What are "Total Dissolved Solids" ?

I went to Leslie's pool store just for the free water anaylsis and now the pool store manager is trying to pull me back to the "dark side" :). He asked how long the pool had been opened and what I used to shock it with. I told him bleach and he gave me a blank stare and asked "Who told you to do that?" I said I read it somewhere and it worked last year and it was cheap. He then went on to expalin how shock is cheaper than bleach. I didn't argue but I said using shock and tablets to manage your pool will skyrocket your CYA making your chlorine less effective right? He said my CYA is at 20 and that unless your CYA is over 400 then there is only marginal difference in the effectiveness of the chlorine. But he did say on average you should try to keep your CYA between 30 - 60 then added that it would take 2 35lb buckets of trichlor tabs to raise you CYA in your pool 20 ppm( I have a 23k pool). To make him happy I bought 4lbs of CYA and 7 lbs of pucks. I plan on using this in conjuction w/bleach to manage my pool. I only added 2lbs of the CYA today I'll let the pucks do the rest.

The other thing he said; the main negative of bleach; is that it skyrockets your TDS level (Total Dissolved Solids) and eventually you will have to drain your pool to cure this! I have never heard of this on this forum before. He said that bleach is only 6% chlorine which I know but that you are adding 94% of unwanted stuff to your pool. Which I thought thats why we all use bleach because it doesn't add unwanted stuff. So if anyone can please let me know about the TDS level and is it something I should be concerned with.

The pool store guy is actually a nice guy but obviously he's a bit partial to pool store products.

RT,

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The pool store guy is actually a nice guy but obviously he's a bit partial to pool store products.

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He's a bit misinformed as well. Read about TDS (and other interesting stuff) here: http://www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/ehs/chem.htm#ta

Sorry.
You've been "Pool Stored"!:mad:

You don't have to buy stuff you don't need to make the Leslie's guy happy.

They come up with more cockamamie reasons why you have to use THEIR chemicals than a dog has fleas...There's no difference between bleach and the liquid chlorine or liquid shock that they sell...both contain Sodium Hypochlorite and water.

hehe..pool stores..

"94% of the unwanted stuff" is actually water...you wouldn't want to add that to the pool :D

The TDS contribution of Bleach is a small bit of salt. It definitely will not "skyrocket" your TDS levels. Usually, pump-out from rain is enough to mitigate this problem. On the other hand, if you decide to go to a SWC, you get a head start on the salt levels in the pool. :D

The 2# of CYA should bring you to around 30 ppm cya. You can let the pucks scoot it up from there, I usually hover around 40 or so with mine.

Michael

If the pool store guy is telling you that using bleach will "skyrocket" your TDS that means HE is trying to "skyrocket" his
Tri-chlor and
Di-chlor
Sales figures!
;):rolleyes::D

Unless you don't plan on shopping there, just say that you use "liquid chlorine" which is what bleach is (typically 5-6%) and also what they probably sell too (typically 10-12%). (You can check the ingredients to prove this to yourself if you have doubts.) Otherwise, it's not worth getting into the discussion - I doubt someone is going to say "hey bleach is the same stuff and a lot cheaper so don't buy my checmicals just go to the grocery store!"

Also, to be fair, I don't know what kind of spiel these sales people get from the chemical companies so it may not be entirely their fault. They may just be repeating what they have been told.

The important thing is for you to know what's going on and only buy what you need.

Good luck!

Peter