This past summer pool care became my chore. Before then, it belonged to my husband--that whole indoors/outdoors pact I insisted we make and I hold him to it, so he takes care of what is outside the house and I the inside. To be fair, I think he enjoyed maintaining the pool. He found it relaxing after a long day indoors at a desk. But this summer, I took over due to time constraints and my own search for relaxation or maybe an escape from something indoors. I.E., writing the book?
It kicked my ass. Maintaining the pool against Florida's summer weather and yellow mustard algae sneaking in overnight to cover the sides of my pool even though I'D JUST VACUUMED IT SEVERAL HOURS PRIOR, was a nightmare. It was a tiny war I would never become victorious in, and it was a constant fight. If prepping to vacuum wasn't such a chore, I might have won at least once a day, but getting out the vacuum and hooking it up is worse than the task itself!
Our vacuum is coiled inside a plastic bin on the outside of our screened in patio. It has to be uncoiled, brought through the propped open door, attached to the vacuum, and then filled with water. It sounds easy, but believe me, it isn't.
First, there is the issue of the coiling that has to be done when putting the vacuum hose back into the bin. It doesn't tuck in nicely. Oh, no. It has to be twisted and twisted into various positions, and that means the process has to be reversed when getting the hose out for vacuuming. Secondly, once the hose and vacuum are ready and in the pool, I have to make sure the pole is secure enough that when I leave it to turn on the pump, the damn thing won't slip to the bottom. If it does, I have to enter the pool to retrieve it.
It's a terrible job.
By the time I'm ready to vacuum the pool, which takes all of fifteen minutes, seeing that our pool is small and made of fiberglass, I'm soaking wet. SOPPING WET. Drenched in sweat from the 100% humidity and 95-degree weather and blaring sun we get in the summer. I'm blind in both eyes from salty sweat, and I have a disposition that matches the heat of the sun. It isn't pretty. The only good side is I get to jump into the water when the pool is finally vacuumed. If I don't have somewhere else that I need to be.
By early September of last summer, I decided we needed a creeping vacuum. Last weekend I researched them, so I'd have plenty of time to prep the husband toward this purchase and be ready for summer, which is arriving sooner than last year if heat is any indication. My husband is big into researching any big-ticket items, and thus, I began by Googling the top automatic pool vacuum cleaners.
It wasn't difficult. There were plenty of sites where experts and everyday people tried out several brands of such vacuums and shared their knowledge and wisdom. Most all of the sites listed one vacuum in each category, including the best vacuum for an economical price. This is the one I wanted because not only would it convince the husband, but my pool is not a large hole with a capacity to hold a hydrant of water. It is small. It doesn't need some crazy expensive roving vacuum that licks the sides and bottoms of my pool with a tongue.
I read the comments on Amazon, where I could purchase the vacuum, doing so aloud so the husband could hear. I spent most of Sunday morning researching. By the time I was finished I had decided on this vacuum:
I announced my decision, put it into my Amazon wish list for later, and closed the computer to move on to my writing.
Tom: "Wait, what did you decide? Did you find a vacuum?"
Bottom line? He conducted his own research. He does this often. He tells me to research something, doesn't believe me when I offer the results, and does it himself. I should be used to this by now, yet it annoys me every time. I left him to it, and in the end, he agreed that for less than a hundred dollars, we should buy the vacuum, and he did. Ordered it right up. In February.
It arrived two days later. Saturday, we tackled installation.
He has a system. He likes to take everything out of the box and lay it out to make sure all of the pieces have come in the box. Me? I cut to the chase, read the directions, and pull out the parts when needed. I did that earlier in the day just to be sure we had everything. This way, I was prepared for his nonsense.
It didn't seem that complicated. I read the directions, and he listened. Then he asked questions, and I reread the instructions. From there, he took the manual, read the directions, and did what it said. We should have our own YouTube channel.
It was a quick installation, although there was more horsing around than constructing, and eventually, the vacuum was ready to go. We powered it on, made a few minor adjustments that required my entering the water to knee level, but for the most part, it worked like every vacuum I've ever encountered in my visits to a vast amount of different pools over the years as a swimming instructor.
If it cleans even half the amount of mustard algae this summer, I will have gotten my money's worth. Fingers crossed.
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