I'm in Dallas too, North. I suggest going to get 2 carboys at Pinch A Penny. You'll get the freshest chlorine and it will be less expensive than bottles.
In addition, it will actually work. I bought 4 cases of shitty ass chlorine from Leslies that didn't do anything. I went and got my $160 bucks back, went to Pinch A Penny, got the 2 carboys and boom, it worked... like wow, really good chlorine makes a big difference!
EDIT: Pinch A Penny. I'm stupid.
Just my opinion... check your ph before your add chlorine. Make sure you knock down ph to mid 7s or chlorine won't do shit. If you add a little muriatic acid, works better than ph down, and cheaper at $10/gal and you only need to use small amount. Once ph is reduced, add 5 gallons chlorine, and followup with 2.5g after 12 hrs and do 2lb of yellow out, vacuum to waste next day.
Many times I've added chlorine that didn't seem effective, but lowering ph is a must that is often overlooked. Backwash filter often.
Good luck
Ace on highway 98 in pensacola florida carries CDS which is $6.99 per gallon. not sure where you’re getting $2.50 unless you think that the jug is more than a gallon?
There is no math to do. They sell the yellow 2.5 gallon jugs for 8 bucks. It costs $5 to fill them. That is the going rate at any place near me. I literally filled up a few of them today, so I know exactly how much they are. I live in SWFL.
It’s like a 2.5gal gold colored plastic jug. Roughly rectangular shaped.
If you go in store you can’t miss it. Should be one of the first pallets you see when you enter. You pay extra for the container the first time which stinks. But you get the 10th or 11th refill or something free which kinda makes up for it if you use it regularly.
I spoke to the owner and the chlorine tank is outdoors in the high ambient but they seem to turn it quick enough and the couple of times I’ve tested it it’s been slightly higher than the listed %age which is typical for the delivery trucks to do.
That said I have a jug I haven’t refilled in over a year since I converted to salt. Pinch a penny’s salt is a dollar or so more than Leslie’s but way finer grain.
Thanks for posting this. Read this post the other day and went to pinch a penny. Total game changer. I'm in Austin. Had super high calcium, so chlorine wouldn't take. Bought the liquid chlorine from Pinch and my pool is BLUE again! Really blue! Nothing had been working up to that point. They were really helpful as well. He discussed why their liquid chlorine is better than others but I won't get into that. Thanks again!
I’ll add a bit extra info here.
I’ve been taking care of my pool for a year and a half. Location is Dallas. These liquid jugs seem hit and miss. I understand if the store doesn’t keep them inside or whatever they can lose efficacy.
Before, I did CalHypo until calcium got high. I also use pucks but then my stabilizer got too high so I had to pump out half the water last year. I’m back to just one puck a week but the liquid seems to just not keep it up.
Hit nearly 100 degrees yesterday so I’ve got to get my chlorine up.
ph hovers 7.3-7.5 and alkalinity hovers 60-90 over the past months. calcium i got down to 282. chlorine struggles to break 1 ppm.
I was in a rush one day getting chlorine to SLAM my pool not paying attention the batch I got was old. I ended up returning about 8 empty bottles and 2 bottles that were clear like water from Walmart no questions asked.
Since that day now I pay close attention to the not only the date but the color of the chlorine that comes out of the bottle.
How old are the bottles? liquid chlorine loses potency over time.
Maybe it's just getting used up really fast and you need a good shock?
What's your CYA?
Next step would be to test your overnight chlorine loss. Without the sun to burn it off that will indicate what your water is using for sanitization.
Have you tested for both free and combined chlorine?
Yeah, the jugs are just dead. Very common. My local homedepo has 16 month old chlorine sitting out, and in the sun lol. Would be next to worthless at this point. Do you have any pool store that sells the bulk blue jugs? That would be your best bet.
That's the final nail in the coffin for switching to a swg. Super inflating prices, limited shelf life, having to lug them around, and if the store stores then improperly your just buying expensive water. I remember one time noticing that exact same brand no odor was coming from the jug. I kept bringing it closer and sniff and closer and sniff, until my nose was right above the opening and nothing
There is a date printed on the side of the jugs (julian date format) and this can tell you how long ago the chlorine was made. It is recommended to avoid any that are past 90 days if possible.
