Chlorine-red eyes

[Palmer]

We recently moved to an older house with an existing pool. We swam at the end of the season last year and my daughter showed up with red blotchy eyes after swimming. I am figuring it's the chlorine. After reading about Baquacil, that is not a viable option. What other options can we take to minimize or forego chrlorine in the pool this season?

Someone mentioned a "frog system" Haven't found out too much about this and really don't want to go to a lot of expense, just want swimming to be pleasant and easy care for beginners.

thanks for any advice.

[thilbert]

It isn't the Chlorine doing that, it's the chloramines which are a by product of the sanitation process.

The suggested course of action is to super-chlorinate (shock) your pool to consume the chloramines. I know this seems counter-intuitive, but it's true.

[CarlD]

Thilbert's right...Something's wrong with the pool chemistry and the chlorine's getting blamed. Shocking the pool with more chlorine may well clear it.

When your pool is properly maintained, chlorine levels can be QUITE high without the tell-tale chlorine smell, or eye irritation. But used-up chlorine--Combined Chloramines, are irritating and smell like chlorine. The best way to get rid of them is shock your pool with more chlorine to, "burn" it out. When you read all FC (Free Chlorine) and zero CC (Combined Chloramines) the problem should go away.

HOWEVER, another cause of eye irritation is low pH...Try moving your pH to 7.6 or even 7.8 and it should drop off.

I've just learned many people add salt to the water until it matches the body's salinity level. Then the pool water will match the salinity of things like tears and not be irritating. I don't know a lot about that, but PoolDoc sure does.

But Chlorine always gets the blame when it's not its fault!

[prh129]

Before adding anything, you need to test your water to see where you are at. A drops-based test kit will give you the readings you need (there is one that you can purchase from the main site - poolsolutions.com). Test your water and post your readings and you will get the recommendations you need to bring your water up to snuff.

Peter

[PoolDoc]

My experience is that eye irritation is caused by the following, from most irritating to least:

1. chloramines
2. fresh (ie, non-salty) water
3. excessively low or high pH, especially low pH
4. linear quats
5. chlorine below 10 ppm in a stabilized pool

You need to start with a plain chlorinated pool. It's much easier to go from a plain chlorinated pool, to any other type, than it is to come BACK to chlorine.

Get that pool chemistry right, and then see if the eye irritation is at an acceptable level, or not.

If not, add enough salt to raise the salinity to about 3,000 ppm (about what folks on SWG's are running) and see if that helps. If it does, you can consider whether you'd be willing to go to 9,000 ppm, which is about what's in eye saline or tears.

If neither of those work, you only other real option is Baquacil. But of course, you'll be using linear quats, which will be somewhat irritating after you add a dose.

For what it's worth, my experience has been that about 90% of those with irritation problems find that they are reduced to acceptable levels, if they will learn to operate the pool properly with chlorine.

Ben
"PoolDoc"

[Palmer]

Thanks. And just to be sure. The red eyes are not just inside, her whole eyes get puffy and red on the outside. This should clear up too as well?

Can't wait to try. We are filling this week. When you say plain chlorinated pool, is this before you add anything after you fill it?

[mwsmith2]

I think by "plain chlorinated pool" he means just to use Chlorine as the sanitizing agent, nothing else.

From personal experience, keeping the combined chlorine down in combination with salt in the water has made for a very easy-on-the-eyes pool. Of course, I don't swim underwater with my eyes open much. That waters down my beer too much.

[MaryLee]

"The red eyes are not just inside, her whole eyes get puffy and red on the outside. This should clear up too as well?"

Does your daughter have any allergies?? I had a family member swim in my pool last summer (I use strictly bleach) and after a few hours of wearing latex goggles, her eyes swelled up and turned red. It turned out that she is allergic to latex when mixed with chlorine...apparently not too uncommon according to her doctor. Just a thought

[MaryLee]

Just wanted to add:

A quick way to see if she has a latex/chlorine sensitivity....ask her if she has a red mark around her waist where her underwear waistband sits. Usually there will be a reaction to the latex in the elastic and the skin (that's assuming you use bleach in your white laundry).