Brittle Liner?

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sbarkley3
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Joined: Wed 15 Apr, 2009 11:37
My Pool: 18x36 inground
Location: Louisville, Ky

Brittle Liner?

Postby sbarkley3 » Wed 15 Apr, 2009 11:52

I am having a new liner put in my pool as we speak. The guys doing the install told my wife this morning that my old liner was very brittle and that this was caused by using cheap chemicals. Last summer I tried using the BBB method for the first time. Could this have contributed to my brittle liner? What are some things I should avoid putting in the pool, as I dont want to ruin the brand new liner they are putting in.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Scott


chem geek
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Location: San Rafael, California

Brittle Liner?

Postby chem geek » Wed 15 Apr, 2009 12:02

If you add any type of chlorine in one place without good circulation, then it can settle to the bottom and cause problems. This is true with Trichlor pucks, Cal-Hypo, chlorinating liquid, bleach, lithium hypochlorite, Dichlor or any source of chlorine. You should always add concentrated chemicals including chlorine or acid very slowly over a return flow with the pump running. For extra safety, use a pool brush to lightly brush the side and bottom of the pool where you add chemical.

Low pH is the most harmful to liners. Having Trichlor pucks in a floating feeder that gets near the sides of the pool can cause problems there.

How old was your liner? Was the brittleness only in one area, near where you added chlorine? How did you add chlorine to your pool? What was your source of chlorine before switching to BBB? Once chlorine, from any source, is mixed in the water, then it is identical so long as you managed your water chemistry parameters such as pH. When you switched to BBB, did you still have Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in the water -- you should have since it moderates chlorine's effective strength.

Richard
sbarkley3
I'm new here
I'm new here
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed 15 Apr, 2009 11:37
My Pool: 18x36 inground
Location: Louisville, Ky

Brittle Liner?

Postby sbarkley3 » Wed 15 Apr, 2009 12:19

Thanks for the fast reply. I am not really sure how old the liner is. This will be my fifth summer in the house. Previuosly have used the pucks, adding them to the skimmer basket and sometimes to the basket on the pump. And the one pound bags of shock. I suspect that this is where my problem came from, as some of that granular shock always settles to the bottom before it evenually dissolves. When I switched to the BBB method last year I would walk all the way around the side of the pool dumping the liquid bleach in slowly.
chem geek
Pool Industry Leader
Pool Industry Leader
Posts: 2381
Joined: Thu 21 Jun, 2007 21:27
Location: San Rafael, California

Brittle Liner?

Postby chem geek » Wed 15 Apr, 2009 13:40

Though walking around the pool slowly pouring the chlorine with the pump running is OK, it's even better to pour it slowly over a return flow since that really gets it mixing in the water, especially if you do this at the deep end and if there is a floor drain there. My only concern with you pouring it around is that some areas might not have great circulation and I wouldn't want the concentrated chlorine to settle in such an area for too long. If you're just dribbling a little and there is a rotating circulation pattern, then it's probably OK.

I agree with you that if you had granular shock (either Cal-Hypo or Dichlor) settling to the bottom before dissolving, then that is certainly harmful to the liner in that area -- you might even see some bleaching in that area. Trichlor in the skimmer basket could have its acidity and high chlorine levels come out around the skimmer area when the pump is off. If the brittleness they noted was mostly in these two areas, then it's likely that was the cause. If the brittleness was overall everywhere, then that's more likely to be caused by the pH overall getting too low in the bulk pool water which is easy to occur from Trichlor usage if you aren't testing regularly. Also, who knows how the pool was treated before you moved to this house.

Richard

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