Sun creams and pool liners

[J&J]

Following Big Sis' suggestion to create a topic about nasty stains caused by sun cream on swimming pool liners, I have just had an interesting conversation with our daughter. She is a great user of creams, oils, anything fake (!) and told us that some of the sun creams melt and discolour her acrylic nails!
This got me thinking that because pool vinyl liners have acrylic laquers applied to them, the chemical reaction of the sun cream on them must be having the same effect as the polish on the acrylic false nails.
Apparently the higher the cream factor the faster the acrylic deteriorates.
(Not sure if that is at all useful. A new pair of nails is only £50. I can see why those of you with new pool liners are finding it particularly annoying).

[la vache!]

I had to buy a new pool liner 6 years ago because some child had punctured the other one and there was a leak which we could not fix. A few weeks after the pristing new liner was put in, a family and their baby used some kind of suncream which must have been green and factor 60, which permanently coloured the water line - I tried everything to remove it but couldn't, and it is still there. The cost of a new liner is around 3k euros and I know that if I get a new one it will probably get just as discoloured.
Suncream is a nightmare. There was a documentary on France 2 last week, Envoyé Special, which said they were harmful to the people using them as well as the environment. I'm afraid that the yellow/greenish water mark on my pool is something that guests will just have to bear - fortunately it doesn't seem to put them off from swimming in the pool or prevent them from re-booking. It just looks disgusting to me.

[Hells Bells]

I know there are several suncreams advertised for children that contain a 'disappearing' dye so that parents can see where they have applied it. As a chemist/pharmacist, I can't believe that this dye vanishes without trace.

[Big Sis..]

Some of you will know Le Monjat on Twitter, hes just tackling this problem and had mentioned it yesterday .I asked him for any advice for this thread.This is what he said.....

''Install a solar shower, insist it's used before swimming. Ban Nivea for Kids and other high SPF creams that are coloured. Green is a giveaway''

[la vache!]

It is the right advice - I have a solar shower, and suggest that people use it before going in the pool but insisting on it is impossible. As is vetting every type of suncream that guests choose to use, unfortunately. The only thing I do insist on is that flippers are not used at the pool as that can do serious damage to the liner, not just cosmetic.

[kitkat]

I agree LV and until the liner manufacturers can come up with a way of repelling these lotions from the liner there's not much we as pool owners can do to prevent it.

As we all know trying to get guests to do what we ask or even tell them is a waste of time. The solar shower we installed is a complete waste of money - 90% of guests walk straight past it even though we've asked them to use it and explained why!!! It's so frustrating watching them smoother themselves in this gunk only to jump straight in the pool. I don't want anyone (least of all children) risk getting sunburnt or god forbid skin cancer so what can you do.

Actually I've just come up with a brain wave... perhaps we should all fence our pools, rig the solar shower at the entrance gate fitted with a presence detector that automatically showers (preferably with a grease repellant disinfectant) any potential users of the pool!!!

The alternative (what some people are resorting to) is to fit a line of 'hanging ceramic tiles' around the water line. At least you can clean them without fear of damaging the liner, but, they are pricey!

[enid]

We have a shower but I don't know how you'd make people use it. We are lucky though because our pool has a border of ceramic tiles so anything at the water line cleans off with a wipe - the steps are plastic and get the yellow staining but it's a much smaller area. I think you can add a tile border.

[KathyG]

I tell all our guests not to bring flippers or snorkels as well but last week 2 triangular tears appeared in the liner at water level, the new water level! Water level was down past the skimmers so the pump had been running dry again - last year this resulted in the pump melting as the caretaker didn't spot it in time and it had to be replaced.

Anyway, tears have been repaired which seems to have worked but we're looking at buying a new liner to keep in readiness for the inevitable...... LV €3k seems an awful lot, we haven't started looking yet.......ours is 28' x 15'

[sueb]

Following on from the stained towel thread I thought this would be better posted here. To date we have found nothing to shift the stain but we are still looking into it. It was the Rieman P20 range that stained the pool, towels and all the white bed linen as we quizzed our guests this week and that was what they were using even though advised not to!!!!. It states on the product that it is non staining so we have e-mailed the company based in Denmark (riemann.com) advising them of the problem, asking if they have conducted any trials on liners, materials etc. and asking for their advice on how to remove the stain. It must be activated by the sun as the stain is a lot darker where it gets more sun, one small corner of the pool where the sun doesn’t shine is clean. I am having a good think about this and we will wait for their response. My feeling is that the company are at fault here if they are stating that it is a non-staining product. I have googled Rieman P20 and there are masses of information out there promoting this cream. My feeling is that the company are ultimately responsible if they are stating that it is non-staining. Are there are any legal beagles out there who could give us their view point or some advice on the legal side of culpability? I will forward the response from Rieman when received.

[Bellywobble]

I contacted boots last year as many of our guests use Soltan, not about pool liners just about the general stains on linens.

They were unhelpful and disinterested and just said that they have never had any complaints and as I wasn't the person who purchased the cream there was nothing they could do.

They could give no advice whatsoever on stain removal.

[Hells Bells]

off to conduct a bit of research on this, has anyone tried ammonia on any of these stains?

[pepsipuss]

I had something on a mattress protector yesterday that I think was sun cream (although why it didn't make it onto the sheet is anybody's guess!). Pretty deep in colour and pinky yellow. I used two lots of spray (enzymatico and oxygeno activo) and put it on a 60 deg wash with bleach and voilà, all gone. Thank goodness as it was my very best almost brand new Superking one. Phew!!



Sorry just realised that I posted this in the wrong thread - getting carried away watching the Grand Prix!

[Mouse]

Following on the sun tan theme - I noticed on my newly white painted doors in the bedrooms (previously they were dark brown) that large pink stains have appeared that nothing would shift. I had no idea what it was though Andy, owner of the cleaning company, suspected some kind of fake tan...but they were pink stains. And both the same colour yet from 2 different guests.
I ended up painting the door but some of the stain is still showing.

Following this weeks changeover we have new stains on other doors; all the same colour and obviously from hands/fingers when the door is being closed.

Sue my other cleaner said its the colourant (she thinks carotene) which causes the stains. She also thinks thats the culprit on bedding too.

How the hell do I get guests to wash their hands after applying sun lotion in the bedroom but before they close the door?
Not going to happen is it? So I now have a problem with pink, unsightly stains on the white painted bedroom doors.

For info: I found this on one website:

I did call customer service at Banana Boat and they freely admitted to the stain issue. They suggest rubbing Oxiclean into the stain well and then soaking in oxiclean for 24 hours, wash as usual, then AIR dry. They say for some reason the heat in the dryer only makes the stain a lot worse. She said you would see the best results after two cycles of doing this. She also said the supposed ingredient that causes the stain is Avobenzone, which is a sunscreen stabilizer.

Mouse
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[Bellywobble]

I've tried soaking in oxyclean without sucess. I dry mine in the sun so now I'm wondering if the heat of the sunlight is having a detrimental effect.

I've not tried ammonia. If Helen is testing that I'll be interested in the result.

My current stains are vivid yellow rather than the usual pale colour. Some of these have gone straight through the sheets onto the protectors.

[Mouse]

Yes mine went almost flourescent.

Having reserched on Google it's amazing what comes up. This gives a good explanation and says it is all to do with the level of iron in the water (see 5th answer):
http://bit.ly/aS97Km
They recommend rust remover!

Makes me think we may be as well to change over to de-salinated when it finally hits the village and sod the well water!

Mousie
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