This article by Steve Kenny was just published in Watershapes Magazine! To read the article on WaterShapes.com, click HERE
Convention and common practice often exist to be challenged, says Steve Kenny. In his quest to understand how to consistently achieve superior water quality, he has come to what he views as a watershed opinion – one that will directly challenge the industry’s assumptions about filtration technology.
It’s an important distinction, and one that all of us who service and build pools would do well to embrace: Clear water is not necessarily safe water. Through decades of experience, as both a service technician and builder, I’ve learned beyond any doubt that there is, quite literally, more to water quality than meets the eye.
My experience is full of examples of how clear water can be deceiving, all of which has directly impacted my best practices when it comes to both managing water chemistry and my preferred filtration technology, and literally dozens of specific design and engineering details.
Yes, clear water is a positive, but there is so much more to consider.
INVISIBLE RISK FACTORS
At the risk of stating the obvious, perfectly clear water can be unhealthy, even fatal in some extreme situations. The main reason is simply that microorganisms are too small to be seen with the naked eye.
Yet, even in well-maintained water, they are always there in the form of biofilm stuck to the plumbing and floating free throughout the system. Most of the time, the presence of microbes is harmless, but when concentrations of harmful germs, i.e. pathogens, reach high enough levels, you have the risk of infection.
Yes, oftentimes pathogens accompany water quality conditions that can be observed in the form of cloudy or smelly water, or algae. But that’s not always going to be the case. You can have crystal clear water and still find things like E. Coli, Legionnaires or Cryptosporidium, among many others.
But the invisible risk factors don’t stop there. Water balance is also largely invisible, and we are all familiar with the perils of water with saturation index readings that either too high or too low. And, perhaps the greatest invisible culprits in water are the countless types of dissolved contaminants: the spectrum of organic compounds; plant nutrients, such as compounds containing phosphates or nitrates; and, the family of disinfection byproducts, such chloramines or halomethanes.
Fact is, most of the stuff that’s in the water is invisible.
CLOUDED BY IGNORANCE
Like many service technicians, in my early years I had not a clue. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and I thought that if the water was clear, everything was good to go.
That changed early in my tenure when a ten-year-old boy came down with severe ear infections his doctors believed were caused by swimming in the family’s backyard pool, which I serviced. The water was perfectly clear, but it was nonetheless very likely the cause of his infection. I remember thinking about how that could possibly cause permanent hearing damage. It hit me like a ton of bricks how I was responsible for doing everything I can to preventing waterborne illness. I became aware that as pool and spa service technicians, we are custodians of our clients’ health.
be the goal of all builders and service techs
alike.
There are numerous other instances I could point to that have happened along the way that reinforce the concept that clear water is not always safe. Through it all, I’ve felt a professional obligation to understand as much as I can about maintaining safe and enjoyable water quality.
With that said, let’s turn to some concepts that are entirely undebatable.
CAUSE FOR CONCERN
That journey has led me to believe that, yes, clear water can be deceptive; and that has, in turn, resulted in the opinion that we would do well to rethink our industry’s reliance on cartridge filtration.
To be clear, I understand why cartridge filters have become so popular. They provide microfiltration, which can create beautifully polished water, and they don’t require backwashing. In my early days building pools, I thought cartridge filters were the greatest thing since canned beer. You didn’t need to set up plumbing for backwashing, and the water would always look great.
This is all part of why cartridge filters have become the go-to option for many professionals and consumers alike. Over time, however, I’ve come to a very different point of view, one that might even be considered controversial. That perceived clearwater advantage afforded by cartridge technology masks a significant issue that
I’ve experienced consistently on the service route. Ironically, it’s precisely because cartridge filters do work to such a small size. Fact is, cartridge filters load up very, very quickly, and there’s no way to backwash them.
When the paper media loads up with particulate, and isn’t cleaned frequently enough, it starts recontaminating the water rather than cleaning it. It quickly develops biofilm and harbors bacteria and other forms of contamination. It’s like having a dirty oil filter on your car; it only makes matters worse by recontaminating the fluid it’s supposed to be cleaning.
GUNKED UP
I’ve seen it time and time again. The sanitizer demand goes through the roof, water balance becomes unsustainable, and we see all sorts of problems with algae and water clarity. By the time you open up the filter, remove the cartridges, and take the time to clean them, the damage is done.
The unfortunate fact is many builders don’t know how to manage chemistry; and, as a result, their pools aren’t properly set up for ongoing maintenance. Instead, the cartridge filter comes to the rescue and for a time, seems like a cure all. The challenge is that our industry has become so habituated by all the marketing that we don’t realize the problem is the filter itself.
