Do These Swimming Pool Products Really Work?
When
it comes to any product in any industry it is hard to tell if it will work or
not until you use it or enough people use it to leave reliable feedback and
reviews. The same is true for many swimming pool products for sale on the
market today. Do they work as they claim or are they just a gimmick, snake oil?
Let me start with a few categories and go down the list.
Stain
Removers:
These
are always hit and miss just by the nature of staining. You need to know what
kind of stain it is first to know which product will be effective. For example,
you would treat an organic stain differently than a metal stain and a rust
stain different from a metal stain or discoloration. I find that the best three
products I have used for stains are, Bio-Dex Aquadex 50, HASA Super Stain out,
and United Chemical Pool Stain Treat. But I have also had failures with them so
none of these are bullet-proof.
Pool
Surface Scale Remover:
Until
I find something better Beautec by Easy Care has been the best scale removal
product I have used for pool surfaces. Note that I said pool surfaces and not
the tile line. The tile line can be tricky and even products like Bio-Dex
Protect All Supreme are hit and miss. That is because that calcium line can be
tough to clean with any topical chemical. For a really bad scale on the waterline, the only real solution is a professional glass beader. But for scale on your
pool surface, this stuff to me works the best
CYA
Reducer:
Both
Bio-Active and now Natural Chemistry has a CYA reducing product and from the
reviews, you can see that these products are very hit and miss. Maybe more miss
than hit in many respects. They both use a microorganism that destroys the CYA
in the pool. The problem is that the water needs to be just about perfect for
it to work. The key is having a zero chlorine reading which in itself is
problematic. Plus there is no way to tell if your CYA is at 200 or 300 ppm so
even if it were to drop it by 30 ppm, that is not enough nor does it justify
the cost. Water is still the cheapest element in your pool and draining is
pretty much a sure bet that your CYA will be reduced.
Phosphate
Removers:
I
think one of the most bullet-proof products out there is phosphate removers.
Phosphates are the food source for algae and if you eliminate the food source,
you destroy the algae. Pretty simple.
There
are many brands of Phosphate removers out there. Natural Chemistry makes a
popular one in PHOSfree and then there is the Orenda PR 10,000. Adding a
phosphate remover to control algae is a great way to keep your pool clear and
blue all season long. I have been using a phosphate remover in most of my
service accounts now for a few years and the results are very noticeable. Very
little to no algae all season long.
Borates:
I
am a huge fan of adding borates to your pool to bring the level to 30-50 ppm
and I think borates are a game-changer for most pools. With borates in your
pool, you will not only have more sparkle to your water but it is a natural
algae preventer and pH buffer. This means a pool with borates will have no
algae (al long as the chlorine is in range) and the pH will tend to stay stable
week to week. Borates are one product that works so well that no wholesale
supplier nor many retail pool stores will stock it as it reduces the sale of
their other chemicals.
I
think before you purchase any pool product, check the reviews, and see if
others have had success with it. I tend to toss out the really bad one-star
reviews and the gushing 5-star reviews and see what normal reviewers think
about a product before I purchase it.
Visit
my Website: http://www.swimmingpoollearning.com/
YouTube
Video Index: http://poolmandave.blogspot.com/2014/03/swimming-pool-tips-reviews-how-to-video.html
– A list of all of my videos.
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