Rust on new pool ladder...any solutions?

[Veccster]

New'ish salt water pool - less than a year old. We just pulled the ladder out to close the pool and this is what it looks like. Could this be from the salt water? Is it any worse than what it would be without salt?

I thought these bolts would be stainless steel? I guess it can still rust?

The PH and other level was kept in check all summer using the TS100 kit. PH never got very high...always around 7.0-7.2. Salt was usually on the low end (due to a leak and constant addition of new water).

I'm thinking of coating the screw heads with FlexSeal...or some kind of rubber. Thoughts?

 

[JamesW]

The hardware is probably not stainless steel. I would replace bolts, washers and nuts with good stainless steel.

 

[Veccster]

Thanks James. Hadn't considered that my PB was an idiot....I trusted the fact that he told me they were stainless steel.

I'll swap em out this weekend and work on cleaning off the rust marks on the white powder coat.

 

[Veccster]

They're stainless steel. The rust seems to be coming from behind the bolts...where the hole is drilled into the metal ladder.

I'm thinking of spraying rustoleum in there or painting the area with flex seal.

 

[JamesW]

I would take it apart to find out what's rusting.

 

[Veccster]

I did. It's not the screws...its coming from the holes the screws are drilled into. I might try coating the holes with either rustoleum or flex seal.

The outside is powder coated but the inside is not. Wish I could coat the entire inside with flex seal too. Hmm....thinking of some redneck solutions here

 

[HiddenRiver]

I did. It's not the screws...its coming from the holes the screws are drilled into. I might try coating the holes with either rustoleum or flex seal.

The outside is powder coated but the inside is not. Wish I could coat the entire inside with flex seal too. Hmm....thinking of some redneck solutions here

Any way you can return it? I think that is faulty equipment. It should not rust with appropriate water chemistry?

 

[domct203]

If the inside of the ladder is not painted, that's not faulty, it's just lesser quality. If the entire ladder was 316 Stainless, it would never rust if the water chemistry is properly balanced.

I know they make the Flex-Seal in white now, if you can thin it out with mineral spirits/water/whathaveyou you might be able to pour it down the inside, turning and rotating the ladder rail to try to cover the surfaces. I would seal the bottom and holes with a good tape, pour some into the rail, seal off the top and shake away. Pour any that prouduct that remains into the other ladder rail.

Or, you could just replace the ladder with a proper Stainless Steel one. Do you have any warranty from the builder on pool hardware?

While the salt content of a SWG pool is a bit higher than a manually dosed pool, all chlorine pools contain salt, added from bleach, muriatic acid, sweat, etc. That ladder would have eventually rusted in any pool, accelerated by salt content or not.

I prefer to use Stainless Steel anywhere around water, unless I need the strength of a hardened steel fastener. 316SS is the most corrosion resistant Stainless Steel you can get in a fastener and is the choice of most Marine applications.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

If the inside of the ladder is not painted, that's not faulty, it's just lesser quality. If the entire ladder was 316 Stainless, it would never rust if the water chemistry is properly balanced.

I know they make the Flex-Seal in white now, if you can thin it out with mineral spirits/water/whathaveyou you might be able to pour it down the inside, turning and rotating the ladder rail to try to cover the surfaces. I would seal the bottom and holes with a good tape, pour some into the rail, seal off the top and shake away. Pour any that prouduct that remains into the other ladder rail.

Or, you could just replace the ladder with a proper Stainless Steel one. Do you have any warranty from the builder on pool hardware?

While the salt content of a SWG pool is a bit higher than a manually dosed pool, all chlorine pools contain salt, added from bleach, muriatic acid, sweat, etc. That ladder would have eventually rusted in any pool, accelerated by salt content or not.

I prefer to use Stainless Steel anywhere around water, unless I need the strength of a hardened steel fastener. 316SS is the most corrosion resistant Stainless Steel you can get in a fastener and is the choice of most Marine applications.

Dom -
Pouring an insulator down a powder coated ladder will break the bond. Not safe.

The 9+ square inches of ladder metal satisfies "water bonding" in many jurisdictions when used with approved ladder receptacles.


OP - is this poly or metal ladder?? Ladder are shipped as kits & builder doesn't provide hardware, everything is in the box. This corrosion points to chemical imbalance or a bonding grid failure.

Which material are the ladder receptacles made of?

 

[domct203]

Dom -
Pouring an insulator down a powder coated ladder will break the bond. Not safe.

The 9+ square inches of ladder metal satisfies "water bonding" in many jurisdictions when used with approved ladder receptacles.


OP - is this poly or metal ladder?? Ladder are shipped as kits & builder doesn't provide hardware, everything is in the box. This corrosion points to chemical imbalance or a bonding grid failure.

Which material are the ladder receptacles made of?

Then I guess the best approach here is to replace the ladder with a quality stainless steel one. Bare uncoated steel will rust in water regardless of chemistry or bonding.

A poly or plastic ladder would not rust, nor satisfy water bond requirements as you stated.

 

[Veccster]

Welp, I did end up pouring flex seal inside the ladder. I don't quite understand bonding and how or why it is now compromised...or how serious of an issue that really is.

This is a steel powder coated ladder with stainless steel hardware.

I also painted the rust spots and the ladder steps where it was rusted.

Probably should've used white but black what I had in my shop.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

My guess is it’s a quality control issue. The ladder was manufactured out of a low grade steel and then powder coated. The powder coat probably was thin at those bolt hole openings and then, when the ladder was assembled, the bolts in those areas scratched the thin coating thus exposing the steel to pool water. Small scratches act like crevices and then you’ll get some very fast corrosion in those areas.

While I’m sure one can try to patch it to make it useful again, the only long term solution is getting a better quality ladder. PBs are notorious for telling pool owners that they’ll be supplying them with “only the very best equipment “ when what they really mean is only the very best equipment they can find lying around in their equipment yards....

 

[ps0303]

I wonder how Flex Seal will hold up to the pool water.

JoyfulNoise hit the nail on the head with low grade steel and then powder coated.

 

[MissChanandelerBong]

I know this thread is almost three years old but I'm having the exact same problem and was considering the very same solution. Since you've already tried it- any chance of an update? Did the Flex Seal last? I was thinking to just put it around the parts that are rusting rather than the entire inside but I haven't looked at it super closely in a while.