Chlorine level and skimmers when going out of town

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NtxMelanie

Bronze Supporter
Apr 17, 2022
65
Texas
Pool Size
5500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Will be heading out of town in July for a week, we have a VSF and it’s set to run low 5 hours and med/high 5 hours. Have a lil robot vacuum that will run in the pool but not the spa every couple days.

Two questions:
We have an in-line chlorinator but don’t use it bc of CYA in tabs. Assuming no chlorine is added while we’re gone, CYA is 50, and it’s hot and sunny the whole time, What ppm level should I bring chlorine up to for it to stay within range while we’re gone?

And, will it be OK to not empty the skimmers while we’re gone?
 
NtxMelanie said:
What ppm level should I bring chlorine up to for it to stay within range while we’re gone?
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I would guess it's not possible to do in July. If you can't find someone to add liquid at least twice during your week-long trip, I'd suggest using your chlorinator with tabs. It will add a bit of CYA, but at least you won't have a few days of no chlorine in the water.
 
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Just an update in case anyone is going through the same thing. We went out of town and had our dog sitter add a gallon on chlorine in each day. We checked the cya level when we got home and it was still in the 100-120 range. The next day, I added THIRTEEN gallons of chlorine, 13! No reading of chlorine in our pool, at all. So I started draining it. We don’t have a sump pump, so I started a siphon with our vacuum hose. I let it drain to below the skimmer, and added the hose to the pool to put new water in, I let that be for a few hours. The vacuum hose moved faster than the garden hose so filling it up, so it still was draining more than filling. I took the garden hose out for another few hours to give the well a break. I let the pool drain below the return and then filled it back up. This morning I checked the cya and it’s in the 60-70 range, so not perfect, but far better than the 180 we started out with. I put 3 gallons of LC in last night and it’s still holding on to some at least this morning. We have friends coming over Saturday, so my hope is that we can get it swimmable by then! Thanks for all of your input!
 
DGroesch said:
Just an update in case anyone is going through the same thing. We went out of town and had our dog sitter add a gallon on chlorine in each day. We checked the cya level when we got home and it was still in the 100-120 range. The next day, I added THIRTEEN gallons of chlorine, 13! No reading of chlorine in our pool, at all. So I started draining it. We don’t have a sump pump, so I started a siphon with our vacuum hose. I let it drain to below the skimmer, and added the hose to the pool to put new water in, I let that be for a few hours. The vacuum hose moved faster than the garden hose so filling it up, so it still was draining more than filling. I took the garden hose out for another few hours to give the well a break. I let the pool drain below the return and then filled it back up. This morning I checked the cya and it’s in the 60-70 range, so not perfect, but far better than the 180 we started out with. I put 3 gallons of LC in last night and it’s still holding on to some at least this morning. We have friends coming over Saturday, so my hope is that we can get it swimmable by then! Thanks for all of your input!
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Like mentioned in the other thread, if you’re using test strips, they can get bleached out with ultra-mega-crazy amounts of chlorine, maybe even the Taylor kit as well. It’s very likely the real result rather than zero chlorine.
 
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