I like a chemically clean pool. I don't add any chemicals that aren't necessary, because they can cause skin, and eye irritation. I stay on top of my pool chemistry. I've got a better test kit than Pinch A Penny.
The other night, we had a low power incident 3 times in a row. Power off, and then on immediately. It reset the settings on our salt generator (that's what makes chlorine for the pool). I tested everything, and reset it. The only thing I questioned was my salt reading. My test strips are from last summer. They were stored well, but I wanted to make sure they were accurate. Dh went to Pinch A Penny with a water sample. Any time they test water, no matter what, their software auto generates products that should be purchased, and added. It's a very effective sales technique.
Since day 1, they keep recommending to add stabilizer (CYA = Cyanuric Acid). I am anti-stabilizer, and have told Dh NOT to get it. It will do more damage than good, and is only a tool to put money in THEIR pockets. Off he goes to Pinch A Penny. When he comes back, he's putting stuff in the pool. Sure enough, the idiot bought $40.00 worth of chemicals. The calcium was a little low, due to all the rain we've had. I didn't mind that. Then he poured in a LOT of stabilizer. Now me, and the kids can't go swimming. I won't use it with that in there.
Chlorine breaks down fairly quickly. In part, that's the reason it's such a good disinfectant. For years both in public, and private pools the best source of chlorine was in the form of tablets. A large bucket of them is fairly expensive, and they would break down if not used within a certain period of time. They discovered adding a bit of stabilizer, or Cyanuric Acid, would extend the shelf life.
Well, if it works in the tablets, why not just pour it into pools? Here's where the old adage "if a little will do a little good, a lot will do a lot of good" goes awry. This is one of the things that doesn't work that way. The sales pitch was that it was going to save you lots of money on the cost of chlorine. Overnight they created a 300 million dollar a year demand for Cyanuric Acid. It extends your chlorine, so you don't have to use as much, saving you money. In practice, it doesn't work that way. What they found out was that the required chlorine is in the pool, but it won't break down, or it breaks down super slow. It's when chlorine breaks down that it's effective as an algaecide, and disinfectant. When it doesn't break down, or break down fast enough it can't do the required job.
What they discovered in time, is that people going to water parks, with the slides and such, hotels, and public pools were getting sick. 2 water parks here in Florida were sued, due to people getting sick from contaminated water. BUT it had the required amount of chlorine, so it should have been safe, however, the stabilizer was preventing the chlorine from working, so people were getting water borne pathogens. They changed the laws here for public swimming pools regarding the amount of stabilizer that can be used, and about having to use a non-chlorine chemical to disinfect the pools. Private pools are still fair game though.
Never fear, Pinch A Penny to the rescue! They have non-chlorine algaecides, and disinfectants that they'll sell you to do what the chlorine should be doing but can't, because it's been sabotaged by adding the stabilizer they sold you. Those additional products are expensive to use on a regular basis. Not only do you not save any money, but by having to use these other products, you end up spending more than you would by just using chlorine tablets. Another concern is now you are swimming in a chemical cocktail, which is more likely to irritate skin, eyes, nose, etc.
BUT WAIT, we have a salt generator that makes all the chlorine we want, or need. We don't BUY chlorine, so the argument about saving money on chlorine is invalid. We don't need, and I dang sure don't want the stabilizer in the pool. Dh kept reading that print out of our water test. Yes, everything was perfect, EXCEPT the stabilizer. So this young sales person told him "if you don't get stabilizer, with all this rain, your chlorine will break down so fast, you will get a stubborn case of algae that will be difficult, and very expensive to clear up." He panicked. It never dawned on the idiot that, the chlorine level was fine. IF that were going to happen, it would have already done so with the 6 inches of rain we got over the past week. BUT now, it's not sanitary to swim in, so me, my kids, and grandkids won't swim in it. It won't be long, and he'll start having trouble with algae too. We really can't afford to give Pinch A Penny all the extra money right now, especially since none of us are going to swim in it until it's remedied, but for now, he's getting all his advice from the experts at Pinch A Penny. I told him they're not experts. They're sales people in business to make money from suckers like him. He's stubborn though.
