Calcium and LSI Management | Pillar 1 | Orenda Four Pillars

Pool chemistry can be divided into two main categories: sanitization and balance. Our first pillar of proactive pool care is about water balance. We measure balance using the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI), as the objective measure of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) saturation in water. If your swimming pool has too much calcium carbonate in it, the water will have to deposit it out in the form of carbonate scale. This is a nuisance, and happens often in heat exchangers, salt chlorine generators, and on tile lines and spas. The other end of the balance spectrum is worse. When the water is under-saturated with calcium carbonate–meaning it does not have enough–water will seek calcium from anywhere it can be found. In a swimming pools with cement-based finishes like plaster, quartz or pebble, this means your surface is the easiest source of calcium. Low LSI causes permanent damage through etching and deterioration of other types of pool surfaces (vinyl liners fade and wrinkle, and fiberglass pool gelcoats break down, and then chlorine can oxidize them, turning them white, called "chalking"). The action step for this pillar is simple: use the Orenda app to manage your pool chemistry within the green or yellow LSI range (-0.30 to +0.30). If you do that, neither scale or etching should occur, because you are staying balanced. And by the way, water temperature is a critically important factor in all of this, as cold water makes the LSI drop down and become more aggressive. This means most pool surface damage occurs in the winter, so the water needs MORE calcium as the temperature drops. Either you balance the water with what it needs, or the water will balance itself at the expense of your surface. We have too many articles on the Orenda blog about this topic to link to them all, but here are some of the most impactful ones: LSI Balance & Calcium Management | Pillar 1 https://blog.orendatech.com/lsi-balan... Understanding the LSI (Langelier Saturation Index) https://blog.orendatech.com/langelier... Understanding Calcium Hardness https://blog.orendatech.com/understan... LSI First, Range Chemistry Second. https://blog.orendatech.com/lsi-first... Cold water and the LSI https://blog.orendatech.com/cold-wate... The Orenda Startup is about LSI, not just Calcium https://blog.orendatech.com/orenda-st... How to add calcium chloride to a swimming pool https://blog.orendatech.com/properly-... Calcium Crystals vs. Scale https://blog.orendatech.com/calcium-c...