Ok here we go

[chemicalbalance]

My advice is to not be afraid of the switch. Your neighbors, your wife, and your most of all, your pool chemical salesman with think you are nuts. Stay out of the pool store. Ignore them all and you will succeed.

Step 1. Read everything on the Poolsolutions.com website. Everything. Print it and reread it.

Step 2. Buy a decent test kit like the PS233 on the website or whatever new version they are selling. When you use the test kit, write down your results so you can see the effect of your work.

I bought my 10 year old home with an inground pool three years ago. The first year, I did everything the pool store told me to do. It couldnt have been more of a hassle. Their solution to everything is to add more chemicals and come back tomorrow with a new water sample. It cost about 75 bucks a week.

Stay out of the pool store. If you insist on using "pool chemicals" to appease nay sayers, at least buy them at a large discount retailer, never at the pool store. Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart sell all the pool chemicals you could ever need. Still, its best to just use Borax, Baking Soda, and Chlorine Bleach from any cheap big box store. Get Muriatic Acid from an old fashioned hardware store in the masonary section, or get it in the paint section at your local home improvement warehouse. If you do not believe this site, then go to the arm and hammer website, they will list a dosing schedule for using baking soda. Similarly clorox posts pool information on their website. The muriatic acid bottle will also list dosing rates. You can also simply google any of these chemicals. Last year, I bet I didnt spend $100 total on pool chemicals the whole season.


A couple things which I did NOT learn early on.

1. Cloudy water is often the result of a dirty filter. The pool store told me to change my Diatomaceous Earth filter twice a season, but my water always seemed cloudy so they wanted me to add more chemicals. DE costs nothing at Lowes. About $15 for enough to last all season. I now change my filter the first of every month. Some people say it may be too often but again it costs nothing and my pool sparkles.

2. Baking Soda raises alkalinity. Acid lowers pH and and only lowers alkalinity temporarily (sort of). The point being, make slow changes to your pool chemistry and dont get on a roller coaster of fighting pH and alkalinity with acid and baking soda. Read the posted information on aerating to lower alkalinity if it is a problem.

3. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you have a pool party with 15 ten year old boys, shock the pool immediately before you close it for the night. By adding your chlorine in a timely manner, you will eliminate 90% of issues related to low cholorine.

4. Use and believe your test kit. If the test kit results are good and if the pool water looks good, forget about it and go swim. Do not over think the process.

Good luck

[kaybinster]

I would suggest not to switch to bleach, but use it in combination with TriChlor. I have done this for about 4 years with great luck. As others mentioned TriChlor tends to drop the pH while bleach will raise it. Thus, I supply half the chlorine needs with bleach and half with TriChlor thus I never have any problems with the pH and never have to deal with things like pH up or pH down.

[mwsmith2]

I would suggest not to switch to bleach, but use it in combination with TriChlor.

The problem with this is that you don't have any control over your CYA levels, which leads to:

1. Reduced Cl effectiveness
2. Accelerated plaster erosion (as discovered by a leading pool chemical supplier)

Personally, when I was doing bleach, I controlled pH with muriatic acid. Simple and easy. No worries about how much CYA I was slamming into my pool with the tablets. I like adding one thing at a time, in quantities that I know about. That's what makes it easy to keep a pool in balance.

Michael

[TfromNC]

The problem with this is that you don't have any control over your CYA levels, which leads to:

1. Reduced Cl effectiveness
2. Accelerated plaster erosion (as discovered by a leading pool chemical supplier)

Personally, when I was doing bleach, I controlled pH with muriatic acid. Simple and easy. No worries about how much CYA I was slamming into my pool with the tablets. I like adding one thing at a time, in quantities that I know about. That's what makes it easy to keep a pool in balance.

Michael

So you don't use chlorine pucks at all? You just use bleach for normal chlorination?

[Watermom]

Yes! Bleach is the only thing I ever use as a chlorine source. I have never had a puck in my pool since day one, not any chlorine granules either. My water is always great and I don't spend a fortune.

Watermom

[IMherDad]

all the answers and help. So now I am purchasing one of Ben's new kits and waiting until we pull the winter cover off to start testing. I sure hope there are some great directions and instructions in the kit.

Of course the wife is already looking for deals on bleach.

[cnk]

We recently changed over. The pool looks great now, but be prepared for some neon green water. My husband thought that I had ruined the pool.

[TfromNC]

[QUOTE=Watermom]Yes! Bleach is the only thing I ever use as a chlorine source. I have never had a puck in my pool since day one, not any chlorine granules either. My water is always great and I don't spend a fortune.

Watermom[/QUO

Thanks Watermom.
How do I add CYA if needed. Should I use trichlor pucks like cnix did until I get CYA right, then swith to straight bleach.

[cnix]

I don't use pucks either. (Well, actually I used some last year after a drain/refill to add stabilizer.) It took only about 2 doz (from memory) over the course of 4-6 weeks and my stabilizer was up to 30 ppm starting from zero. The tri-chlor can really add CYA quickly.

I switched to bleach and never looked back. I'll use maybe 30-40 gal of 6% bleach during a long Tennessee season, and about 3 gal of muriatic acid. That's all. The pool is sparkling clean and stays that way. In the heat of the summer I check Chlorine every 2-3 days; this time of year, about every 2-3 weeks.

It takes maybe 5 minutes tops twice a week to get a rough chlorine check--close enough to monitor the level. Far simpler than trying to get rid of CYA. (I know--the previous owner's use of tri-chlor was what caused the drain/refill--CYA was in the 250+ range--looked like whole milk in the test vial)

Chuck

[mwsmith2]

So you don't use chlorine pucks at all? You just use bleach for normal chlorination?

I know this has already been answered, but yup, that's all I used. Easy too. Now I have a SWC, and life is even easier!

Michael