"p.s why do they sell test kits that are only capable of reading fc to 5ppm? "

We're lucky they sell THEM! Most OTO kits stop at 3ppm.

According to an archaic ruling by either the EPA or FDA (I think FDA), pool water wasn't safe to swim in at greater than 3ppm.

This is ironic because they ruled DRINKING water could be as much as 4ppm, and under rare circumstances as much as 10ppm.

In other words you could safely drink water you couldn't swim in!

Somewhere along the line (and others know this better than me) it became a TEKTAT that the ideal chlorine level was between 1.5 and 3ppm--which ain't bad if you don't have any stabilizer.

TEKTAT: Things Everybody Knows That Ain't True.

(Wasn't it Will Rogers who said something about not being worried about what people didn't know, but rather about what they knew that wasn't so?)