Big oops.....non-pool antifreeze in water :(

[chem geek]

Chris, a fine point here, if you want to use a gallon jug for freeze protection - I recomend ~ 1/2 filling the jug with sand or gravel, to give it 'neutral boyancy'. Whether antifreeze is heavier than water, I don't know - but a floating jug does NO good for freeze protection.

I may be totally off base here, but I don't think the antifreeze is for use in the general pool water volume but rather only for putting into the pipes. Earlier in another post I made this incorrect assumption and pointed out the incredible amount of antifreeze required to keep a pool volume from freezing, until it was pointed out to me that the antifreeze is only to prevent bursting the pipes, not to prevent ice in the pool.

Richard

[chem geek]

P.S. to Chris:

Apparently there are quite a few users of this forum who live in areas where freezing is an issue and put antifreeze into their pipes. Clearly when they start up again in the spring, they flush this antifreeze into their pool water (at least for the return pipes from the pump/filter to the pool -- the drain/skimmer pipes could be flushed to waste, I suppose). I don't think anyone has had any problems with such antifreeze, but it is also probably true that they only use PG and not EG.

[chrisexv6]

The antifreeze that everyone uses (or is supposed to use, anyway) is RV-type antifreeze, aka PPG (safe) antifreeze. The AF I accidentally added to my pool (not intending to keep the water from freezing, I just opened the wrong bottle) is the EG (unsafe for consumption) stuff. When they let out the pipes in the spring and the AF goes into the pool, its not unsafe to do so.

The ironic thing is that I dont actually put antifreeze into my pipes, I use a line blower to blow them out and plug them. Never had a problem using no AF, but this year seems to have me thinking about just doing it as a precaution.

As far as next year, Im starting to agree we dont have much to worry about. The AF was added with the pool at winter closing levels, so the chlorine was fairly high (15-20ppm). Plus it will get shocked quite a bit next year during opening, so Im fairly sure it will all be broken down before we jump in next year.

Thanks!
-Chris