Test Kit Instructions Are Hard To Read

[Tom.B]

Regardless, be careful of the instruction booklet; Taylor is promoting old-school (non-BBB) pool chemistry, and there's some pretty bad advice in there.

Can you elaborate?

[PoolDoc]

Not so much, right now. I'd need to rewrite the booklet and that's not on my to-do list.

A couple of points though:

1. The various saturation indices are of very doubtful value, and are constantly misapplied. One consequence of trying to run a pool by S.I. is that you'll over-control, with constant unnecessary adjustments.

2. The booklet completely ignores the Chlorine/CYA relationship. 15 years ago, there were legitimate questions when I first published my ideas about that. But in 2014? 100,000's of users here and at TFP have validated my ideas, and Chem_Geek has published, in excruciating detail, the chemical basis for my (mostly) empirical ideas. This relationship is absolutely essential to managing an outdoor pool well. Read the "Best Guess" page, linked in my signature.

[Tom.B]

Yea... I have looked at the Best Guess table and need to do some reading here to figure out just WTH it's saying. The "Shock" and "+Shock+" fields have me stumped.

Thanks for the replies so far. Looking at the videos, I may just go ahead and try my first water test when I get home today. ;-)

[PoolDoc]

The "Shock" and "Shock+" levels are primarily algae-control or algae-killing levels, and are rarely needed if you don't let algae get a start.

There some pools that are -- for unknown reasons -- susceptible to chlorine-resistant mustard algae that may need those levels more routinely. Hopefully, your pool is not one of those.

[Tom.B]

Not mustard, but we have been fighting green for years.

We fought what we THOUGHT was Mustard one year, but I think the pool store crooks misdiagnosed it as pollen on the bottom.

[PoolDoc]

Let's assume you don't have mustard, for now. Just follow post your test results, when you have them.

[nefretrameses]

The videos are pretty good for how to run the test. The CYA test is the hardest to master. But you can pour the solution back into the mixing vial and repeat the test several times to master observing when the dot disappears. Mix the CYA test solution and shake it as instructed, then let it sit while you run the other tests - especially with cold water.