I'm curious how you handle frequent "away" time from your pool using the BBB method (long weekends more often than not through the summer) when a house/pool sitter is NOT an option.
BoDarville said:Kymberly:
In your situation, I would try the easiest method first...pucks in a floater or in an inline chlorinator if you have one. Of course, you will need to keep a close eye on the CYA level. This is the method I use when I go on vacation and it has worked well so far. Since most of your away time appears to be long weekends, you can remove the floaters when you return and save any unused pucks by wrapping them after they dry a bit and place them back into the bucket they came in. This will help mitigate the CYA rise. You can reuse the pucks on your next trip. The pucks I use are very slow dissolving and I could probably get about 4 long weekends in before these pucks dissolved down to a point where I needed to add a new puck or two.
As an extra measure of protection, give the pool a higher than normal dose of bleach before you leave - say at the high end of the maintenance FC range for your CYA + perhaps an additional 1-2 ppm. I would test FC right before you leave and as soon as possible when you return and record the results. This should give you an idea of the chlorine demand while you are gone and may allow you to fine-tune your approach over time.
This should work for you but, if for some reason it doesn't, then you can look into other more complex but effective options like a Liquidator, peristaltic pump, or SWG.