Our 14k IG ptec pool was just finished in April. Pool builder was supposed to "service" pool for the first month. Not surprisingly, no one showed up and our pool turned green due to high temps and no chemicals at all. I first went to the "pool store" and bought $100 in chemicals just to get the pool going and will be subtracting that from the final pool payment...

Annyway, a week or so later I found this forum and am solidly in the "bleach/borax/baking soda" camp now. So now I am on the hunt for the cheapest bleach deal in town. Walmart is currently winning but I haven't priced the pool stores yet. Saturday, I was looking in Home Depot for bleach. In the pool area, I spot some new Clorox green jug called "outdoor bleach". I thought maybe it was some higher concentration bleach. But nowhere on the bottle does it list the concentration. Pool section employee comes over and asks me for help. I say "I'm looking for the concentration of sodium hypochlorite on this bottle, to see if it's any cheaper for my pool". I got the "what the...??" look. She says "You're putting that WHERE??? You don't use bleach in your pool, you use this stuff" and points at the 10% "liquid chlorinator" bottle. She says "If I had a pool, and I don't, I wouldn't put anything in there that doesn't have a picture of a pool on it". I point out that the ingredients are identical. Doesn't matter. She's convinced. You all know how this ends :-) After the dust settled, I felt pretty dumb arguing with someone who probably doesn't give a damn about me or my pool and probably thought I was just a chemicals dork.

Anyway, Clorox outdoor bleach cleaner does contain 5-8% sodium hypochlorite, but it also contains sodium hydroxide. I wonder how bad that is for a pool. It's also much more expensive, so I think this is not gonna work.