Pool Works

This is the technical term that we pool owners apply to all the mechanicals that make a pool run: chlorinator, pump, filter, pool cleaner. It's quite the collection. 

Let's start with the chlorinator: it dispenses the right amount of chlorine to keep the pool water sparkling. A little lesson on chlorine - it is a highly toxic substance, which is why it was so helpful in WW1 as a deadly gas. Having fun yet?

Then the filter. A device running at 2 atmospheres of pressure, it uses diatomaceous earth as the cleansing filter agent. A little lesson on DE as it is known: poisonous. Breathing too much causes silicosis. Since it has to be changed out a few time a season, there is the occasional inhaling. 

Then, although happily not lethal, there's a 1 hp pump that makes that little pool cleaner thing wander about the pool floor and walls sucking up dirt, sand, leaves and such. Sounds like a wonder, and when in a good mood, works like one. Temperamental little wonder, however. 

Finally the 1 1/2 horsepower pump that keeps everything circulating. Hardly lethal, it still has to run 8 hours a day every day. You try that without failing. Not gonna happen. 

This cornucopia of lethal agents and hardworking pumps takes perverse pleasure in requiring constant fiddling followed by periodic replacement. 

Pools: a hole in the ground you throw money into.