Pucks without CYA / Floating liquid chlorine dispenser

Why aren't pucks without CYA available?

I used them last year and it was so convenient to just shock occasionally with liquid chlorine. Once my CYA levals got to 50 or so I went back to liquid only, but I'm lazy and don't look forward to checking levels and adding chlorine every day (I just needed to check it weekly with the pucks).

-OR (even better)-

Why doesn't someone make some sort of floating liquid chlorine dispenser where the chlorine leaches out slowly via osmossis, dispensing slowly over time in a similar fashion to eroding pucks?

It would need to be larger than a puck floater but I'd use it!

Biggest problem would probaly be the degradation of the strength of the chlorine by the sun and heat since it is not stabilized.

Well, from what i've been told, the CYA is what makes the puck hold together so it dissolves slowly. Without it, you'd have what happens with CalHypo....instant dissolving in one big BANG.


Michael

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mwsmith2

Well, from what i've been told, the CYA is what makes the puck hold together so it dissolves slowly. Without it, you'd have what happens with CalHypo....instant dissolving in one big BANG.


Michael

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That DOES make sense!

Well in the case of a floating liquid dispenser the chlorine would be fully shaded inside the container and used up within a week. I really don't think sun light degredation would be the roadblock here. As for heat it's cooler in the pool than in my storage shed. The hardware store that I buy chlorine from keeps the jugs on a pallet out in the sun - not ideal but they go through them fast enough and the chlorine I've picked up form them always works. I've kept yellow plastic 2.5 gallon jugs that I plan on using soon next to the house (week or two) in partial South Florida intense sunshine just like the pool is exposed to without appreciable degredation. Not ideal but it didn't seem to be too much of an issue.

The desolving CYA as binder I can understand, though other slow desolving binders could certainly be used I'd thnk.

Hey I am with you. But since we have an indoor pool we need no stabilizer so I use liquid all the time. Not that it is a big deal, but sometimes even I forget to add some or we get a leaky swimmer and poof, no CL. With a floater it would likely be less of an issue. We do drop in a floater when we are going to be gone and know some relatives might stop over and use the pool, just to be safe, either that or get it up to 10 of free CL before we leave.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gutbucket

Well in the case of a floating liquid dispenser the chlorine would be fully shaded inside the container and used up within a week.

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I think the problem is how would a floater filled with liquid float?:eek:

ouch...suprised no one has mentioned the safety aspect of doing this. Imagine a jug of bleach with holes in it to drip the chlorine out. If it blows around and ends up sitting on a step, it will bleach the liner or plaster in that area. OK, so you say you can tether the jug to one side, away from the steps.
Well, how about when the pool is used? Or little kids using the pool. You know they will play with just about anything floating in the water. They go to lift the jug out of the water and the stream of bleach drips on their hands, hair or worse, face... is this worth it?
There's been several methods attemped at inexpensive bleach feeders. Liquidmate comes to mind. It involves a cap with multiple tubes, each representing a different flow rate ( suction rate rather) going into the pump suction. Once the gallon jug is empty, you simply replace it. Big problem is the daily monitoring of your system to ensure that your bleach jug does not run out or you will experience a suction side leak.

Gotta agree with Poolsean.
IMHO the best way to automatically introduce sodium hypoclorite into a pool is with a SWG!:D

Just to muddy the water a bit, there is also some folks who use a metering pump and inject the bleach that way. I was almost going to do that, but decided I didn't want to worry about a pressurized bleach system, and I didn't have a nice cool place to store the bleach while it was being used. SWC was the easiest and safest solution.

Michael

Thanks for the input. I'd love to have a SWG but just can't justify the cost with so many other home projects in-line. For the same cost I can buy sodium hypo for 5-6 years.

Yes, the initial cost is highbut you are not figuring the convience factor into that equation. IMHO it far outweighs the monitay output! (But then again, I am lazy- would rather lug a bag of salt and a jug or two of acid home 3 times a year instead of gallons and gallons and gallons of bleach evey month!:D

Try to find PoolLife brand Active Cleaning Caplets. They are wrapped in
plastic with openings at the ends. Our local Wal-Mart carried them until
two years ago. I found them again at a local pool shop.

Thanks I'll look for that. After some searching I realized that Calcium Hypochlorite is not stabilized with CYA and may be available in tablets... So now I'm waiting for a sale and still dreaming of that SWG that I'll get to eventually.

Boy!
There are lot of things in this thread!

First: There are only two types of tablets available: Tri-chlor and Cal-Hypo Durations
a) Tri-chor--it is fundamental to the chemistry of Tri-chlor that when it dissolves it releases CYA No way around it.
b) Cal-Hypo Duration. The older ones had a plastic capsule with holes in it, and were 68% active chlorine. Never had a chance to try them but they sound darn good--just watch the calcium levels and stop when it gets high. The new ones are pure, total garbage. They are only 48% active chlorine, and dissolve completely into mush in 12 hours. If you follow directions and put "two or three" in your skimmer, in 12 hours your skimmer will be completely stopped up. You could use them in a floater, but it MUST be a new floater that never had Tri-chlor in it (can't mix Tri-chlor and Cal-Hypo). Yet again HTH has taken a good product and ruined it.

Second Liquid chlorine dispensing. I bought two of the Liquimates one for me, one for my parents. But when Mom got rid of the pool, I took it back, having never installed it. Quite frankly, the Liquimate is also garbage. It's a good idea but it doesn't work. I tried several arrangements, with the reservoir above the pool, at the pump level, with the one-way valve, without it and nothing worked. I tried using one of the units, then the other, using the liquid chlorine carboys rather than transferring it to the Liquimate tank. Nothing worked. I had to conclude that it was a complete and total waste of my money.

