lotta work though. Just don't let algae start
You’d think I would have learned but I’ll be cleaning up again in a few days for the upcoming Summer. Thanks for watching.
Why is the video sped up? It's weird...
Some of the lesser important parts were sped up to save the viewer some time. Thanks
Why didn't you shock it?
I didn't know how much shock or how long it would take to clear up the water or if it would at all. I know the filter alone did not take of it so I went with water exchange.
That a lot of water coming out of drain tube Oop
A lot of garbage went out with that water
@@LivingCommonSenseawesome
Those strips are junk.
Filled my pool did a test said CYA was high and I hadn’t added a single thing yet. Got a real test kit and shewwee I was outta balance. .
Those strips seem to come with a lot of color already showing right out of the box. After a same some of the colors don't look like the colors on the chart either. I may need a better kit too.
😂😂😂 dude you cheated. But I understand.
@Aquaizm - At some point you got to decide just how bad you want the win🤣