Hair-brained idea

[eskewj]

It's about time to close our pool for the season, and when I say "close the pool", I mean just no longer get into the water. We don't cover it, or worry about freezing in our area. Conventional wisdom to keep the pool balanced is pH should be around 7.6, reasoning that this is the pH of the human eye. However, with no humans using the pool until spring, I was wondering if perhaps I should bring the pH down to a more neutral level (towards 7.0), since this in my mind would be easier on the pool / pool equipment?

Thanks for any input!

 

[jblizzle]

It does not work that way. By lowering the pH that low, you would infact increase the likelihood of damaging the pool and equipment.

 

[easttn]

Temperature has an effect on CSI. The lower the temp the lower the CSI. In other words the pH would actually need to be higher in the winter than in the summer to have the same CSI.

Play around with pool math and you will see what Im talking about.
http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

 

[chem geek]

Lower pH is more corrosive to metal. Tap water is usually in the 7.8 to 8.0 range for this reason. You do not want to lower your pH towards 7.0. Such "neutral" pH is not better, but actually worse, for metal corrosion. Also, for plaster pools (though yours is vinyl), the lower saturation index from the lower pH would tend to dissolve calcium carbonate from the plaster.