Once it is in the pool water, Chlorine is chlorine, it just comes in different forms.
Tablets erode, so they deliver a constant flow of new chlorine into the water. This is good because it's easier to keep levels up.
Bleach/Liquid chlorine goes in instantly and is there. There are feeders but the success with them is, at best iffy (I tried one...didn't work).
Tablets are very, very acid. If you struggle with rising or high pH, such as from curing new concrete pools, or SWCG systems, this is a good thing. If you don't, your pH can easily drop to damaging levels. This is a bad thing.
Bleach/LC is pH neutral. It doesn't change your pH.
Tablets dump a lot of stabilizer (CYA) into your water, about 6ppm for every 10ppm of chlorine. If you have no CYA in your water, this is a great and convenient way to add it. (that's how I did it this year) But if you have enough stabilizer (30-50ppm, or 70-80ppm for SWCG systems), you'll end up with too much stabilizer leading to the need to maintain high residual levels of chlorine (mis-named "Chlorine Lock" by pool companies). This is not a good thing.
Bleach/LC add no stabilizer.
You put tablets in a floater, an in-line chlorinator (which I don't have) or in the skimmer. You pour bleach into the return stream, into the skimmer, or walk around the pool dribbling it in (if the pump is off or broken).
NEVER pour bleach/LC over tablets! Very dangerous.
The trick is to take a couple of minutes every day to test your water's chlorine and pH, and adjust as needed. Once a week do a full suite of tests with the Taylor K-2006 or equivalent FAS-DPD service test kit (DPD and FAS-DPD are NOT the same--don't be confused).
Carl
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