Debating liquid chlorine jugs versus keeping a bigger tab feeder stocked

Started by Marlene Foster · · 3 replies
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#1
Gene and I keep going back and forth on this one. Right now I'm pouring liquid chlorine in by hand most days, which means a trip to the store every couple weeks and lugging those jugs out back, not exactly fun at 67. The other option is switching over to a bigger tab feeder and just checking it weekly instead of dosing daily.

Part of me likes knowing exactly what's going into the water each day, that's just how I learned to do it long before test strips existed. But I won't pretend the jug hauling is getting easier on my back. Anybody switched from one to the other and noticed a real difference in how steady your FC stays, or is it mostly a convenience trade off. Not looking to add anything fancy to the pad, just trying to figure out which headache I'd rather have.

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#2
Tabs will creep your stabilizer up over time if you stick with them long term, thats the one thing nobody warns you about til your FC stops working right even though you're dosing the same.

Honestly for the back issue id look at a salt system before id pick between jug or tabs, mine does the daily work for me and I havent lugged anything since 2021, but that's a bigger project than what you're asking about so.
#3
Marlene, I was pouring liquid for about the first five years we had this pool back in the 90s and my back gave out on that same hauling routine, so I went to trichlor tabs in a floater and never looked back, thirty years now. Dana's right that stabilizer creeps up on tabs, I drain and refill partial every couple years to knock it back down, that's just part of the deal. My FC actually holds steadier on tabs than it ever did with me eyeballing jugs every day, less guesswork. Wouldn't go the salt route myself, that's a whole different headache replacing the jug one, but tabs solved my back problem just fine.
#4
Dana and Earl are both right, it's really a question of which maintenance task you'd rather do, because tabs will absolutely hold FC steadier day to day than hand dosing ever will, that part isn't a trade off, it's just better for stability. My CYA this season has been sitting at 45 and I'm on trichlor puck shock not even a tab feeder, so I get the creep problem even without a feeder running constantly, it's worth testing CYA every month or two whichever way you go so it doesn't sneak past you. If your back is the real issue here I'd pick the feeder over sticking with jugs, that's a once a week check instead of a daily haul.