Hi, and thanks for the update--we like to hear the end result after helping people with their pools--we all learn from it!!

I don't remember where you live, but losing 5-7 ppm chlorine daily is an awful lot. I'm in northwest Louisiana where the air temps are in the high 90s (heat index in the 105 range due to the 97%+ humidity), and my pool is in full sun from daylight to dusk--and losing 4-5 on a very hot day with a big bather load of kids is still a lot for me. I intentionally run my CYA at 80-90 ppm for that reason--with my weather conditions, I found that I lose much, much less FC during the day with it that high than with it lower. I'm one of the few that does this, but in my climate it's necessary. I lose 2-4 ppm on a hot day with a pool full of kids all day, and 94 degree water.

It's really a decision you have to make, because if you raise it to the higher levels and it doesn't work out for you, then you need to drain/refill to lower it...but then again if you're in a similar climate to mine, you might find that you don't lose nearly as much chlorine to the sun.

If you've got trichlor in the pool now, and use the chlorinator while you're on vacation, you're going to end up at around CYA of 70 anyway, so try it at 65-70, keep track of how much you're losing, and if it's less than you're losing now, you might want to consider going a little higher. Just keep in mind two things: 1) with the trichlor, you need to keep a good eye on your pH because trichlor will drive it down, and 2) the higher CYA works well in my pool because it's open year round--remember what the CYA breakdown did to your pool in terms of CC when you opened this year, and consider that in your decision. Might be worth it to raise CYA during the summer but drain/refill before closing it for winter, or at least set it up so you can keep chlorine in it during wintertime to avoid the ammonia problem again.

Janet