I live in Scottsdale, AZ where the hardness of tap water is 250. When I filled my pool in June and started testing with a Taylor kit, my CH was 350. Naturally it has crept up as the warm summer has evaporated the pool water. It is now 450. I have already started seeing calcium deposits on the spa spillover. I know I could drain the pool by half and refill with tap water, but it wouldn't be long before I'd be in the same boat again, and it costs over $250 in water to do it. I have read about reverse osmosis trucks that can remove hardness, but I imagine this is even more expensive than refilling the pool. What would the experts suggest? I can certainly keep my pH low enough for my CSI to be in range. I expect my CH will be over 500 very soon. Another thought I had was to install a home water softener, but they'd have to do it in a way that my automatic pool refill tap was included.
Hard water
- Thread starter SteelBlue
- Start date
- May 3, 2014
- 58,366
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I manage my CSI until my CH is above 800 ppm, then exchange.
Only run the spillover the minimum each day to keep it chlorinated.
RO will cost several times what the water costs.
Water softener is great if you can do it.
Only run the spillover the minimum each day to keep it chlorinated.
RO will cost several times what the water costs.
Water softener is great if you can do it.
Thanks for your experienced advice. I'm glad to see you let your CH go high, then exchange. That makes the most sense. I unfortunately have to run my spa spillover as part of the pool filtration process, which is 4 hours per day. The spa is on one of the Caretaker valves. Maybe I'll just get a small soda blaster to removed the calcium deposits below the spa spillover.