New vinyl liner, must avoid calcium

We are looking for direction for what chlorine to use? The old liner started showing tears late last Aug, with huge tears by the end of Sept. (even w/patching) The tears were mostly above the water line though. We've been told to stay away from chlorine with calcium, b/c it's hard on the vinyl liners? We had been using Sam's Club (can' recall the name of the brand they had last year), and then we went back to Aqua Chem's Chlorinating Granuals. Do you strongly suggest just using straight chlorine bleach in a pool???

It is a backwards "L" shape, 40,000 gallon pool.

Thanks in advance,
Dina

Hi, Dina,

Calcium has no effect on vinyl pools. You could use Clorox or Calcium Hypochlorite for your pool. Most of us don't use the pucks (tri-chlor)because they will, in the long run, cause some other issues.

The granules you used were most likely calcium hypochlorite.

It's always a good idea to include current test results when you post. There's some sharp-eyed experts here that might detect some other issues you may not be aware of.

How old was your old liner? What do you think caused it to fail?

Dave,
We have only lived here 3.5 yrs...and the pool guy est the liner to be about 7 years old. Unfortunately I do not have any numbers just yet b/c the water is not completely in (they ran into a problem w/one of the light fixtures yesterday), so we had to stop filling it.

I really do not know what could have caused it to tear...it started where there is direct sunlight during most of the day. We do have pine and evergreens around it, but that part of the deep end gets the heat of the day sun for about 4-5 hours. The Aqua Chem Granuals we have now is a Trichloro-s-triazinetrione (71.8%), Boron Sodium Oxide - Pentalydrate 8%, and the other ingredients (Clarifier, filtration enhancer, sunlight protector 20.2%).

We checked directly with Tara Liners (warranty dept), and he just called me back and said in the mean time to just use what we have-but keep on top of the alkalinity and PH(obviously) _ I am always checking the levels daily anyway...He said once we are thru these 2 buckets (22.5lb each) we should switch over to Dichlor...

He said typically vinyl liners will last 7-10 yrs. SO much for the 20 yr warranty we thought we were getting!

Thanks again for any help !!
Dina

Calcium may not hurt vinyl liners, but too much chlorine can.

Problem with calcium hypochlorite is it takes a long time to dissolve, and if you simply broadcast it in a vinyl lined pool, chances are good that the granules will sit on the liner for awhile until they dissolve, which is bad for the liner, especially over time.