The TA and CH tests in the WalMart HTH kit are less protected against interference than the corresponding tests in the TF-100/K-2006. This doesn't make a difference very often, but when it does come up the HTH tests simply don't work.
Are HTH test kits worth purchasing?
- Thread starter Bruce816
- Start date
I can't imagine not having my K-2006 and extra reagents from duraleigh with my inground pool. What I love is that the FAS-DPD doesn't give false readings but that scoop of powder is not picky on amount to test.
Having said that, I managed to "maintain" what I call the bag of water on the lawn for 3 different years with useless strips with cal-hypo and pucks floating. Plus my kids were more quickly bored with it - a shorter season. Also I was not as concerned I am of water quality since everyone around me with the same pools did the same and I was distracted with babies - the bliss of being uninformed. But my water is cheap - one week on vacation and back to a pile of leaves and growing green from rain I recommend you drain, scrub out, and start over (as others have mentioned here). I have witnessed too many instances of blind dumping of chemicals - temptations to algaecide and clarifier, myself included, when it would have been simpler and cheaper to refill the temporary pools.
If draining makes a muddy swamp your neighbors will hate and obtaining water is not a simple issue, my opinion is a better test kit staves off confusion and keeps a sense of control, not to mention the money factor. With my giant old pool this year I have not reached for clarifier (floc) or algaecide. In the end it I think it is not that the costs, but the sense of helplessness that things aren't working that gets people. We do what we think is fine until we learn otherwise.....and our control issues reach their limits. The OTO will probably be fine until it isn't, which for some people could be many seasons with the bag of water, but I feel the TF-100 or K-2006 is the end of the line - all that's ever needed.
Having said that, I managed to "maintain" what I call the bag of water on the lawn for 3 different years with useless strips with cal-hypo and pucks floating. Plus my kids were more quickly bored with it - a shorter season. Also I was not as concerned I am of water quality since everyone around me with the same pools did the same and I was distracted with babies - the bliss of being uninformed. But my water is cheap - one week on vacation and back to a pile of leaves and growing green from rain I recommend you drain, scrub out, and start over (as others have mentioned here). I have witnessed too many instances of blind dumping of chemicals - temptations to algaecide and clarifier, myself included, when it would have been simpler and cheaper to refill the temporary pools.
If draining makes a muddy swamp your neighbors will hate and obtaining water is not a simple issue, my opinion is a better test kit staves off confusion and keeps a sense of control, not to mention the money factor. With my giant old pool this year I have not reached for clarifier (floc) or algaecide. In the end it I think it is not that the costs, but the sense of helplessness that things aren't working that gets people. We do what we think is fine until we learn otherwise.....and our control issues reach their limits. The OTO will probably be fine until it isn't, which for some people could be many seasons with the bag of water, but I feel the TF-100 or K-2006 is the end of the line - all that's ever needed.
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