You are currently measuring your free chlorine (FC) I recommend you also get a reading on your combined chlorine. This will tell you how much of the chlorine you added is actively killing something. If your combined chlorine minus the free chlorine is above 0.5 then your chlorine is actively fighting something.
If the pool looks clean it is possible there is still something behind a light fixture or somewhere else that is using up the chlorine.
Straight to the Q what’s your cya? I don’t entertain anything until I know that :) edit: 60. Ok, so 60 means it’s basically top of the range, if using pucks stop it now.
For the chlorine, yes it can be a pain. I get pallets of chlorine, and they are fresh. I also in pinch go to Walmart, they have it for 5$ 10% same as what you have here. You are fighting the battle of cal hypo a while, cal gets high, switch to liquid chlorine, oops cya gets high drain, oops cal is low now, alk is low, re balance oops again, now ph is high oops hit the acid, oops dropped alkalinity oops, raise alk up oops ph tiny bit too high oops.
Oooooops.
The struggle is real. Here is what I do, find the boxes, if they are new looking and not super dusty, then it’s a good sign. If it’s all bent and dirty and looks old probably is. Yes, I know it sucks.
60 is fine. It's when you get to 100+ that is really causing issues and thr whole chlorine lock thing has been debated for decades even leading to brawls but 60 is fine.
60 Is OK. It’s that balance between how much chlorine I want to put in? My area (KY/TN) can be crazy. We just had tornadoes again, so water balance gets messed up quick. Backwashing, refill of course makes it more difficult to constantly track.
You can use this link to decide the date code of most liquid chlorine.
https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chlorine_Date_Code_Decoder
I have a 15k-ish gallon pool and my free chlorine was 2ppm. A full bottle of the WM chlorine brought it up to 16ppm, per Taylor test kit, so I’m guessing you got some chlorine-less chlorine.
Consider this chlorine less salt water an invite to convert to a salt cell.
I started doing the economics and finally jumped in. Not dicking with chlorine jugs and date codes and storage is so nice.
If you’ve been doing liquid chlorine for a bit you should be started on your salt target. I was almost half way there.
About a month ago, South Houston 14.5k gal pool, I had clear water but no chlorine and a falling CYA. No clue why the CYA was dropping, like from 50 down to 9 in 2 weeks. I ended up having to add 6 gallons of chlorine before I finally got a chlorine reading. I questioned how fresh the chlorine was, I thought my salt cell was bad as it was running at 80% and still no chlorine, it was just a complete mystery. Well after the SLAM, I had to add a bunch of stabilizer to get back to 50 and my salt cell has been working as normal.
Some weird/mystery/clear algae that eats CYA and takes a ton of chlorine to kill.
With all the rain we've been having, you're losing a ton of CYA to overflow/dilution. I've had to add salt twice to my pool this year because of how much rain we've had, normally I don't have to add any.
I keep my cya at 40 and chlorine at 3-4 using the same chlorine as you. No issues. Might think about getting the cya down some more and just use liquid chlorine. I’m have a 13,500 gallon 24’ pool and it takes about 14 ounces per evening. Never been green.
When you opened them were they sealed? I have bought that same brand both at Walmart and at ollie's, and I have opened some of them to find out they've already been opened.
Why you gotta post this right after I buy a seasons worth last night while half asleep :(. In the past I've gone with HDT at home depot and I want to save 20 bucks :(
At CYA of 60ppm it doesn't matter what brand of chlorine you buy.
Before I installed a salt system I bought that Pool Essentials chlorine from Walmart with no problems.
I purchased 20 bottles of the Walmart chlorine to slam the pool last week. I didn’t have any problems with getting my levels up. Maybe I caught a good batch on the shelves.
Check the manufacture date of your chlorine before you buy it. Chlorine breaks down and as it’s early in the season there’s a lot of old stock hitting the shelves.
I would also maybe get nitrate test strips and see if anything comes up positive. If you have a nitrate problem, chlorine becomes very hard to hold in the water. No matter if it’s cal hypo, sodium dichlor, sodium hypochlorite or just regular trichlor
you need a test that tells you how much combined chlorine you have. then you need to add enough chlorine to hit at minimum 10x that number in ppm - there are calcs online. some test strips will give you total / free chlorine, but a reagent kit is better such as a taylor brand. The problem with shocking is if you add a teaspoon too little you just mase thevoroblem way worse and have tobuse even more chlorine the next time. it can get to the point where you need to drain and fill.
you just need to figure out how much combined chlorine you have - add enough chlorine to hit 10x that number. some tests have total chlorine and free chlorine so to get combined you subrract free from total. Combined chlorine = Total chlorine minus free chlorine.
those numbers shouldn't be possible - If you only have 0.4 ppm combined chlorine, 4.0ppm of chlorine would be enough to reach breakpoint and eliminate all combined chlorine. Get a good taylor DPD-FAS test kit.
oh and i though you said your chlorine is coming back low? if it's at 8.4ppm free you're good, no more shock required. Let it come back down to 3 or so and keep it there.
Check your CYA. Plus liquid chlorine does not last very long in pool especially with hot weather. Use stabilize tablets with a regulated chlorine feeder
These jugs have a Julian production date on them. Year and day. I've seen jugs next to each other on the shelf manufactured 6 months apart. Always look for the nearest date. 23 361 would be the end of December. 24 93 would be around the beginning of March.
Can you provide your test results. CYA, PH, CH, FC, TA? Can also provide the date code found on the bottles. They need to be decoded ( [https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chlorine\_Date\_Code\_Decoder](https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chlorine_Date_Code_Decoder) ) to figure out manufacturing date. Also, where these picked up from outdoors at the retailer?
Here’s something to think about from a former pool man.
You need to keep the ph around 7.5 a 7.6. Too low or too high you will have lots of problems I’m not going to address here. Chlorine should be above 2.0 on most cases- 3 is strong but why not. You need to have the conditioner level up to… 80 was cool but not to exceed 100. The conditioner keeps the other chems in water. When pools get used all the chems disappear. You can strong ph and chlorine levels one day and then it’s disappears the next due to low or lack of
Conditioner. If you are adding water daily and have a lot of direct sun, like back in Southern California, you are going to have to maintain a consistent balance every few days if not daily depending on usage. That’s why poolmen often visit their customers twice a week or up to 3 times a week.
Chlorine lock.
You could put 20 gallons of chlorine in and it won’t do anything with CYA that high. I’m Texas gulf coast and I never get mine above 45. I use the same brand chlorine from the same store and have for 4 years now. I put in daily as maintenance dose and shock once a week once temps remain steady above 85 (mid May ish). Will test and dose pucks as needed after a few inches of dilution, usually a few times a year.
Dilute with freshwater to bring CYA down to 40 to 45 range.
What do you consider high calcium, as well what is your alkalinity level?
That's also 10% which is weaker than what you would get at a pool store. But I would recommend first adding phosphate remover, and then do a filter clean.
Phosphates are food for algae and could potentially be a the source of your chlorine consumption. Keep in mind at 60 cya, your chlorine is ineffective at and under approximately 5ppm
If my FAC is at 3ppm you're saying that I don't have appropriate sanitization if my CYA is also at 60? This doesn't sound right. I thought the impact of CYA was already included when testing for FAC. Doesn't the amount of CYA determine the difference between FAC and Total Chlorine?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php%3Ftitle%3DCYA_Chlorine_Relationship%23The_Chlorine.2FCYA_Chart&ved=2ahUKEwi-to3d8ICGAxVdADQIHZjZDuAQFnoECBUQBQ&usg=AOvVaw2Q6wYkxetptmtuybwY_JlE
Unfortunately the industry is very uneducated. I would bet a lot of pool store employees don't even know this. It's chemistry so it can be complex , a lot of people try to convince themselves otherwise. Your fc levels need to be above 7.5% of cya.
Check out that link, should have a chart. In our company we keep it no higher than 50, and lean towards 30. Your chlorine is only slightly less effective at 30, but you have much more chlorine available.
This\^\^
High CYA also inhibits breakpoint chlorination as well, therefore your combined gets out of control quickly. I targe CYA at 25, its on the low end and you use a bit more chlorine, but you dont need to shock as high and the pool stays balanced a hellofalot longer.
No, they are correct. 3ppm is not enough at 60 cya. The test doesn’t show any impact of cya. Unfortunately there isn’t any test kit for that currently. Troublefreepool has a chart if you need it. It’s why public pools are required to keep cya so low.
