Can my pool stay home alone for 10 days?

[chem geek]

All the posts I've read dealing with pool maintenance while the owner is on vacation have included a "pool-sitter" - is this because it's impossible to go w/o? I have to go away for 10 days and to be honest, given my choices of people to pop in and maintain the water, I almost think the pool would be better off left alone. I'm really not comfortable leaving the filter on a timer either. Can I just clean/vacuum really well, make sure everything tests w/in acceptable levels, dump in a bunch of chlorine and put the cover on? What would I be likely to come home to? It's an 18' Intex, gets sun about 5 hrs a day and our temps will likely be 85-95.

Thanks!! Amy

A cover will certainly help, but you should keep the pool pump (filter) on its timer. What is your concern with leaving the pool pump on when you are away?

And yes, dumping a lot of chlorine and keeping the pool covered *might* get you through 10 days, but this is partly dependent on your current CYA level, so can you let us know what that is? Also, is this cover you talk about opaque and prevents sunlight from getting through? Have you ever had experience using this cover and know that it in fact cuts down your chlorine loss significantly?

[EDIT]It is normally advisable to have someone pop in at least a couple of times during the week (assuming you have the cover) to add chlorine. If the cover cuts your chlorine loss to around 20% of the chlorine level per day (meaning that it loses 20% so that 80% is left after each day), then if you dump 20 ppm of chlorine it will end up with about 2 ppm after 10 days so that's why the CYA level is important to know -- if it's high, then those last days will be risky. Also, if you don't know how much your cover cuts down your chlorine loss, then you're taking a big risk since the 20% number is a guestimate. In my own pool with a cover (and the pump was running 8 hours every day), I've been able to do the dump chlorine routine for up to a week, but I've never gone longer than that and normally we have someone stay at our house and both enjoy and maintain the pool.[END-EDIT]

Richard