Seeing a lot of things about not using the pucks and just sticking with liquid chlorine?

[Mr.Van09]

Hi all,

2nd year owning a home and a pool - last year was traumatizing to say the least but we got some new equipment and had the pool up and running. I'm hoping this year will be even better. I've been seeing a lot of things about using pucks vs the liquid chlorine and am wondering if I shouldn't go the puck route?

I had no issues last year with CYA levels and used pucks in my automatic chlorinator (I believe that is what it is). Tested the water weekly and twice a month had it tested at the pool store and no issues.

What are your thoughts on the pucks vs liquid chlorine?

TIA!

 

[mknauss]

How to Chlorinate Your Pool

Before chlorinating your pool, you should know these simple tips. Learn the best way to add chlorine to your pool.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[pooliusCesar]

Every puck has CYA in it to stabilize the chlorine.
There is a CYA level that is too low, and one that is too high.
Your CYA levels will never stop increasing by using pucks.
The only form of chlorine you can buy that does not have CYA or calcium is liquid, so that's why we use liquid chlorine.
A pool test kit will tell you how to check all kinds of levels in your pool.

Basically, pucks are the gutter guards of pools; they exist for you to spend money on them, but you should not buy them.

 

[Bperry]

Every puck has CYA in it to stabilize the chlorine.
There is a CYA level that is too low, and one that is too high.
Your CYA levels will never stop increasing by using pucks.
The only form of chlorine you can buy that does not have CYA or calcium is liquid, so that's why we use liquid chlorine.
A pool test kit will tell you how to check all kinds of levels in your pool.

Basically, pucks are the gutter guards of pools; they exist for you to spend money on them, but you should not buy them.

The pucks are fine if the pool water CYA is low enough. Im using a few now.

But I have gutter guards as well.

 

[Mr.Van09]

Every puck has CYA in it to stabilize the chlorine.
There is a CYA level that is too low, and one that is too high.
Your CYA levels will never stop increasing by using pucks.
The only form of chlorine you can buy that does not have CYA or calcium is liquid, so that's why we use liquid chlorine.
A pool test kit will tell you how to check all kinds of levels in your pool.

Basically, pucks are the gutter guards of pools; they exist for you to spend money on them, but you should not buy them.

First, thank you so much for your response. So, it sounds like I can not spend money on the pucks and just go the liquid chlorine route, which would be nice. In that case, in terms of maintenance, how often are you adding jugs of chlorine to maintain your pool? Once a week?

 

[mknauss]

During swim season, the FC should be tested and adequate chlorine added Daily.

 

[Newdude]

Once a week?

The sun burns off chlorine daily, there's no 2 ways around it. You can dose high to allow a 2nd day, but it burns off as a %, which is loses more at higher levels, so you can't just add many days at once and have any left at the end.

It's 99% the problem with weekly services. (Ignoring them not understanding this, or basic water chemistry in general). They waste a bunch of chlorine and still probably don't make it to the next dose. But then there are plenty of fixes to sell when the method fails, so maybe some do know, and don't have your best interest at heart.

 

[amymeme]

Depends on how long your pool season is, if your CYA drops to zero over winter, how often you lose water and refill (through anything but evaporation, evaporation just concentrates). For me, living on the northeast, I lose CYA over the winter so I use the pucks until I get my CYA up to 30. Then I switch to liquid chlorine except when when we are away more than a day.

 

[Mr.Van09]

Depends on how long your pool season is, if your CYA drops to zero over winter, how often you lose water and refill (through anything but evaporation, evaporation just concentrates). For me, living on the northeast, I lose CYA over the winter so I use the pucks until I get my CYA up to 30. Then I switch to liquid chlorine except when when we are away more than a day.

Ah, okay that is good to know. In the summer, how often do you find yourself adding the liquid chlorine?

 

[Gotta Pool]

Add chlorine at least once daily. There is nothing inherently evil about the puck, as they have their uses. Pucks add chlorine and [something else]. If that something is CYA, you will rather quickly have too much CYA in the pool. If that something is Calcium, you will end up with too much of that. So, if you need chlorine and some of that [something else], the pucks are a shortcut. Otherwise, liquid chlorine is the ticket as it adds essentially nothing but sanitizer.

 

[amymeme]

Ah, okay that is good to know. In the summer, how often do you find yourself adding the liquid chlorine?

No less than every 2 days but my pool gets minimal use, me maybe half hour a day. Granddaughter a few hours ago week. Maybe one or two parties with teenage nieces/nephews. If really hot and toward August when algae likes to take residence, probably daily.

 

[amymeme]

Also, I should add, my chlorinator holds roughly 11 pucks, estimating them to be about 1/2 pound. My pool is roughly 26800 gallons. Using pool math, 11 pucks adds about 14 ppm of CYA and lowers pH about 1.2. my pool uses 11 pucks in a little over a week. Back when I exclusively used the pucks, I used 3 pucks every 3-4 days. I was constantly fighting low pH, and by July, algae was a constant battle. Pool store said low pH was due to acid rain (long time ago, I'm old as dirt) So you can see how using only trichlor for your chlorine source can really mess up your chemistry over time. Especially for folks who don't lose CYA over winter.