Grumpy old buggers thread

[Old Farang]

This really peas me off, These company's that sell stuff as Stainless Steel but use low grade SS.

My wife has a shower chair as she feels very un steady in the shower . We bought this chair just over a year ago ( out or warranty now) & it was quite expensive. It is suppose to be Stainless Steel which it is but is a low grade SS & the fact that it is not fully welded it fills up with water. The other night when she went to sit on it one of the legs collapsed because one of the spring loaded pins to adjust the height rusted. This is a medical add & should be made from medical grade or high grade SS. I have spent the morning drilling out all the pins & fitting 8mm bolts with lock nuts . This will do until I can find a better chair to replace it . May have to look at what hospitals use.
Another example are out lighting & fan under our pergola , We tell the lighting places we have a salt water pool so we want SS lighting & fan suitable for that averment only to have to replacement them every 3 years because they use low grade SS & the screws are not SS or brass. Our last fan fell down because the tube between the support bracket & the fan rusted from the in side out.

As you probably know, there are several different grades of stainless steel. And then there is the crap made in China being passed off as stainless!
316 is not the highest grade but the best compromise. Yes, hospital grade SHOULD be the best, but as 4Bee says, you probably wont find it at Bunnings.

Without being picky: unless you are pumping water into your pool from the ocean, the water in the pool is not salt. The salt added to a "salt water pool" is used by the chlorinator to produce chlorine to sanitise the water and does not make the water "salt".

Different Grades Of Stainless Steel

Stainless Steel Grades Explained - Suncor

[Gordie]

Without being picky: unless you are pumping water into your pool from the ocean, the water in the pool is not salt. The salt added to a "salt water pool" is used by the chlorinator to produce chlorine to sanitise the water and does not make the water "salt".

Cheers for that! I always thought a salt water treated pool, would be salty! There you go, learn something every day!

[DiscoMick]

This really peas me off, These company's that sell stuff as Stainless Steel but use low grade SS.

My wife has a shower chair as she feels very un steady in the shower . We bought this chair just over a year ago ( out or warranty now) & it was quite expensive. It is suppose to be Stainless Steel which it is but is a low grade SS & the fact that it is not fully welded it fills up with water. The other night when she went to sit on it one of the legs collapsed because one of the spring loaded pins to adjust the height rusted. This is a medical add & should be made from medical grade or high grade SS. I have spent the morning drilling out all the pins & fitting 8mm bolts with lock nuts . This will do until I can find a better chair to replace it . May have to look at what hospitals use.
Another example are out lighting & fan under our pergola , We tell the lighting places we have a salt water pool so we want SS lighting & fan suitable for that averment only to have to replacement them every 3 years because they use low grade SS & the screws are not SS or brass. Our last fan fell down because the tube between the support bracket & the fan rusted from the in side out.

How about using a plastic chair?

[1950landy]

I guess you need to know the grade of SS that you want & specify this to them on your order. No if, buts or maybes. This applies to other Pool Side Fittings as well as a Chair.I'm afraid it is the old "You gets what yers pays for" unless it is advertised for that application but isn't, then that would be a different Consumer issue. Good idea. You may need to visit a proper Special Equipment Outlet rather than a Bunnings or a Mitre 10One surely doesn't need a supposedly adequate chair in a bathroom that goes tits up/collapses onto a hard floor.Not what you need at all.

The shower chair was not bought from Bunnings but from a chemist shop & it was not cheap . I would drive 20 min out of my way than buy something from Bunnings. As for the fittings out side near the pool when they were bought I specified they had to be Stainless Steel , within 6 months the screws start rusting .

[1950landy]

How about using a plastic chair?

Plastic chairs are not suitable as shower chairs , they do not have a hole in them so you can wash your bum.

[1950landy]

As you probably know, there are several different grades of stainless steel. And then there is the crap made in China being passed off as stainless!
316 is not the highest grade but the best compromise. Yes, hospital grade SHOULD be the best, but as 4Bee says, you probably wont find it at Bunnings.

Without being picky: unless you are pumping water into your pool from the ocean, the water in the pool is not salt. The salt added to a "salt water pool" is used by the chlorinator to produce chlorine to sanitise the water and does not make the water "salt".

Different Grades Of Stainless Steel

Stainless Steel Grades Explained - Suncor

Yes I know about all the grades of Stainless , My brother & I owned a steel & alum fabrication business for over 35 years. As for salt water pools they will make anything made from steel near them corrode . Our house was 3 years old when we put the pool in , within 2years of the pool going in we had to replace steel gutters on the house , which was put down to pool water. The water may not be as salty as the sea but you can taste the salt in it.

[101RRS]

Plastic chairs are not suitable as shower chairs , they do not have a hole in them so you can wash your bum.

You can cut one out - I did that with a green one to use as a camp pottie

[Old Farang]

The water may not be as salty as the sea but you can taste the salt in it.

In which case the pool chemical balance is way out of whack.

How does the pool water get into or on to the gutters? If the gutters are corroding so quickly the pollution is coming from some place else.

The chlorine in the pool does evaporate, which is why salt needs to be added from time to time, but there should not be enough salt left after the chlorinator to taste ANY in the water.

[1950landy]

In which case the pool chemical balance is way out of whack.

How does the pool water get into or on to the gutters? If the gutters are corroding so quickly the pollution is coming from some place else.

The chlorine in the pool does evaporate, which is why salt needs to be added from time to time, but there should not be enough salt left after the chlorinator to taste ANY in the water.

So what you are saying that every time I get the pool water tested & they tell me the salt level is correct or needs a bag of salt they are wrong & the salt level is high. The chlorinator also has a gauge on it that tells me how much chlorine it is making & there is a variable adjuster to adjust the chlorine level , if the salt is high the gauge goes into the red so I can either decrease the chlorinator or backwash add more water to reduce the salt. My last house had a non salt water pool & was in the same area as we now live , we never had corrosion problems like we do here.

[Old Farang]

So what you are saying that every time I get the pool water tested & they tell me the salt level is correct or needs a bag of salt they are wrong & the salt level is high. The chlorinator also has a gauge on it that tells me how much chlorine it is making & there is a variable adjuster to adjust the chlorine level , if the salt is high the gauge goes into the red so I can either decrease the chlorinator or backwash add more water to reduce the salt. My last house had a non salt water pool & was in the same area as we now live , we never had corrosion problems like we do here.

There are several other factors that need to be considered, the most neglected is probably the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). Is that being tested?

The salt level in such a pool should be around 3,000 ppm, ocean water is around 30,000 ppm. While individuals taste perception varies, at that low level you should not be tasting salt.

Virtually everything that is added to the pool contributes to an increase in the TDS value including chlorine, shock, algaecides, clarifiers, pH remediation products, etc. Even bather-introduced contaminants such as hair care products, body lotions, deodorants, sweat, urine, etc. can significantly add to TDS levels

https://www.portagecounty-oh.gov/sit..._generator.pdf