Chlorine Tablets ok?

[Steve_in_C]

Why would someone do an SWG when chlorine injector systems like that are available? The self contained dosing system you linked to is maybe half or a third the cost of an SWG and I have to imagine a handful of 5 gallon jugs of chlorine a year is the same or cheaper than a salt cell every few years. It seems like a no brainer to me, but I'm new at all this and don't know any better.

Because a pool of your size at 3ppm would be about 1.5 gallons per day of 6% bleach (long half life) or about a gallon per day of 10% (short half life). You are hauling 30-45 gallons of bleach per month during your highest demand times. The reason for the SWG is convenience. And its a BIG reason. Smaller pools don't have as big a bleach requirement and less jugs to haul.

 

[Jameshtx]

What do you mean shock as in a product not a process? Is shock also a no-no here on troublefreepools.com?

The tablets have CYA too. The only way CYA ever goes down is via water dilution. So you do not need to be consistently adding CYA (which is what the tablets do). Since you already bought the tablets I would say they would be okay to use if you need to raise your CYA too. If you have giant bucket of tablets you may want to sell it via craigslist, facebook market, etc.

I learned this all the hard way.I do credit tablets as the reason I found TFP. Bought a house with a pool, went to pool store, bought 25 lbs of tablets, CYA got absurdly high, discovered TFP, haven't used a single tablet since (6 moths ago). In fact, I just listed 24 lbs of tablets on craigslist.

I took my water to a pool store for fun recently. A summer worker, who knew nothing about pool chemistry, tested my water who was being trained by a high school kid. When I saw the results I came to the conclusion that test strips are more accurate. You will find some hilarious posts on test strips here but we call them guess strips. The results I were given was basically an advertisement for Bioguard and provided a pretty hefty and expensive list of Bioguard products I needed to buy even though my water was beautiful and balanced.

I do buy my liquid chlorine from my pool store as it's about 2x of the cost of 6% bleach and is 12.5% (less jugs to haul and I can support a local mom and pop shop). I said I would analyze the results and come back if needed but did want liquid chlorine. They were blown away that's all I wanted. They legit thought liquid chlorine was pool shock (shock as in a product not a process) and that it would burn off immediately since stabilizer wasn't added to it.

It was a good visit thought, it basically verified everything that TFP says about pool stores is true haha. And I'm not trying to rip on the pool store employees. They're just employees, most probably don't have pools...it's a job not a career, why become a pool expert for a part-time or summer job...plus the industry and distributors are pushing a lot of info on them...plus just that bucket of tablets alone cost about as much as I spend all season now after finding TFP.

 

[cfherrman]

Shock is a verb and not required as we keep our In proper [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]

If a pool goes green we SLAM Process

 

[Steve_in_C]

To shock is to take your chlorine (or other oxiders) up significantly. The TFP method typically uses only bleach to shock (NaHClO3). If you do the math on many shock products, it takes it will take the FC up about 10. With a properly managed pool, you just need to shock when you close and when you open because of the long no-treatment period. It's OK to shock with TFP, but it's typically for a mistake. Shocking is not needed very often. The necessity of weekly shocks mean you are doing something wrong.

 

[Jameshtx]

My pool builder says definitely add shock to my pool ( as in adding the shock powder ) if after heavy rainfall or if a dead animal falls in. But the TFP way is to use bleach ( liquid chlorine ) right?

 

[zea3]

We use liquid bleach/chlorine when the situation calls for it. We test after a heavy rain and add the amount of chlorine needed to reach the top of our target level. If an animal drowns in our pool but is otherwise intact, check the FC levels and add enough chlorine to reach the top of the target level. If the ex-animal has ruptured and spilled body parts/internal organs into the pool then a slam is needed, followed by an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test. Test results are the primary determination of when a pool needs to be slammed.

 

[Jameshtx]

Ahh I see what you mean