New Liner thickness Recommendation?

My liner developed a leak this year causing me to lose 15k of water over a 4 week period, and the pool companies are recommending I replace the liner, as the current one is too brittle. My first liner lasted 11 years and was 20mm thick. The new one is 28mm and lasted only 6 (too brittle as noted above).

Pool companies are telling me liner quality is much different now, and that thicker is better, but to only expect 7-9 years for a new liner.

Do different liners have different quality or are they all the save if they advertise "virgin" vinyl?

Joe

Wow, have YOU opened a can of worms! From what I gather, the answer is "yes" they are all of different quality, and "no", they are pretty much the same.

I'm over my pay-grade here but different companies get their sheet vinyl essentially where ever they can get the patterns on them them need. Some of our more expert folks here will tell you that even "virgin vinyls" may have very different compositions. Generally, though, thicker is better. My liner is near the end of its life at 12 years, and I could probably get another 1-3 years out of it, but I am changing it because i have to rebuild the pool walls, so I have to change it. It's badly faded but it's still pretty thick though it's more brittle than it was.

A couple of years ago we had an interesting discussion on whether calcium in the water had ANY effect on the vinyl and it turned out that SOME have a higher calcium content than others (don't ask ME why) but we couldn't establish whether calcium in the water would prevent calcium leeching out of the vinyl the way it can from concrete or tile. It seems to not do that.

I personally think you should get the thickest liner you can afford, install it carefully, and maintain it carefully, for a long life.

If I am remembering correctly, I think the last liner I bought a couple of years ago was a 28mil.

There are also two different sizing numbering systems and they seem contradictory. There is "gauge" and there is "thickness". A "35 gauge" liner is 30 mils thick (a mil is a thousandth of an inch). A 30 gauge liner is 26 mils. A 20 gauge is only 18.5 mils, and so on.

Wow, hard to believe this could be so complicated. Interestingly, my water is always on the low side of calcium. I can put lots in, but it never stays stable long. Multiple stores I've gone to over the years have told me that calcium has no effect on vinyl (just more opinions for the debate), but I've always wondered about its effect on the liner, and if it was causing the bubbling on my steps. Replacing steps is an awfully large investment, so I'd really like to know what caused the bubbles. After asking questions for years about the cause of bubbles, have resigned myself to the fact that I will probably never know.

If I replace the liner, then the steps go bad, I may need a dump truck full of dirt to fill it all in.

For all intents and purposes, we have found that Calcium is USELESS in vinyl pools. The debate was theoretical about that. I'd still go for the thickest liner I could afford, and remember the warranty applies to the SEAMS, not the vinyl itself.