what makes eyes sting in the pool?

[pairadocs]

is it the chlorine levels? Mine is low, and all of our eyes are stinging still.

thank you

[cygnusecks]

Depends on the type of stinging. If you mean the type where you dunk your head in once, and the moment you surface and air hits your eyes, it stings, then that's something other than chlorine. If, on the other hand, you mean the type of stinging where when you're done swimming and out of the pool for a while and you have residual stinging, then that might be chloramines.

A lot of people will say it's combined chlorine, a.k.a. chloramines, that causes all eye irritation, but I don't buy it. I tested my water yesterday and it has 0 combined chlorine. It has 4ppm of free chlorine. And my eyes stung a little after 4-5 hours of swimming. And, if you dunk your head in pure bleach, my guess is your eyes will sting there too, and there's no combined chlorine in there.

I think it's a combination of many things, including your susceptability to eye irritation in general, allergies, chloramines, pH levels, calcium levels, salt levels, etc.

Have you ever been swimming where your eyes DO NOT sting? If not, you may just be that type of person who might want to consider goggles all the time...

My advice: post a full set of water chemistry testing results and maybe someone can spot something wrong.. also do you have allergies?

[waterbear]

what is your pH? Have you added any algecides (linear quats) or other products (some clarifiers) lately? What are your FC, TC and CC levels? There are several things that can cause your eyes to sting. Give us some more info and maybe we can help.

[pairadocs]

what is your pH? Have you added any algecides (linear quats) or other products (some clarifiers) lately? What are your FC, TC and CC levels? There are several things that can cause your eyes to sting. Give us some more info and maybe we can help.

ph 7.5
no recent algaecide in more than a month
no clarifiers
TC = 1-2
FC = .5-1
tested with taylor drop test kit this am
tot alk = 150 ppm

thanks for the investigation

it just seems that this year my pool is more stingy than last year, and I had to add 30- 40 gallons of bleach last month to remedy the brown smelly pool water that i uncovered in the beginning of the season.

despite my low chlorine levels, the pool smells rather bleachy, not too strong, but not mild either, moderately bleach smelly, which surprises me with my low CL levels.

rjf

[waterbear]

ph 7.5
no recent algaecide in more than a month
no clarifiers
TC = 1-2
FC = .5-1
tested with taylor drop test kit this am
tot alk = 150 ppm

thanks for the investigation

it just seems that this year my pool is more stingy than last year, and I had to add 30- 40 gallons of bleach last month to remedy the brown smelly pool water that i uncovered in the beginning of the season.

despite my low chlorine levels, the pool smells rather bleachy, not too strong, but not mild either, moderately bleach smelly, which surprises me with my low CL levels.

rjf

You provided the answer right here....stinging eyes and chlorine smell. You have chloramines in the water (probably still left over from the "brown smelly pool water") and you need to raise your chlorine level to shock levels (and keep them there until there is NO CC!) based on your CYA (stabilizer) level to burn them off! It's called breakpoint chlorination, To see how high you have to raise your FC to be effective based on your CYA levels see this thread.
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

[CarlD]

And my eyes stung a little after 4-5 hours of swimming.

And you are surprised???????

That's why goggles were considered one of the BEST advances in competitive swimming--it allows the athletes to train much longer without eye problems.

Combined chloramines are one of several potential sources of eye irritation. High chlorine levels in a clean pool will have little if any effect. Other things can reduce irritation much more, such as:

1) reduce CC to 0.
2) Raise pH to 7.6-7.8 Irritation is lower there as it's closer to human pH.
3) Keep away from all the junk pool stores push you to throw in your pool. A balanced pool is the least irritating.
4) Contaminants. Sun tan lotion, sweat, little kids peeing in the pool all are irritating.
4) Add salt to your water. I don't know the ppm level but if your salinity of your pool matches the salinity of tears, it will be FAR less irritating.

But don't go blaming chlorine for your red, burning eyes!

[pairadocs]

And you are surprised???????

!

I didn't write that, someone was being jokingly sarcastic in response to my starter post.

Waterbear - my pool smells very chloriney - is that odor the result of all the excess CC? Seems like I will only worsen the odor by adding more bleach, but that is my novice forum member mind at work

[duraleigh]

A reminder that is easy:

"If you smell chlorine, you need more chlorine"

If you will shock your pool, it will burn off the CC's and you will no longer smell chlorine. If you don't get to shock level, you'll have marginal, if any, success.

[cygnusecks]

I was serious about irritation after 4-5 hours: It was in a CC-free pool, so I was just saying that CC isn't the *only* irritant in pools. There are several, even in perfectly-balanced water, that irritate eyes. Some people's eyes are simply irritated by physical contact with foreign (i.e. not produced by the body itself) substances.

[waterbear]

I didn't write that, someone was being jokingly sarcastic in response to my starter post.
I know, it was in one of the other replies in this thread. Still good advice about the goggles.
Waterbear - my pool smells very chloriney - is that odor the result of all the excess CC? Seems like I will only worsen the odor by adding more bleach, but that is my novice forum member mind at work

Here we have a classic reason why a GOOD drop based kit is needed. Not only do you need to check for Total Chlorine, you need to see what your Free Chlorine is so you can determine your Combined Chlorine (Chloramines). Chloramines are the bad guys that burn your eyes and make the pool smell like chlorine! Ideally you should have no CC in the pool. If you do you need to add more chlorine to burn them off...this is called 'breakpoint chlorination' and is what you are actually doing when you shock. If your CC are .5 ppm or higher it means it's time to shock!

Most beginners find it hard to believe that adding more chlorine when the pool smells strongly of chlorine is the right thing to do but it is! This is the only way to burn off the excess organics in the water and to break the chemical bond in the CC that is formed by the ammonia and the chlorine. (Chloramines are a groups of chemical compounds formed from chlorine and ammonia or organic ammonia like compounds. These organic ammonia like compounds belong to a chemical group called 'amines'. (oversimplified explaination but essentially correct!). They get into your pool from all the bacteria, persperation, urine, feces, and all the other nasty stuff that is always getting into a pool that is being used and it is chlorines job to 'burn them up'! Chlorine is very good at this if you put enough of it in when you need to!

Hope this is helpful.