Borates Experience

[BigDave]

I'm curious.
Has anyone, in addition to Waterbear, added borates to your pool and what results have you experienced?

[waterbear]

Many people have, there is quite a bit of feedback on some different pool forums and the commercial borate products like Supreme, Optimizer, and Endure have been on the market for many years now. The benefits of borates have been well documented.

[chem geek]

I added 50 ppm Borates to my pool last year. It seems to reduce the surface tension of the water (less of a meniscus in vials when testing) and seems to make the water sparkle more. I definitely noticed that the water is far less reactive to algae growth -- I've had >3000 ppb phosphates in my pool so I've had to be careful to maintain the chlorine properly as algae can grow quickly if I don't, but since the borates I did an an experiment letting the chlorine get low and didn't notice anywhere near the same rate of dull/cloudy water development for a pending algae bloom.

I've never had a pH rise problem in my pool so didn't notice much change there -- borates are an additional pH buffer. It does seem that the pH rises more slowly and needs more acid when I do need to add it, but the result is the same total acid per unit time, just more quantity added less frequently.

As waterbear mentioned, many people have tried it and most think it's great though there are a small number who saw no benefit from their perspective.

Richard

[BigDave]

Thanks, I read through the Great Tetraborate Experiment a while ago when I was still lurking around here. Lately I've noticed that Waterbear regularly recommends borates and recall that PoolDoc recommended borates for someone battling metal problems / staining. The positives are very attractive to me and relatively easy to try in our small pool. I remember some of the China Shop conversation regarding the safety of ingesting borated(?) pool water. Is there a consensus regarding safety for dogs and people? I'm not sure I can keep the young'ns from drinking some of the pool.

[chem geek]

I wrote about borates safety in this thread.

[BigDave]

Wow! Thanks!
Research is way better than consensus (but takes a lot longer to read).

I see that research referenced in the WHO report indicated that 50mg/ml borate should be effective in supressing / eliminating several of the algae species studied as has been experienced by many. Why, I wonder, would the borate pool product providers label thier product dosage (from the EPA report) at ten times that rate? Is the idea to use boron as the primary sanitizer?

I'm not sure I can stop the kids (mine and others in the neighborhood) from drinking a tablespoon a day no matter how much I insist. I suspect somebody pees in it (CC spikes) even though I personally look each swimmer in the eye and say "The potty's just through the door, not in the pool". On the other hand, they don't swim every day and we only have a pool in the summer and the research suggests chronic exposure is more of the problem than acute episodes ("Sorry Dad, I didn't mean to drink a half gallon of pool water, I was thirsty").

I think I'll try it next summer - almost time to drain, dry, fold, and store.

I am still interested in anyone else's experience with borates positive, neagtive, or neutral.