Draining a foot for calcium vs just living with the scale

Started by Karen Delgado · · 3 replies
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#1
Fill water here is 400 plus straight out of the tap so calcium only goes one direction all summer. Been going back and forth on partial drains every year to keep it under 500 versus just letting it climb and staying ahead of scale with brushing and Jack's Magic on the tile line. Draining costs me water and a chunk of a Saturday, refill spikes it right back up eventually anyway. Letting it ride means more scrubbing and watching the spa jets like a hawk since that's where it shows first. Curious what other desert people actually do long term, not the textbook answer, the one you actually stick with three summers running. My Taylor kit keeps me honest on the number at least, just haven't settled on what to do about it.

3 Replies

#2
Fiberglass or plaster/gunite on your end, Karen? That changes how much I'd worry about the scale itself versus just chasing it off the spa jets and tile, my fiberglass shell doesn't care about calcium the way a plaster surface does.
#3
Never had to fight fill water like that, mine here in Mobile comes out soft so calcium's never been my problem, plaster pool though and 30 years in it still looks fine so I can't speak to what 400 plus out of the tap would do to it.
#4
fill water here in phoenix isnt as bad as 400 plus but its still hard enough that i watched my calcium climb all last summer and did nothing about it, just brushed the tile line more and figured id deal with it eventually. plaster pool for me so it does matter unlike robotvic's fiberglass situation. ended up not draining because tbh a chunk of a saturday and a water bill spike for a number that just creeps back up sounded like a bad trade to me too. my k-2006 is what actually made me pay attention to it instead of guessing, and once i saw the number i just started brushing weekly instead of whenever i remembered. no spa on my pool so i cant speak to watching jets like a hawk, but does the scale actually show up as texture on plaster before it looks bad, or are you just going off the number and getting ahead of it before you can see anything