I've got the pool installers here doing a new liner install. The old liner (only 5 yrs old) is brittle and thin and he's telling me and my husband that it's due to us using liquid chlorine. We switched over to the TF method two and a half years ago and my pool water has never been cleaner. We used to have problems with algae at least once per season, which I discovered through this wonderful site was due to high CYA. Once I stopped using the pucks, lowered the CYA and use only liquid chlorine (12.5%), we've had crystal clear water w/no issues. Now my husband is worried about using the liquid chlorine. Chlorine is chlorine, no?
Liner lasted only 5 years
- Thread starter csosinski
- Start date
- May 23, 2015
- 24,410
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
The liner installer doesn't know what he's talking about. TFP has , literally, tens of thousands of vinyl pool owners with no problems. My guess is that your previous reliance on pool store methodology is what damaged your liner.
Pucks are highly acidic and can cause pH crash. Dichlor shock is a concentrated powder that they tell you to throw in by the bucket load and so that winds up sitting against your liner until it is brushed around. And they instruct you to do that weekly. Those two conditions alone (low pH and high chlorine levels) are enough to embrittlement the liner material.
Your pool is totally safe using the TFP method.
Pucks are highly acidic and can cause pH crash. Dichlor shock is a concentrated powder that they tell you to throw in by the bucket load and so that winds up sitting against your liner until it is brushed around. And they instruct you to do that weekly. Those two conditions alone (low pH and high chlorine levels) are enough to embrittlement the liner material.
Your pool is totally safe using the TFP method.
How often did you test and what were the other levels?
My old pool's liner got ruined from HIGH CYA and LOW PH.......since I found TFP this liner is showing NO signs of problems.
Kim:cat:
My old pool's liner got ruined from HIGH CYA and LOW PH.......since I found TFP this liner is showing NO signs of problems.
Kim:cat:
Here is a classic example of the powdered dichlor shock being thrown in weekly, I'm assuming it was never brushed. The blue bucket in the lower left hand corner is the shock that the people who owned the house before me used, I just haven't thrown it away yet because I've been lazy, but I don't use it. You can see the patterns from where they instructed me to just grab a scoop and throw it in the pool once a week and let it dissolve... funny that my 5ppm FC liquid chlorine hasn't discolored the rest of the liner or caused it to become brittle...
My liner is going on 11 years old and has had nothing but liquid chlorine and bleach it's entire life. It is as fresh and supple feeling as when we got it.
Mine was abused a couple years before I moved in with dichlor and trichlor and mystery maintenance. It looks the same now as when I moved in. A faded spot in the corner of the deep end, that looks the same (probably where they dropped a trichlor tablet by accident) and it's a little lighter below the water line when I let that dip a little low, it's noticeable. But it looks the same as it did 3 years ago when I moved in.
Thank you all for your quick responses. I'm sold on the TFP method; it's my husband who is nervous now about using it w/the new liner. I have been maintaining the pool using the TFP recommended levels. The only thing I could not get in range and could do nothing about was high CH as I have no other options for filling the pool. We have well water, so lots of iron & copper, high alkalinity and high CH. I'm off to review starting a new pool instructions and threads because last time I was still using pucks & pool store products :/
If you can find a reasonable source of fill water to fill the new liner with, I would look into it. Our local city will haul municipal water to nearby locations for $65 for the first 3000 gallons and then $30 for every 3000 load after that. The fire department basically fills their water truck and drives it over. Proceeds go to the FD budget. They will do it for anyone in the township that surrounds the city.
Tell your husband that you used his method (or a version of it) for 2.5 years and yours for 2.5 years. You have no way of knowing which really ate up your liner, but my bet is the 2.5 years of pucks had your ph out of whack and that's what made it brittle, and you extended the life a tad bit by switching to TFP in the 3rd year. Stick with TFP with the new liner and see how long it lasts. If you get no more than 5, tell your husband he wins. If you win, he'll never ask you about it again.
No issues here and have used TFP since the first season 6 years ago. No fading or brittleness. And I had to do one MA shock as well.
My liner is now about 12 years old, I have been using the TFP method for the last 6 years, and I may get another year or two out of it although it has started to show a little fading in the last year. My pool was built in 1980 and has been through several liners over the years, following chemical abuse the second leading cause of failure seems to be using a low quality liner, it really does pay to buy a thicker premium liner if you want it to last. I had one a couple of liners ago fail within 2-3 years (started splitting at the seams) of course it was a cheap one from a new company, ...