Third: I've looked a little into peristaltic pumps. They come in all kinds of rates, so you need to compute the rate of flow you need, for how long (requiring a timer--no big deal) and the concentration you will be using for that flow. You also want to co-ordinate chemical flow to happen when the pump is running. I've just never gotten around to selecting and purchasing such a pump. I do have a couple of blue 5 gallon tanks though!:rolleyes:

Fourth:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paperman

Try to find PoolLife brand Active Cleaning Caplets. They are wrapped in plastic with openings at the ends. Our local Wal-Mart carried them until two years ago. I found them again at a local pool shop.

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Wow! Learned something new again--that was what the old Durations were supposed to have been. But Wal-Mart seems to have a deal with HTH, and HTH has managed to ruin all its good products--their Tri-chlor now has copper so they can call it "double-acting" (and you do NOT want copper in your water). Their WONDERFUL 5-way test kit, the VW Beetle of good test kits is gone, having been replaced by useless, worthless, expensive test strips. And the old Duration Caplets have been replaced by the new garbage (see above)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paperman

Try to find PoolLife brand Active Cleaning Caplets. They are wrapped in
plastic with openings at the ends. Our local Wal-Mart carried them until
two years ago. I found them again at a local pool shop.

---

Sounds like the old Duration tabs--now that hth has screwed them up by removing the capsule I wonder if these "pool life"brand tabs still exist? Any idea who made them? I'd love to find them somewhere.....

Janet

i also know that PPG makes a cal hypo tab. these tabs are 65-68% active. they sell them for use in PPG feeders, so i don't know if they are OK to use in floating feeders/skimmers. their pH should be much higher than a trichlor tab, though so it seems that it would be safer to use in a skimmer than a trichlor tab.

PPG tabs are also probably not available through walmart or home depot

j

Poolife Brand chemicals are made by Arch. Go to
www.poolife.com to find a dealer near you.

Spam alert!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paperman

Poolife Brand chemicals are made by Arch. Go to
www.poolife.com to find a dealer near you.

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If you are a dealer you will need to register as such, display it in your signature, or risk being banned. Ben will be happy to explain the rules. Several pool professionals are welcome, contributing members, as long as they don't see this as an advertising and marketing opportunity.

Arch Chemicals, which also owns HTH, does not have a very good reputation here, having unnecessarily added copper to its tri-chlor tabs, replaced its 5-way drop test kit with worthless strips, and having replaced its plastic-wrapped Duration Tabs with 68% chlorine with 48% phony Duration tabs that dissolve in 12 hours.

That, of course, is my humble opinion of Arch Chemicals.

"Sounds like the old Duration tabs--now that hth has screwed them up by removing the capsule I wonder if these "pool life"brand tabs still exist? Any idea who made them? I'd love to find them somewhere.....

Janet"

The lady asked a question, so i went outside and checked the bucket
that they were in. I found the website on the side and found that
they have a dealer locator. No blood, no foul.

I apologize, paperman :o

Paperman:

If you are not a dealer then, as you say, no harm, no foul. And thanks for the info.

It would be nice to learn the Arch at least still makes the GOOD ones for SOMEBODY! They and WalMart don't seem to be able to agree who is responsible for the 48% effective chlorine becoming the "standard". At least it's not clear to me. Wally world has SO much purchase power they can force companies to change their products even to the detriment of the supplier and the consumer.

CarlD

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CarlD

Boy!
There are lot of things in this thread!

First: There are only two types of tablets available: Tri-chlor and Cal-Hypo Durations
a) Tri-chor--it is fundamental to the chemistry of Tri-chlor that when it dissolves it releases CYA No way around it.
b) Cal-Hypo Duration. The older ones had a plastic capsule with holes in it, and were 68% active chlorine. Never had a chance to try them but they sound darn good--just watch the calcium levels and stop when it gets high. The new ones are pure, total garbage. They are only 48% active chlorine, and dissolve completely into mush in 12 hours. If you follow directions and put "two or three" in your skimmer, in 12 hours your skimmer will be completely stopped up. You could use them in a floater, but it MUST be a new floater that never had Tri-chlor in it (can't mix Tri-chlor and Cal-Hypo). Yet again HTH has taken a good product and ruined it.

Second Liquid chlorine dispensing. I bought two of the Liquimates one for me, one for my parents. But when Mom got rid of the pool, I took it back, having never installed it. Quite frankly, the Liquimate is also garbage. It's a good idea but it doesn't work. I tried several arrangements, with the reservoir above the pool, at the pump level, with the one-way valve, without it and nothing worked. I tried using one of the units, then the other, using the liquid chlorine carboys rather than transferring it to the Liquimate tank. Nothing worked. I had to conclude that it was a complete and total waste of my money.

Third: I've looked a little into peristaltic pumps. They come in all kinds of rates, so you need to compute the rate of flow you need, for how long (requiring a timer--no big deal) and the concentration you will be using for that flow. You also want to co-ordinate chemical flow to happen when the pump is running. I've just never gotten around to selecting and purchasing such a pump. I do have a couple of blue 5 gallon tanks though!:rolleyes:

Fourth:

Wow! Learned something new again--that was what the old Durations were supposed to have been. But Wal-Mart seems to have a deal with HTH, and HTH has managed to ruin all its good products--their Tri-chlor now has copper so they can call it "double-acting" (and you do NOT want copper in your water). Their WONDERFUL 5-way test kit, the VW Beetle of good test kits is gone, having been replaced by useless, worthless, expensive test strips. And the old Duration Caplets have been replaced by the new garbage (see above)

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Walmart by me still has the 5-way test kit for like $12.