3rd summer with pool but first time here

[lukerack]

Name is Luke

Have a 33,000 gallon liner pool with a Hayward sand filter.

I have a ton of trees around me and the leaves are unmanageable between October-December so I cover it

Always get my pool blue for the summer but I do feel like I spend a ton of money on liquid chlorine, Algaecide each week.

Not sure if necessary but I shock the pool once a week with 5-7 gallons of liquid chlorine

But I recently just bought an HTC 6-way test kit…no idea if that’s good or not.

Really look forward to saving money

Main things I struggle with:

1) keep weekly maintenance prices down
2) how to keep pool relatively clean during winter months while it’s covered (due to TONS of leaves that fall)

 

[amymeme]

For the leaves, get a leaf net to go over your cover, once the leaves have finished falling, remove the leaf net so they're not rotting in there til you open.

I used the HTH 6 way with the addition of a Taylor FAS-DPD test kit for years. Bought a Taylor k1003 last year to go with the FAS-DPD which, for my purposes, gives pretty much the same as the Taylor 2006 kit. I don't test for CH as I have vinyl liner and it's not critical. What is critical is having an accurate free chlorine and combined chlorine, hence the FAS-DPD which the HTH kit does not give you. Also, the Taylor kit allows you to correct high chlorine levels to get accurate pH. I recommend you read the Pool School and down load the Pool Math app - very, very helpful. Will save you money from just indiscriminately dumping loads of chlorine.

 

[amymeme]

Also, with appropriate chlorine levels, the SLAM process and the appropriate cyanurate acid level (CYA) you won't be needing algaecide.