Waterbear;

I'm not sure it's reasonable to try to settle the sock vs skimmer issue the way you think. The reason is 1 word: Intex!

There are now more Intex, or Intex type, pools out there than all the commercial pools and all the inground pools put together. And last time I checked, they don't have skimmers!

I bought one once, to try it. And, we tried to put the stabilizer in to the sidewall suction intake. We ended up with stabilizer all over the bottom of the pool.

There's at least one other reason to use a sock, besides a missing or broken skimmer: cal hypo feed systems!

Do you know what happens when you mix wet stabilizer with cal hypo? If not, don't try it: it DETONATES!

I've experimented with it a little, but it scares me, so a little is all. But, you haven't lived till you've stood in a pump room, biting your nails as you listen to a 60" steel sand filter that sounds like it's full of popcorn popping!

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You've also raised a larger issue, of variable and even wrong advice given here. It's an issue I'm aware of, and it concerns me.

There is no perfect solution.

Even if I wrote up a comprehensive guide to BBB pool care, and let you and Chem Geek and mods proof and correct it . . . it still wouldn't be perfectly correct: I'd just think it was, for awhile.

I do hope to put together a series of FAQs for the PoolForum over the winter. But, whether I'm able to do so depends on a number of things I'm not fully in control of . . . including my own ability to concentrate on such things for hours at a time.

I do see posts and responses that make me wince. But, if I try to jump into all of them, other things more critical to PF's survival will grind to a halt. I think the question for me is, are people generally better off coming here and following the advice here, or not?

I think the answer -- imperfect responses notwithstanding -- is still clearly "Yes!".

After the past 4 or 5 years, I find that fact a lot easier to be comfortable with than it used to be. The world's a broken place, and I'm a broken person, and I can't change that. If my efforts make it a little less broken than it was, well, I think that's enough reason to be content. Not that I don't want to make it better, but I'm more able now to try to do what I can, today, and worry less about the things I can't do, at least not today.

Ben
"PoolDoc"