Is Consistently High Chlorine a problem?

[Girl_Style]

Hey everyone- So I've been following all your advice since we resurfaced our plaster salt water pool/spa. I've yet to keep the chemicals at an ideal level for an extended period of time but thanks to all the knowledge here I have had no issues dealing with fluctuations and no longer panic when they happen, so thank you!

The pool is located next door at a property we use as a vacation rental. This means that I don't get to test the water every single day but more like 1x a week. It's now 'winter' in so.cal so the pool isn't being used often (since heating it with the propane is so expensive) but the spa does get used most of the week.

I did want to ask though- could it cause issues with any of our system if the chlorine has been reading extremly high for an extended period of time? I'm talking shock level high...for about a month now. I stupidly realized we hadn't changed the salt cell it for the winter season and it was still pumping @ 100% and have since lowered it to 60% to see if that will help burn off some of the chlorine since we've had some hotter days this past week.

I've always felt safer having a high chlorine content (especially at a rental with children and people who obviously aren't as careful about getting out to go to the bathroom, etc) and avoiding algae but wanted to check with the experts and see if it's something I should be working hard on lowering?

**I will go over and test the water later today when the guests checkout and post the results here since I know most of you will want numbers...

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I would suggest just turning the SWG wayyyyy down, if not off, if the FC is at shock level consistently. Remember that SWGs have a limited lifespan so you don't want to run it unnecessarily (unless you don't mind replacing it sooner).

There is a difference between running your FC a smidgen high versus keeping it at shock level.

Bring on the test results please.

Yippee

 

[Girl_Style]

Ok turned the SWG off for now, and adjusted my run time down to 2 hours since the water is crazy cold with all the rain and current weather (but very clear). These are my test results of the day after guest checkout. I see that my CYA is low but not sure that working hard on adjusting it right now is necessary since the FC is so high? :/

PH: 7.5
Br: Off the charts (super bright orange)
TA: 70
FC: 30
CYA: 55
CH: 575
Salt: 3,200

*CH is shockingly high, hasn't been that high in awhile but with so.cal water and plaster pool it's not completely abnormal to see high readings after a hot spell (last weekend).