+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Can I use household bleach for chlorine?

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    xoroniox is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst xoroniox 0
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    South Florida
    Posts
    67

    Default Re: Can I use household bleach for chlorine?

    bleach is for shocking, shocking just means that you are bringing the level of chlorine in your water to a higher concentration. example if 3ppm is normal for you than 15ppm could be your shock level, just add more bleach look @ bens best guess cya table to determine your free chlorine and shock levels.

  2. #2
    CarlD's Avatar
    CarlD is offline SuperMod Emeritus Vortex Adjuster CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars CarlD 4 stars
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    North Central NJ
    Posts
    6,607

    Default Re: Can I use household bleach for chlorine?

    "Shock" is a verb that means raise chlorine levels high enough to kill anything living in the water, and metabolize all organic compounds. That's ALL it means. Chemicals called "shock" is a mis-nomer designed to fool you, the consumer, into thinking it's more than it is--namely some sort of chlorinating chemical.

    To shock you add more chlorine, and it doesn't matter what the source of that chlorine is. Since I use bleach to chlorinate, I use bleach to shock--just a lot more of it.

    It's VERY easy to calculate how much bleach to use. You need to know:
    1) The volume of your pool in gallons (liters is OK, but then you measure the bleach in liters as well).
    2) Your current Free-Chlorine (FC) level
    3) Your level of stabilizer/CYA
    4) Your shocking level of Free Chlorine which is based solely on your stabilizer level (see the Best Guess table).

    You subtract your current FC from your shock-level FC and that tells you how much more FC you need.

    Then you either use MWSmith2's Bleach calculator program to tell you how much to use, or you use the formula:

    (1,000,000/pool volume) * (bleach concentration) * (gallons of bleach) = FC added

    Or you can use the rule of thumb and guessitmate off of it:
    1 gallon of regular bleach (5.25%) adds EXACTLY 5.25ppm of FC to 10,000 gallons of water. You need twice as much for 20,000 gallons OR to increase 10,000 gallons by 10.5ppm

    1 gallon of Ultra bleach (6%) adds EXACTLY 6ppm of FC to 10,000 gallons,
    A 3 quart jug of Ultra adds 4.5ppm of FC to 10,000 gallons.
    etc.

    For example:
    Say your pool has 20,000 gallons
    and your CYA is 40ppm
    and your current FC is 4.5ppm.

    At CYA=40, the correct shock level (from the best-guess table) is 15ppm.

    That means you need 10.5ppm MORE of FC to shock your pool.

    Well, since 1 gallon of 5.25% adds 5.25ppm to 10,000 gallons, you need 4 gallons of regular bleach to get to 15ppm.

    That's all there is to it!

    But that's why we ALWAYS want to know the gallonage, the current FC and the current CYA before telling you how much bleach to use.
    Carl

+ Reply to Thread

Similar Threads

  1. Chlorine tabs vs chlorine bleach generic
    By Cahoonh in forum Using Chlorine and Chlorinating Chemicals
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 06-13-2013, 09:28 AM
  2. 6% household bleach equivalent to lithium hypochoride granular?
    By magnus in forum Using Chlorine and Chlorinating Chemicals
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 05-24-2013, 09:51 AM
  3. Household Chemical for hardness
    By arobinstk in forum Dealing with Alkalinity and Calcium
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-25-2012, 12:11 AM
  4. Household bleach to shock?
    By Rsnyder in forum Using Chlorine and Chlorinating Chemicals
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 07-16-2006, 01:51 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts