Am I on the right track?

[CarlD]

While Doggie's comments are discouraging they are bang-on correct.

You have a problem and you are trying to get by using minimal testing tools, then relying on the pool store to find any problems. What THEY do is figure out what they can sell you. We always recommend that every pool owner get a good FAS-DPD based test kit (this means the chlorine test is FAS-DPD--the best. It measure Free Chlorine up to 50ppm, Combined Chloramines to 50ppm, and is the most accurate). They run from $50 to $80 depending on where you buy them (on-line is really the only option) and are worth every nickel. They are not an extravagence, they are critical to caring for your pool.

Other than that, Aylad's comments are what you should follow.

You MAY want to invest in a copper test kit--they are about $20 ro $30 from Leslies, but they will ENSURE whether you have excess copper in your water. At that point, we'll ask our metals specialist, Marie, to help you.

[Spensar]

The other thing, in the absence of your own kit, is get the pool store numbers for combined, total chlorine, and leave without buying anything more. They will give their recs, listen and say "thanks". If they are pushy say you have what you need at home.

[doggie]

I remember the first time we went to the pool store for water testing. This was a few years ago. We handed her our jar of water, and she simply stuck a test strip in, looked at it, then said 'your numbers are fine' !! I couldn't believe it!

The other pool place here in town did it with a test strip, then used some computer program to analize. When our alk was high, the program suggested adding 15+ gallons of muriatic acid! I didn't do that needless to say.