I've been using this product for a few years now, my pool is fresh and blue, and I've saved a lot of bucks on chlorine and especially shock (chlorine). The first time I used it, I bought the plastic canister thing for $69.99 and didn't have much of a clue how to use it, just placed it in the skimmer - very careful to wash my hands, and to not splash my face (chemicals are chemical, and in concentrated form, do NOT get them near your eyes or mouth). At that time, the pool was a light shade of green, not horrible, but greenish. The next morning, I didn't see much change, nor the next, but the third morning, while making my cup of coffee for the morning, still half asleep, I looked out my kitchen window at the pool and I promise this thought went through my mind, "What am I doing at a hotel? I'm not at a hotel." The pool was a beautiful clear blue. I'm still a little unsure how it works, but the pool was starting to turn a little green after about 7 months, so I bought the booster tablet, and again within three days the pool was sparkling blue. Truly amazing. Pools in Florida are, in my experience, hard to keep blue. I used to go through almost two big buckets of 3" chlorine tabs a year, and five five-pack boxes of shock. I admit, I don't know much about pools. About two years ago, PoolRX ran into some problems with the EPA over what I was told were "labeling disputes." I think it had to do with a competitor. The EPA is notoriously obnoxious and even vindictive bureaucracy, and the product was totally withdrawn from the market, existing stocks were seized, and it was no longer available. Gee, thanks, EPA. Then I had to buy more chlorine and about three boxes of shock, and I went to another product that (I discovered) stains the pool deck rusty and is cumbersome to use. Those guys want you to drill a hole in your pipes and attach their complicated cartridge with a "pop-up valve" to let you know when it's empty. Besides detail, the reason this review is so long is to explain that when I switched back to PoolRx, there was some chemical conflict, I think, between it and the o-t-h-e-r product, the pool went a little milky, and that has taken a couple of months to clear up, but now everything seems to be back in balance, and it is clear blue again. PoolRx instructions are simple, but not extremely clear on how to use it. My experience is that you let it dissolve, and that's it. You don't have to leave the $69.99 initial use plastic canister in your skimmer or water intake basket. The booster tablet is sufficient to keep my pool blue for another six to seven months, then another, and so on, so far. Just let it dissolve into the water (about three to five days in a floater, right along with the chlorine tabs). I have a small sized pool, only five feet deep - the bigger pools are just too much pain in the neck for me. But with this pool, I keep one chlorine tab in the floater, and that's all I have to do. I have a Hayward sand filter (well, well, worth the money - it saves about $140 bucks of paper filters and hours of washing filters each year). I have a cracked pipe somewhere underground, so I closed the bottom-of-the-pool drain valve, and do not use one of those automatic pool sweepers, so every few weeks or so, I manually vacuum, but it is almost always just some dead algae accumulated in swirls near the center of the pool. Once or twice a year I'll brush the pool and vacuum all over, but it really isn't necessary. (I am very satisfied with this PoolRx product.)
