Is Soft-Swim really that bad???

[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.

[mariner09]

I just don't see why everyone is having problems.

Granted, I've only had this pool going on 2 months now and even after some torrential downpours, it's been great. Clear and not really that demanding. The only regular maintenance I need to do is power wash the filter cartridges every couple of days to maintain good pressure. That takes all of 15 minutes.

If I do get into a jam like most have in this forum, I'll probably make the switch, but as long as it stays like this, steady as she goes...

[CarlD]

That's because conversion is for people who ARE having problems. You aren't. That means you are either doing everything right or you are just lucky. One month isn't a lot, though. If you STILL are fine at the end of the season, you'll know you've managed it correctly.

SO many people complain that June and July they are fine, but in August they get algae blooms.

As for chlorine bothering you, you should take a look at the stickied threads in the Chlorine and Testing topics. Mostly, chlorine gets a bad rap when a badly maintained pool should get the blame. Contaminants, Combined Chloramines and out of whack pH are the cause of smell, and skin and eye irritation, but Free Chlorine gets the blame.

[mariner09]

My experiences with chlorine pools have all been public, but from what I've read here in the past month, it's proof positive that there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

I'll be watching August to see how things go and crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath....

[prh129]

It might not be so much of a "wrong way" as "the best you can do" as far as a public pool goes. In a residential pool, you have a pretty regular bathing load and (hopefully) control of kids urintaing in the pool. Also you can test anytime you want and treat the water as necessary any time you want.

In a public pool, I would guess you can only treat the pool in the off hours then that has to last the whole time the pool is open regardless of how many people are in it so you end up having to overchlorinate to keep things safe.

At any rate, for that reason I wouldn't use a public pool as experience for using chlorine.

Peter

[CarlD]

I no longer like to get into public pools. Over Memorial day, my BH and I went from the right coast to the left coast to the San Diego area. I was stiff and sore from a day's walking around, and my back and knees were killing me. It was a REALLY nice hotel, so I got into the hot tub, then the pool, then the hot tub....and came home with SUCH a bad cold they thought it might be strep.

I did go into the Hilton Airport pool in Philly just to get some exercise and didn't get sick, but I would NOT go it their H/T--it was truly gross and something fluid was floating on the surface like an oil slick

I SO like our pool...It's always clean and sweet...

[bcb1]

Is Softswim/Baquacil really that bad? Well...yes and no. It has a lot of disadvantages, and to the best of my knowledge, only one advantage.

Disadvantages:
1. It's very expensive if you keep the water sanitized and shocked to their recommendations.

2. You'll probably need to shock the water more than the official recommendation of once per week at a gallon per time. I was going through 2 to 3 gallons per week - $35 to $40 every time I shocked the pool.

3. Baquacil gums up your filter. You'll need to change your sand every year, or at the very minimum every other year. No pool dealer will admit to this.

4. Baquacil is a reasonably effective sanitizer. It is not an oxidizer or an algaecide. Chlorine does all three, is more effective, and is much cheaper.

5. Once you start having problems -- and you will start having problems eventually -- get ready to empty the contents of your wallet at the pool dealer each week. All of the floc, filter cleaner agents, Baquashock, Algaecide....the pool dealer laughs all the way to the bank.

6. You will eventually get "pink algae", which is actually a fungus, not an algae, and it is resistant to Baquacil. Good luck once you get that.

The only advantage:

Baquacil will not fade your vinyl pool liner.


We installed our inground pool in 2004. Like a fool, I listened to the dealer without investigating on my own, and went with Baquacil. I ended up having nothing but problems, and we could rarely see the deep end - it was always cloudy. I ended up converting to chlorine just 2 months later. But just in that short time, I spend hundreds of dollars trying various Baquacil crap to get the water clear.

Since we've been using just plain old bleach to chlorinate with, our water is always 100% crystal clear, and I spend maybe $100 to $150 for chemicals for the entire season.