High Chlorine readings - how do they impact other readings

[waterbear]

LOL - you guys are talking over my head, but from reading all this, it sounds like I have nothing to worry about as long as the FC is below 10 when testing water?
basically, yes.

Also, I purchased a new test kit from Leslie's pool store. It looks just like the Taylor 2005 test kit, but instead of a powder, it has R-0001 DPD Reagent #1 and R-0002 DPD Reagent #2. I add 5 drops of each. Just curious if one is better than the other. Seems like the powder would degrade faster than the drops.

the kit you got is a rebranded Taylor K-2005 which uses the colormetric (color matching) DPD test procedure. This is not as good as the K-2006 which uses the FAS-DPD titration. The titration test does not suffer the bleachout problem when testing high (shock) levels of chlorine and it has a much wider range (can test up to 50 ppm chlorine) and a much greater precision (down to .2 ppm).
The downside is that it is slightly more expensive per test and takes longer to complete the tests but these are small tradeoffs, IMHO, for the increased range and precision and the lack of bleachout!

The test kits says, "manufactured for Leslie's swimming pool supplies by Taylor Technologies, Inc. The number on the kit is 81-330. Its identical to my old 2005 except for the power that tested chlorine.

SO given all the above I would have to say the K-2006 (with the titration test and DPD powder) is a better test kit than the K-2005 (with the color comparator and the liquid DPD reagents)

Leslie's numbers:
FC = 6 (I estimated it to be between 5 and 6)
pH = 7.7 (I measured 7.2)
TA = 100 (I measured 90)
CH = 175 (I measured 260 - note he used less water sample and less drops)
CYA = 80 (I measured ~65 - a test I hate because its so inaccurate due to looking at the black dot when it disappears).
Phosphates = 250 (I did not have any way to check this)
Salt = 2800 (same value I recorded)

The Phosphate issue for the last couple of years, I've been adding Phos Free to reduce it, but it increased my CH to the point where I had no choice but to drain ~ 75% of the water and replace it with fresh water. I don't plan to use that stuff anymore going forward for 2009.
PhosFree is lanthanum chloride. It really had no effect on CH. BTW, phosphate removers are basically a scam to make pool stores money!!!! They are totally unneeded over 99% of the time!

So it sounds like you guys are saying to keep my FC around 5 to 6, even though the test kit recommends 3-4?

Reread the stickies at the head of each forum section, this one in particular:
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

All the basics of good pool maintenance are basically contained in the stickies!

[CarlD]

Leslie's DOES have the 2006 equiv. It's called the FAS-DPD Service Test Kit.