That smell is not chlorine. It's chloramines.

It means your pool needs more chlorine, not less.

That strong “chlorine” smell is actually chloramines — chemical byproducts formed when chlorine reacts with ammonia from sweat, urine, and other organic stuff. Low free chlorine can’t break them down, so they build up and smell worse.

The fix is a shock treatment to break apart the chloramines (called “breaking the chloramine bond”). That will release the smell and give you clean, sanitized water again.

If your pool keeps smelling, you might not be shocking often enough or your CYA levels are too high. Either way, a simple test strip will tell you.