Liquid Chlorine

[javak]

You can use bleach as a substitute for it . However , if you are using powder shock and are having trouble balancing your water , I would use chlorine tablets because they contain stabilizers .

[subslug]

When we still used sodium hypo (bleach) we purchased it in 55 gallon drums from a chemical supplier but we used quite a lot of it before we switched to salt systems.

They actually sell it at the big orange Home improvement store though, in gallon jugs out near the pool chemicals. Just beware, Sodium Hypo has a short shelf life, the stuff I used to buy was 12.5%, the stuff at HD was 10% and Clorox bleach is about 6-7% but it loses it's strength quickly, especially in sunlight.

Some of the jugs at HD looked like they had been around for a few years.

[colt357_2000]

A-quality pool service NRH, and Sun Valley pool service , I think their in Arlington. Both are in the phone book. I'm not sure A-quality has it, but Sun Valley uses it for service. Or did anyway.
Some parts of the country like Florida and California use more liquid chlorine than we do around here.
It's hard to carry enough in your truck to do whole route.

[catman]

Originally Posted by Synopsis

And muratic (hydrochloric) acid isn't? BTW, the only liquid chlorine I've ever heard of is called "Chlorox."

Hydrochloric acid (or the less potent form of it, muriatic acid) is much less dangerous than liquid chlorine,
but I was referring to a compressed form of the chemical element chlorine (Cl), not anything used in a pool like 'Chlorox', which isn't pure chlorine but a compound.

[cherielw]

Originally Posted by javak

You can use bleach as a substitute for it . However , if you are using powder shock and are having trouble balancing your water , I would use chlorine tablets because they contain stabilizers .

The stabelizers (CYA) in the pucks cause your CYA to climb sky-high after awhile. Then you can't maintain a high enough free chlorine to keep your water disinfected and algae sets in and/or people can get sick!

All you need is sodium hypochlorite, whether in 6%, 10%, 12% or higher strength. The strengths simply allow you to use a lesser amount in your pool. i.e., with 12%, you use only half the amount you'd have to use with 6%.

[cherielw]

Originally Posted by subslug

When we still used sodium hypo (bleach) we purchased it in 55 gallon drums from a chemical supplier but we used quite a lot of it before we switched to salt systems.

They actually sell it at the big orange Home improvement store though, in gallon jugs out near the pool chemicals. Just beware, Sodium Hypo has a short shelf life, the stuff I used to buy was 12.5%, the stuff at HD was 10% and Clorox bleach is about 6-7% but it loses it's strength quickly, especially in sunlight.

Some of the jugs at HD looked like they had been around for a few years.

The 12% loses it's shelf-life after about 3-6 months if kept in a sun-free, cooler environment. The 6% lasts about 12-18 months with the same conditions. So it's not like you can stock up with a year's supply.

[subslug]

Originally Posted by cherielw

The stabelizers (CYA) in the pucks cause your CYA to climb sky-high after awhile. Then you can't maintain a high enough free chlorine to keep your water disinfected and algae sets in and/or people can get sick!

All you need is sodium hypochlorite, whether in 6%, 10%, 12% or higher strength. The strengths simply allow you to use a lesser amount in your pool. i.e., with 12%, you use only half the amount you'd have to use with 6%.

While I basically agree, in an outdoor pool I'm not sure you could ever keep chlorine in the thing without some CYA (stabilizer) being in there.
Granted you won't want your CYA levels to get above 80 PPM but, having none in there is going to be quite a battle.

If you're going to go strictly with sodium Hypo and no cya, you better buy a lot of the stuff. CYA isn't harmful at all if you keep it's levels in check.

[cherielw]

Yes subslug, you're absolute right! You want to get your CYA set to between 30-50 for a non-salt-water pool and around 70-80 for a salt-water pool. But once you get your CYA set, you don't want to go messing it up by using pucks, which almost always have CYA in them. In fact, I haven't found any pucks yet that are strictly sodium hypochlorite, without the additive of either CYA or calcium. You would think SOMEONE in the industry would have begun the process of a puck that is strictly sodium hypochlorite - no additives.

So if you get your CYA at your recommended level, then continue using pucks, the pucks, over time, will increase your CYA to a level where it is not feasible to maintain a high enough free chlorine level to keep your pool sanitary. And yes, this is all assuming an outdoor pool.

In fact, my CYA is now depleted from the winter months, as well as some really torrential downpours and having to drain water from our pool. Rather than adding CYA, I had some pucks left over from our pool install last year, and decided to just use those to slowly put the CYA back in our pool. So the only thing I'm doing with our pool for now, is checking my levels each evening. If I see that the pucks are not sufficient to keep up with the hot Texas sun, I'll help them out with a little household bleach - usually about .5 qt - 1 qt every few days.

I'm a bit lazy and find this way of introducing CYA back into our pool a convenience. Most would simply add CYA back in and be done with it. Once we have the CYA level I want, I'll stop using the pucks and return to just using bleach each evening (or every other evening).

[cherielw]

Originally Posted by Morph

Does anyone know where I can get hold of some liquid chlorine? Leslies doesn't carry it and I haven't had any luck looking online. I thought someone on here might know of a place

Thanks.

Morph, I'm sorry. I think we thread-jacked you! Back to your original question, if I'm not mistaken, I believe Texas no longer allows the sale of 12% liquid chlorine. Leslie's carried it until last year I think. But you will not find it for consumer purchase anymore.

However, Lowe's carries 10% liquid chlorine, but it's a bit pricey at $4.98 per gallon. So it depends on your preference: Haul fewer jugs home from Lowe's at 10%, or haul more jugs home from Wal-Mart of the 6% (wal-mart brand super bleach unscented, which usually runs $2.54 per 182 oz of 6%).

For those of us accustomed to using liquid chlorine (bleach), we rarely ever have to shock our pools - only when we neglect them terribly and algae sets in. You can learn more about this process at a troublefreepools.com site (not sure if I'm allowed to mention that on here).

Hope this helps.

[stillkit]

I've got one of those Walmart, inflatable pools for the grandkids to play in (it holds about 2200 gallons) and I only use Chlorox in it. The PH has never been an issue.

I've had it about a month and, so far, have had no problems. After they get out, I run the filter for several hours, cleaning it regularly until no more debris shows up, then pour in a quart or so of Chlorox and put the cover on it.

The next day, it will show a fairly high level of free chlorine when I test it, (which means all the bacteria etc is "dead,"), so I uncover it and let the sun do it's work in evaporating the chlorine. By the time the kids get in it in the afternoon, there's no free chlorine. Then, I repeat the process.

I've been told that it's not a good idea to use Chlorox in a pool, but I'm a trained water purification worker in disaster relief and our training said we could not only use commercial bleach to purify water to drinking standards, we even have a chart showing how much to use. Additionally, I once had well water with a chlorinator on it and so long as the water tested out at the faucet with some residual chlorine present, it was drinkable. I see no reason to assume that a pool treated to drinkability with Chlorox isn't fit for swimming.