Pool Season 2013 Begins

Vicki and I took the cover off the pool in the middle of last week, hoping to avoid last year's experience of finding bright green Jell-O coloured water beneath it.  Our theory was that waiting later into May, as we did in 2012, was the reason there was so much algae to deal with once we removed the cover.  The style of cover we've had for the last few years allows some sunlight through, and that, combined with the warmer water temperature due to the lateness, seemed to be responsible for that explosive growth of the green stuff.

Sure enough, the water was astonishingly blue this week, and the opening was a much more pleasant ordeal, as a result.  We vacuumed out the worst bits of dirt and worms from the bottom, which only took a few minutes, and then put the scrubbing robot into the very cold water (about 50 F) to let it do its thing.  Within a couple of days we had the pool clean and sparkly, and after a service call yesterday to replace the broken rollover switch on the heater (who knew it even had such a thing, or that it would break less than 2 years after installing the heater?), we've now got the water up into the low 70s, Fahrenheit.  We've put the automated vacuum (Zodiac) in to replace the robot that requires manual cleaning of its filter, and I may even be able to get a swim in tomorrow, if I'm hot enough after my bike ride home from downtown. 

We appear to have found the right timing and approach to opening the pool, with the new style of cover that we're using.  And that's a good thing.