Chlorine Pucks

[CarlD]

I've had good luck with the HTH pucks and the Sam's Club brand pucks - i guess they're all about the same.

Unfortunately, that's not true. HTH is adding copper, which turns blonde hair green and stains liners, just so they can say "Dual Action!" on the label. It is an algaecide, but chlorine is more effective.

Unless you have a specific need for copper in your water (and it does happen) I would avoid Tri-Chlor pucks that are fortified with copper.

Tri-Chlor is tricky enough to use correctly--it adds CYA rapidly and drops pH rapidly as well. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use it--it just means you should watch your pH and CYA levels carefully.

Tri-Chlor is GREAT for people with new hard-surface pools that are still curing. Such pools will need CYA, and Tri-Chlor brings it up gradually enough to allow good control. Also, curing pools tend to drive pH 'WAY up--the acidity of Tri-Chlor helps control that as well.

But Tri-Chlor is sold as a full-time, all-you-ever-need chlorine solution, and it is NOT that. Only bleach/Liquid Chlorine and Salt-Water Generators qualify as that.

[Poconos]

My original post was before the forum crash. Probably 2 years ago at Sam's Club they had two types of tri-chlor pucks. Both same weight, same concentration, same listed ingredients. No mention of copper. I know that because I was aware of the copper addition at the time so I specifically looked at the label. One bucket $10 more than the other. The more expensive was tagged as 'all purpose' or something like that. Nothing more to say than just try and be aware.
Al

[PhantomAndy]

Without debating the right/wrong way to use Trichlor tablets, I would highly recommend the Leslie's store brand. They have a competitive price in store, and if you get on their mailing list, they always have a 10 or 20% off coupon that arrives around opening time.

Their Trichlor is 99%, with 1% inert - no fluf-n-stuff

[ScottS]

I get my pucks from KMart because the the AquaChem pucks do not contain copper.

[CarlD]

While most of us here abhor the games the chemical industry plays on pool owners, the bottom line is that every concoction has its pluses and minuses. The trick is to KNOW what those are and use the concoction appropriately.

Still, generally, simple but consistent techniques like B-B-B work best. There are times to deviate, but they are not typical.

[waterbear]

I get my pucks from KMart because the the AquaChem pucks do not contain copper.

AquaChem is one of Chemtura's companies. Chemtura is also Bioguard, Omni, Guardex, Hydrotech, Sun, and Pool Time. These are the people who feel that CYA up to 200 ppm is accetpable in a pool. I was on the phone with AquaChem yesterday about their test kit (and never got a good answer even after speaking to three different people about the hardness test) and they told me that they didn't feel that high CYA levels were a problem as long as they were under 200 PPM!

[aylad]

and they told me that they didn't feel that high CYA levels were a problem as long as they were under 200 PPM!

I'm guessing they either don't own pools, or have other people that take care of their pools for them!! I'm sure they don't see a CYA over 100 as a problem in somebody else's back yard!!

Janet

[waterbear]

Unfortunately, this is pretty much Chemtura's corporate line across all their brands. I guess if they told the truth about CYA they would loose too much revenue on lost algaecide sales (Not to mention all the sales of expen$ive borax they sell as Optimzier (Bioguard) and Maximizer (Omni, Hydrotech, Guardex, and Sun)! They have 39 different algaecides among their brands and that's just the US market! I thought the only algaecides were either copper, linear quats, and polyquat! (Well there is also sodium bromide and inoragnic ammonia). 5 brands and 5 kinds of algaecide each would only be 25 different products. Is there a pattern here?

Edit: When I was speaking to them I mentioned Arch Chemical's (HTH and Poolife) recent study that showed CYA levels of 100 ppm or higher damaging plaster and they basically discounted it and said that their reseach has shown no problem!

[kickurasin]

well how do you keep this level below 100
mine this spring was 348 so i dumped out 1/3 water now it is 49
how do i keep it under 100 cya

[waterbear]

Simple answer, stop using trichlor and dichlor. Both add CYA to the water. Use an unstabilized chlorine such as bleach or liquid chlorine.