CYA Through the roof?

[chem geek]

You can dilute your pool water sample with distilled water (tap water usually has chlorine or chloramine in it) and then multiply your result by your dilution amount. So if you dilute 1:1 with equal parts of each, then multiply your result by 2. If you dilute 1 part pool water with 2 parts tap water, multiply the result by 3.

You should definitely get a good test kit. You can get a Taylor K-2006 test kit at a good online price here (the "C" version you refer to is larger in size so is more expensive, but you can get that for a better price here) or the TF-100 you can get here with the latter kit having more volume of reagents so is more comparably priced per test. A comparison of these two kits is in this post. These test kits use a FAS-DPD chlorine test that can measure up to 50 ppm FC, can measure Free Chlorine (FC) and Combined Chlorine (CC) separately and accurately, and can be as accurate as 0.2 ppm when using a 25 ml sample (when shocking, you usually use a 10 ml sample for 0.5 ppm accuracy).