A cheaper alternative to Grocery Store Baking Soda....

[msumoose]

For all of you out there that need on the order of 50+ lbs of baking soda a year....

Try your local Farmer's Co-Op. They use sodium bicarb as a feed supplement for cattle. I get 50 lbs in my area for about $12. That is lots less than I can get it from even my pool distributor....

Just a quick tip.

[TheGoose]

I bought it in a real big bag one time from Wal Mart-in the pool section to boot. I think it was about 20 lbs IIRC.

[cleancloths]

How big is your pool that you use over 50# of baking soda in one year? If you said Borax or washing soda maybe, but baking soda? Why?

[waterbear]

A large pool run exclusively on trichlor might need that much.

[msumoose]

I run Tri Chlor in my 18x36 IG, and I use at least 25lbs a year. My pool is in direct sun and I lose a lot of water to evaporation, 2-5" a week. My fill water is very low in alkalinity. I also carry it on my truck...

[cleancloths]

Wow that is a lot of water loss. Do you use a solar cover when not in the pool?

[aylad]

I have basically the same climate as msumoose, and my evaporation loss is very similar. The problem with solar covers in our climate is that, even without a cover at all, by late July the water temps are approximately bathtub warmth, and by August it's usually actually too hot to be comfortable swimming. I welcome the evaporation loss in my pool because it allows me to top off with tap water, which lowers the water temp of the pool enough to make swimming still fun.

Janet

[cleancloths]

Makes sense if that is an issue where you are located. Actually you get more cooling from the evaporation than from adding the tap water!

[aylad]

Maybe so, theoretically--but practically, when I run the slide with 60 degree tap water during a 3 or 4 hour swimming session, it drops the temp of the pool very substantially, where we don't really notice a cooling difference from the evaporation. Maybe it's because the humidity is usually high 80's-100% most of the time. Dunno....I just know that by mid August or so, the kids are complaining because it's too hot to swim!

Janet

[cleancloths]

Well you are probably just feeling the water temp right where you are adding the water. Here is the math. When you evaporate one gallon of water the pool loses 8500 BTU of energy. When you replace a gallon of 90 degree water with a gallon of 60 degree tap water you are cooling the pool by about 250 BTU of energy. Thus, the one gallon of evaporative loss is equivalent to about 34 gallons of cold water added.