Pool! When spending a little extra makes a big difference

I didn’t wanna do it. Resisted until resistance was futile. But last winter the pool guys’ pleas won out, and I finally got around to draining and refilling the pool.

Two hundred bucks, plus the cost of 18,000 gallons of water.

The pool-draining pitch has always struck me as another way for the pool company to lighten the pool owner’s wallet. Pool guys will tell you that you should drain the pool about once every two or three years. Right. My ex- and I lived in the gigantic house off Central Avenue for ten years and never drained the pool, with no noticeable ill effect.

Old-timers at this space know I expend a great deal of energy bellyaching about taking care of the pool. I’ve even gone so far as to consider converting it into a trout pond. Each summer the work entailed in keeping the thing clean and beating back the ravening hordes of algae has grown more baroque and expensive, culminating last summer, when the pH fell into the sulfuric range, with the Great Soda Ash Frolic. With the chemical balance no longer maintainable, it was clear that when the weather cooled enough that draining wouldn’t crack the plaster, I was gunna have to change out the water.

Well. Despite all the grousing, the result is that this summer the pool has hardly required any maintenance work at all!

• No gallons of acid or pounds of soda ash
• No visits from the Leslie’s dude to disassemble and clean out the filter
• No scrubbing or spraying down the walls and steps
• No razor-blading the white gunk off the tiles

It’s all been pretty much nothing but enjoying the water.

Now, it must be said that we haven’t had many monsoon storms. Those that we’ve seen came in from the north or the west, blowing the leaves and plaster-staining pods from Satan’s accursed devil-pod tree away from the pool, instead of dumping the trash directly into the pool. So I’ve only had to clean that mess out a couple of times this summer. The stress level has been helped by not having the job that required me to race through the clean-up at dawn so as to get dressed and plunge into the homicidal rush-hour traffic between here and the office.

The savings in chemicals and service calls have more than made up for the cost of draining and refilling the pool. One trip charge from Leslie’s is about $100. Muriatic acid is cheap, but chlorine decidedly is not. This spring I bought a giant bucket of Costco swimming pool tablets, which also costs $100, and I’ve only gone through about half of them. Last year they were gone before the summer ended. One shock treatment has lasted two or three weeks, so I haven’t been buying bags of shock treatment every time I turn around. Clearly, too, keeping the pool water chemically balanced will delay the need for replastering, an $8,000 job.

It’s totally changed my life and my attitude toward the pool. It’s been a pleasure to have instead of a daily burden. After this, I plan to change out the water every second winter, come Hell or high water. Really, if I were up for the hassle, I’d probably do it every year. Probably if you refilled every year, you’d never have to replaster.

Believe it or not, in spite of the continuing 110-degree days, the pool is beginning to cool down. The nights are longer and a little cooler. We’ve had  some rain and cloudy days that cut the number of hours the sun bakes the water. So the water again is refreshing—even a little cool for an early-morning or late-evening plunge. I love it!