Do You Have To Use Chlorine Everyday?
by Gord
What are the side affects of not using chlorine in your pool and just shocking it? Thanks for your question Gord I have heard of this before, but I'm really not a big fan of just shocking once per week, then not doing anything else with the chlorine. Chlorine Demand When I did my pool route in Arizona I would raise the chlorine level up a bit, when needed, to about 5.0ppm or so. This was to carry the chlorine level throughout the week until I could get back the following week. The CYA (cyanuric acid/stabilizer) must also match the chlorine level. By this I mean it needs to be in range, usually 7.5% of the chlorine level. A normal home pool requires the chlorine level to be between 1.5 - 3.5ppm and the CYA between 30 - 50ppm. If you bring your chlorine level up to a true shock of 10Xs the normal chlorine level, say 10 - 12ppm, you'll also need to raise the CYA. At a chlorine level of 10ppm, the CYA would need to be 75ppm. This is 7.5% of 10. If you use Trichlor pool tabs. your pool CYA is being slowly added to the water. This will eventually raise the CYA, but too much and the chlorine sanitizing properties will be compromised. There's too much of a fluctuation in the readings for the chlorine to do its job correctly. Granted, your chances of algae or green pool water would drastically decrease, but I think you'd be wasting more money than you're actually saving. Swimming pools aren't a "set it and forget it" proposition. It is called "pool maintenance" for a very good reason. I would normally add either a pound or gallon of pool chlorine to my pools about every other week. This was even when the temperatures reached 105 - 110 degrees for weeks at a time. If I did a shock every week, for every pool on my route, my chemical bill would be so outrageous it would have probably put my out of business. If you like to swim, as I hope most people do who visit this website, they'll need to wait longer to swim because of the high chlorine levels. When you start getting over 6.0ppm your skin can become very itchy and dry due to the excess chlorine. Not to mention the red eyes. I would be very cautious of someone telling you that you can simply do something once with your pool, forget about it for a week, and it'll be o.k. No need to worry about it. What I'm telling you is from years of real world experience, a pool route of 50 residential and commercial pools in one of the hottest parts of the country, Arizona. Also the YMCA pool operator for the last 3 years. Everything on this site...I've personally done. From help with construction, to plumbing, to installation, to chemical readings, to cleaning, to ordering, billing, collecting, to whatever... I've actually drained a pool 1/2 way, hung upside down with my uncle holding onto me, rewired and installed a new pool light when it was 108 degrees. Yeah. Fun times. I was a little younger and more flexible back then. It's my opinion that the chlorine level should be kept between 1.5 - 3.5ppm, CYA 30 - 50ppm, and all chemicals tested once, if not twice per week. This is the tried and true method of taking care of pools. Many pool owners and pool guys have done this for years with much success. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Thanks again. I hope this helps and have a great and safe swimming season. Robert |
