TFP Chemistry Levels violate Pebble Warranty

[mike.vabeach]

Hi All,

I’ve been positioning to balance water according to this group, pool math, etc. but have realized it goes against the values I was given by the contractor / warranty. I’m assuming I best be going with the latter so do not violate the warranty(NPC startup for plaster)?! Additionally, I’m gunite/pebble/ SWG and wondering if many of these TFP recommendations don’t consider the entire picture?

Also, I’ve been testing with Leslie’s Accublue home daily for around 45 days. I’ve seen the error tolerances posted on the site, but with that said my test results seem to be extremely consistent. I’ve ordered the TF-100, but do have concern that it will be more time consuming running individual drop tests for each value (I have a base Tayler kit). The Leslie’s home test is a one step process which means testing daily is no big deal and easily accomplished. Plus, I can use the $50 credit on muriatic acid alone as Leslie’s is competitive regarding that product.

Anyone have perspective on the above concerns?

 

[HermanTX]

For initial start up it is best to follow the mfg guidelines. However once you are a month or so past that point, you will need to decide which way you want to maintain your pool. Furthermore it is mainly around TA levels and the CYA and FC relationship that differs.
FC/CYA Levels
This is where TFP will diverge from traditional levels. It is your pool and your choice.

Did the Accublue device indicate how often it should be calibrated? Will Leslie’s do that for you?
Also, $50 a month in MA is a lot. I barely use a gallon ($15) a month.

Either way, we are here to help where we can.

 

[Bperry]

Plus, I can use the $50 credit on muriatic acid alone as Leslie’s is competitive regarding that product.

Anyone have perspective on the above concerns?

Home Depot carries two gallons of muriatic acid for $19. How much cheaper does Leslie’s carry it?

You can obviously do what you want but the accublue test thing will get you in trouble. They just aren’t reliable. I’ve taken the same water sample to two different stores and got very different results for a few tests.

Obviously the warranty thing is just something you need to decide on. Those are recommendations according to the notes, not requirements. If you follow the recommendation of 1ppm FC and 50ppm CYA, you’re probably going to have a bad experience with algae.

 

[Newdude]

TFP levels violate pebble warranty

Yeah. Well. The pebble company / industry levels which retain the warranty violate having a sanitary pool.

Your choice which one you'd rather have.

Here is the details of the accublue spintouch and why it's problematic :

Any experience with the AccuBlu or LaMotte Spintouch test setups?

I am a chemist and have been able to get my hands on one of these if I wanted. I know a lot of pool stores use one of these 2 or something similar, while I don't trust pool stores themselves the tech seems to make sense. It would seem to be a spectrometer that reads in the visible light range to...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Sorry but I take a very dim view on warranties - most aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. If you read enough threads here on TFP by people experiencing plaster problems and trying to get work done by the builder under their “warranties” you will read a lot of frustrated posts. Builders talk a good talk about warranties and guarantees but few will step up when there are issues and most want to do anything they can to avoid the costs of repair. They play the long game that if they send you down enough rabbit-trails you’ll eventually just go away in frustration. Couple that with the Mack Truck sized holes in the warranty that play heavily in favor of the suppliers and builders, and you have the perfect recipe for absolutely nothing getting done when you find an issue.

TFP recommended levels are derived from decades of experience by hundreds of thousands of pool owners finding the right chemistry levels that yield the least amount of work and problems. I would never run my pool according to industry standards because that would result in more work and very poor quality water as well as a ton of issues with scaling and equipment damage. Their concepts of water care are simply wrong.

As for the SpinLab … it will work great initially and then it will age and give you problems. It also will only work when chemical levels are close to their normal values. If you have high chlorine or TA that’s not quite right, the readings will become unreliable. Drop based reagent testing is highly accurate and repeatable because each test is designed to look at a specific quantity. It’s basic aqueous chemistry that has been around for hundred years … well understood and highly repeatable.

 

[jimbethesda]

If you are ever in a situation needing a warranty repair on your shell or plaster, bring your levels in line with their specs. They are bogus parameters anyway, no actual harm to your pool will occur with TFP values.

Also, you said “Also, I’ve been testing with Leslie’s Accublue home daily for around 45 days. I’ve seen the error tolerances posted on the site, but with that said my test results seem to be extremely consistent. I’ve ordered the TF-100,”

Consistently wrong, maybe. You need to compare those results to TF-100. I spend about 15min a week testing my water. My neighbors all use pool service companies and seem to always be having problems. They spend way more time and money on their pools.

You are optimizing for a sub 1% chance event, as a result, there is a 99% chance you will struggle to keep your pool clean while also spending lots of money.