How much chlorine do you use?

[Bicster]

Hi all,

Interested to hear how much chlorine other folks with above ground pools like mine generally use.

I have a 12'x30" intex pool, it's ~8000l which is just over 2000 US gallons. It spends its time with the solar pool cover on unless we're in it - which we haven’t been since Friday.

Anyway, it’s been holding its FC level well and I haven’t had to put any in for 3 days - so just wondered how everyone else gets on with a pool like mine?

Bic

 

[IceShadow]

2-4ppm usage per day is typical.

 

[mknauss]

How are you testing your FC levels?

 

[Bicster]

With my Taylor K-1004 test kit.

 

[mknauss]

For a seasonal pool that test kit is fine. You will never see small changes in FC/CC, but you should be able to manage the water and only drain once or twice each season.

 

[Bicster]

My goals this year are to a) keep the water clean all season and b) not have to drain until the end of the season.

I have a K-2006 from 2018 but some of the reagents expired this year, some are good until 2021. So I got the K-1004 as I'm in Canada and new reagents are CRAZY expensive here (i.e. $30 for a bottle that would cost <$10 in the US). My FAS-DPD reagents have expired, but my CYA test from the K-2006 is good until 2021 so that will see me through this year.

I'm hoping that as long as I keep the FC between 3 and 5ppm all season, keep an eye on CYA every now and again (especially after any required top ups) on top of the regular maintenance (sweeping and cleaning/changing the filter) I should be good for the season. ?

 

[Bama Rambler]

Sounds like you have a good plan.
If you use the solar cover whenever you're not using the pool, you can get close to 1 ppm FC per day loss, so you could go a few days without having to add any FC. Just don't get too lax about testing because it could drop from an unexpected introduction of organics.

 

[Bicster]

With the solar cover and cloudy days I’m not even seeing a 1ppm loss - although to be fair, no one’s been swimming in it, so it will be interesting to see how the FC levels drop when it gets used more!

 

[Wobblerlorri]

I generally lose 2 ppm per day, but we put the solar cover on yesterday and didn't lose any today.

 

[Bicster]

Does anyone ever go over with the chlorine if they know there’s a big day coming up?

Say you normally keep it at 3ppm, if you had a day coming up which was going to be sunny af and you knew there were going to be loads of folks in the pool all day, would you up the chlorine that morning so as to not fall short during the day?

If not, would you test part way through the day and adjust if necessary?

 

[IceShadow]

Yep, bump up closer to SLAM levels if you’re going to have a party. After you can test and bump to higher levels again. Just a little insurance.