Placing chlorine pucks or tabs in your skimmer is not really a great idea. It is always best to use a chlorine feeder to deliver chlorine to your swimming pool water.
I remember an old Wal-Mart commercial they used to run on television. They would say "just drop a couple of these in your skimmer". Everytime I saw it I would think to myself, yeah, if you do it won't be long till I am at your home making a repair.
What happens when you do this?
The first thing is you get a blast of chemical running through all of your equipment on it's way back to the swimming pool. It's a pretty heavy dose coming out those return lines. Not the place to be while in the pool, a little too strong for some swimmers as far as the skin, eyes and hair.
Why not put a chlorine puck in the skimmer?
Chlorine pucks and tabs have a very low pH. I am talking about the typical stabilized tri-chlor type chlorine. The pH of these is about a four on the pH scale.
That is very acidic, far too acid for most of your equipment. As this acid water is drawn over and through your system it is eating away any metal parts and distroying any rubber parts it comes in contact with.
Let's follow the path it takes. The first stop is the skimmer valve, if it is a metal valve it is taking some metal with it on it's way through the system. If it's a plastic valve it is causing the rubber seal in the valve to deteriorate and swell.
Making it harder to operate the valve as time goes on.
The next stop is your pump shaft seal and diffuser screws along with the rubber gaskets in the pump.
The next stop is the multiport selector valve, just like with the skimmer valve the metal spring inside is being eaten away as well as the rubber gasket being ruined. This too will become hard to work to different positions, soon it will allow water to bypass the filter and either return to the pool as unfiltered water or allow the water to trickle out the waste port.
Next stop is the pool heater, this could be the worst of the trouble. The heat exchanger is made of copper, a soft metal anyway, these can be eaten away from the inside out in just a few days.
Where did all that metal go?
It went back into your swimming pool, in solution, like liquid metal.
What happens next depends on your pH and what other chemicals you have in the water.
If you have a good pH and some metal remover it may not show up as a problem for some time. It could even with good readings begin to show as a green tint to your water.
If your pH is low you may not notice anything until someone jumps in with normal color hair and gets out with green hair.
So how did that happen?
The pH of the swimmers hair is about 7.4 the pool water pH is low and contains that liquid metel mentioned above. Much like silver plating the metal has attached itself to the hair shaft and the chlorine has oxidized it, turning it green.
Just like the old copper pennies used to turn green from oxidation. Chlorine is an oxidizer, thats how it's kills the germs.
The next thing you may notice is when you add chemical to raise this low pH your pool walls and floor are becoming stained.
Again the metals are plating, only now on your swimming pool finish or the plastic parts in the pool.
For those that run their pool pump twenty four hours a day this is bad, for those who run part of the day it's worse. When turned off the water and chemical trapped there works even harder to ruin your equipment. Those who have a vinyl liner may notice a light bleach streak running down the wall below the skimmer, acid is heavier than water and that puck just sitting in your skimmer is acid.
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