Pucks in a chlorinator are not necessarily a bad thing, IF you take care to not let your pH get too low, and not to let your CYA (stabilizer) get too high, which is the usual problem. As your CYA level increases, your chlorine becomes less effective against "stuff" in your water, so your minimum Cl level must also increase to compensate. See Ben's Best Guess Chart for a guideline that a lot of us use to calculate necessary Cl levels for a given CYA.

Janet