Is Soft-Swim really that bad???

[mariner09]

I just had my pool opened a month ago, new to me in a new house.

We found out it was a baquacil pool as the 1st drop of chlorine made a pretty color.

I'm seeing lot's of complaints about baquacil in this forum and I'm curious. Barring any problems that could occur, like algae and mold, what is a typical monthly cost comparison for a baquacil pool vs a chlorine pool, about 15000 gallons.

We can only have the pool open from May - October. I was told baquacil is a little more expensive, but I'm wondering what the reality is because I always question what the pool store tells me.

So far, it's clear and the kids love it. We went to a health club last summer for swim certification and they hated the chlorine in that pool.

[ivyleager]

We went to a health club last summer for swim certification and they hated the chlorine in that pool.

Any public pool is going to have higher chlorine. I take the kids to local sportsplexes during the winter, and their pool water is HORRIBLE!

Do you have any friends who have chlorine pools? How does their water "feel" to you? That might be a better comparison.

Good luck.

CaryB
Go 'Canes!!!

[prh129]

So far, it's clear and the kids love it. We went to a health club last summer for swim certification and they hated the chlorine in that pool.

I have not used Baquacil so I can't give you any first hand experience, just some general comments. How good a chlorine pool is depends on how well it is maintained. In a public pool with high usage, there will like be a lot of "used up" chlorine called combined chlorine or chloramines which cause the chlorine smell, eye irritation etc. If the pH is not in the right range that will also cause problems. It is much harder to maintain a public pool than your own pool.

I would say for now, if it works, don't fix it. If the Baquacil is working for you and you don't have any problems with it then continue on but read up on the other threads here so that if things start to go south, you know what to do and what to expect. It only takes 3 or 4 days to convert to chlorine if you should decide to do so at some point.

The general consensus here is that Baquacil is considerably more expensive than chlorine but I can't give you numbers. A co-worker of mine uses Baquacil because his son has an allergy to chlorine so he had no choice. He said it took him about 4 years to get a good handle on how to keep his pool in balance. He also confirmed that it was a more expensive route. Chlorine is cheap and easy. I would say that a ballpark estimate per month for a chlorine pool is $50.00 or less and that would include the one-time purchases of stabilizer etc. It took me less than a month of reading through the material on this website (and the poolsolutions site) to keep a chlorine pool in balance.

Peter

[falken]

I haven't used it in a long time and don't remember the exact prices, but if you would like a good idea ask the pool store the price for a case of sanitizer and a case of shock. Get ready for your jaw to drop.

I stayed on it though because of the no chlorine! sales pitch. I thought I didn't like chlorine either, because of public pools. Turns out you don't have any of those problems when you maintain your own pool correctly.

I switched when my pool always had problems and then turned in to a deep green swamp and the dealer just kept having me pump tons of money into the pool. I switched to chlorine using really bad instructions on HTH's website (long since removed), it took about 5 days but everything was great... not one big problem since.

FYI - As far as I know a true chlorine alergy is VERY rare. You would also have an immune system reaction to drinking or bathing in tap water.
A more common reaction would be general chemical sensativity, if the reaction has only occured in commerical pools there is a good chance you would be just fine in a decently maintained chlorinated private pool.

[falken]

Oh, and as far as my current cost goes, I installed a salt water chrloine generator which ran me around $600.

I now spend between $1-$5/mo on pool chemicals.

[jeffmull]

When you pool store says Baqua is a little more expensive, they are comparing it to the chlorine supplies they sell.

When you compare it to generics as recommended on this forum, the cost is MUCH higher.

Jeff - former Baqua user

[lizzie64]

I'm in the 3rd day of my conversion. We had our pool installed last year and fell hook, line and sinker for the Baqua sales pitch.

Worked great for half the summer. Then the cloudyness started. We spent hundreds of dollars last year trying to clear it up., Shock, clarifiers, floccs you name it. NOTHING.

This year - opened the pool. You guessed it CLOUDY. The pool place told me the water was perfectly balanced. So why is it cloudy??? After being told to buy over $400 more in stuff, I said forget it.

After 3 days of pumping bleach, the edges of my pool are crystal clear. It's working and I can't wait.

As for the baqua chems - ebay will probably be the cheapest you find. The sanitizer at the store is $30 a bottle , the shock was $15 a bottle.

Way too expensive for me. And I was always aggravated and apologizing for how my water looked.

[gwrace1]

Oh, and as far as my current cost goes, I installed a salt water chrloine generator which ran me around $600.

I now spend between $1-$5/mo on pool chemicals.

Same here. Picked up a new SWG last year on Ebay for $425.00. I keep FC at about 2-2.5 PPM. You can't smell it yet the pool stays crystal clear. I have zero CC and water is soft. Only chemical cost is a weekly addition of muriatic acid. That's it.

[ILHoz]

I'm new to this sight. However I am not new to baquacil.

We used Baquacil at our old house w/new 24' AG 13500. Lived there for 2 yrs without problems. When we moved, Our new house also had a 24' AG 13500, we took water in to the pool store to check chemicals. The tests showed no signs of chemicals. So at that time since we had had no problems with baqua before we went with it again. year 1 fine, year 2 pink algae. $400 in Baqua chem. and a new$100 cartridge for filter. White mold came next. $400-500 in chemicals another new cartridge all of this on top of regular maintance costs
$75-100 a month (shock, sanitizer, algaeside) unable to use our pool for 2 months last year.Closed the pool for winter. Open spring year 3 water always cloudy, a lot of green algae vaccuuming every other day. White mold again, burned out pump from trying to filter out white mold last year and this year.
Bought new pump and filter.$400-500. Once you develope a problem with Baqua It is almost impossible to fix it. We are now switching to CL. We refuse to battle the Baquabeast again!

Leslie