HELP Laundry detergent in pool

[cactusjak]

My daughter put in a box of arm and hammer laundry detergent instead of baking soda. I can't really blame her I had to look for about 5 mins to find out that was what it was. Is there a way to eliminate this without draining the pool it is a 16X32 vinyl liner inground! Thanks in advance for any help

[CarlD]

Yowch!!! I'm not sure what you do besides drain. Sorry to admit it. You MAY be able to use enough bleach to metabolize it, but I'm not sure.

[PatL34]

Just did the same thing myself. Should have known better. My wife should have gone with me, to steer me straight. I am simply going to let Mother Nature take care of it, or do some backwashes to help.

The pool is "squeaky clean" though.

Pat

[chem geek]

The biggest problem with having laundry detergent in the pool is the possible sudsing from the soap-like compounds. As long as you can live with that, it's not a serious problem. There are also surfactants in the detergent that will lower the surface tension of the water, but adding borates to a pool will have a similar effect so that's not a serious problem either. Depending on the type of surfactant, it could be incompatible with some kinds of algaecide such as PolyQuat (incompatible just means the two combine to render each ineffective -- it doesn't mean they explode or anything like that).

Though it's not something you want regularly added to your pool, I don't think it's worth doing a drain/refill to get rid of it. It will eventually get removed through dilution. Some of the ingredients will remain dissolved in the water (the long hydrocarbon chains won't break down) while some will combine with dirt, pollen, etc. and get caught in the filter, similar to a clarifier.

Richard

[cleancloths]

You might try throwing in some Downey fabric softener. No, I'm not joking. I own a laundromat, and when customers put to much soap in a washer we add some fabric softener and it kills the suds.

[CarlD]

I wouldn't. Another chemical with an unknown effect? Bad idea. IF I was going to experiment, I'd do it by increasing calcium levels to make the water harder as suds doesn't do well in hard water--and calcium is perfectly safe in pool water as long as you stay within limits..

[waterbear]

You might try throwing in some Downey fabric softener. No, I'm not joking. I own a laundromat, and when customers put to much soap in a washer we add some fabric softener and it kills the suds.

Actually, this is not a crazy as it sounds. The detergents are basically anionic surfactants, usually SLS and related sulfates (negatively charged) and the fabric softener is basically cationic surfactants, which have a positive charge (and very similar if no identical to some algaecides used in pools) so instead of fabric softener I would use a cationic algaecide like a linear quat (benzalkonium chlorides and other akyl chlorides) or polyquat to reduce the sudsing. Linear quats do suds on their own but should neutralize the sudsing of an anionic surfactant and vice versa just like fabric softener (or hair conditioner, also based on quats) does. .
I would then use a very strong dose of enzyme product to break down whatever can be broken down and then shock to oxidize after giving the enzyme time to work, perhaps a few days.
(yes I realize that this is an old thread that was hijacked with someone asking about BBB for spas but cleancloths WAS onto something that has the chemistry behind it to back it up!)