Availability of 8.3% Bleach Is Nil

Hello everyone. It has been a while!

I wanted to ask the group if they are having a hard time finding 8.3% bleach these days? It is like it has come off the market? Our local WalMart doesn't have it nor does one single grocery store within miles. We keep looking but can't find it. We did find a source at Home Cheap-O, but you guys all snatch it up and it is rarely in stock. What gives? I mean, it doesn't look like the stores are out necessarily because we don't even see empty spaces. It's like the industry caught on to us and have decided to bend us over. Anyone have a clue?

Thanks!

The title might be misleading... Any 8+% is hard to find. I pulled the 8.3 number out of my head. Sorry :-)

This past spring Kroger was still selling 8+% in our area. It’ll be interesting to see if they still have it this fall when I close.

As of 2018, it seems the market has reverted -- following Clorox -- to 6% household bleach as a standard.

But . . . Walmart has begun selling 10% pool bleach very widely, and for the same price as household bleach. You can check Walmart.com to see which stores local to you stock it.

Locally, the price of 10% Wal-Mart pool bleach is $3.22/gal. and the jugs are quite old (3-6mo.+). So, having calculated the labeled chlorine content and still at Wal-Mart, we are buying the green labeled 6.0% "cleaning" bleach for $1.77/gal. It works out to be cheaper.

Do we have a calculator here?

Here in Houston area, Aldi sells 8.25% for around $2.68.

@Palmyra: Interesting. Locally, Walmart store brand plain bleach, and the pool bleach are nearly the same price. I'll have to check dates on the bottles I've seen. -- No calculators here, sorry. --

@Andy49: Thanks for that info. I'll have to check and see if that's true locally. If so, it may be true nationally.

In years passed, used 8% cleaning bleach from Walmart, but they stopped carrying that so went to the 10% "chlorinating liquid", but it seems our local store orders at the beginning of the season and when it runs out, its gone, and they won't order anymore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swimdaddy

In years passed, used 8% cleaning bleach from Walmart, but they stopped carrying that so went to the 10% "chlorinating liquid", but it seems our local store orders at the beginning of the season and when it runs out, its gone, and they won't order anymore.

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This is very similar to our experience. Our local Walmart usually has 10% "chlorinating liquid" left at the end of the season and they carry it over until the following spring. Some of it can get pretty old, before anybody takes it....

So long as it is stored INSIDE the store (below 80 deg F), it should be fine.

I looked at the bottle I have; how did you decode the date?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PoolDoc

So long as it is stored INSIDE the store (below 80 deg F), it should be fine.

I looked at the bottle I have; how did you decode the date?

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The Walmart Great Value bleach has a format of 18 219 13:40 S2 CA-01 so it is [20]18 219[th day] or Aug 7th... ie. (08-07-2018). I suspect (13:40) is military time, but I have no idea what the (S2 CA-01) means.

I don't have any of the 10% chlorine, so I can't check that, but it will be a similar scheme.

As for calculating the half-life of chlorine bleach, due to age and storage conditions, I think ChemGeek had a spreadsheet on the web, somewhere.... (My recollection is that at about 80° F the half life is about 6 months, but I stand to be corrected.)

1. I can decode the bit you can't: the CA-01 is a code for the state and plant where the bleach was produced. I'm not sure what the "S2" is. I'm really surprised you've got California bleach. Mine is coded "FL-01" for Florida, probably the big Allied Universal plant there. I used to buy tanker loads of bleach from them, though from their Georgia plant.

2. Bleach half-life is much more complicated than that. Many makers have switched to high-purity manufacturing units, so they can make bleach that's stable, and won't turn brown. Bleach made with very low contaminating metal ions has a longer life than Chem Geek reported. Here's a link: https://www.powellfab.com/sales_pdfs...er_profits.pdf