Quote Originally Posted by waterbear
Carl's method is EXACTLY the same as Ben's!

I'm sorry, but there's is no way you can describe those procedures as being exactly the same. Please look at the quotes I emphasized in each procedure in my above post.

It will take a bit longer to lower the alk this way but it is easier for a beginner to do since it involves less testing and ajusting.

Seems like that would be so.

It is also much safer if you have a vinyl liner pool!

Only if you're not being vigilant about keeping the pH above the lowest level your test will measure.

The chemistry behind it is identical for each!

Agreed, that but that doesn't make the procedures the same. Maybe I'm being overly pedantic, but Ben warns very specifically and vigorously against deviating from his procedures. I understand the process at the layman level and most who will employ it probably do too, but I think there is a substantial risk of confusing those who are less than thorough with their research by advocating procedures that are demonstrably different.

If you understand Ben's procedure then by all means follow it but be warned that it is much harder to accomplish than the way Carl describes.

I don't see what's particularly harder about it other than it requires a bit more testing.

Both ways will have the same effect. One will just take a bit longer since by lowering the pH then aeriting you will remove some of the excess alk and then you lower the pH again and repeat until you finally get the alk in line. By keeping the pH low and aerating and monitoring the alk you will procede faster but you will need to be testing pH several times a day and adding acid to keep the pH down while you aerate and also you need to monitor the alk once or twice a day!

Again, not particularly difficult; frequent testing is something that's often advocated here.
Again, I'm not trying to be pedantic or argumentative but I think there's a substantial risk of confusing the new pool user/maintainer here. Maybe Carl's method is better/simpler/easier to understand/more fool proof/etc., but I think you all underestimate the capacity of the newbie to pick and choose the steps of the procedures they find appealing and end up making a real mess of things.