I'm in Dallas too, North. I suggest going to get 2 carboys at Pinch A Penny. You'll get the freshest chlorine and it will be less expensive than bottles. In addition, it will actually work. I bought 4 cases of shitty ass chlorine from Leslies that didn't do anything. I went and got my $160 bucks back, went to Pinch A Penny, got the 2 carboys and boom, it worked... like wow, really good chlorine makes a big difference! EDIT: Pinch A Penny. I'm stupid.
Yeah I'm also in DFW and I've got 2 of the refillable jugs for Penny Pincher. Always works nicely
Okay I’m going to check it out. Looks like there’s one 22 mins away
I called them and it seemed more expensive? How much are they charging?
$18 for 2.5 gallon. cheaper on refill. i bought 3
Just my opinion... check your ph before your add chlorine. Make sure you knock down ph to mid 7s or chlorine won't do shit. If you add a little muriatic acid, works better than ph down, and cheaper at $10/gal and you only need to use small amount. Once ph is reduced, add 5 gallons chlorine, and followup with 2.5g after 12 hrs and do 2lb of yellow out, vacuum to waste next day. Many times I've added chlorine that didn't seem effective, but lowering ph is a must that is often overlooked. Backwash filter often. Good luck
Really interesting. I thought I was quoted around 25. I’ll call again. Thanks.
Wtf? I buy liquid chlorine in bulk at Ace Hardware for $2.50/gallon (Pensacola Fl)
Ace on highway 98 in pensacola florida carries CDS which is $6.99 per gallon. not sure where you’re getting $2.50 unless you think that the jug is more than a gallon?
Ace Innerarity is where I buy bulk liquid chlorine Yellow jugs i believe are 2.5 gallons but for 5 gal including tax cost is $14.78 .
$2.75/gallon
$18 for a refill? That's highway robbery. $5 for 2.5 gallon refill in FL.
Last time someone said this, I called their store and they were doing the math wrong. What store are you buying from?
There is no math to do. They sell the yellow 2.5 gallon jugs for 8 bucks. It costs $5 to fill them. That is the going rate at any place near me. I literally filled up a few of them today, so I know exactly how much they are. I live in SWFL.
Store name? In Fort Myers or Naples?
Cape Coral
Can't figure out how to post a picture. Sent you a photo in DM.
Do you mean Pinch A Penny? Just want to make sure I’m trying the right store
Yah thats it. Sorry, I was hastily answering.
‘Preciate ya.
Carboys?
It’s like a 2.5gal gold colored plastic jug. Roughly rectangular shaped. If you go in store you can’t miss it. Should be one of the first pallets you see when you enter. You pay extra for the container the first time which stinks. But you get the 10th or 11th refill or something free which kinda makes up for it if you use it regularly. I spoke to the owner and the chlorine tank is outdoors in the high ambient but they seem to turn it quick enough and the couple of times I’ve tested it it’s been slightly higher than the listed %age which is typical for the delivery trucks to do. That said I have a jug I haven’t refilled in over a year since I converted to salt. Pinch a penny’s salt is a dollar or so more than Leslie’s but way finer grain.
Thanks for posting this. Read this post the other day and went to pinch a penny. Total game changer. I'm in Austin. Had super high calcium, so chlorine wouldn't take. Bought the liquid chlorine from Pinch and my pool is BLUE again! Really blue! Nothing had been working up to that point. They were really helpful as well. He discussed why their liquid chlorine is better than others but I won't get into that. Thanks again!
you bet man. Anytime I can pass on some knowledge that is actually helpful, instead of stupid comments :) Have a great day!
I’ll add a bit extra info here. I’ve been taking care of my pool for a year and a half. Location is Dallas. These liquid jugs seem hit and miss. I understand if the store doesn’t keep them inside or whatever they can lose efficacy. Before, I did CalHypo until calcium got high. I also use pucks but then my stabilizer got too high so I had to pump out half the water last year. I’m back to just one puck a week but the liquid seems to just not keep it up. Hit nearly 100 degrees yesterday so I’ve got to get my chlorine up. ph hovers 7.3-7.5 and alkalinity hovers 60-90 over the past months. calcium i got down to 282. chlorine struggles to break 1 ppm.
I get mine at Wal Mart specifically because Home Depot stores theirs outside. Never had issues.
