How often should I shock my above ground pool.

[Jonacani]

I am a new pool owner and I often see to shock the pool weekly.
I have an intex above ground 12x24, 8400 gallon pool, sand filter with an SWG that I run daily 7 hours.
There are only 3 in my family and we use the pool daily for about an hour, so not a lot of use.
My pool chemisty is good. Do I need to shock it....at all?

 

[Sunnydaze]

You don't need to shock weekly if you're maintaining chlorine levels properly per the FC/CYA Levels.

 

[Newdude]

Pools are like people. If you need to shock the patient, they were DOA.

The pool store and pool services rely on you letting them handle everything once a week, while the pool needs daily care (just a little I promise). So theoverboard the treatments that should have been added a little at a time. There is no way of knowing the demand all week as it can vary greatly day to day. It’s a recipe for disaster that gets you back to spend lots on expensive magic fixes that only mask the problems you didn’t properly address. (Mainly lack of daily care).

So you get a chemistry roller coaster that empties your wallet over the season and the worse it gets, the more you need them to fix it for you. Great racket, right ?

Get a proper test kit and take ownership of your pool and it’s care. See Test Kits Compared. Many times the pool store isn’t open when you need to test/add and it can’t wait 3 days until you are both free. The kit will allow you to use dirt cheap chemicals available over the counter at Walmart or the grocery store.

download the pool math app for free and it will be your best friend. Plug your test results in and it will tell you that you need 2 lbs of borax. You don’t know what that is yet so you’ll Google it. $1 a lb at the laundry aisle in the grocery store ??? SIGN me up !!!
(Or you can ask and we’ll make you a similar shopping list). The kit will pay for itself 20X over, I promise.

 

[mknauss]

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jon,

I have three saltwater pools that in total are over 25 years old... In all that time I have never, ever, added a single bag of pool store shock.

As has been said.. If you maintain your CYA to FC relationship, per the saltwater section of this chart, you never have to routinely shock your pool... FC/CYA Levels

I always try to keep my FC at my "Target" or higher... I never try to stay between the minimum and the target... I look at the minimum as a cliff that I never want to fall off..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jonacani]

Thank you, that is what I thought, but you know what the pool stores say.

 

[Newdude]

Thank you, that is what I thought, but you know what the pool stores say.

‘That’ll be $261 for us to make it *worse*’. ????
Yup.

they say it over and over and over and get us oodles of new members. Glad you made it now too.

 

[Jonacani]

Thank you all very much, I am realizing what the pool store tells me as well as even my intex manual are very different from this site. Everything has gone well this summer so far, knock on wood, and my chemistry is acceptable but I will need to tweat some things to get it right on. With my Taylor kit, my FC was 4, pH was 7.7, TA was 120, and CYA was 70.

 

[Newdude]

my chemistry is acceptable but I will need to tweat some things to get it right on. With my Taylor kit, my FC was 4, pH was 7.7, TA was 120, and CYA was 70.

Nice !! Not much of a problem at all. Keep your FC well above minimum daily. It will lose 2-4 ppm a day due to UV from the sun and swimmers. ‘Target range’ is designed for said loss to leave you above minimum when you test/add tomorrow. You can give yourself some wiggle room and go a few FC higher if you don’t want to watch it like a hawk. There is lots of leeway up (all the way to SLAM) and no leeway below.

Keep an eye on your PH and lower it to 7.6 when it gets to 8. It will come back up and each time it does, your TA will lower itself by about 10. A few cycles later your TA will stabilize itself and remain in its happy spot.

 

[ghall6292]

You can give yourself some wiggle room and go a few FC higher if you don’t want to watch it like a hawk. There is lots of leeway up (all the way to SLAM) and no leeway below.

Well put and easily understandable. A good reminder for us all. My high target, at my CYA, is 8 ppm of FC. I always reload daily (no SWG) when convenient to 7.5-8 ppm. This allows me to skip a day whenever I want to, without worries. Thank you TFP!