Should I raise my cya?

[dubbedout]

I'm in Gilbert, AZ so I'm familiar with the sun eating up chlorine pretty rapidly. My CYA is around 50-60 right now, I left for California last Wednesday and put 4 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine in on that Tuesday evening, today when I tested I was at 1ppm Cl. We also has a big dust storm while I was away but I came home to a crystal clear pool. I always store my liquid chlorine or bleach inside where it's cooler (78 degrees). I buy 4 gallons at a time and they last me about 2 weeks.

Oh and I'm also having to add muriatic acid ever so often but my fill water has very high pH, so you have to figure that into everything as well.

Where are you buying your liquid chlorine?

[gmh757]

I'm in Gilbert, AZ so I'm familiar with the sun eating up chlorine pretty rapidly. My CYA is around 50-60 right now, I left for California last Wednesday and put 4 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine in on that Tuesday evening, today when I tested I was at 1ppm Cl. We also has a big dust storm while I was away but I came home to a crystal clear pool. I always store my liquid chlorine or bleach inside where it's cooler (78 degrees). I buy 4 gallons at a time and they last me about 2 weeks.

Oh and I'm also having to add muriatic acid ever so often but my fill water has very high pH, so you have to figure that into everything as well.

Where are you buying your liquid chlorine?

Wow, you burned through that chlorine pretty fast. I seem to go through about 3.5 ppm of chlorine a day on a sunny summer day, which seems pretty high to me. I'm wondering if raising my cya to 60 would slow the FC usage without messing up the chemical balance of the pool. By the way, what is your TA?

I've been getting my chlorine mostly at Albertson's. I'll have to look to see if they are printing a manufacture date on the box. I didn't realize that it loses effectiveness in heat.

[dubbedout]

Yeah, I go through about a gallon a day I guess. I've called around to all of the local pool stores in the east valley for liquid chlorine prices and the cheapest right now is at NPS Pool & Spa Supply, 2 gallons of 10% for $4.95 (sale going on till end of July).

Here's a breakdown of price per oz that I made up:

[PoolDoc]

Keep in mind that bleach at Sams or Walmart is likely to be fresher, and cooler, than bleach at a pool store. Take a look at their tank -- if its black poly, in the Arizona sun, it's VERY unlikely that it arrives at your pool at the rated strength.

Another test is to 'take the temperature' of the bleach just after buying it. If it's above 90 degrees, it may be 4% bleach.

But the best test -- if you have a K2006 -- is to dose the pool with equal doses of the various bleaches, in the late PM and test the pool FC level just before, and an hour after, dosing.

[dubbedout]

Yeah, I understand that most of the bleach/LC is trucked in and loses some strength. Most stores keep their supply indoors at least, except for one store I ran into that keeps it sitting outside in the "shade". Unfortunately, that store is the only place that sells 12.5% and you return the empty bottles and get new ones.

I'll have to try that testing though, I've just been trying to cut down on all the waste with all the bottles and boxes which is why I switched to LC.

[PoolDoc]

Let us know what you find.

(If you get really curious, I can tell you how to directly test bleach % -- but you'll either have to buy some accurate pipettes or a bleach kit.)

[Tom.B]

DANG!!! Just saw this and I had no idea bleach looses its strength! Just went to Wal-Mart over the weekend and about 14 gallons. Now have 17 in the pool shed. So much for BBB saving me money :-( (in jest... kinda) Its only been out there a few days. Can I bring them inside and "save" them? Can I test the strength? Been a cool week so far, but the last batch has been in there for a while. The shed is wood and probably not been in the 90's, however, I can't confirm that.

I was so trying to keep from going for bleach weekly and hoped to go monthly. Bummer.