Newbie question about Bleach

[gogolion]

I'm a pool newbie this year and things have been going fine so far. I discovered this forum and I'm going to start the BBB method. My K2006 test kit is arriving today. I'll probably post my numbers here before doing anything. One of my concerns is the use of bleach and possible damage to bathing suits. I've searched the forum and haven't been able to find any guidelines about that, other than some posts where folks say "wear an old suit" under certain conditions because of possible fading. Getting to my actual question finally, at what chlorine levels should I be worried about damage/fading of bathing suits? I'm having a party this weekend and don't want to ruin all my guests suits!

I've listed my pool info in my sig, let me know if I've left out any important info.

Thanks,
Mike

[BigDave]

I you haven't yet looked at Ben's Best Guess Chart, you should. It describes the relationship between Cyanuric Acid (CYA) and Free Chlorine (FC) and the effects of high FC. The posts you've seen warning of potential swimsuit damage were probably about swimming in a pool at shock levels of chorine.

[PoolDoc]

We've approached this carefully, over a number of years. We haven't been exactly sure whether high chlorine + high CYA behaved exactly like low chlorine + low CYA. We knew they were equivalent, with respect to sanitation and algae, but not with other things like swim suits.

However, at this point I can tell you that there's a lot of evidence that the bleaching effects (on fabric, etc.) of chlorine at levels NORMAL for THAT CYA level are about the same. In other words, if you follow the Best Guess chart, the effects on your swimsuit will be similar, regardless of the CYA bracket (horizontal row on the table) you are in.

BUT . . . . I did some extensive research on swimwear, about 20 years ago, and found that FASHION Lycra has barely any chlorine resistance. At that time, DuPont's top grade of FASHION Lycra was rated for about 5 hours of exposure TOTAL to chlorinated pool water. My wife's 10 years as a water aerobics instructor pretty much verified that information. Women's fashion swimwear is designed on the assumption that the suits will mostly be used OUTSIDE the pool, rather than for actual swimming.

The best women's suits for actual extended pool use --swimming, aerobics, or just playing -- are the all polyester suits. My sons have been using polyester Speedos and jammers for competion for years now, and those suits last years, which for them, translates into 100's of hours of pool water exposure.

An intermediate solution is offered by Lycra competition suits. Basically any Lycra or spandex suit made by Speedo, Tyr, The Finals, Nike or a few others, use a chlorine resistant Lycra that will last much longer than fashion Lycra or spandex (though it's a bit less elastic), but not nearly as long as a polyester suit. But, these suits tend to be VERY sensitive to fungal attack -- leave them waded up in a hot car after a lake swim (or low chlorine pool swim) and you can lose them in hours. I've seen it happen.

I'm going to ask Chem_Geek to take a look at this, and add any info he may have more current than mine.

[gogolion]

Thanks for the quick replies. I had looked at the Best Guess chart before, but forgot it spoke about clothing damage and skin irritation. Hopefully my test kit will be here soon so I can start adjusting things as necessary.

[Watermom]

People hear the word bleach and that is what they think of --- the color in clothing bleaching out. But, people don't associate using pool store chlorine with the fading (because it doesn't have that scary word -- bleach), even though it is 10% or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite and bleach is only 6% sodium hypochlorite. You shouldn't be any more scared of bleach fading suits than other forms of chlorine do so. They are all chlorine.

[gogolion]

Gotcha, thanks