I’m new to the form but we’ve had our pool since 96. We recently had to replace pretty much the entire pool the liner, the walls, the rails and that got messed up and that’s a whole other thread posting but I’m posting we’re constantly being told by the pool store we need this chemical or that chemical and we should do this and that we should more chlorine, more stabilizer, ph up ph down.
However, every year we open our pool the water looks great but the readings are off on those little strips so where do we go? To the store with a water sample. What do they do? They sell us $29.99 for that $59.99 for this you know? And sometimes water and some cloudy because of it and the readings stay off. I ended up here entirely by accident but it felt like a breath of fresh air reading some of your post about pool care. So I hope y’all don’t mind that I’m gonna be here to stay.
So I have two questions:
One do you recommend the test strips for testing chemical levels on your pool or the actual test kit where you put the water into a little tube?
When we open the pool the water is always clear. The only thing we put in when we close it is chlorine and concentrated algaecide. When we open it, we just shock it with chlorine. We stopped using the open pool kit simply the pH and the alkalinity we’re trying one year we really couldn’t afford it. We could only afford the chlorine.
The second question is what are the most important things we should balance in the pool? Is it chlorine or pH or alkalinity and is there such a thing as stabilizer that the pool needs to have a reading that you can take? That’s 3 questions in one, sorry.
I would so very much appreciate your straightforward, clear precise response when you are able to answer me.
We have a Hayward, EC 50 DE filter. At the end of the season, we clean all the rods within the filter and charge it with DE. We add the algecide and the chlorine. we can let it run for a while and shut it down. Our pool covered up here in Union, New Jersey from early September to late May.
However, every year we open our pool the water looks great but the readings are off on those little strips so where do we go? To the store with a water sample. What do they do? They sell us $29.99 for that $59.99 for this you know? And sometimes water and some cloudy because of it and the readings stay off. I ended up here entirely by accident but it felt like a breath of fresh air reading some of your post about pool care. So I hope y’all don’t mind that I’m gonna be here to stay.
So I have two questions:
One do you recommend the test strips for testing chemical levels on your pool or the actual test kit where you put the water into a little tube?
When we open the pool the water is always clear. The only thing we put in when we close it is chlorine and concentrated algaecide. When we open it, we just shock it with chlorine. We stopped using the open pool kit simply the pH and the alkalinity we’re trying one year we really couldn’t afford it. We could only afford the chlorine.
The second question is what are the most important things we should balance in the pool? Is it chlorine or pH or alkalinity and is there such a thing as stabilizer that the pool needs to have a reading that you can take? That’s 3 questions in one, sorry.
I would so very much appreciate your straightforward, clear precise response when you are able to answer me.
We have a Hayward, EC 50 DE filter. At the end of the season, we clean all the rods within the filter and charge it with DE. We add the algecide and the chlorine. we can let it run for a while and shut it down. Our pool covered up here in Union, New Jersey from early September to late May.
We recommend using either a TF-100, TF-Pro-Series, or Taylor K-2006C. Stay out of the pool store at all costs. See the links below for more test kit info. IMO, the TF kits are the better value.
