Testing chlorine (I use bleach)

[Ktooch11]

I have the Tf-100 kit stressed here and I read that you should add bleach just about every day. I see people saying they are testing daily. Are you just doing the 'daily' chlorine test every day and using that as free chlorine in your pool math calculator or are you also testing free chlorine in the additional test every day? Thanks

 

[Isaac-1]

Generally it works best to test and then preferably add chlorine as calculated in the evening. Most people take the daily approach of test, the add the calculated dosage of bleach, and assume it worked right, then repeat the next day. After a while when you get a feel for you pool you may turn that into testing every other day and probably dosing with a guestimated amount of chlorine on the opposing days.

 

[Richard320]

I use the color matching test most days.

That alone is a good argument for keeping CYA mabageable -- then the FC level is low enough to use the colormatching. My first couple years I was dealing with 220+ CYA and mandatory water restrictions and I could only dream of not having to use the FAS-DPD tester every single time.

 

[anonapersona]

With my minimum FC level at 4, I cannot tell much with the color matching except that the pool has SOME chlorine. So I use the drop based test, on alternate days. Sometimes I cheat and just dump a jug on the alternate day since that is the normal 2nd day dose. When we are swimming I test accurately each time. Right now the pool is STILL to cold for me.