Hi and welcome.
Basically what you are asking is about three different methods of adding chlorine to your pool.
Yes, the pucks/sticks etc., have additives which can affect your pool chemistry. And correct, you never want to keep the tabs in the skimmer, it can damage the skimmer AND the pump.
Adding liquid chlorine a.k.a. household bleach does not add any unwanted side effects. You can add the bleach yourself daily or every other day by pouring it slowly in front of the return (tis how I do it) or you can get a Liquidator type automator which adds the chlorine for you.
If you are looking for a method that means you can walk-away and the pool will magically take care of itself I'm afraid you aren't going to find that. Every method of pool care requires that you test
at the very least every other day to make sure your numbers are in range.
Testing often becomes more important with inline chlorinators, as the pucks/tabs are acidic and can lower the PH and raise your CYA too high. Low PH is very damaging to pool surfaces. Eventually the lower levels of FC won't be enough anymore because the CYA has gotten too high (see the CYA chart). Many people however, use inline chlorinators successfully, because they check their PH often and boost it up into range if it gets low. They keep the CYA in range by draining water periodically or backwashing a sand filter. IF you have a cartridge filter, which does not get backwashed, the CYA will build up more rapidly. The other downside of using tabs is they are expensive, and the constant water replacement can be expensive for some.
If you were to have a Liquidator, you will need to test with a simple OTO drop test daily to make sure it's functioning properly, other than that its pretty normal pool operation. You would have the initial expense of buying the equipment. But if you want automation, many people recommend them and love them.
For me, I add the enough bleach to last me 48 hours, I retest, and then add bleach again. It literally takes me about 5 minutes every other day. Couldn't be simpler than that, or cheaper.
I used to use trichlor via a type of inline mineral system with chlorine bac-pacs. Before I found TFP, and had nothing but trouble and too much CYA. But because of the convenience, I thought I had a good system. I realize now I did not, and when I look at all the problems I used to have and how much money I have saved by switching to BBB, I have no regrets and am not bothered at all by testing/adding bleach every other day.
Hope this helps, if not, ask away!
