I was calculating the price to do my 17K pool. 14 boxes of borax and 4 gals of muriatic acid is cheaper than boric acid when I include shipping.

Depends on how cheap you can find Borax and MA. By me I struggle to find Borax under $3.50/box or MA under $6.99/bottle. Using those prices (add Sales Tax, if applicable), you are better off with a 55lb bucket of Boric Acid @ $75 shipped and you'll have 13-14lbs of Boric Acid left over for topping off or killing ants .

True. Wally World has boxes of Borax for $3.00 and the acid at Home depot is $5 a gallon. Works out in the neighborhood of $60-$65 bucks. Here in central Florida.

Last time I got acid at HD it was 15% not 31%; make sure what you're getting isn't half-strength.
--paulr

I see many advantages in using the boric acid. Price is nearly identical and you don't have to wait for aeration, spend money running all water features, risking too high or too low pH during the Borax/MA process, handling strong acid (muriatic) etc.

The price difference - if any - must by around 10$ and this is more or less a one-time investment in your pool.

Just my 2 cents......

Aeration is involved if one wants to lower the TA, but not in adding borates to the pool. One just adds 20 Mule Team Borax and Muriatic Acid, but your other points are still valid. I use boric acid for my pool with the convenience and near pH neutrality worth it to me.

I think the convenience and safety of using boric acid is worth the possible extra cost. Last year, I bought 55 pounds of boric acid from www.dudadiesel.com at a delivered cost of $104 dollars. I hate using muriatic acid and would rather incur the extra cost to avoid it. Last year was my first year adding borates to the water and I liked the results. Thats my $0.02 on the subject.

Uups, I don't know why I had that one confused. Of course the TA is taken care of earlier in the process and I guess regardless of the borate source. Thanks for clarifying so not to confuse others.

Found my original thread. Added borates and a SWCG to my pool couldn't be happier. It's been pretty easy overall. I'm lazy. I also bought a pool cleaner, but I still occasionally brush (once a week or so) and run the cleaner every 3 days or so. At the beginning of the season my CYA was in excess of 125 and my TA was high. Today my CYA is around 80 and my TA is 85. My borates are down to around 30 using the strips.
I took the plunge and ordered 25 lbs of boric acid ($53.95) to bring it back up to 50. I'll need about 17 lbs and will have some left to use to get rid of the bugs and such. I'll update in the future.

All went well. Here's the follow up:http://www.troublefreepool.com/boric-acid-the-easy-way-t38793.html?hilit=boric