96% bleach - The pool store told me :)

[cleancloths]

So with the high price of bleach lately I called Pelican Pools here in NJ to see how much they were charging for liquid bleach. They quickly told me it is $10 plus a $5 deposit. I asked what size that was, got a reply of 2.5 gallons. Asked for the strength and the guy said he thought it was 98%. Told him that did not sound right. He put me on hold to check with his chemical person. Got back to me an apologized, said he was just told it is ONLY 96%. Explained that was not possible and asked to speak to the chemical person directly. The chemical expert assured me it was 96%. I asked him to check the label. He came back and said he was off "a little" it was 12.5%. OFF A LITTLE???

Anyhow, that comes out to an equivalent price of a gallon of 5.25% for $1.67/gal. Does anyone know another pool store in Northern NJ that might have a better price on strong bleach?

[PoolDoc]

This has all been done before . . .

• high strength bleach doesn't stay high strength;
• y'all (pool owners) don't have the bleach test kits I used when I bought bulk bleach, to assure that I was getting what I paid for
  (no, the PS234 will NOT work for that purpose)
• there's no way to be sure that what anyone's getting is ACTUALLY 12%, and given the way pool stores operate and store the stuff, the odds are, it's not 12%.

If you are worried about the cost, well, you shouldn't be. Even at a 1.67/gallon for 5.25% bleach, it's not expensive. Bought at wholesale 100lbs at a time, a *good* price for cal hypo is $1.10/lb. That's roughly equivalent to household bleach at $1.65 gallon.

There's a time to save money, and a time when the pursuit of yet another discount is 'penny wise and pound foolish'!!

If you have my kit, and are paying attention, it's unlikely (even at $2.00/gal for household bleach) that you'll spend more than $30/month per 10,000 gallons of pool water. If you need more savings than that, well, honestly, a pool is not what you need.

So, please, enough already on chasing the last nickel to be saved on bleach or whatever.

I've seen people destroy entire garages and pump rooms, because they bought pool chemicals in bulk quantities, to "save money". Well, they saved $50 or $100 and lost $10,000 or more.

Folks, I've worked with 12 - 15% bleach for years -- and I've the equipment and clothes with holes and rust to show for it. It's hard stuff to handle, without making a mess. It eats up everything not made of plastic; it 'cooks off' to salt water and oxygen in days at summer time temps, and so forth. It is NOT a user-friendly chemical.

The bottom line: if you know enough to handle it well, you know enough to not need to ask questions here! And, if you are asking questions here, it's time to stop.

Please!

Thanks.

Ben
"PoolDoc"

. . . Thread closed! . . .

[PoolDoc]

At least one of my moderators thinks I over-reacted to your thread on bleach.

I'm not sure, and am going to have to think about it, but I am sure that I probably didn't make my reasons as clear as I should have, and that I probably created an impression that cleancloths was wrong to even ask the question. This is not what I think. So in that least, I was in error.

But, the question itself is of a nature that I've long preferred not to allow, fearing lest PoolForum become a sort of price-shopper's guide for pool owners. For multiple reasons, this is something I don't want, not least because I've seen 'price-shopping' for chemicals become an end in itself, and end up at odds with my goals that pools be inexpensive AND easy.

I'm going to have to think about it, before I decide what to do. Given all the other things going on a the moment, it will be awhile before I have time to consider it, and make up my mind.

Still, whatever I do with this thread, it will remain true that I want to discourage attempts to use the PoolForum as a 'price-shoppers' guide. But it's evident that I need to explain my reasons more clearly than I've done before.

Meanwhile, please do not take my response as a personal criticism of cleancloths.

Thanks,

Ben