Pool shop recommendations!!

[AUSpool]

Wow, I was always a little sceptical, ‘surely my pool shops aren’t that bad’.

I’ve just bought a new chlorinator online and thought I’d check out their online pool water testing. So I input; FC 5ppm, CYA 70ppm, pH 7.8, TA 70ppm, CH 425ppm. - Looks good to me. Well no surprises, they suggest my FC is too high, pH too high, TA too low and my CH too high.

And then the list of goodies to add to my cart that I absolutely need. $115 worth.
Alkality Up, 2kg.
pH down, 3kg.
CalHypo, 2kg.
Chlorine remover, 500g.
Calcium down, 1L.

Wow, I don’t get the lodgic, your chlorine is high so add some chlorine remover and just in case you add too much here’s some calhypo which will add to your already elevated CH so you will also need some calcium down.

Calcium down. Must be the magic bullet we’ve all been searching for.
The MSDS says its 30-60% 1-hydroxyethylidene-1,1-diphosphonic acid Hydrochloric acid in 5% hydrochloric acid. And ‘a solution of hydrochloric acid and cheating agents’,so I guess there will be some back washing or vacuuming to waste which would decrease the CH without the fancy chemicals.

Am I being sceptical?

 

[mdogan]

There is one simple magic. Water exchange, but it is depending on fill water.
my biggest enemy since i found this website Pool stores

 

[aussieta]

thank goodness you had the education to see what was happening
i fell for it when i first bought house with pool

 

[riley00dog]

Yup and that’s how they stay in business! At least it was online and you didn’t have to hide your reaction. I’ve set foot in our local major chain pool store (I’m sure you can guess which) twice. Once to buy acid and once to buy cya. The first time there were no questions asked and it was a straight forward purchase. The second time they did ask me whether I was in their system and if I had brought in a water sample. I just said no [emoji23] The same chain but different location did our handover for our pb. Pool builder’s plumber had already done what I will loosely call startup. This service guy actually spoke about the danger of too high cya and the fc ratio I needed to maintain my water that had been left teetering on the edge at 90. He recommended 5-6ppm. He is absolutely an exception to the norm. Funny thing is pool needed more fc so he grabbed a bucket of granulated chlorine containing cya that had been left onsite [emoji31] I quickly took it off him and handed him container of LC! Obviously he’s better than most but not TFP better.

 

[jseyfert3]

I found this site because before getting a hot tub, I was searching for how to take care of them. Almost everywhere gave a list of around ten different pool chemicals I needed to have on hand. All these places either sold or linked to a store where I could buy those chemicals though...I got suspicious and started looking for a forum. Very glad I did. All I've ever added is acid, dichlor, bleach, borax, and a bit of washing soda if I get in a hurry and overshoot the acid addition during water balancing after a fill. Plus of course I picked up a Taylor test kit and SpeedStir, which nobody except the forum recommended.