Year 5 with the pool. First 4 maintenance was trivial. This year I can't keep my chlorine levels up. I'm using more than double the shock the past few months vs last 4 years.

Treated for algae multiple times. Water at the moment is crystal clear. Really frustrating. And expensive.

Test your water and post in here. Leslie's will do it for free.

Water test. Most likely CyA levels.

Most likely CYA levels, I had similar issues when a pool cleaner chlorine locked my pool. Partial drain / refill is the only way.

If you want to delay that, you can try a Pool RX+ from Amazon.

sts7049 said:

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get a TFP test kit, don't use the stores

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Leslie's does it for free, and you can't make the machine lie. Their readings are nearly as accurate as a test kit. I would know as I've tested it considering I have the same machine.

Additionally, the cya test in most kits are spotty at best. You have to determine the cya level based on the "clarity of the dot in through the water" which is hardly accurate.

Highly recommend electronic measurement for cya readings.

Also make sure your filter is clean. If you have any organic material built up in the filter it can eat chlorine.

Yeah, my first question is about filter condition. We've gone from old sand, to cotton balls, to new sand, and the new sand has made a huge difference. About 4 years is what I've gathered.

CYA is the other question that immediately comes to mind. If it's too high, you could have chlorine mainlined, and it wouldn't matter. The only way to fix that is losing some water and refilling with new water.

Filter was cleaned a month or two back (after treating algae).

CYA levels were low, got those in check this weekend.

Still seems to be going quicker than expected. We have a Del Ozone / ozone generator. I was told at install that it would reduce chemical usage by over 50%. I'm wondering if maybe that went out?

If your pool gets full sun during the day and CYA was low it would definitely burn up chlorine faster. CYA is like a sunshade for your free chlorine.

Too low and sun burns up chlorine. Too high and the CYA locks it all up. It really needs to be in the Goldilocks zone.

Also make sure your combined chlorine is 0.0ppm. If it's even 0.5 then that shows you have organics burning it up as well.

I was told by a pool guy once that the ozone generators do not last very long and are kinda gimmicky. Not sure if true or not.

I assume you're not using a salt water chlorine generator but just confirming. My chlorine level was dropping like crazy earlier this summer and turns out my salt cell had gone bad. It was sized for my actual pool size and I replaced it with one with max output for a pool 3x larger than mine so it won't have to run as hard in peak season to keep up (and will hopefully last longer). Maybe not relevant here but taking the opportunity for a quick PSA.

Take a water sample to Leslie's as mentioned. Go to Trouble Free Pool, sign up for a free account and post your test results in the "Testing and Balancing Your Water" forum. You will receive expert advice on how to resolve your issues.

EOT

Col. Steve Austin said:

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Take a water sample to Leslie's as mentioned. Go to Trouble Free Pool, sign up for a free account and post your test results in the "Testing and Balancing Your Water" forum. You will receive expert advice on how to resolve your issues.

EOT

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Stone Cold has spoken, so it must be!

Quote:

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Still seems to be going quicker than expected.

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Yes, I have found the same with my last 50lb bucket of 3" tabs that I ordered from Doheny's. I called them and complained and, of course, I was the only one they had heard of that was having the problem. I suspect the chlorine plants may be adding filler into their chemicals sold (shrinkflation).

CYA levels back up. Chlorine seems to be holding much better. Hopefully we have a winner.

I'm on year 5 of a pool. I like TFP as well.

And feel free to make fun of me for this, but ChatGPT can be helpful. I told it where I live, my typical routine, and my numbers. I put in a PoolRx and wanted to see if I should keep the chlorine lower for the summer like the PoolRx box instructed. It recommended that I kept my CYA a little high (50-60) for the summer, and to keep my chlorine higher than Leslie's would recommend (it uses TFP's formula, CYA *0.09).

I quickly verified what it recommended, and it's been helpful. More knowledgeable than the people at my local Leslie's.

fire09 said:

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Col. Steve Austin said:

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Take a water sample to Leslie's as mentioned. Go to Trouble Free Pool, sign up for a free account and post your test results in the "Testing and Balancing Your Water" forum. You will receive expert advice on how to resolve your issues.

EOT

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Stone Cold has spoken, so it must be!

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