TFP levels and warranty excuses

[BuckeyeChris]

Ive kept our pool in tfp happy zones for 5 years. Cya around 60, ph 7.7, ta is 45 ish. Salt is 5000 due to liquid chlorine and water softener?

Anyway, our travertine is crumbling beneath our feet, but not immediately around the pool line. It’s spread all over the deck in random places. And we lost all the colors from our plaster in the pebble Tec. It used to be blue and now it’s gray. The California pools guy came and took measurements and said “well your salt is way high and your TDS is 9000 and your TA is too low so we’re not gonna Warranty any of that. You need to keep your chemicals in line with our recommendations. I replace my water every two years”

So that’s one issue, but the other issue is the possibility that keeping these levels at TFP levels has caused the plaster to bleach out, and has accelerated some of the travertine deterioration. Although some of those tiles are nowhere near splash and traffic areas.

I know we think TDS is a meaningless number, but it sure is a scapegoat for a lot of issues.

 

[jblizzle]

Sounds like a weaseling out.

Most blue dyes are actually organic and have a tenancy to bleach out from chlorine.
Why would high TDS (or salt) cause color loss?

And clearly the fact that the travertine is not worse by the pool makes it clear it is not likely the pool water causing the problem. That is just the nature of natural stone, a lot of it is soft and comes apart.

Interesting that you salt is that high ... water softener could very well be part of it. Bleach does add salt (as done just about everything else we add to the pool) and given that we get little rain, it can build up.

 

[BuckeyeChris]

Yeah well either the calcium would be high or the salt will be high or the CYA will be high. Honestly there probably isn’t a way around refreshing the water every year or two. And yeah I’m sure they don’t have any study or anything that shows how total dissolved solids would remove the color from the plaster. But since the contract says we will keep it within the industry levels, it really doesn’t matter if they know what they’re talking about

 

[jblizzle]

Yup. The main problem is that the industry accepted levels are flawed. But what motivation do they have to change them when they can use them to deny warranties?

 

[spoonman]

Bummer Chris about the travertine. Hope that is not too pricey to fix.

Is it possible to bring back some of the plaster color with an acid wash? Not sure if that is a fix, but would shorten the plaster life.

 

[BuckeyeChris]

Yeah i thought about that option. I suppose you would have to try it in a small spot first to see how deep the bleaching is