Went over to some friends house for dinner this weekend. He has a pretty small (~6000 gal) gunite pool that was originally installed with a Frog cartridge system. I've tried many times to tell him about this site and how easy pool maintenance can really be but he never wants to hear it. The old adage 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink' is especially true in this case.
He's convinced that as long as his pool isn't deep green then everything is going fine. We'd had our pools built at approximately the same time (almost 2 years ago) and I knew he'd been using the frog system for most of this time and had last year modified it himself so he can just put 1" pucks into it instead of buying the frog packs.
We went for a short swim before dinner and even though the water had a slight green coloring to it I went in with my 3 year old anyway (I really wish I hadn't). After the swim, I went and got my TFP kit and started checking his water. pH was 7.5 which was Ok, but then I checked the chlorine and found he only had 0.5 FC and 3.0 CC... His TA was high at 140, his CH was ~400, but then I got to his CYA... I knew it would be high due to the frog and puck usage, but since the pool is fairly new I didn't think it would be crazy high. The first attempt the dot disappeared WAY below the 100 line. So I drained the dropper bottle down to the bottom line and added more pool water back to the top line. The dot again disappeared WAY below the line. So I again drained the dropper to the bottom line and added pool water to the top line. The dot STILL disappeared below the 100 line. I did it again and this time the dot disappeared at the 80 line. I know that REALLY decreases the accuracy of the test diluting over and over again like that, but very roughly 4x80 = ~360ppm CYA. He has >300 ppm of CYA with only 0.5 ppm of FC. Essentially ZERO sanitization going on. I'm very surprised the pool isn't a swamp already, the only reason I can think it isn't is because he also has an ozone system that is constantly killing the algae as it grows.
I wish I'd tested the water BEFORE I got in (I figured that would be too rude) but we gave my son a bath as soon as we got home and I jumped into my properly balanced pool and tried to sit on the bottom for as long as I could to let that chlorine de-funkify me! :lol:
I tried to explain to him how he had 10x the amount of stabilizer that he should and how even the tiny amount of chlorine he has in there is totally useless but he just laughed it off and said his dad ran a public pool for 30 years and he uses the same method that he did <groan>. I said he's going to be in for a rough summer and I guaranteed he's going to have a tough time with his pool in the very near future. He just said even if he completely drains it and re-fills it every year that's only $10 in water so why bother doing anything else. I told him that while the ozone may be keeping his algae at bay, it's doing nothing from keeping bugs and pathogens from being transferred around in his pool. He didn't seem to care.
To top it all off, his 3 kids have been having re-occuring sickness for a while now... the 2 girls have been having urinary tract infections and 2 of the 3 are having tubes put in their ears due to re-occuring ear infections. I'm strongly suspecting the pool being a big contributing factor to their ongoing health issues. I know there really isn't anything more I can do for them and it's THEIR lives, but it's frustrating nonetheless. All I know is that I (and my family) won't be doing any more swimming at their house.
Anyway, just wanted to vent... please feel free to share your own 'trying to help a friend who doesn't want to be helped' story.
He's convinced that as long as his pool isn't deep green then everything is going fine. We'd had our pools built at approximately the same time (almost 2 years ago) and I knew he'd been using the frog system for most of this time and had last year modified it himself so he can just put 1" pucks into it instead of buying the frog packs.
We went for a short swim before dinner and even though the water had a slight green coloring to it I went in with my 3 year old anyway (I really wish I hadn't). After the swim, I went and got my TFP kit and started checking his water. pH was 7.5 which was Ok, but then I checked the chlorine and found he only had 0.5 FC and 3.0 CC... His TA was high at 140, his CH was ~400, but then I got to his CYA... I knew it would be high due to the frog and puck usage, but since the pool is fairly new I didn't think it would be crazy high. The first attempt the dot disappeared WAY below the 100 line. So I drained the dropper bottle down to the bottom line and added more pool water back to the top line. The dot again disappeared WAY below the line. So I again drained the dropper to the bottom line and added pool water to the top line. The dot STILL disappeared below the 100 line. I did it again and this time the dot disappeared at the 80 line. I know that REALLY decreases the accuracy of the test diluting over and over again like that, but very roughly 4x80 = ~360ppm CYA. He has >300 ppm of CYA with only 0.5 ppm of FC. Essentially ZERO sanitization going on. I'm very surprised the pool isn't a swamp already, the only reason I can think it isn't is because he also has an ozone system that is constantly killing the algae as it grows.
I wish I'd tested the water BEFORE I got in (I figured that would be too rude) but we gave my son a bath as soon as we got home and I jumped into my properly balanced pool and tried to sit on the bottom for as long as I could to let that chlorine de-funkify me! :lol:
I tried to explain to him how he had 10x the amount of stabilizer that he should and how even the tiny amount of chlorine he has in there is totally useless but he just laughed it off and said his dad ran a public pool for 30 years and he uses the same method that he did <groan>. I said he's going to be in for a rough summer and I guaranteed he's going to have a tough time with his pool in the very near future. He just said even if he completely drains it and re-fills it every year that's only $10 in water so why bother doing anything else. I told him that while the ozone may be keeping his algae at bay, it's doing nothing from keeping bugs and pathogens from being transferred around in his pool. He didn't seem to care.
To top it all off, his 3 kids have been having re-occuring sickness for a while now... the 2 girls have been having urinary tract infections and 2 of the 3 are having tubes put in their ears due to re-occuring ear infections. I'm strongly suspecting the pool being a big contributing factor to their ongoing health issues. I know there really isn't anything more I can do for them and it's THEIR lives, but it's frustrating nonetheless. All I know is that I (and my family) won't be doing any more swimming at their house.
Anyway, just wanted to vent... please feel free to share your own 'trying to help a friend who doesn't want to be helped' story.
that shipped in a sealed container filled with vermiculite 
