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.