Recent convert to the BBB method. Returned all my trichlor and cal-hypo "shock" (I know - its a verb, not a noun) to Costco and spent the day testing the pool after the second partial drain and fill to correct high CYA and CH.

One question though - while at Costco I noticed they are selling hth shock this year which lists a sodium salt as the main active ingredient instead of cal-hypo? Would this be a good choice for the weeks when I am on vacation and will not be able to test daily and adjust the chlorine level with bleach? I might be able to get someone to come by weekly to do a few things. What do folks usually do when they go on long vacations (2-3weeks)? My CYA finally came down to 35 ( was 120 or more), so I'm not loving the trichlor right now.

The best thing to do when on a long vacation is to have someone test and chlorinate your pool, trying to go 3 weeks with no testing at all is asking for one problem or another, one week you might get by with trichlor in a floater, but not 2 or 3. As to the choice between Trichlor or Cal-Hypo while your away and blindly dosing, either manually (neighbor refilling every few days, but not doing any test) or in a floater, etc. will depend on which one your water can handle easier, being in houston I assume your water is not insanely hard, so chances are you can cope with cal-hypo better than trichlor, but this is still just a guess, the problem comes back to that 2-3 week bit. You may come back to either a swamp because the chlorine levels drop too low at some point, or a pool a shock level possibly doing damage to your pool and your equipment.

Ike