Heard on the radio yesterday (Saturday Local Houston station)

[anonapersona]

A caller complains of "High numbers on all his tests". The radio hosts find that he is reporting high values of chlorine, alkalinity, pH, and stabilizer. He says he has already turned the automatic tablet feeder down to 1 and one time he didn't reload it, but still chlorine is high. The hosts say that not reloading the feeder for now is a good thing, until chlorine values get back to normal. And, the Biogard representative adds, he can always shock with non-chlorine shock.

I note, on the strip test jar that I keep for amusement purposes, that High CYA is >150 ppm, High Free Chlorine and Total Chlorine are >10, High Total Alkalinity is >120 and High pH is > 7.8.

The radio hosts tell him that with the TA high, he needs to keep CYA high. But they are telling him to let FC drop -- apparently down to 3 ppm which is what the strips call OK.


Poor guy has been Pool Stored without even going to the store!

 

[bridgman]

The radio hosts tell him that with the TA high, he needs to keep CYA high.

Wow...

 

[woodyp]

Glad I don't get that station. Don't think they'd accept my "pre-screened" call!

 

[Isaac-1]

Sad, on the topic of test strips I spotted a new one from Aqua Check in the pool section at Lowes yesterday. They are "smart strips" that are viewed with a reader ap on your smart phone. I did not look at details, thought about picking up a pack to try, but well then I didn't.

Ike

 

[zea3]

I am familiar with that radio show. They seem like nice guys but are plugging products right and left. Their chemistry knowledge stinks but their repair advice is good. Some times I listen to it so I can yell at the radio. It amuses the kids!

Ike- I have taken pictures with my iphone to compare colors while shopping and the colors are not true to life. I would not trust it to read a strip correctly. Plus we already know the strips are probably wrong too!

 

[Patrick_B]

Well, that certainly doesn't speak well for Bioguard at all. He need to learn his Pool Chemistry.

 

[anonapersona]

I guess that when the pool chemical companies are your sponsor, you can't tell the public about simpler cheaper methods.

 

[MoebiusStreet]

I have taken pictures with my iphone to compare colors while shopping and the colors are not true to life.

As a hobbyist photographer (I know more about cameras than I do about pools, so far), I can verify that ambient lighting can make a big difference. For example, if you're standing in the shade of a tree while looking at the strip, the tree in sunlight can give a green cast, maybe causing you to interpret the result a little differently.

However, the test strip itself is the solution to this. I'm not familiar with the product you mention, but in principle, the app could correct for the problem. Because we know that the test strip itself is pure white, that hypothetical green cast I mentioned would be visible in that white as well. The app could compare the observed color of the test strip to pure white to figure out how far off the ambient lighting is, and correct the colored patches on the strip by the same factor, in order to get a pretty accurate assessment of color.

If you use the more advanced features of a camera, this is actually what the "white balance" setting is doing. There are pre-calibrated settings for typical lighting situations set to filter out color casts for, say, tungsten lighting. And on fancier cameras there is a function allowing you to point the camera at a known-neutral object from which the camera will calculate the precise correction that's needed.

 

[jblizzle]

Even if it is a computer interpreting the colors ... you are still relying on test strips which have proven to be inaccurate and inconsistent. Some pool stores have a big fancy machine to read the colors off strips as well.

I prefer counting drops to trying to guess at a color or trusting someone else (or their machine ... when was the last time it was calibrated?) to interpret them for me.

 

[Vegas Kid]

I know that "radio show" and have to laugh at some of the comments as well.

Seems that the only questions they get are about leaks...

 

[AimeeH]

Can somebody point the right direction sat to this pool talk show or station is I can maybe listen on iheartradio or something?.......I need a good laugh. Or send it to me?

 

[msumoose]

OOOHHH ME TOO ME TOO..

Got a link???

 

[gtnos]

you want a laugh, you dont need a radio show, just call your local pool store like I did earlier today and inquire about a discount on a bulk purchase of 12% bleach.

that guy about had a coronary.

"you know, we have 67% pure chlorine tabs, you cant just use bleach."

"your pool will be green"

"the concentration isnt high enough, you have to use tabs, you would literally have to pour in 6 jugs of 12% a day to equal one tab"

and my personal favorite:

"well, I have heard of guys like you using bleach, you are going to mess your pool up, then you will be calling me to fix it and order tabs."


my response: "So I guess thats a no on giving me a discount if I buy in bulk?"

sad part is, had I not already been a BBB'r for the last season, and know that he is full of it, he was very believable......

 

[dreon]

ditto to all that you said
I too have spent the last 2years doing the BBB method and have spent less in 2 years on chemicals than one month of the pool store reccomendations. easy peasy

 

[Odi]

The show is The Backyard Bay. I catch it sometimes when running errands on Saturday mornings, but he does spend an awful lot of his time hawking products.

There are recordings of past shows on the website and I just listened to the call mentioned from the 4/5 show (starts about 42:07)...the part that jumped out to me was "Well, the way that we can reduce cyanuric acid levels is by using calcium hypochlorite for our chlorine and not using the tablets for a while...". That doesn't jive with what I've learned since I got this pool...