Do I Need Calcium Hardness In My Vinyl Pool

Calcium hardness is also very important to the chemical balancing of your vinyl liner swimming pool.

Do i need calcium hardness in my vinyl pool. Having begun my career in the pool service industry in 1984 i have a confession to make. If calcium hardness goes above 400 ppm you will likely see a white flaky crust on the liner and pool equipment. Low calcium levels in the pool. Soft water low calcium levels can cause plaster or concrete pool walls to lose their calcium to the pool water and can cause vinyl pools to lose their elasticity.

The recommended range is 150 400 ppm parts per million with an often cited stricter range of 200 400 ppm. A common belief which i shared was i do pool repair not chemicals. Pool stores will give you an amazing song and dance about why you need calcium in your vinyl pool. To add the proper amount of hardness increaser you ll need to know your pool s volume which you can easily determine with a pool calculator.

This article will attempt to explain the urgent need to understand and manage proper levels of calcium hardness in our pools. If you have a heater with a copper heat exchange and your hardness is low it can destroy your heater. For vinyl pools calcium should be between 150 250 ppm. Calcium in your pool is similar to the car analogy.

Call it an admission of guilt. All you need to do is add a calcium hardness increaser to your pool. In addition to ph and total alkalinity calcium hardness must be kept in balance so that your pool water does not become too corrosive or end up scaling the surface of your pool. Be sure to carefully follow the instructions on the package in order to obtain the best results.

This can be a very expensive problem so pool owners need to address low calcium quickly. Calcium on the low and high end of the scales will eventually cause problems and when they do be ready for some serious problems. If a vinyl liner s calcium level is too low this soft water situation could lead to foaming and other water problems and can harm the vinyl. It also produces itchy skin.

Neglected calcium levels in your pool often are low but can be skewed high as well if you re not doing some routine monitoring. Calcium for a liner pool can be a bit lower than a plaster pool in the range of 150 250 ppm.