Am I using too much chlorine?

[cliffstone]

I was talking with a pool owner and I mentioned that my pool "uses" about
4 ppm of chlorine every day and has been consistently at this amount as
long as my CYA level remains ~40-50. He seemed shocked that I use about
one jug (182 oz 6% until the new 121 8.25%)per day, which for what I pay
for bleach ($9.98 for three jugs at Sam's) comes to around $3/day. Does
this amount either in chlorine usage or price seem out of the ordinary?

Thanks

 

[duraleigh]

That's quite a bit. what does your water look like? Have you done a CC's test? Are you pretty confident in the CYA test?

 

[cliffstone]

Water looks great. Always has since I went BBB. I never have any CC or have to shock.
Once I get the pH, Alk and CYA adjusted in spring all I do is add bleach and a little acid
from time to time. I add bleach to raise FC level to 8 at night and the next night it's always
at 4.

 

[duraleigh]

Are you pretty confident in the CYA test?

How are you testing?

 

[cliffstone]

Using the TF100 kit. At the beginning of the year the CYA was 0 so added
3 lbs of CYA - tested again and it was 20 - added another 3 lbs and the
CYA came up to 40 which is where I try to keep it.

 

[bmann71]

Cliffstone, from your post you seem like you have been using the BBB for awhile (more than just this year) if so why was you CYA at zero? Did you have to drain and refill your pool?

 

[duraleigh]

Hmmm, about the only thing left is to up the CYA to around 50-60.....that'll reduce your consumption but I am not positive it will reduce it enough to justify the expense of the CYA...probably, just don't know.

 

[cliffstone]

We had a lot of rain last year and I had let the CYA drop last fall. Then we
had a wet winter and I had to pump out a lot of water over the winter months.

 

[ping]

You can always run a pool-school/overnight_fc_test to see if there are some organics consuming the chlorine. Bring the FC up around 10 ppm to run the test. If this test passes, then I'd raise the CYA 10 more points.

 

[Undrwtr1]

I have been having a similar issue. I have been using BBB for several years with great results. On average, I would use a full jug of 6% bleach every other day depending on heat, etc. This year, had a new liner installed, got my CYA to 40 and I am still dumping 121oz of the new 8% bleach every day. Today, my FC was 1.2 in the morning (6:45am), I added 2 jugs of 8% bleach which should have raised it to over 7.4. By 2pm, the level was 4.4 (76 degrees and pool is in bright sunshine). CYA still at 40. Other numbers are in range. Used old test strips which were pretty close to my test kit numbers, except CYA which showed low. Wonder if my CYA reagent has exceeded its shelf life. I was going to bump CYA to 50 and see what happens. Any other ideas? ALso, anyone else notice that the liquid stabilizer bottle seems to say it will raise CYA by a greater ppm than the pool calc says?

Thanks for any input!

Gerry