bobnc

I struggled with the same question here in Winston-Salem, NC. I decided in the end to puchase a safety cover and close the pool. The pool contractor I purchased the cover from is coming to close the pool and install the cover on Nov. 3rd. I seriously considered keeping it open, but was worried about a power outage (which happens frequently were I live during winter ice storms). I thought about purchasing a generator just in case, but in the end decided to close the pool. For what it's worth, I noticed many pools that were left open during the winter around here, so If that's what you choose to do, you should be OK.

Back when the pool was first completed, the builder set the chlorinator at 5, and yes, I was going thru about 6-8 tablets a week. In July, I turned it down to 1 and now 5 or 6 tablets in the chlorinator lasts for about 14 days or so. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the FC is now stable at about 4 ppm with a CYA of 80, so I feel like that is a good place for right now. The combined chlorine test in the Taylor kit never shows any combined chlorine, so I have discontinued shocking the pool weekly. Is there any need to shock the pool when you have no combined chlorine and a stable FC reading with perfectly clear water?

Update: I got my Taylor test kit about a week ago and ran the CYA test, it was above 100ppm. At that point, I decided I would partially replace the water (drained about 30%) at retest. After replacing the water the CYA was between 80 and 90ppm. While it may not have been 160, it probably was well over 100ppm before the drain and refill. I would still like to get the CYA down even further, and may do another partial drain and refill. Right now I am keeping the FC at about 5ppm and the water is staying perfectly clear. Since the pool doesn't get a lot of use and I run my filter pump 24 hours a day, I have the auto chlorinator on the lowest setting of 1 and have not had any problem maintaining the 5ppm FC reading. For the rest of this season I am continuing to use the trichlor pucks, but will probably look into other options for next spring. Question ... I normally just put 5 or 6 trichlor 3" tabs in the feeder and let them dissolve over time. Is it better to just put in one tablet and let it completely dissolve before adding another, or is it ok to keep the feeder topped off with 5 or 6 tablets at a time. thanks for the help.

Actually, I have my feeder set to the lowest setting (1 on a 1 to 9 scale) and whenever I test with test strips the chlorine is always above 3 and usually around 5. To be quite honest, the pool doesn't get much use. I swim laps in it for about 30 minutes 3 or 4 times a week and that's about it. The pool is situated in area without a lot of trees, so nothing much gets in the water. I have an Aquabot that I use to to vacuum it about once a week, and there really isn't much for it to pickup. I wonder if the chlorine feeder isn't working properly and is putting too much chlorine in the water? I run my pump/filter 24 hours a day ... does that contribute to more chlorine in the water? I have ordered a Taylor K-2006 test kit and hopefully that will give some accurate readings.

I have a 25,000 gallon inground pool that was installed in late March of this year. I use Trichlor 3" tabs to chlorinate in an automatic feeder and shock weekly with non-stabilized Calcium Hypochlorite. I normally keep the chlorine between 3 and 6 ppm. The water has been crystal clear all summer without any trace of algae. I took some water to the pool store that installed the pool to have it tested. I got these results: FC: 6.0 ppm TC: 6.0 ppm Alkalinity: 130 ppm PH: 7.8 ppm CYA: 160 ppm I was shocked when I saw the CYA number since it was only 50 ppm when I had the water tested at the same place about 6 weeks ago. I know CYA builds up in the water with the use of stablized Trichlor, but is it possible that it has gone up that much in such a short time?