What should it cost w/chemicals?

[JohnT]

I have a 20,000 gallon pool with a heat pump and a clormatic salt chlorinator. My pool guy charged $320 to remove the cover and open the pool plus the following charges for chemicals (Baltimore, MD.) Do the prices and amounts of chemicals look reasonable? Total price $521
15 lbs. calcium hardness increaser $22.90
15 lbs. alkalinity increaser $25.10
DE - 25 lbs. $30.85
240 lbs. salt - $50.70
20 lb. cyanuric acid $40.00
4 gallon liquid chlorine $22.00

Calcium Hardness increaser runs about $15 for 50 lbs as ice melter.
Alkalinity increaser is baking soda: $5.42 for 12lb at Sam's Club.
Cyanuric Acid- 25 pounds???? I hope they didn't put it all in the pool.
Liquid Chlorine equivalent of 4 gallons as 8 gallons of ultra bleach from Walmart: $10.24
DE $20 for 20 lbs anywhere. Even cheaper at Walmart.
Salt $4.49 for 40lb at Lowes

[CanuckPool]

my PB charges about $330 to open (take cover off, power wash, vacuum, reinstall SWG, take out plugs etc etc. and dumps about 4 gallons of Chlorine) the rest of the chemical balancing is up to me, which is good since you usually have left over stuff from last year... 20lbs of CYA, wow! I only had to put in about 1.5 lbs to get it up to speed this year. I guess you will have chemicals for the next 2 years, so at least you won't have to pay for it next time.