Please help with chlorination method

[JBfromNJ]

Honestly somewhat confused after reading through all of these good threads.

I have a new in-ground vinyl lined, with dealer installed in-line chlorine feeder. Started the pool late last season with 3" tri-clor pucks. All seemed well except for constant low PH, which now I learned may be due to the stabilizer. Did not have a good way to check CYA levels, which were most likey high.

So, I need help on how to best start up this year and try to keep the vinyl liner in good shape as well. Can I use un-stabilzed chlorine (like Poollife's product) in the feeder? Should I stick with the tri-clor method? I am afraid to use liquid bleach with the dark vinyl liner.

Also, what is the best product to use to shock the vinyl pool and how often? Dealers tell me to buy the non-clorine shock.

Very confused here and could use some of your expert advice on these topics. Thanks in advance.

[waterbear]

Your low pH is caused by the trichlor tabs in your feeder. They have a pH of around 2.
Best way for you to start this year is to invest in a GOOD drop based test kit that will measure :
Free Chlorine
Total Chlorine
pH
Alkalinity
Calcium Hardness (not that important with a vinyl pool unless you have very hard or soft fill water or a heater)
and CYA (stabilizer)
The general concensus on this forum is:
the BEST way to both chlorinate and shock is with sodium hypochlorite (Liquid chlorine, bleach--same thing except for the strength and price!)

Best way to add alkalinity is with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, sodium hydrogen carbonate--EXACTLY the same thing as alkalinty booster!)

Best way to adjust pH is with muriatic acid and borax (that's the 20 mule team stuff in the green box!)

the thing is you can't do ANY of these things without a good test kit. They are available from several companies such as LaMotte and Taylor and the best ones will use the FAS-DPD titration tests for free and total chlorine.

Not to sound like a commercial but, IMHO, the best "bang for your buck" as far as test kits go is the one sold on the website www.poolsolutions.com which is the sister website to this forum!

Take some time, read through the posts on the forum, read through the poolsolutions website, get a test kit, post your numbers, and you will get all the help you need in running your pool and saving money and work in the process!
Happy swimming!
P.S. if it 's the pool store guys that are telling you to buy the non chlorine shock you have to realize that it is more expen$ive and they are all about profit$! Monopersulfate is what non chlorine shock is....it is also used as non chlorine laundry bleach and denture cleaner (this info is from the DuPont website and they manufacture it under the trade name Oxone!) The website also states that it is NOT a sanitizer and must be used in conjunction with either chlorine or bromine.

Chlorine is chlorine once it is in the water, if you put your chemicals in correctly you should not damage your liner.

[JohnT]

I am afraid to use liquid bleach with the dark vinyl liner.

Once it mixes with the water, bleach, shock, the pucks and all other forms of chlorine are the same other than unwanted chemicals some of them add. The only real side-effect of bleach is raising the pH of the pool.

[aylad]

Honestly somewhat confused after reading through all of these good threads.

I have a new in-ground vinyl lined, with dealer installed in-line chlorine feeder. Started the pool late last season with 3" tri-clor pucks. All seemed well except for constant low PH, which now I learned may be due to the stabilizer. Did not have a good way to check CYA levels, which were most likey high.

So, I need help on how to best start up this year and try to keep the vinyl liner in good shape as well. Can I use un-stabilzed chlorine (like Poollife's product) in the feeder? Should I stick with the tri-clor method? I am afraid to use liquid bleach with the dark vinyl liner.

Also, what is the best product to use to shock the vinyl pool and how often? Dealers tell me to buy the non-clorine shock.

Very confused here and could use some of your expert advice on these topics. Thanks in advance.

Your low ph is caused by the trichlor, not the stabilizer (although the triclor pucks DO contain stabilizer!). And NO, YOU CANNOT USE ANY OTHER FORM OF CHLORINE IN THAT TRICHLOR FEEDER. Sorry to shout, but I need to make sure you see this.....pool chemicals are very volatile until mixed into your pool water. Any other chem that you put in that feeder can react with any residual trichlor and will cause an explosion, and possibly extensive damage (not to mention injuries). Even if you've never used trichlor in the feeder, it's still not safe to put any other type of puck in there--the pucks generate heat as they dissolve, and the feeder can't withstand the heat caused by cal hypo.

Whether or not to continue to use trichlor is really a personal decision. If you keep the feeder at the lowest feed rate, and use bleach to shock, you'll probably be fine for the summer, provided that as your CYA rises, you use bleach to supplement so that your minimum Cl level rises. However, once the summer is over, your CYA is going to be high, so your options for next year are going to be to either drain and refill to lower them, switch to a different form of chlorination, or hope that the CYA degrades over the wintertime (which happens consistently to some of us here but not to others.....it's a phenomenon we haven't been able to explain). While many people here frown on the trichlor feeders, I personally use mine with trichlor every other summer with bleach to shock, and switch to bleach only on the off summers. Works well for me, because backwashing and splashout on the off summers lowers my CYA enough to need the trichlor for the next year. So it's really up to you. Just understand that trichlor feeders are NOT a bad thing, if used properly!

Janet

[CarlD]

Janet's pretty much said it all except:

Do not be afraid to add bleach to your pool. It won't fade your liner unless you pour it down the side. The ways I like to add it are 3:
1) Slowly into the skimmer while the pump is on. Should take a minute to add a gallon jug.
2) Slowly into the return stream so it immediately pushes it around the pool.
3) Walking around the pool dribbling the bleach in at arm's length. Make the gallon last the whole perimeter.

All of these work and won't fade your liner.

[waste]

Janet's pretty much said it all except:

Do not be afraid to add bleach to your pool. It won't fade your liner unless you pour it down the side. The ways I like to add it are 3:
1) Slowly into the skimmer while the pump is on. Should take a minute to add a gallon jug.
2) Slowly into the return stream so it immediately pushes it around the pool.
3) Walking around the pool dribbling the bleach in at arm's length. Make the gallon last the whole perimeter.

All of these work and won't fade your liner.

Just a note on Carl's #3 method (which btw is the one I usually use):

You might want to practice a few times with a chlorine bottle filled with water to get the flow right and see how it splashes. You don't want the jug to 'glug', and you need to minimize the splashing/ splattering - just ask the cuffs of my work pants .

[mwsmith2]

I'm a BIG fan of #1, mainly because you use the circulation system of the pool to "spread the love" all the way around the pool, automatically. It also gives a big WHAMMY of chlorine to your filter system, which is definitely not a bad thing, especially if you have some stuff lurking in there. It also helps with the "splash" factor, as you can pour it quite close to the water's surface.

Michael

[vanhout]

I thought I read once that pouring chlorine directly into the skimmer wasn't a great idea because it subjects your pump to a low ph bath and can prematurely corrode it. Seemed to make sense, so I always pour it around the perimeter of the pool.

[aylad]

Bleach has a pH of 12 or 13, I forget which......so low pH isn't going to be a problem.

Janet

[CarlD]

Janet's right--Bleach is high pH. Di-Chlor and Tri-Chlor are low pH.

Still, I keep the pump running for several hours after I pour in the bleach, so thousands of gallons are flushing it anyway--that's its job. So unless you are letting the stuff sit in there with the pump off, I don't believe it's an issue.