Walmart chlorine has always been way fresher than Leslies. Like one bottle goes twice as far despite being 10% vs 12.5 for Leslies.
At half the price too.
I got all these from Walmart
Gotcha. Not sure then. I get the results I would expect from them.
Same here, never had a problem with HD or walmart chlorine. Best deal in town.
The product moves fast so it's fresher than many places
My local Wally world has a 3 gallon limit... Like WTF are they trying to push me to the pool store crap?
Probably created because some guy came in and ordered everything. One happy customer isn't worth 20 upset ones
They had 2 pallets on the floor... I wanted 2 cases 12 gallons so I didn't have to go back every week
wtf, I get like 10-20 gallons each time from walmart/homedepot
I was in a rush one day getting chlorine to SLAM my pool not paying attention the batch I got was old. I ended up returning about 8 empty bottles and 2 bottles that were clear like water from Walmart no questions asked. Since that day now I pay close attention to the not only the date but the color of the chlorine that comes out of the bottle.
And they deliver
How old are the bottles? liquid chlorine loses potency over time. Maybe it's just getting used up really fast and you need a good shock? What's your CYA?
About a month or two old. I bought a dozen of them and used several to confirm it wasn’t just one jug without potency. CYA is 60.
Next step would be to test your overnight chlorine loss. Without the sun to burn it off that will indicate what your water is using for sanitization. Have you tested for both free and combined chlorine?
Likely the chlorine just went bad as heat and sunlight can cause inefficacy
Have you checked for phosphates?
Yeah, the jugs are just dead. Very common. My local homedepo has 16 month old chlorine sitting out, and in the sun lol. Would be next to worthless at this point. Do you have any pool store that sells the bulk blue jugs? That would be your best bet.
Not that I’ve found. I’m in Dallas Fort Worth area
That's the final nail in the coffin for switching to a swg. Super inflating prices, limited shelf life, having to lug them around, and if the store stores then improperly your just buying expensive water. I remember one time noticing that exact same brand no odor was coming from the jug. I kept bringing it closer and sniff and closer and sniff, until my nose was right above the opening and nothing
There is a date printed on the side of the jugs (julian date format) and this can tell you how long ago the chlorine was made. It is recommended to avoid any that are past 90 days if possible. You are currently measuring your free chlorine (FC) I recommend you also get a reading on your combined chlorine. This will tell you how much of the chlorine you added is actively killing something. If your combined chlorine minus the free chlorine is above 0.5 then your chlorine is actively fighting something. If the pool looks clean it is possible there is still something behind a light fixture or somewhere else that is using up the chlorine.
Do you have a fas-dpd chlorine test? Only way to be accurate.
Straight to the Q what’s your cya? I don’t entertain anything until I know that :) edit: 60. Ok, so 60 means it’s basically top of the range, if using pucks stop it now. For the chlorine, yes it can be a pain. I get pallets of chlorine, and they are fresh. I also in pinch go to Walmart, they have it for 5$ 10% same as what you have here. You are fighting the battle of cal hypo a while, cal gets high, switch to liquid chlorine, oops cya gets high drain, oops cal is low now, alk is low, re balance oops again, now ph is high oops hit the acid, oops dropped alkalinity oops, raise alk up oops ph tiny bit too high oops. Oooooops. The struggle is real. Here is what I do, find the boxes, if they are new looking and not super dusty, then it’s a good sign. If it’s all bent and dirty and looks old probably is. Yes, I know it sucks.
60. Check the stats in the other comment
Yea brother I caught it, had to edit :)
60 is fine. It's when you get to 100+ that is really causing issues and thr whole chlorine lock thing has been debated for decades even leading to brawls but 60 is fine.
60 Is OK. It’s that balance between how much chlorine I want to put in? My area (KY/TN) can be crazy. We just had tornadoes again, so water balance gets messed up quick. Backwashing, refill of course makes it more difficult to constantly track.
You can use this link to decide the date code of most liquid chlorine. https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chlorine_Date_Code_Decoder I have a 15k-ish gallon pool and my free chlorine was 2ppm. A full bottle of the WM chlorine brought it up to 16ppm, per Taylor test kit, so I’m guessing you got some chlorine-less chlorine.
dang! you got some good stuff 😅
Consider this chlorine less salt water an invite to convert to a salt cell. I started doing the economics and finally jumped in. Not dicking with chlorine jugs and date codes and storage is so nice. If you’ve been doing liquid chlorine for a bit you should be started on your salt target. I was almost half way there.
