Doughboy Liner Damaged by Chlorine?

[CarlD]

rajung:

It sure sounds like you did very little, if anything, wrong. I know it's depressing but you STILL want to have a pool so you have to do it.

FantaSea sold me their "Space Age Lifetime Walls". What I didn't know was it was the "lifetime" would turn out to be 12 years--a dog's life. Even with discounts the regular water walls would cost me $2000 with shipping. I'm expecting it to cost me less than half that, but with a lot of extra sweat equity. I'm using underlayment grade P/T 3/4" ply, priming it with Kilz premium outdoor primer, then I'm going to let it sit for 3 months before I try painting it. The inside, facing the liner, will be covered with wall foam to protect the liner, but I wasn't planning on painting over the primer. The outside will be painted.

They did give me a deep discount on a discontinued pattern for the liner in heavier gauge.

[rajung]

Yes
the sand filter is a Aquaview sold by them " Doughboy" and the liner is the thickest mil liner they have, made for stretching into a deep end type of pool.
So between Doughcrap and Biocrap, you don't always get what you pay for.

[PoolDoc]

Rajung;

I'm not sure what happened. Obviously, you've had some bad luck. Every company occasionally ships some bad product, and that may have happened to you.

But unlike BioLab, Doughboy has a long and well established reputation for quality -- if pricey -- product. And, contrary to my suspicions, I was able to confirm today that Doughboy's equipment is almost exclusively US made. So, my China info doesn't apply.

I'm going to have to mark these problems as indeterminate in cause; I'm not willing to assign Doughboy the "Doughcrap" label based on a single unfortunate episode.

Again, I'm sorry that you've had bad luck; I wish I knew why.

Sincerely,

Ben Powell

[rajung]

Thanks for the info on where made,I was starting to get a little worried and was going to make a phone call to find out.
Only thing I can think of,if the over chlorination was in fact the problem,or just a quick way out for them since the liner was bleached out around the return fitting about 2-3 inches after a combined 8 useage months, they assumed that and went no further.
The pool store is one of only 2 Authorized dealers in the state that I can find,and with Doughboy being almost impossible to buy parts or anything else without going through a dealer,I thought they knew what products are fine with Doughboy liner.
A little background on what the salesman instructed me to do when he was on site after install on Aug 2012.
I was instructed ,after he added stabilizer,to add 2 bioguard silk sticks to the skimmer each week,add proper amount of Algea preventer each week and shock pool with a pound of the bioguard product ea. week.And use the test strips I was provided.
No problem, new pool owner,I got this
So Aug -Sept.2012 did all that,then winterized and covered filter,heater and pool.Was told filter could stay outdoors.
April 2013 -Sept 2013,repeated the above process every week,except bring sand filter into the garage in the fall.I did have my Taylor kit in July and it was testing stabilizer level around 90-100 ppm by then thanks to the silk sticks so I was keeping FC around 8 or 9ppm
Nov- through the winter,found the pool calc.and a FC to CYA level chart and other reference items.
March 2014,after winter thaw, major seam leak.
Maybe what I was sold and told to do,in fact done me in.
Looking back at the silk sticks, what an un regulated way to sanitize,ea day it could go anywhere.
Also, was told by the end of week most of the sticks would be dissolved, and if not some may still be left but just toss 2 more in there.
So, I guess ea week I was pounding the pool into the ground and thinking I was on top of my maintenence.
Pool was only used by 2 of us a couple times a week most of the time,ocassional pool party.
I have been useing the bleach,8% and chlorine 12%-Muriatic acid-Borax since new liner install, never needed baking soda since my tap water is 380 TA.
In your opinion,would TA at 130ppm and CYA at 50 with FC at 6 be fine?
or should I go lower on both?
Just a little nervouse on what next spring will be like.
Also ,I was adding the bleach/chlorine into the skimmer for a couple months this year but got worried about the possible liner fade at the return, so I started to add that in front of the return water stream.
Thanks again for all the help.

[CarlD]

So they get US-made sheet vinyl?
I think it's pretty cool you could confirm that, Ben. How did you do it?

As I pointed out, FantaSea, also a very good company, would only offer me a limited discount on their so-called "lifetime warranty" water walls, so I guess that's the standard, the best you get in the industry.

When you "winterized" your pool, did you drain your filter? I suspect your filter split from ice damage. I've left my filter outside every winter with no problem for the last 11 winters--and we get cold ones in NJ! I take off the multi valve and store THAT in the basement, remove and store the drain cap, and tip the filter ever so slightly so that the drain is now the absolute lowest point. After it drains for a day, I then cover it with a Contractor's trash bag and use duct tape to make the bag tight. But I never let the duct tape touch the filter, just the bag. So there's not enough water in the tank to form enough ice to damage it.

[PoolDoc]

Running with un-controlled chlorine levels (no testing) can DEFINITELY get you in trouble. Sounds like you may have ID'd the problem.

@Carl: I called Hoffinger, and talked to several people there. Apparently, they even do their own molding for the plastics in the pumps and filters. They do buy the resins and raw PVC, but in rail cars. At that level of ops, I would assume they do QC analysis on the incoming raw materials.

[CarlD]

Thank, Ben.
Still seems iffy to me, however, that the liner should fail under those conditions.

[rajung]

As far as the filter goes,I always vacuum out all lines of water including the heater.
I removed the sand filter drain plug on the lower side and left it off.
Last year,I removed plug,let it drain a day then moved it to one of my insulated garages,though I didn't keep it heated,so I have to guess any water at the lowest part of drain remained in there other than what may have evaporated out.I never did tip over to drain more out the top since I left the multi selection valve attached.
Still wondering though, after all I have done,this shouldn't of happened this quick if at the extend it did.