Technical question for pros: about bleach

[smokeygrl]

I am making the switch!!! I'm hoping once I fix all my CYA trouble from years of powdered/tablet chlorine - My work will be nothing more than testing and adding a little bleach.
I'm in the process of convincing my husband this is a good idea - He's almost there but he has a few questions about the bleach. I have purchased the generic regular bleach - 6% sodium hypo. The bottle says 94% "other ingredients". He wants to know what this is. Is there something in there that will build up and eventually become a problem? (you can tell we've been hurt before);) He is a medicinal chemist so he understands that with generic products, sometimes the additives aren't good. Does Clorox have the same 94% "other ingredients" too? Thank you.

[DavidD]

The 94% other is Salt Water, which is the only by product you'll get by using bleach to chlorinate your pool.

[JohnT]

I think there's also some sodium hydroxide in there as well, which accounts for the pH rise you get when using bleach. Clorox adds sodium polyacrylate to their bleach now. The jury is out on whether this is good or bad. It does do good things for water as far as removing minerals, but whether that works in the real pool world or not isn't known. I'm sure we have some guinea pigs here using it that will let us know one of these days.

[prh129]

The next time you go to a pool store, take a look at their liquid chlorine (which might be called liquid shock). You should find that it too is sodium hypochlorite although in a higher concentration (10.5 or 12%) so the laundry bleach is the same stuff only in a weaker concentration so you would have to add twice as much to get the same result. The higher concentrations will lose strength faster than lower concentrations (affected by heat & light) so the laundry bleach will hold up better in storage. I am using both without any problems.

If you look for posts from mwsmith you can download a bleach calculator program that you can use to determine how much bleach to add. Just remember to adjust the concentration if you switch between laundry bleach and pool store bleach.

Peter

[PatL34]

The next time you go to a pool store, take a look at their liquid chlorine (which might be called liquid shock). You should find that it too is sodium hypochlorite although in a higher concentration (10.5 or 12%) so the laundry bleach is the same stuff only in a weaker concentration so you would have to add twice as much to get the same result. The higher concentrations will lose strength faster than lower concentrations (affected by heat & light) so the laundry bleach will hold up better in storage. I am using both without any problems.

If you look for posts from mwsmith you can download a bleach calculator program that you can use to determine how much bleach to add. Just remember to adjust the concentration if you switch between laundry bleach and pool store bleach.

Peter

Regular bleach, whether 6% or 5.25% contains Sodium Hypochlorite and water.

The Sodium Hypochlorite will dissociate to Hypochlorous Acid and Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda). As the Hypochlorous Acid destroys the bacteria and Chloramines (the bad guys) the Sodium Hydroxide is left, and this raises the pH. That's why you need Muriatic Acid to bring the pH down. It also increases the salt level in the pool.

Hope this helps.

Pat

[smokeygrl]

Thank you for all the great help. I'm glad I found this forum!!!
I'm really looking forward to getting my water in better shape - I'm confident the BBB way is the way to go.!

[PhantomAndy]

Just remember - with the BBB method - it requires that you make a daily commitment to the pool from a chemical balance standpoint.

You simply must keep an eye on it daily to keep you Cl levels right, as well as the pH.

Also - remember that we often see the BBB method for taking care of the pool - but Bleach will raise your pH, which will require either dry acid, or muratic acid to lower. Borax raises pH, and comes in handy if you use Tri-Chlor tabs.

Me personally - I did the bleach thing last year just to try it out. I got tired of all the empty bleach bottles lying around and having to drag them to the recycling drop off on Saturday mornings. I also didn't like having to test and add bleach _every_ day.

I've gone back to Tri-chlor pucks in my online feeder. We don't have a high bather load - so I only have to test every few days, and usually only adjust things once a week. I rarely have to shock, usually only 1 or two times a year.

I'll continue to use bleach as a supplement to my Trichlor, and for shocking when necessary - but for our pool it just isn't worth the constant upkeep.

I'm strongly considering a SWG sometime in the next few years.