TFP recommended levels compared to manufacturer’s recommendations

[dragonbird22]

We’ve received barely any rain in months and I was thinking today about chemistry levels while putting the hose in the pool. I’ll use CH as an example here, but the following applies to every aspect of pool chemistry.

My fiberglass pool is 3yrs old and between year 1-2, I started noting the chalkiness/cloudiness/oxidation in the shell that Texas Splash has documented extensively. The CH of my fill water is 170ppm. My shell manufacturer Aviva recommends 80-120ppm which I was so shocked by that I called them to confirm after the pool was installed Compare that to Hayward’s recommendation of 200-400ppm, and I’m out of range for both of them, and well out of range for Aviva. I’ve come to realize that something is going to get sacrificed here and I don’t want it to be my equipment, so I’ve accepted that the cosmetic look of the shell is going to be affected.

Aviva even has a section on their website where they discuss “the top customer concern” being fading of the shell that they blame on poor chemistry.

I’ve followed TFP recs after spending my first year getting poolstored. BUT I do worry that if I have a shell issue at any point, I am going to have warranty trouble since my running levels have always been so far off of Aviva’s recommendation. This same issue applies to pH & FC. Do you all worry about this?

 

[PoolStored]

Why are TFP Recommendations Different than Manufacturers? - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The thing to understand about fiberglass pool surfaces is that 99 times out of 100, the “chalkiness” you see is NOT calcium scaling. It the breakdown/hydrolysis/oxidation of the clear gel coat on the FG surface. There is literally nothing you can do about this to stop it. All gel coats will begin to breakdown from the oxidative stress of water, chlorine, and UV. It’s simply the physics and chemistry of water and polymers.

The only way to restore it is to have the pool drained, the surface lightly polished to remove the porous layer and then a fresh gel coat applied. It’s, at best, impractical to do and would be extremely costly as it is mostly back-breaking labor. Anyone that owns a boat or a classic car knows how hard it is to keep these types of surfaces polished and cleaned (gel-coats on fiberglass are very similar to clear coats on cars).