A Big Family Orenda Startup
Builders, we believe the startup is the most important thing you can do to ensure a long and healthy life for your pool surface. The second water starts hitting the surface, it is starting to compromise that surface, and pull calcium out of the cement which long term can impact your surface integrity.
We use the Orenda Barrel Startup Method which insures that the first drop of water that hits the pool is LSI balanced and it remains that way through the complete fill. Never see plaster dust again.
If you want to protect the integrity of the surface and ensure a long and beautiful life, having the water LSI balanced, and keeping it that way is the key to a happy client.
When we add calcium and acid and a sequestering agent like Orenda SC-1000 to the startup as early as possible it makes the water not seek more calcium when it hits the pool surface. When you do not add what is needed to make it LSI balanced, the water is hungry for calcium and will pull calcium hydroxide from the wall. Calcium Hydroxide has a pH of 12.6, which raises the pH in the water to seek LSI, at the expense of the surface.
We do NOT recommend acid startups (hot starts). Hot startups will pull too much material from the surface and cause damage. You will not see it now, but it happened. Do a hot startup and watch your calcium rise. Instead of a hot start, a controlled acid wash and/or polish is recommended to expose the finish, then a balanced startup.
Use our 30-day startup and prolong the life of your pool!
Straight from the Orenda Startup Website: Plaster dust can be prevented with the Orenda Startup
Don’t just hide the dust with a sequestering agent, prevent plaster dust by adding early calcium and SC-1000 as the pool is filling up.
- Test the tap water so you know what is going to be filling the pool.
- Use the Orenda LSI calculator App to dose how much calcium you will need to add.
- Bring the calcium and empty buckets to the job site, and begin pre-dissolving calcium in the buckets and let the heat out. Dissolving calcium in water creates an exothermic reaction.
- Add SC-1000 to the main drain pots, or wait until there are a few inches of water in the bowl. Add entire startup dose (32oz. per 10,000 gallons) at once.
- Begin adding buckets of calcium until the entire amount needed (according to the Orenda calculator) has been added. Do this while the pool is still in its early stages of being filled.
Still looking for more? How about some video proof of what a difference a proper startup can achieve. Here is a video from Orenda and Blue Moon Pools showing what happens when you use a proper startup vs just adding water from the tap.