How often do you shock?

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LisaM

LisaM

0
May 26, 2011
113
I am not new to pools but new to this board. Just wondering how often you guys shock the pool? What would be a situation that would prompt you to shock? I keep hearing heavy bather load... but what is that? I have a pretty big pool- 20x40 in-ground with 10ft deep end. I have not shocked it since I opened it. Water is perfect. Just wondering if I should just because? With the holiday weekend hopefully the weather will be nice and it will be in full use Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon.
 
Typically you will only have to shock when your CC level is higher than .5. Other than that, you will not need to shock your pool, unless you have some sort of foreign object (i.e. dead animal, fecal matter, etc) in the pool, which will typically cause your CC to rise anyway. A lot of people will agree that once they have their pool numbers correct, they do not have to shock their pool during the season as long as everything is kept in range.

In regards to a high bather load, that is when there will be a lot of people using the pool. Usual recommendations for that would be to raise your FC level before the high bather load and keep it raised after the high bather load has left. This will help keep FC in the pool at an acceptable level and keep your CC's down. Which will keep you from having to shock later! :wink:

I hope that helps!
 
Hi :wave:
I have never had a reason to shock mine. Granted, my pool is not as big or deep as yours but as long as the water is being circulated and the water chemistry is correct then there should be no reason to shock your pool. When you know you are going to have a lot of people in the pool (High bather load) then just bump up the chlorine level a little and you will be fine. After the people are out of the pool, if you want to, just bump the chlorine level up again just a little and the water will remain just fine. The key is to just keep an eye on the chemistry and adjust accordingly.

Is there a reason besides just high bather load that would make you think you need to shock your pool?
What is the color of your water?
How are you testing the water?

:cheers:
 
Rarely do I shock. I test FC and pH daily, TA only sometimes. As long as the pH stays stable I don't test TA at all. I add what chlorine I need to maintain my target FC and that's about it.

Funny story . . . it was funny to me, anyway. Our dogs use the pool daily. Someone told me the other day, on another pool forum, that dogs are so dirty that each dog is the equivalent of 30 bathers :shock: That means I have a bather load of 60 dirty bodies each and every day. Wowser! You'd think we'd have to maintain a pool of pure bleach, wouldn't you? With 60 bathers in 12,500 gallons?

But no, I don't shock.
 
I have shocked twice this year. Once when starting BBB to get my pool right and the 2nd when a dead frog went un-noticed in the skimmer in conjunction with my FC going low. As far as swimmer load, my kids have instructions to add 1/2 a jug of bleach to the pool if they are having more than 2-3 kids over for the day and I am not home. If I am home I will add bleach depending on what I know the pool to be doing. If I am at the higher end of my FC target, I leave it alone.
 
Interesting answers! Its funny because my Dad who has had a pool for 20 years, the pool we grew up with, has always shocked his pool once a week. When I first bought this house with this IG pool I did the same simply because thats how he did it. Now I only do it maybe twice a summer if the chlorinator goes empty and I didnt realize it or other things like that. I was just curious about other people.
 
LisaM said:
Interesting answers! Its funny because my Dad who has had a pool for 20 years, the pool we grew up with, has always shocked his pool once a week. When I first bought this house with this IG pool I did the same simply because thats how he did it. Now I only do it maybe twice a summer if the chlorinator goes empty and I didnt realize it or other things like that. I was just curious about other people.
Click to expand...


It also depends on what you consider "shocking". My mom called anytime she added chlorine to her pool "shocking" and only did it once a week. Our ionizer took care of the rest.
 

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Our pools are the same size and I have not shocked mine in probably two years. I do however raise my chlorine levels prior to vacations in hopes that it will drift down to the minimum chlorine level on the day I get home. I test daily and add chemicals as needed so my pool rarely gets below 5ppm so I see no need to shock.
 
I will raise the FC level sometimes when I've not been paying attention to the pool (many days or weeks without tests or chlorine additions) and suddenly notice a blush of green at the steps. That is bringing it to something higher than the normal target but not testing to be certain I reached that target or stayed there for any period of time. if the water is dull or FC is zero due to lack of attention, that is usually sufficient to get chlorine usage back to normal. I will test daily after that to be certain.

I've only done a full shock once or twice in 3 years as I recall. That is bringing it to shock level and being sure it is there, keeping it there, then doing an overnight test to be sure I killed the problem.
 
Once in the last 16 months. The water looked great and tested great, but I could see sort of olive green color down in the main drain. Yes, the water is clear enough to see through the grid. Shocking didn't change anything. I'm assuming it's really fine silt that got washed in from the roof as I had my raingutter draining into the pool to dilute my astronomical CH.

It still looks the same, months later. I tried to unscrew the drain cover so I can scrub it out, but I can't hold my breath long enough nor put enough twist on the screwdriver!
 
LisaM said:
Interesting answers! Its funny because my Dad who has had a pool for 20 years, the pool we grew up with, has always shocked his pool once a week.
Click to expand...
He may have been using Trichlor pucks/tabs so the CYA level was rising over time. Since he probably didn't raise his FC target as the CYA rose, the weekly shocking helped to kill off any algae that may have started growing, especially later in the swim season when the CYA would have accumulated to higher levels.
 
I shocked mine a couple of years ago, had a pump motor die, bought a new pump off ebay, when it arrived it turned out to be used and dead, so then had to buy another one, the delay with no circulation in the summer allowed an algae bloom to start, so I had to shock it.
 
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