No chlorine showing

[watzup]

Doing my usual thing and used my test strip to test my HT.  No chlorine showed so I put in 1 oz of Spa 56, waited, still no indication, added another 1 oz and still nothing.  Went and got a fresh test strip container out of the house, opened it up and tested again...still no indication. (usually the test strip shows immediate reaction to shocking)  Took a sample to the local pinch-a-penny, Chlorine was extremely high.  Strange that my test strips aren't showing.  Put some spa56 in the cap and added a little water, test strip was bright purple....So question is why isn't chlorine showing from my HT.     Water is crystal clear. 

[tony]

A very high chloine level will bleach out a test strip.  This may be what is going on in your situation.  I prefer test kits over strips because they are more accurate especially for these situations.

[watzup]

A very high chloine level will bleach out a test strip.  This may be what is going on in your situation.  I prefer test kits over strips because they are more accurate especially for these situations.

It wasn't showing any chlorine before I added the first ounce, again nothing after the 2nd ounce. So now, 48 hours later, still no indication.  Its time to change the water and so that is in progress now.  The water temp is @ 91 considering that I have the temp set for 78.... so I will let it sit for a day or so after fill up, do another test.  I think I will get a test kit this time, pinch/penny had some kits for $5.00 to do the very basic test.   I did put a couple of grandules in a cap with water, instant purple with the previous strip I used in the HT, but this no chlorine "thing" has got me stumped.  Does water ever get to a point where it will not absorb chlorine?

[tony]

Water will always accept chlorine.  There may be something going on that uses up the chlorine as fast as you can add it causing a high chlorine demand.  Do you use non chlorine shock at all?  Another possibility is your water had a very high chlorine level before you tested and bleached out the strip and adding more just compounded the situation.

[watzup]

Anything is possible I guess.  I did drain the HT, wiped it down with alcohol and refilled it with City Water.  Tested it with the old container test strip and it showed perfect chlorine without adding anything.  Since our weather here is still in the mid 90's everyday, I am letting the sun warm it up, tomorrow afternoon will probably connect it to the power. No non-chlorine used for shock.  Tx for your comments....