Free Chlorine: 1-4 ppm or 7.5% of CYA

[othoni13]

Hi All,
Long time reader. First time poster.
Did my best to solve this on my own- but have been overwhelmed by the contradiction.

Hoping a couple of pool exports can jump in here

I have a vinyl chlorine pool.

What should be the free chlorine goal to maintain? Is it the classic 1-4 ppm or the formula of 7.5% of CYA.

I've seen both scenarios

My CYA is currently 80- I'm going to let it go down naturally but until that happens-- that would mean i technically need 6ppm to get 7.5% of CYA.. Feels high and hence the question

Look forward to hearing everyone's personal thoughts and how they handle their similar pools.

Thank you

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
FC/CYA Levels
I suggest you read through Pool Care Basics - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool

 

[newdude]

Depends if you want to follow TFPC or the industry way. You lose up to 4 ppm daily in the peak season, and unless you're adding multiple times a day, maintaining 1 to 4 ppm isn't possible.

 

[Jimrahbe]

13,

"Technically" it is much higher that you thought..

Your very, very minimum is 6 ppm but your target FC level should be 9 to 11 ppm.. In other words, you want to try and keep your FC about 10 ppm all the time.

With a CYA of 80 and an FC of 10 ppm, you can swim in it with no issues.. You will not even know there is any chlorine in the water..

Thanks,

Jim R.