The other night, we had a low power incident 3 times in a row. Power off, and then on immediately. It reset the settings on our salt generator (that's what makes chlorine for the pool). I tested everything, and reset it. The only thing I questioned was my salt reading. My test strips are from last summer. They were stored well, but I wanted to make sure they were accurate. Dh went to Pinch A Penny with a water sample. Any time they test water, no matter what, their software auto generates products that should be purchased, and added. It's a very effective sales technique.
Since day 1, they keep recommending to add stabilizer (CYA = Cyanuric Acid). I am anti-stabilizer, and have told Dh NOT to get it. It will do more damage than good, and is only a tool to put money in THEIR pockets. Off he goes to Pinch A Penny. When he comes back, he's putting stuff in the pool. Sure enough, the idiot bought $40.00 worth of chemicals. The calcium was a little low, due to all the rain we've had. I didn't mind that. Then he poured in a LOT of stabilizer. Now me, and the kids can't go swimming. I won't use it with that in there.
Chlorine breaks down fairly quickly. In part, that's the reason it's such a good disinfectant. For years both in public, and private pools the best source of chlorine was in the form of tablets. A large bucket of them is fairly expensive, and they would break down if not used within a certain period of time. They discovered adding a bit of stabilizer, or Cyanuric Acid, would extend the shelf life.
Well, if it works in the tablets, why not just pour it into pools? Here's where the old adage "if a little will do a little good, a lot will do a lot of good" goes awry. This is one of the things that doesn't work that way. The sales pitch was that it was going to save you lots of money on the cost of chlorine. Overnight they created a 300 million dollar a year demand for Cyanuric Acid. It extends your chlorine, so you don't have to use as much, saving you money. In practice, it doesn't work that way. What they found out was that the required chlorine is in the pool, but it won't break down, or it breaks down super slow. It's when chlorine breaks down that it's effective as an algaecide, and disinfectant. When it doesn't break down, or break down fast enough it can't do the required job.
What they discovered in time, is that people going to water parks, with the slides and such, hotels, and public pools were getting sick. 2 water parks here in Florida were sued, due to people getting sick from contaminated water. BUT it had the required amount of chlorine, so it should have been safe, however, the stabilizer was preventing the chlorine from working, so people were getting water borne pathogens. They changed the laws here for public swimming pools regarding the amount of stabilizer that can be used, and about having to use a non-chlorine chemical to disinfect the pools. Private pools are still fair game though.
Never fear, Pinch A Penny to the rescue! They have non-chlorine algaecides, and disinfectants that they'll sell you to do what the chlorine should be doing but can't, because it's been sabotaged by adding the stabilizer they sold you. Those additional products are expensive to use on a regular basis. Not only do you not save any money, but by having to use these other products, you end up spending more than you would by just using chlorine tablets. Another concern is now you are swimming in a chemical cocktail, which is more likely to irritate skin, eyes, nose, etc.
BUT WAIT, we have a salt generator that makes all the chlorine we want, or need. We don't BUY chlorine, so the argument about saving money on chlorine is invalid. We don't need, and I dang sure don't want the stabilizer in the pool. Dh kept reading that print out of our water test. Yes, everything was perfect, EXCEPT the stabilizer. So this young sales person told him "if you don't get stabilizer, with all this rain, your chlorine will break down so fast, you will get a stubborn case of algae that will be difficult, and very expensive to clear up." He panicked. It never dawned on the idiot that, the chlorine level was fine. IF that were going to happen, it would have already done so with the 6 inches of rain we got over the past week. BUT now, it's not sanitary to swim in, so me, my kids, and grandkids won't swim in it. It won't be long, and he'll start having trouble with algae too. We really can't afford to give Pinch A Penny all the extra money right now, especially since none of us are going to swim in it until it's remedied, but for now, he's getting all his advice from the experts at Pinch A Penny. I told him they're not experts. They're sales people in business to make money from suckers like him. He's stubborn though.
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