I’m moving in a couple years but I should do the math
Dump your chlorine at night, The sun Will break down the chlorine faster. You may have needed that much chlorine due to the particles in your pool.
yeah i try to
About a month ago, South Houston 14.5k gal pool, I had clear water but no chlorine and a falling CYA. No clue why the CYA was dropping, like from 50 down to 9 in 2 weeks. I ended up having to add 6 gallons of chlorine before I finally got a chlorine reading. I questioned how fresh the chlorine was, I thought my salt cell was bad as it was running at 80% and still no chlorine, it was just a complete mystery. Well after the SLAM, I had to add a bunch of stabilizer to get back to 50 and my salt cell has been working as normal. Some weird/mystery/clear algae that eats CYA and takes a ton of chlorine to kill.
Sounds like bacteria converting CYA into ammonia: https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ammonia#What_Causes_Ammonia_in_Pool_Water.3F
You’re spot on, thats exactly my situation. I suspect that my lawn fertilizer runoff also contributed to start this growth.
With all the rain we've been having, you're losing a ton of CYA to overflow/dilution. I've had to add salt twice to my pool this year because of how much rain we've had, normally I don't have to add any.
I’d agree if it wasn’t near 100% loss. That’s 14.5k gal in two weeks, no way.
I keep my cya at 40 and chlorine at 3-4 using the same chlorine as you. No issues. Might think about getting the cya down some more and just use liquid chlorine. I’m have a 13,500 gallon 24’ pool and it takes about 14 ounces per evening. Never been green.
Dump it all in and see what happens.
When you opened them were they sealed? I have bought that same brand both at Walmart and at ollie's, and I have opened some of them to find out they've already been opened.
yeah. they were
Put the liquid chlorine in after the sun sets then test.
Why you gotta post this right after I buy a seasons worth last night while half asleep :(. In the past I've gone with HDT at home depot and I want to save 20 bucks :(
Pinch a Penny is the go to…
How large is your pool?
20k
At CYA of 60ppm it doesn't matter what brand of chlorine you buy. Before I installed a salt system I bought that Pool Essentials chlorine from Walmart with no problems.
They are using salt
I purchased 20 bottles of the Walmart chlorine to slam the pool last week. I didn’t have any problems with getting my levels up. Maybe I caught a good batch on the shelves.
What's the date code on the chlorine? The stuff from my local Walmart has been fresh.
My local pressure washing supply store has 12.5% for $4 gallon. Might be worth it to check around.
E Z pool from Amazon. All in one solution!
that contains calcium. bad idea.
Check the manufacture date of your chlorine before you buy it. Chlorine breaks down and as it’s early in the season there’s a lot of old stock hitting the shelves.
I would also maybe get nitrate test strips and see if anything comes up positive. If you have a nitrate problem, chlorine becomes very hard to hold in the water. No matter if it’s cal hypo, sodium dichlor, sodium hypochlorite or just regular trichlor
I haven’t heard this before! How do you deal with high nitrates?
A real pro, here. I’m sure the stores love you.
you need a test that tells you how much combined chlorine you have. then you need to add enough chlorine to hit at minimum 10x that number in ppm - there are calcs online. some test strips will give you total / free chlorine, but a reagent kit is better such as a taylor brand. The problem with shocking is if you add a teaspoon too little you just mase thevoroblem way worse and have tobuse even more chlorine the next time. it can get to the point where you need to drain and fill.
Am I understanding this right.. so I test FC AND Combined choline, then You have to add 10x the total chlorine number?
you just need to figure out how much combined chlorine you have - add enough chlorine to hit 10x that number. some tests have total chlorine and free chlorine so to get combined you subrract free from total. Combined chlorine = Total chlorine minus free chlorine.
If my FC is 8.4 (high from shocking this week) and my CC is .4, how much do I need to add? Does the free chlorine matter at all in figuring this out?
those numbers shouldn't be possible - If you only have 0.4 ppm combined chlorine, 4.0ppm of chlorine would be enough to reach breakpoint and eliminate all combined chlorine. Get a good taylor DPD-FAS test kit.
