We have a new pool installed this spring. A few weeks ago while swimming I noticed the ends of the steps on the ladder were discoloring or rusting. I asked the incompetent pool company that installed it about the issue and they said it had to do with the salt water. Salt water will rust the sainless steel stairs. Really? After 8 weeks? I asked for the name of the company that they purchased them from and calle dthem directly for verification. They said it's not the walt water at all but rather the brass bases that were installed in the concrete were not bonded correctly which is causing an electrical charge when exposed to salt water. I can't remember if the bases were bonded or not when the pool was installed. I know for a fact the rest of the pool was. Is there any truth to either rone of these? The pool installer won't do anything for me. I've attached a few pictures to show the issue.
Stainless Steel Stairs "rusting"?
- Thread starter Aspfam
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Can someone tell me how to post a picture? The path I'm following keeps giving me an error.
It very well could be an electrical current problem, but I doubt it's a natural battery effect from the bases. It may be worth removing the ladder and measuring the voltage between the anchors and the water.
Brass and Stainless Steels are somewhat widely spread in the galvanic series and certainly could be a problem without any external voltage. Bronze (not Brass) is more commonly used in pool fixtures and would be much more galvanically compatible with Stainless Steels. Generally, in a salt water environment, you do not want dissimilar metals in direct contact. That said, a salt water pool is nowhere near as severe as an oceanic salt environment and I'm surprised how quickly corrosion has occurred. Stainless Steels are normally passivated (a surface finish process) to make them less active and less subject to corrosion. I'm not aware if this is commonly performed for pool ladders, but if it is, maybe the process was skipped for this ladder.
Edit: Here's a good article on using Stainless Steels around pools.
Edit: Here's a good article on using Stainless Steels around pools.
Also all 300 series stainless steels are subject to "brown staining". This looks like rust. Chlorine, especially free chlorine helps the process along. Interestingly enough 300 series stainless steels should not be used in bleach solutions as it will leach out the nickel in the alloy. I do not know if the weak solutions we use in pools are strong enough for this to occur.
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