cost

[Yeggim]

I would gladly pay more for the convenience of not dealing with 7 empty plastic jugs of bleach and making two trips to Walmart everyweek.

Yeggim,
Thanks for the info. My CYA is low so I will be switching to Trichlor for a couple of months.

Keep track of that Trichlor. It has a 10 to 6 ratio of Chlorine to CYA. Every 3 lbs of Trichlor will raise CYA by 10 in a 20,0000 gal pool. A 40 pound bucket will put about 130 CYA in the pool.

[PoolParadise]

Someone help!

What is a carboy?

[Watermom]

Carl buys carboys. I think they are big jugs that you attach a nozzle, pump, etc. to. Kind of like tapping a keg, I guess --- but not as much fun. He'll be along to tell you more about them. I have never bought one and don't know for sure about them.

[waterbear]

Someone help!

What is a carboy?

Google is your friend!

This is a 2.5 gal carboy. Chlorine is normally sold in 2.5 or 5 gallon ones. However, they are normally colored yellow or brown and have vented caps but you get the idea. Basically, it's just a big, refillable plastic jug.

[PoolParadise]

Someone help!

What is a carboy?

OK, never mind. I found out.......

[PoolDoc]

Wow, Evan, I learn something every day. Never knew the small pails were also carboys. Back in the day, when I was doing a lot of large commercial pools, I got 30 and 55 gallon barrels of stuff, and 15 gallon "carboys" of muriatic. That weird black 15 gallon barrel was the only thing the industrial pool chem guys applied the term to.

[CarlD]

Yeah, I use the 5 gallon carboys. I get them from a pool store that uses the square ones, not the round ones. I paid $6 each for the carboys about 5 or 6 years ago and now just pay for the refills at about $17/per. Since this store's stuff consistently tests at 14%, I figure I'd have to get 6% bleach for less than $1.45/gallon to match the LC price, and it would STILL be more than twice the volume and use lots of jugs. I don't think of it as "buying" the carboy but as a deposit.

The spigot runs about $4 but is worth its weight in gold. Another GREAT pool gadget is a special pliers by Channelock called Oil Filter/PVC pliers--they could have been SPECIALLY designed for pool owners, they are so perfect! They crack open and tighten quick-connects and ball valves, and they are the PERFECT tool for attaching the spigot.

I have two pairs and they are FAR superior to any other kind of pump pliers.

Carl

[PoolParadise]

Yeah, I use the 5 gallon carboys. I get them from a pool store that uses the square ones, not the round ones. I paid $6 each for the carboys about 5 or 6 years ago and now just pay for the refills at about $17/per.

Is that $17/Gallon or $17/Refill (5-gallon)?

EDIT by Watermom: I trimmed the quote to include the relevant part.

[KirstenHW]

Carl - where do you get the chlorine refills?