By Marcelle Dibrell

Have you ever wondered why some of your customers’ colored pools seem to bleach out over time? Worse yet, has your service company ever been blamed for that color loss?

A new experiment just started by the research and consulting team, onBalance, may soon shed light on why some colored pools fade.

On November 7, onBalance plastered two demonstration pools at their research facility in Tucson, Arizona.

“The pools look great!” said onBalance’s Que Hales. “We are now in the curing stage.”

At the heart of the experiment is the notion that there are certain kinds of colored pools that do not retain their color. Of course, sometimes the color is affected by etching or scaling, which is a different matter. But when the issue is only a shift from blue to gray or white, onBalance believes that the reason is the chemical composition of the pigments used to produce the color.

According to onBalance, inorganic, metal-oxide-based pigments retain their colors, whereas organic pigments bleach out over a relatively short period of time. Study

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onBalance has seen these fading colors at a large number of pools.

“In many cases, the service company was blamed, and the color loss was attributed to chemical mismanagement,” said onBalance’s Doug Latta. “And the service company (or their insurance) was expected to pay for a re-plaster of the pools.”

Over the last decade, onBalance has replicated the organic pigment color loss on small plaster samples (coupons) in their lab. They’ve also shown that when inorganic pigments are used in the small plaster coupons, the color maintains its brilliance over time.

Now, they want to show the effect in actual pools.

To do this, they’ve plastered two pools in four sections: Some containing only inorganic pigments; some containing only organic pigments; and some containing a blend of both inorganic and organic pigments.

They plastered two pools in this identical manner so they can measure whether aggressive water versus balanced water has any additional effect on the color loss.

Specifically, Section 1 was plastered with straight inorganic oxide of cobalt and aluminate, commonly referred to as cobalt pigment.

Section 2 was plastered with a combination the of inorganic cobalt with organic copper phthalocyanine.

Section 3 was plastered with a blend of organic copper phthalocyanine and inorganic chromium oxide green — a combination often used in exposed aggregate pastes.

Section 4 was plastered using only organic phthalocyanine.

All of the pigments used are readily available and specifically sold for use in the swimming pool plastering industry.

In addition to their chemical composition, a big difference between organic and inorganic pigments is their price.

In general, colored pools are more expensive than plain white, but using inorganic pigments raises the price tag even more. In an average backyard pool, inorganic pigments may add roughly $1300 to $1400 more than the same pool with organic pigments.

“We want to elevate the pool and spa industry by providing consumers with an informed decision about the product they are purchasing,” said onBalance’s Kim Skinner. “Our recommendation is that the plasterers use inorganic pigments or warn the customer that the lower cost, organic pigments are cheaper for a reason.”

They’ve been saying this for more than 10 years, and now they believe they are going to demonstrate it to the entire pool and spa industry once and for all.

“We will be spending the next two weeks performing a traditional startup procedure,” said Hales. “So it is time to balance, brush and filter every day until the dust clears and we are ready to play!”

More information is available on their website, www.poolhelp.com.

Plastering underway for onBalance test pools.