My pool builder just made me ashamed...

[Spensar]

LOL! I never say the word bleach in the presence of any pool store person. If they ask I say liquid chlorine, which is true. Where I get it is not there biz.

I did get a chuckle when checking the price at a pool store that sells you a carboy they refill that when I asked what percentage it was the person said 10% - much higher than 5.25% bleach.

[CarlD]

You can test the strength of the liquid chlorine yourself. Simply add 1 ml of the LC to 10 liters of CLEAR water (5 soda jugs).

Or, if you have Ben's older PS232 kit, there's a 1.8ml measure--add that much to 5 gallons of clear water--a standard bucket.

Use Ben's FAS-DPD to measure the chlorine concentration in the 10 liters or 5 gallons. If you get 12.5ppm, then your LC is 12.5%. If you get 10ppm, it's 10%.

Carboys may be marked 12.5% and be anything from 10% to 14.5%--but if you just got the carboy, and it's below 10% go back to the pool store and complain--they aren't storing it correctly and you aren't getting your money's worth.

I just discovered this season they make a spigot for the carboys. But boy, did I feel DUMB that I never noticed it before! It makes life SO much easier!

[jnorris]

LOL! I never say the word bleach in the presence of any pool store person. If they ask I say liquid chlorine, which is true. Where I get it is not there biz.

.

You know, I tried that. When he said, what do you use, I said "Liquid Chlorine" and he looked at me puzzled and said, from where, and by that time I was intimidated and said in a mumbled voice "bleach" and he said "LAUNDRY BLEACH??" I just wanted to run and hide! Now all I need is for him to make my husband doubt I know what I'm doing. My husband knows nothing about the pool chemistry stuff, but tells me each and every time he swims "the water looks great, no chlorine smell, doesn't hurt my eyes" etc.

[CarlD]

I guess I'm just getting old and ornery. NOBODY in a store intimidates like that.

Just remember: YOU are the customer. THEY want your money. You DON'T have to give it to them.

Rule 1: The Customer is ALWAYS right.
Rule 2: When the Customer is wrong, Rule 1 applies.
Rule 3: If the Customer is wrong, and Rule 1 does not apply, then the Customer will become an EX-Customer.
Rule 4: An EX-Customer is worth 10 current Customers, as in: One "Aw, nuts, these guys are terrible" undoes 10 "Yeah, these guys are great!". (check out eBay--1 neg is actually the equivalent of 100 positives!)

If the clerk doesn't know what Liquid Chlorine is, YOU can say "You mean YOU don't know what liquid chlorine is? I thought ALL better pool stores carried it!"

[eljefe281]

A phrase you need to add to your repertoire, for dealing with pool store employees and others of similar stripe:

"What are you, ignorant?"

[KurtV]

I guess I'm just getting old and ornery. NOBODY in a store intimidates like that.

...and as Johnny Castle said, "NOBODY puts Baby in the corner."

[tsandershsa]

By the way, do people really use bleach to "cook meth"? I wouldn't know about that stuff, and it really threw me for a loop when the store clerk asked me that. I think I feel a little insulted!

The answer is no... Bleach is not used in any conversion process for manufacturing methamphetamine. It may be used to cleanup the place afterwards though...