MBY, there are a few things that apply to your questions and concerns. I'll start with a few in order to try and help:
- We find many Softswim and/or other Biguanide owners that return to us for a similar reason, it eventually doesn't hold up well. It doesn't really have to do with the size of the pool. The water becomes cloudy, filters begin to clog, and/or they start to have concerns about good sanitation. It may seem like a practical issue for now in your first (short) swimming season, but I suspect that will change if you have the pool for a while. In the meantime, you might want to checkout this page:
Alternative sanitizers and pools--The Truth!!.
As for "how" you chlorinate a pool, there are basically two common methods - manually by adding a little liquid chlorine each day (aka regular bleach), or installing a salt water generator (SWG) that uses salt to create chlorine (same product) that sanitizes the water and keeps algae away. To understand a bit more about it all, you might review our
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry page for more info.
In your situation as a frequent traveler away from home, up north with a relatively short swimming season compared to some, you would need to evaluate "how" to add that chlorine. If you don't have someone living in the home who can add bleach each day, then you could use chlorine tabs/pucks, but
ONLY (and this is very important), only if you have a good test kit to monitor your CYA (stabilizer) level because the free chlorine and CYA need to be balanced together as seen on the [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]. Normally we don't recommend frequent use of tabs/pucks because they increase the CYA too high. But for some with a short swimming season, who do a lot of water exchanges, or only use the pucks for 3-4 days along with bleach, they might get through a season without the CYA going too high. If that doesn't work, then an SWG would be ideal. It's a one-time investment to install, add salt to the water (which many like), and the SWG produces the chlorine for you.
As pool owners, we get so caught-up in the enjoyment of having a pool we overlook the fact that a pool is like a pet and needs "some" attention everyday. Well, you might squeak-by checking on your pool every couple days, but you can't go too long. It needs to be brushed, fed (chlorine), and tested. Speaking of the test kit - yes, you do want a good test kit. No one can maintain a pool without one. The TF-100 (link below) and Taylor K-2006C test kits are the ones we recommend. They generally last all season if the water is maintained properly and the kit is stored indoors in a cool place. A good test kit simply comes with owning a pool, so there's no way around it. But testing at home is easy to do.
Now that you appear to have baqua products in your pool, if you do decide to change to chlorine, you'll need to perform a conversion process. You would want to refer to our
Pool School - Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine for step-by-step instructions. So you have a few months to think it over. Do some searching on this forum about baqua products and conversions. You'll see many threads of how and why they did it. Hope that helps.
