New Liner thickness Recommendation?

[Watermom]

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

[CarlD]

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.

[jevincent1]

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.

[CarlD]

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.