Yes I went there times two.

[Diane T.]

Pool stores, just for the experience.
My husband went to the first one while I was at the doctors. He thought just for fun ? We should go to the one by our house and compare results.
Here they are:

#1

FC 6.
CC. 0.
TC. 6.
TA. 80.
CYA 50.
Ph. 7.7.
CH. 40.
Salt. 3500
Phosphate 300

#2
FC 6.86
CC 0
TC 6.86
TA 55
CYA 74
PH 7.9
CH 26
Salt 3100

Mine
FC 10
CC 0
TC 10
TA 70
CYA 60 I thought 80 last week
PH 7.7
CH 25
Salt 3200

Not as off the wall as I expected. Store one insisted the phosphates needed to be removed and the CH raised.
Store two did all manual tests and the guys was sloppy as heck. Then another person took his numbers and said they were trying a new disk and entered his numbers in the computer (I think) and gave me a print out that had different numbers from the manual testing. I didn't understand her explanation at the time. I didn't realize she tossed his results. They insisted I need calcium even in a vinyl pool. That it will leach out of the vinyl and it protects the equipment AND helps keep the ph on balance. Didn't test phosphate.
Soooooo....I say bs. Am I right? My water is gorgeous right now. Where did the phosphate come from?

 

[woodyp]

Your phosphates are so low as to be insignificant. Trust your own testing.

 

[Divin Dave]

Trust your TF100 just as you have been doing. There is no chemical reaction between vinyl and CH, so no need to raise it.

There is no telling where the phosphate came from. It can come from birds, perhaps a bit of fertilizer got in the pool somehow? Who knows. Maybe even the pool store phosphate test is just wrong.
In any case though, 300 phosphate is tiny.

Phosphate remover is expensive and the pool store is in business to sell expensive stuff. So, be careful and dont believe everything they tell you. Thats how people get in real trouble with their pools.

 

[Diane T.]

Thanks for the reassurance. I do my testing with such meticulous precision (loved chemistry, was married to a chemist and I'm a nurse) that I about laughed at the second store. He just squirted this and that and missed the vials a lot. He was so fast my husband wanted to say we're not in a hurry, we'd prefer some accuracy. I wasn't at the first store. I will continue with my trouble free methods and advice!