Pucks without CYA / Floating liquid chlorine dispenser

[CarlD]

Boy!
There are lot of things in this thread!

First: There are only two types of tablets available: Tri-chlor and Cal-Hypo Durations
a) Tri-chor--it is fundamental to the chemistry of Tri-chlor that when it dissolves it releases CYA No way around it.
b) Cal-Hypo Duration. The older ones had a plastic capsule with holes in it, and were 68% active chlorine. Never had a chance to try them but they sound darn good--just watch the calcium levels and stop when it gets high. The new ones are pure, total garbage. They are only 48% active chlorine, and dissolve completely into mush in 12 hours. If you follow directions and put "two or three" in your skimmer, in 12 hours your skimmer will be completely stopped up. You could use them in a floater, but it MUST be a new floater that never had Tri-chlor in it (can't mix Tri-chlor and Cal-Hypo). Yet again HTH has taken a good product and ruined it.

Second Liquid chlorine dispensing. I bought two of the Liquimates one for me, one for my parents. But when Mom got rid of the pool, I took it back, having never installed it. Quite frankly, the Liquimate is also garbage. It's a good idea but it doesn't work. I tried several arrangements, with the reservoir above the pool, at the pump level, with the one-way valve, without it and nothing worked. I tried using one of the units, then the other, using the liquid chlorine carboys rather than transferring it to the Liquimate tank. Nothing worked. I had to conclude that it was a complete and total waste of my money.

Third: I've looked a little into peristaltic pumps. They come in all kinds of rates, so you need to compute the rate of flow you need, for how long (requiring a timer--no big deal) and the concentration you will be using for that flow. You also want to co-ordinate chemical flow to happen when the pump is running. I've just never gotten around to selecting and purchasing such a pump. I do have a couple of blue 5 gallon tanks though!

Fourth:

Try to find PoolLife brand Active Cleaning Caplets. They are wrapped in plastic with openings at the ends. Our local Wal-Mart carried them until two years ago. I found them again at a local pool shop.

Wow! Learned something new again--that was what the old Durations were supposed to have been. But Wal-Mart seems to have a deal with HTH, and HTH has managed to ruin all its good products--their Tri-chlor now has copper so they can call it "double-acting" (and you do NOT want copper in your water). Their WONDERFUL 5-way test kit, the VW Beetle of good test kits is gone, having been replaced by useless, worthless, expensive test strips. And the old Duration Caplets have been replaced by the new garbage (see above)