mike3554 said:
Where i live water is not very expensive and i would rather have the ease of the chlorine feeder and if i have to drain part of my pool once in a while to lower CYA that is ok. Was just looking for on info on which ones are the best/reliable and which pucks are the best to use.
That can work, as long as you are monitoring the CYA build up and keeping chlorine levels high enough to actually work.
You can use the Pool Calculator, Effects of Adding Chemicals, at the bottom to calculate how long it will take your typical weekly usage of pucks to raise CYA enough to require testing to adjust the FC target you are using.
In my pool, 7 pucks a week, 49 oz for 2 weeks, raises CYA by 20ppm which is enough to change my safe FC range from 2-4 to 4 - 6 as CYA goes from 30 to 50. So what was my target is now my minimum, in only 2 weeks. That is a pretty quick change in chlorine levels, but then my pool probably has more heat and more sun and more leaves than yours. Or maybe not, I dunno.
[edit] I need to add, I use bleach mostly, cal-hypo sometimes. I did use pucks this year but for only a few weeks in the spring when I found, after not testing CYA for most of the winter, CYA was low. I also use them, plus bleach, while on vacation.