Salt and borates

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AdelaidePooler

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Oct 20, 2013
77
Adelaide, Australia
So I have a test kit, and it all works just brilliantly. But I needed a salt test so I went for the strips as folks on here say they work.

Well I had a fair idea what my salt should be, I had added close to what I thought I needed but wanted to check so I bought some of he Aqua Check strips.

I bought them from Bunnings (Home Depot equivalent) Now I don't know whether getting their stock to Australia has ruined them, but they don't work for me at all. They read 1700ppm salt when I KNOW I have a least 4000'and should be 4200

I went to two pool stores (they are always keen to sell me salt) and had them check it... 4200, same result from each.

So I took the strips back and got a new pot... At $13 for 10 I wasn't just going to chuck them out!
Well the new ones give me the same 1700ppm reading.

They are still in date, what could be wrong with them? I assume I haven't got the test procedure wrong... Put the strip in water until the string goes dark.

And interestingly, the second pool shop (that uses an Accuscan thing) says that I have 18 ppm borates in the water, under their name of "Optimiser"! I've never knowingly used anything with borates in it, what could it be? A test error on their part?

Any thoughts appreciated
 
I took the first pot back to a different store from the one at which I actually purchased them to get it replaced with a the second pot, the dates and lot numbers on them are different too.
I'll take the second pot back this evening for a refund, and for the occasions I need to check the salt I'll have to take it to the pool shop. I was hoping to do it all myself, but it's not that big a deal.

In other news, I found the source of the borates...

Before I let the Hallowed Light of Pool Knowledge into my life I had on occasion used the BioGuard poolshop's "Power Chlor" granular chlorine product, and while I was aware that it contained stabiliser, I was NOT aware that it also contained their "Optimiser".
I have just confirmed this with the pool shop, I looked for an MSDS but couldn't find one, and the website makes little mention of the chemical compositions of their products, save for the amount of available chlorine per kg. I happened to look at "Optimiser" in the shop, it's basically 100% boric acid. For $20 per kg.
 
Of course, we sell the Aqua check salt strips. It is impractical (usually) for y'all in Australia to buy them from us. I wish it we're not.

We've probably carried them for 4-6 years and have sold enough year after year to get a good feeling about them. I seem to vaguely remember a bottle about 2 years ago that we replaced. Couldn't ever find the problem but customer said new bottle solved the issue. Other than that.....nothing that I can remember.

That gives us a return rate of way less than .1%. I'll check with Meg later but I believe that return rate to be correct.
 
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