OK, so the pool is now full of what may or may nor be softened water.
(New to us house, first time pool owners, pool more than 3 and less than
10 yrs old.) When the water level got high enough to start entering the
skimmer, the cartridge filter started leaking from where the top and
bottom meet. When the water was high enough to turn on the pump, I did
so just to see what would happen and water gushed out from the filter in
every direction possible. So I turned it all off.

I put a call in to the pool company that opened the pool for me, but I
haven't heard back from them yet. I paid them a lot of money to open the
pool, which isn't really as ready to go as I expected it to be, and they
haven't returned a call from yesterday afternoon, so I'm getting a
little frustrated with them. I've got a call in also to a local guy
from the Pennysaver who seems to deal in dismantling and reselling pools
and equipment. His phone number is very local to mine, so I'm hoping
he'll stop by to assess the filter for me and maybe either be able to
service it or switch it out for me for something he's got on hand.

We really don't want to put a lot of money into this pool, my husband
would be more inclined to just let the local guy dismantle the damn
thing and haul it out of here! But the kids will be heartbroken, and
I've already paid a crapload of non-refundable money for swimming
lessons for the kids in anticipation of keeping them from drowning in
this alleged backyard pool.

So my question is, can anyone give me an idea of what might be wrong
with the filter, so that I have some hope of not being totally snowed by
someone into purchasing completely new equipment if avoidable.

Thanks for all the help and advice.

Karen

PS The ac install seems to have gone well, but the weather has cooled a
bit and the humidity has gone down considerable after a series of
thunderstorms, so we haven't had much cause to use it beyond having it
on to check it out. It did seem to cool the house very evenly, and i
noticed the lower humidity level. They moved the thermostat's location
away from next to the wood burning stove and installed a very nice
programmable thermostat in a more sensible locaiton, so I need to find
some time to get that programmed. So far, so good.