Can coins/change throw off water chemistry?

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VirginiaMom

Well-known member
May 10, 2020
45
Virginia
Pool Size
5630
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Intex Krystal Clear
So after successfully slamming pool, we discovered change (4 pennies and several quarters) in our pool. We’ve only been able to get in it three times and know with certainty it didn’t come from us. We suspect the neighbors kids threw it in there as they have a history of throwing things over our privacy fence- (in the past six months- a couple rotten Easter eggs and etc) they keep their trampoline close to our fence.

My question is- can that change throw off the water balance or damage the pool should it continue to happen?

We have a 18 x 48 Coleman swim vista agp with salt water generator and sand filter.

thank you in advance for your help!
 
I mean…. Copper is copper and it’s bad in the pool. Lol.

you’re fine. Even if they were 50 years old, blackened and oxidizing. It’s a proverbial drop in the bucket.
 
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What is the state those coins are?

The amount of copper that could have been released in your water depends on how much corrosion rose coins suffered.

It is not going to throw off your chemicals, but enough copper might stain your liner and tint finger nails and blonde hair green.
 
Right after we bought our house we changed out the sand in our sand filter. There was about $3.00 worth of pennies in it. Someone had to have taken the top off the pump and dumped them in. I can only assume they were trying to save money on algaecide.
 
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jamjam said:
People use pennies as dive toys - could they have somehow made it to the filter?
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No, they couldn’t have possibly made it past the pump basket, especially that many of them. Someone for whatever reason just decided it would be a good idea to dump several hundred pennies directly in the filter.
 
Orion7319 said:
No, they couldn’t have possibly made it past the pump basket, especially that many of them. Someone for whatever reason just decided it would be a good idea to dump several hundred pennies directly in the filter.
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Is there a bottom drain? If not, then they were probably put there because they thought the pennies would leach enough copper to be an effective algaecide. You don't recall the dates on the pennies, do you?
 
Pennies would not get past a pump basket or impeller.

Also, note that the U.S does not have a coin called a “Penny”.

The U.S. Mint's official name for the coin is "cent" and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece".
 
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PoolGate said:
Is there a bottom drain? If not, then they were probably put there because they thought the pennies would leach enough copper to be an effective algaecide. You don't recall the dates on the pennies, do you?
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They were a mix between new and old. They also didn’t look like they had been in there for very long as none of them were particularly corroded and a lot of them looked brand new. No they couldn’t have made it into the filter without taking the top of the filter off and dumping them in. The guy we bought the house from seemed kinda cheap, I get the impression he was a flipper. When we bought the house between the time we made an offer and the time we closed the pool turned very green. I think he tried to clear the algae when he found out we were having the pool inspected. I suspect he added the pennies (1 cent pieces, lol) to try as an algicide. That’s what I suspect happened. The pool was green because the CYA was over 150. $3.00 in pennies wasn’t about to touch that, lol!
 
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