Stabilizing Cl in bleach vs. Cl in pucks

[CarlD]

My bull***t alarm went off today in the pool store when I was buying some bleach. I asked a clerk if I should buy 1 or 2 of the jugs.. He said "well how big is your pool".. I told him.. he said "well usually a gallon of chlorine will 'treat' 10kgal of water.. but with your pucks you should only need to add a few quarts". I said "but I don't use pucks.." and so it begins.. he says "what? why not? If you don't use pucks your chlorine will disappear in a few hours".. to which I respond: "I don't want to build up stabilizer". He says "oh, you can't do that.. any existing stabilizer won't stabilize *this* chlorine," (points to bleach in jug). "this chlorine is liquid chlorine, so can't be stabilized. It's job is to get in there, do its thing, and get out. You need the stabilized pucks to maintain a certain level of cl on top of which you can add this shock when needed".

So, I'm no chemist, but I'm pretty sure that my CYA doesn't know the difference between the Cl in a puck vs. the Cl in a bottle of sodium hypo, right? My existing CYA will stabilize liquid chlorine, right? Is this guy just trying to sell me a bucket of pucks for $90+ ?

Yes, he is. And he probably honestly hasn't got a clue what he's talking about. You are logical and rational and you KNOW that when you smell manure that it's not strawberries and cream!--no matter WHAT anybody says.

Chico Marx had a great line in "Duck Soup":
"Well, Who you gonna believe-a? Me, or-a your own eyes?"

Chlorine is chlorine when it's in your water. Period. Keep that in mind and these guys will be powerless against you. Stabilizer(CYA) is stabilizer too, and once it's released into the water, it's there for all the chlorine, regardless of the source.

Trust your good sense! It's just kept you from being "Pool-Stored"!

[cygnusecks]

Oh, one other thing, he also claims that we in Florida lose CYA faster than other parts of the world, since it's hotter here, pools are "used more" in the summer (therefore more splashout), more rainfall (therefore more water exchanging), and we get more evaporation. Does CYA evaporate? Seems to me like it would not since things like salt do not evaporate either.

[CarlD]

Ouch! This guy is an IDIOT! If he says the sky is blue, you are wise to check it because it may be pouring down buffaloes and streetcars!

Things dissolved in your water get STRONGER as water evaporates--like CYA.

[cygnusecks]

Well that's what I thought too Carl. However, after further reflection, to me it seems that it would not get stronger OR weaker with evaporation once you replace the evaporated water. This guy, however, believes in the CYA fairy taking away my CYA at night and leaving me with algae! heheh...

[Poconos]

There are people on this forum that do lose some or all of their CYA at times. Watermom loses it all over the Winter I believe. I lost a little this Winter too. Some believe it's algae or something in the water that causes this to happen but don't know. Recently with all the water falling from the sky here in Northeast PA, and after draining the pool a bunch of times, the CYA went below 30 so am now using pucks to get it back up to the 40-50 range where I like it. I also took the opportunity to use the rain (basically distilled water here) to reduce CH some as I use cal hypo too. Actually I use bleach, cal hypo, and pucks as appropriate.
Al

[waterbear]

There are a lot of 'fariy tales' about CYA floating around pool stores. One that I hear (and it really drives me crazy) is that the CYA is only in the top 6 inches of water so if you want to lower it drain the pool from the skimmer!
This goes against everything I know about the chemistry of solutions. I would really like to know how this myth got started!