Use calcium hypochlorite shock, not dichlor or trichlor.

Yes. You need to break the chloramines with a strong, unstabilized shock. That means calcium hypochlorite (cal-hypo) granules or liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite). Avoid dichlor or trichlor—they add more cyanuric acid (stabilizer) and just make the problem worse.

The math: you typically need 10x the combined chlorine level as your target shock dose. So if your combined chlorine is 2.0 ppm, you need to raise free chlorine to 20 ppm and hold it there. Test with a DPD test kit (not test strips—they can’t measure that high accurately). Run the pump 24/7, brush the walls, and let the sun do some work if your CYA is low. The chloramines will oxidize and the “pool smell” will go away.

If your CYA is over 100 ppm, conventional shocking may not work. You might need to partially drain and refill to lower stabilizer first. Otherwise you’re burning money on chemicals that won’t do their job.

One more thing: non-chlorine shock (potassium monopersulfate) can help in a pinch, but it doesn’t actually break chloramines—it “oxidizes” them into something that still registers as combined chlorine on some tests. Stick with chlorine shock for the real fix.