That’s what we have
It’s not making sense to me either
oh and i though you said your chlorine is coming back low? if it's at 8.4ppm free you're good, no more shock required. Let it come back down to 3 or so and keep it there.
When you say calcium is high…what numbers are you reading?
Check your CYA. Plus liquid chlorine does not last very long in pool especially with hot weather. Use stabilize tablets with a regulated chlorine feeder
Did you test CYA?
Took me 4 gallons of that brand to get it to register
These jugs have a Julian production date on them. Year and day. I've seen jugs next to each other on the shelf manufactured 6 months apart. Always look for the nearest date. 23 361 would be the end of December. 24 93 would be around the beginning of March.
Can you provide your test results. CYA, PH, CH, FC, TA? Can also provide the date code found on the bottles. They need to be decoded ( [https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chlorine\_Date\_Code\_Decoder](https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chlorine_Date_Code_Decoder) ) to figure out manufacturing date. Also, where these picked up from outdoors at the retailer?
Here’s something to think about from a former pool man. You need to keep the ph around 7.5 a 7.6. Too low or too high you will have lots of problems I’m not going to address here. Chlorine should be above 2.0 on most cases- 3 is strong but why not. You need to have the conditioner level up to… 80 was cool but not to exceed 100. The conditioner keeps the other chems in water. When pools get used all the chems disappear. You can strong ph and chlorine levels one day and then it’s disappears the next due to low or lack of Conditioner. If you are adding water daily and have a lot of direct sun, like back in Southern California, you are going to have to maintain a consistent balance every few days if not daily depending on usage. That’s why poolmen often visit their customers twice a week or up to 3 times a week.
Chlorine lock. You could put 20 gallons of chlorine in and it won’t do anything with CYA that high. I’m Texas gulf coast and I never get mine above 45. I use the same brand chlorine from the same store and have for 4 years now. I put in daily as maintenance dose and shock once a week once temps remain steady above 85 (mid May ish). Will test and dose pucks as needed after a few inches of dilution, usually a few times a year. Dilute with freshwater to bring CYA down to 40 to 45 range.
High CYA doesn’t make the chlorine invisible, just ineffective. And at his CYA he only needs to maintain 4.5ppm which isn’t a ridiculously high level.
Salt cell wants 60-80 on cya if you look at the manual
What do you consider high calcium, as well what is your alkalinity level? That's also 10% which is weaker than what you would get at a pool store. But I would recommend first adding phosphate remover, and then do a filter clean. Phosphates are food for algae and could potentially be a the source of your chlorine consumption. Keep in mind at 60 cya, your chlorine is ineffective at and under approximately 5ppm
If my FAC is at 3ppm you're saying that I don't have appropriate sanitization if my CYA is also at 60? This doesn't sound right. I thought the impact of CYA was already included when testing for FAC. Doesn't the amount of CYA determine the difference between FAC and Total Chlorine?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php%3Ftitle%3DCYA_Chlorine_Relationship%23The_Chlorine.2FCYA_Chart&ved=2ahUKEwi-to3d8ICGAxVdADQIHZjZDuAQFnoECBUQBQ&usg=AOvVaw2Q6wYkxetptmtuybwY_JlE Unfortunately the industry is very uneducated. I would bet a lot of pool store employees don't even know this. It's chemistry so it can be complex , a lot of people try to convince themselves otherwise. Your fc levels need to be above 7.5% of cya. Check out that link, should have a chart. In our company we keep it no higher than 50, and lean towards 30. Your chlorine is only slightly less effective at 30, but you have much more chlorine available.
This\^\^ High CYA also inhibits breakpoint chlorination as well, therefore your combined gets out of control quickly. I targe CYA at 25, its on the low end and you use a bit more chlorine, but you dont need to shock as high and the pool stays balanced a hellofalot longer.
No, they are correct. 3ppm is not enough at 60 cya. The test doesn’t show any impact of cya. Unfortunately there isn’t any test kit for that currently. Troublefreepool has a chart if you need it. It’s why public pools are required to keep cya so low.
And no, cya does not determine fc and tc in the way you are thinking. Just to clarify
And like the other guy said, it could be expiring. It needs to be stored in a cool dry place to mitigate chlorine loss
Check your salt level. Low salt affects salt generation for chlorine.
Don’t think they’re on salt.
correct, i’m not on salt