Do plan on buying Ben's kit, but in the meantime see if you can find a drops based kit. I don't know if places like Walmart, Lowe's, etc., have stocked their kits yet or not. You many have to go to a pool store, but if so, just buy a kit and not all the other stuff they may insist that you need. Don't buy teststrips. As for storage - you will want to store stuff in a place that doesn't have extreme temperatures. I think baking soda from last year should be fine and yes, you are right that calcium hardness is irrelevant in a vinyl pool except that if the level gets too high (probably above 500 but may not take that high) you can start having issues with cloudy water. Hope this helps.
Watermom
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