Do Borates Degrade?

[flynwill]

The Wiki article on Borates includes the statement:

We recommend maintaining borates between 30 and 50 ppm. That normally means raising the borate level to around 50 each spring, so that it will still be above 30 come fall.

Is there a mechanism by which the borates degrade? Or is this statement just assuming some amount of water loss over the season due to backflushing, vacuum, or that strange phenomenon called rain that I hear happens in some places?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Borates do not degrade. They leave the water primarily through splash out and backwashing. The person that wrote that article probably lives in a cold climate where pools are closed over the winter and the seasonal draining & refill reduce permanent chemical species.

 

[flynwill]

Great. That is what I would have assumed, but thought maybe there could be some path were the Boron got locked up as a salt or something.
Might be worth adding a bit of explanation to that article.

 

[ajw22]

Might be worth adding a bit of explanation to that article.

Done.

We recommend maintaining borates between 30 and 50 ppm.

Borates leave the water primarily through splash out and backwashing. [2] Borates are also lost when draining the pool during winter closings. Borates do not degrade.

That normally means checking and raising the borate level to around 50 each spring at the start of swimming season, so that it will still be above 30 come fall.