New here with chlorine questions

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ianwelch001

Member
May 9, 2024
5
Rochester, NY
Pool Size
35000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
New here but this is my 4th season with our pool.
When it was built, we had the frog system installed. Seems like it worked well but was expensive.
Last year I just cut open the frog paks and added 1" trichlor tabs. That also worked but I noticed the system couldn't keep.up with the amount of chlorine needed since the frog systems uses much less chlorine than traditional chlorine systems. With the pump running 24/7 1" tabs could only produce about .7ppm

I've been reading up here and this year I have tried the liquid chlorine method.
I seem to go through alot more chlorine and more $$$ than I did buying the over priced frog paks.

My current readings are
Ph: 7.5
FC: .2 (didn't add chlorine today yet)
Alk: 110
Hardness: 240
CYA: 65
35,000 gallon vinyl pool

To get my FC up to 4-5ppm I need to use over 1 gallon of 10% chlorine.
To do this everyday is about $7 worth of chlorine
That's about $50 a week for chlorine.

The frog paks are roughly $25 each and last a week. I know these will also raise CYA which will eventually need to be partially drained and filled

Does everyone seem to use about a gallon of chlorine a day?

I live in western NY so sun is hit and miss still.
Here's a Pic of my pool

Screenshot_20240424_085014_Gallery.jpg
 
Welcome to TFP.

What test kit are you using?

At CYA 70 you cannot take much more CYA without needing to drain your pool.

If occasional draining is not a problem then continue using Trichlor wherever you can get it at the best price. Beware of Trichlor that includes minerals or copper that can accumulate and stain your pool although draining can keep that under control.

A SWG is the most economical way of getting chlorine although you have to front a few years of cost in buying the cell.

@Newdude can run through the numbers if you are interested.
 
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ianwelch001 said:
Does everyone seem to use about a gallon of chlorine a day?
Click to expand...
You have a good sized pool, so yes. Mine is almost 18K and each summer day I would add half a gallon in 100% TFP clear water. In other words, no excessive organic demands. Since opening, have you performed an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test yet? If not, I would make that a priority. Your water may be struggling and you don't even know it which might explain a heavy FC loss per day. Try the OCLT and let us know how it goes.

After that, perhaps at some point you might consider transitioning from liquid chlorine to a salt generator (SWG). It's an up-front cost, but they sure make pool life easier.

Welcome to TFP! :wave:
 
I have your size pool and 1 gallon of 10% is 2.9 FC. We could see 4 lost per day on the hot weeks up here, but thankfully, there aren't alot of those.

You'll use that 1 gallon per day most of the season. It's about $2.13 per FC at Walmart, which is the cheapest for mose of us. (Pool Essentials 10%).

A 50lb bucket of tabs is on sale at intheswim right now for $225 out the door. That'll get 157 FC, for $1.43 per FC. (It'll jack your CYA +95, and swamp you, so don't use tabs).

A circupool RJ60+ is $1522.11 out the door and will conservatively produce 4583 FC, at $0.33 per FC. I don't even care what you pay for installing it. Double the cost which is probably about right and it's $0.66 per FC, still far below tabs and far far below liquid chlorine.
 
ajw22 said:
Welcome to TFP.

What test kit are you using?

At CYA 70 you cannot take much more CYA without needing to drain your pool.

If occasional draining is not a problem then continue using Trichlor wherever you can get it at the best price. Beware of Trichlor that includes minerals or copper that can accumulate and stain your pool although draining can keep that under control.

A SWG is the most economical way of getting chlorine although you have to front a few years of cost in buying the cell.

@Newdude can run through the numbers if you are interested.
Click to expand...
I bought the hth 6 way kit from Walmart.
It doesn't measure FC only combined but I also have the water guru which measures FC and I just took this test a little while ago.
I know the PH and free chlorine are close based on my test kit, and FC from the strips.
Alkalinity reads low on the water guru by about 40ppm and same with the total Hardness.
I did the CYA test with my test kit and got 70ppm

I'm looking into getting the taylor TF 100 kit
 

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Newdude said:
I have your size pool and 1 gallon of 10% is 2.9 FC. We could see 4 lost per day on the hot weeks up here, but thankfully, there aren't alot of those.

You'll use that 1 gallon per day most of the season. It's about $2.13 per FC at Walmart, which is the cheapest for mose of us. (Pool Essentials 10%).

A 50lb bucket of tabs is on sale at intheswim right now for $225 out the door. That'll get 157 FC, for $1.43 per FC. (It'll jack your CYA +95, and swamp you, so don't use tabs).

A circupool RJ60+ is $1522.11 out the door and will conservatively produce 4583 FC, at $0.33 per FC. I don't even care what you pay for installing it. Double the cost which is probably about right and it's $0.66 per FC, still far below tabs and far far below liquid chlorine.
Click to expand...
I wish I would have gone SWG when we built the pool. I believe it was about 2000 extra. The only problem I had was a guy at work went through 3 SWG within 5 years so I decided not to opt for that.

I guess the biggest problem with the liquid chlorine is storing it. I try to avoid walmart and storing 25+ gallons of chlorine will be hard.
I took a reading with the water guru of 4.2ppm FC and when should I take 1 tomorrow to see total FC loss overnight?
 
ianwelch001 said:
The only problem I had was a guy at work went through 3 SWG within 5 years so I decided not to opt for that.
Click to expand...
PBs don't understand them so they can't teach the folks how to use them. Or. They do understand them buy don't understand basic pool chemistry, with the same end result.

Anywho, very very few people use their system properly. Ignore any stories about them off site.
 

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ianwelch001 said:
loss of 1.8 overnight
Click to expand...
That's a one way ticket to the SLAM Process.

You'll need a Test Kits Compared because the WG doesnt do well at SLAM FC levels. At that point, you can do a proper OCLT and maybe there's no need to slam, but I'm more inclined to believe the WG did see a loss last night and whether it was from 6 to 4 or 3 to 1, a loss is a loss.
 
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