Waterline tile cleaning

[Sumo1]

What are the best products or remedies out there to clean waterline tiles? I know a good scotchbrite type pad is part of the mix, but what to use with it?
Hal

[mneal]

I bought some tile cleaner at local PS, it is sort of a blue gel that I believe is acid based. Works OK, not great when you use it saturated with water. But I recently had to drain pool slightly and used it on tile at that time and worked much better....and you are right a scotch bright pad/handle is application.

[waterbear]

I just use tile soap. You can get it by the gallon in most pool stores. If there is any scale build up I mix some acid in it (about 1 part acid to 5 parts soap). I have not had to use it nearly as often since I dropped a 'scumbug' into my skimmer. It's a sponge made of an oil aborbing plastic and it really works! IMHO, every skimmer will benefit from skimmer socks and a scumbug http://www.rola-chem.com/scumbug.html
(or similar product...there are also scumballs and sunsorbs that I have seen that are the same except for the shape.)

Tile soap is also good for getting stuff like pollen off the water surface. Put some in a squeeze bottle like you would use for haircolor or ketchup that has a nozzle and squirt a line of it across the middle of the pool. All the pollen will collect around the edge and can be easily skimmed off! The squeeze bottle is also a good dispenser to use with your scotchbrite pad as you walk around the pool perimeter. I picked up a scrubber with a reseviour that goes on the end of my pool for the soap at one of the local pool stores that works well. Same principle as those dish cleaning wands with a sponge on the end and a hollow handle that you fill with dishwashing detergent.

[waste]

Hi Hal,
what I've always used is either baking soda or pH-Up in a paste on the green 'sponge' that you mentioned. The pH-Up seems to work a little better (it's sodium carbonate -- the Arm and Hammer washing soda mentioned elswhere on this site). I'm not saying that mneal's nor (and especially) Evan's products aren't great - I've just seen the 'tile and liner' cleaners, from the places I've worked, cause a foaming problem. While the amount of pH-Up or baking soda you need to clean the tile line is small for most pools, it will effect the pH and alk - so may not be a good idea if you're already at the upper level of where you want those values to be. However, you probably already have some baking soda on hand - it's always nice to save a few $

Good luck with your pool's spring cleaning - and let us know how the church's pool is progressing!

[VOLDADDY]

Mr. Clean magic eraser works wonders.

[HHead]

"Mr. Clean magic eraser works wonders."

I'll second that and they're much cheaper at Sam's or Costco when buying in bulk
Herb