I am a stranger at the pool store

[MikeInTN]

You da man! Thanks Richard!

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I stopped by the new Leslie's up here to check to see if they had a Jandy valve (they didn't), and decided to look at what they charge for PQ60...they wanted $74 a gallon for it.. Isn't that just a bit overpriced???

EDIT: Hmmm...maybe not so overpriced...just did a Google search, and it looks like the going rate is $17 - $20 per quart, so that's about average. Wow.....

The Leslie's by me doesn't carry it....

I'm gonna order it on line....

 

[monkeywrench]

EDIT: Hmmm...maybe not so overpriced...just did a Google search, and it looks like the going rate is $17 - $20 per quart, so that's about average. Wow.....

At the recommended dose for a typical pool, it's around $2-3 per week in maintenance cost (3 ounces per 10,000 gallons). You can look at it as insurance if your chlorine ever gets too low for whatever reason (high bather load, unusually hot and sunny, forgetting to add chlorine, etc.). Of course, if one had 50 ppm Borates in their pool then that's also an algae inhibitor and you don't have to add it every week (unless there is a lot of dilution). Using chlorine alone with an FC appropriate to the CYA level will prevent algae growth so these additional chemicals are not needed, but they do work. PolyQuat is particularly useful


for closing a pool over the winter (along with chlorine) or when doing an ascorbic acid treatment to remove metal stains (since the chlorine will go to zero).

Last season when I closed my pool I had added metal -free to the water to try to eliminate the nasty brown(iron?) stains on my white stairs that were present at all the previous openings.When opening this year I had beautiful white steps and a nasty alge bloom. Could that metal -free have caused my Cl to go to zero resulting in the alge? Would PQ60 have prevented this? It's getting saddly close to winterization time for this season I'd prefer not to have to fight the evils again this spring.

 

[chem geek]

If the metal-free were just a metal sequestrant and not ascorbic acid, then I don't think it caused the problem. Instead, the chlorine simply got used up as it normally does (albeit more slowly in cold water). If you don't or can't add chlorine to the pool during the winter (say, because it freezes or you can't easily get under the cover or have no way to circulate the water), then using PolyQuat on closing can help. It's not a guarantee since even PolyQuat gets used up over time, but if you close when the water is as cold as possible, then you reduce the rate of PolyQuat and chlorine getting used up.

Another way to avoid algae over the winter is to have an algaecide in the water that does not break down, such as having 50 ppm Borates. However, that's more like a one-time decision of whether you want your pool to have Borates in it.

Richard