I feel like I've seen claims about improving "water feel"--for example, TFP mentions SWG and Borate as improving water feel--and I'm wondering what "water feel" actually, physically is? Overall hardness (not to be confused with calcium hardness?)? Why does hardness even matter WRT comfort or skin sensitivity?
What's the chemistry behind "water feel"?
- Thread starter Abnaxis
- Start date
- May 11, 2021
- 973
- Pool Size
- 7000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-30
Not everything comes down to a specific chemical explanation. A lot of science is purely observational with getting to the actual cases of observed effects. That said… Water feel is very subjective. I use borates and I only notice a difference when I swim on other pools. The pool without borates has a kind of more harsh feeling that could very well be due something else. Please note that subjective and feeling are keywords here.
Regarding the other reasons to use borates:
Borates have some algaecide properties, but those are useless if the pool is properly chlorinated.
Borates provide some pH buffering. Taylor Technologies booklet has a whole page on adjusting TA for borates. My pH is pretty stable rarely needing acid even with a LOT of aeration from kids splashing. This is another item that The Deep End has posts with links to scientific papers.
I don’t have a lot of salt on my pool to empirically talk about salt.
Because humans are weird and very fragile. If the PH is a little different (roughly .5) than our own, it hurts our eyes too. We are roughly 9000 ppm salt. A traditional chlorine pool will be up to 1k ppm and it feels harsher. Most people start to feel it around 2k, and by 3k it almost feels silky smooth.
Ironically, too much is uncomfortable too. I was *thisclose* to not going salt because of living by the ocean. At 30k ppm, it's very uncomfortable after a while. Lips get swollen and cracked. You can't drink enough to quench your thirst and your eyes sting for hours. Also, if you dry up fast enough, you can have an actual salty dust like coating in places. When I finally hopped in my salt pool @ 10% the salinity of the ocean, it felt amazing with *none of that*. Couldn't even taste it.
In my COMPLETELY un-expert, uneducated, inexperienced opinion, 0.5 pH sounds like a lot! It's logarithmic, right? So a 0.5 difference is either 40% less of 65% more H+, depending on which way it goes
And man, that story brings back memories of having hair that felt like I'd used epsom salts for shampoo after I swam in the ocean as a kid.
We loved it. Still do. But I didn't want the crusty feeling from swimming in my backyard. Luckily I blindly trusted the PB when he told me it was all of the benefits with none of the drawbacks.
Oof, I found a report that's 163 pages long about the mechanics of the ways different tap water chemistries can exacerbate eczema in people, along with a bunch of observational studies about eczema rates in children in areas with different quality water.
I got some reading to do...
I got some reading to do...
- Nov 30, 2019
- 858
- Pool Size
- 8500
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
The somewhat ‘greasy’ feel of squeezing a sock of CYA makes me inclined to think that it’s the elevated level of stabilizer in a salt pool that gives it that perceived ‘silky’ feel. Nothing to back that up of course, just a guess.
- May 3, 2014
- 58,634
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Members without a SWCG and normal CYA levels are known to put 1000 to 2000 ppm of salt in their water for the 'feel'