Seriously not attempting to undermine what you folks have established here for newbies on pool maintenance. I have 20+yrs dealing with cooling towers and boiler chemistry in power plants where long term problems result in serious ramifications for boilers and condensers similar to most folks heaters being eaten up
Understanding if each pool has more/less sun, trees, full sun, shade should be taken into account before barrages of test kit mandating/bashing pool stores testing might be considered?
I'm buying a test kit from your store and plan on posting results from a cheaper kit if that's OK?
I'm right there with you, minus three years. Multiple facility types and situations. When I first came here, I liked the no nonsense/common sense, simple approach. I knew from my background it would work, no question. Not every store is terrible, but the large majority of chain stores are. The few times I did go in them, I was appalled at how little many of these people knew about the basics of water chemistry, and found that very frustrating. After years of being on here, its even more appalling to see what happens to people dealing with services and stores. Some of us have been burned badly trying to help someone with store numbers even on simple things like FC levels until their own kit arrives. So, we aren't on a mission to bash and trash, we've just seen so much misinformation and near disaster that we are hardened. Also, there are a lot of myths perpetrated by the Pool industry, and its often outright embarrassing to listen too when you have a treatment background in other water. One of the silliest of those is the Acid column myth. Just an example, but these things also add to our frustration with Pool industry people in general.
You'll love the kit I'm betting money. I could easily do without one with what I have, and have access too minus the High range FC kit. No use for that in our arena, but it's a fabulous tool for pool testing. I use manual bleach additions, MA, and I add Cya once in a great while, but that's it. I am usually a testing maniac because I am very picky and have a tough situation with extremely hard, and very high makeup TA. It's truly the easiest thing I could ever imagine treating a pool this way, and there is never a problem. Honestly, its pretty boring most of the time. I wind up tweaking things just to keep it interesting, but I enjoy it because it can be kinda fun. Stick around, and see what happens here this summer with people, and you'll be amazed, I almost guarantee it.
