My water has a bad odor and my kids get itchy skin and burning eyes when they swim. What is wrong?

Most commonly, offensive odors coupled with itchy skin and buring eyes are indicators that your chlorine may be combining with contaminants in the water (some debris particles, suntan lotions, sunscreen, sweat, urine, etc.). It's best to perform a Total Chlorine test and also a Free Chlorine test to determine the "gap" or difference between the two.

That difference will help to determine the amount of shock (or oxidizer) that will be necessary to break apart those distractions (contaminants) and free up your chlorine to effectively sanitize and protect swimmers, while also removing the odors and burning effects.

You'll need to properly balance the pH after any shock treatment, and also wait for Free Chlorine levels to return to normal if a super-chlorinating shock product is used.