Best Sanitizer / Best Way to Introduce

[cooper]

Hey Guys,

I installed the new liner and the pool is filling. Boy the old liner was brittle! I have an aqua leader illusion pool. It's about 15 years old and in great shape. Everything came apart easily and the beaded liner fit perfectly. They originally gave me the wrong size....54" deep but thank god they had a 52" in stock. The liner they ordered in for me was a 20 ga and the one I ended up with was 25 ga. Lil different print but looks great. Glad that's done.

Ok.....my question. I don't want to bleach out the liner and after 20 yrs of pool ownership am wondering what the proper way is to introduce the chemicals into the pool. Wondering if I should go back to bacucil or stick with the bio gaurd soft sticks. wether I should use my auto clorinator, put the sticks / tabs in my skimmer, floater or what.
It seemed like when I first started using baqucil 10 or so yrs ago it was great, but then they changed the formula and it didn't work as well.

I also need to say that I've been going thru heat exchangers anually and not sure if it's cause my ph was off or because I shock thru the skimmer.. I do have a check valve between the outlet and the heater....actually 2 of them.

Any idea's for me?

Thanks Guys / Girls
Cooper

[PoolDoc]

I recently did some investigation of liners, and came up with the same things I had 15 years ago:

1) Some liners last longer than other, but there's no way for the end user to tell which is which.
2) Some liners are more bleach resistant (color fast) than others, , but there's no way for the end user to tell which is which.
(However, some colors -- like medium blue -- are LESS color fast.)
3) Bleach, and chlorine levels below 50 ppm, *might* bleach your liner's COLOR, but are unlikely to hurt your liner.
4) Low pH is damaging to liners. This means undiluted tri-chlor is a huge problem.
5) High pH is very damaging to liners.
6) Levels between 7 and 7.8 are fine.
7) Finally, 15 years is an exceptionally GOOD life for a liner.

On other topics,

=> The Baquacil formula has never changed. That product system always works well at first, but then deteriorates as PHMB (active ingredient) waste products accumulate in the water and clog the filter. If you replace your filter and your pool water annually, it will always work well (other than being really expensive.) I doubt your liner will last more than 15 years, however.

=> BioGuard sticks are trichlor with expensive marketing and labels. But chemically, their tri-chlor is like everyone else's. In fact, their tri-chlor pretty much *IS* everyone else's - the parent company (manufacturing section) of BioGuard is behind the 'cheap' labels at Walmart, Lowes and Sams!

=> Annual heat exchanger replacement is not normal. If you have a salt pool, you need to switch to cupro-nickel heat exchangers. Shocking through the skimmer is dicey; if you do so with an ACIDIC chlorine (trichlor powder) you'll kill your heater quickly. Switch to predissolved dichlor or even better, bleach, directly added to the pool. (There's another way, but it's too long to cover here.)

Low pH definitely kills heat exchangers. Low pH with really high chlorine (skimmer shocking with trichlor) is a recipe for annual replacement.

Not sure what you mean by "a check valve between the outlet and the heater" -- outlet of what?


Ben

[madwil]

acid should be added in the pool, in front of a water return which will spread it for you (with the pump running)
liquid chlorine/bleach same
powders dissolve first, then same (some can be added to skimmer)
most here don't use baquacil- most people find over time the baquacil doesn't work as effectively

[Watermom]

madwill, it is also fine to add bleach slowly to a skimmer. That is the way I always do it. Not a problem. It is immediately diluted and kicked out into the pool.

[cooper]

Hey There,

Thanks for all the info.... the BBB article is very interesting. Thanks Ben!

I'm not looking to get more time from my liner.....I just don't want to bleach / fade it out fast. The last few years of shocking I've sometimes sent it thru the skimmer, and others broadcast in over the pool and watched it sink to the liner floor. I believe thats how I did all the damage.

I'm going to follow your recipe and use liquid bleach..... i'll pour it in the pool at the return as mad will suggested. I'm going to have to do a better job with my ph. It's odd cause my neighbor has the exact same heater as me.....never checks his ph and has never had to change his exchanger.

What I meant about the check valve is I have 1...actually 2 inline between my clorinator and the heater....

I'll have to try hard to eliminate all potential causes of the exchanger going... I'll watch my ph closer, and not shock or put any chemicals into the skimmer. Of course everyones pool, water, ect is different but if you had to take a wild guess of how often to put a gal of bleach in the pool to maintain a good fc level what would you guys think?

Thanks much
cooper

[aylad]

As you said, everybody's pool is different-- you need to test your water daily to determine when it's time to add more bleach.

Janet

[cooper]

Thanks Janet....

Holy Cow....I read some of Bens papers last night. Boy that's alot of info......my head was spinning!

I'll let you know how I make out.

Cooper