alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

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sabhen
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Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2016 12:03 am

alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by sabhen »

The pool man told me the price of typical 3- inch chlorine tablets has skyrocketed. A 40 lb 3-inch chlorine tablets (clorox) is going for about $240 on Amazon. I used to pay about half of that. Pool shops are restricting to 1 sell one container per customer. Maybe it's an indication of this inflation debate. What alternatives are there to these tablets? I see some products advertised such as PoolRX. Are these any good?
marcopolo
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by marcopolo »

Convert to a salt system.
less maintenance, gentler on your skin.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
jebmke
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by jebmke »

Bleach
Don't trust me, look it up. https://www.irs.gov/forms-instructions-and-publications
ClassII
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by ClassII »

There was a fire at one of the chemical plants that manufacture pool chlorine which has caused a severe shortage this year. Going into the local pool shop they had lots of tablets available but they were restricted to 1 per customer and the prices were eye watering for sure.

Be careful about using liquid chlorine as it doesn't have any stabilizer in it like the tablets so expect to have to add small amounts regularly to keep your chlorine at moderate levels. Also try to find "pure" chlorine and not just Clorox like you'd use in your laundry. While it would work in a pinch pay attention to any extra additives and concentration in household bleach products.

I think this is just going to be an abnormal summer as the price increases are due to lack of supply and not normal inflation (its not like people are suddenly chlorinating their pools a lot more). I got a good deal at Home Depot a few months ago (ran out there as soon as I heard about the shortage) and as always would shop somewhere like that long before I go to the local pool shop for their overpriced tablets. HD, Walmart, Ace or Lowe's are usually my go-to for pool commodities like chlorine.
confusedinaz
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by confusedinaz »

Liquid chlorine from the outdoor section of Lowes or Home Depot. It doesn't have stabilizer as mentioned above, but if you've been using tablets, you probably already have plenty of stabilizer in your pool.

For my 16K gallon pool, I use about a gallon every two days during the summer. It's roughly about $4/gallon, so not insanely expensive by any means. Only downside is you have to add it regularly (at least once a day during peak swim season).
Mako
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by Mako »

jebmke wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 4:52 pmBleach
+1. If you’ve been using the tabs you likely have plenty of stabilizer already.
runner3081
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by runner3081 »

Check out Trouble Free Pool, great website/forum.

I am alternating between liquid and tablets. Still have about 30 left. At roughly 2-tabs per week, I can get through this swim season. Buys me plenty of time for prices to drop for next year's purchase.
Trader Joe
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by Trader Joe »

sabhen wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 4:32 pm The pool man told me the price of typical 3- inch chlorine tablets has skyrocketed. A 40 lb 3-inch chlorine tablets (clorox) is going for about $240 on Amazon. I used to pay about half of that. Pool shops are restricting to 1 sell one container per customer. Maybe it's an indication of this inflation debate. What alternatives are there to these tablets? I see some products advertised such as PoolRX. Are these any good?
Bleach. Very, very cheap everywhere.
WhatsIRR
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by WhatsIRR »

Bleach and cyanic acid for stabilizer. If you CYA is properly dosed the bleach will last longer. Amazon has been the best place I have found CYA and I get bleach at Sams or Costco.

The Trouble Free Pool guys have calculators for how much bleach to reach a certain chlorine level and also the correct CYA numbers to stabilize the pool. To do it properly you will need a test kit that can get accurate chlorine and CYA readings.
Sam_957
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by Sam_957 »

Salt cell system. Just like dosing bleach every day, no CYA needed to stabilize. There is still chlorine in the water but some people like the salt water feel I guess.

If you like adding the bleach (and you should do it daily) you can go with chlorine from the pool store with reusable containers. It will be high strength and no additives like store bought might have. I've found troublefreepool and their pool math app to be great resources.
My other vehicle is an index fund.
IMO
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by IMO »

ClassII wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:01 pm There was a fire at one of the chemical plants that manufacture pool chlorine which has caused a severe shortage this year. Going into the local pool shop they had lots of tablets available but they were restricted to 1 per customer and the prices were eye watering for sure.

Be careful about using liquid chlorine as it doesn't have any stabilizer in it like the tablets so expect to have to add small amounts regularly to keep your chlorine at moderate levels. Also try to find "pure" chlorine and not just Clorox like you'd use in your laundry. While it would work in a pinch pay attention to any extra additives and concentration in household bleach products.

I think this is just going to be an abnormal summer as the price increases are due to lack of supply and not normal inflation (its not like people are suddenly chlorinating their pools a lot more). I got a good deal at Home Depot a few months ago (ran out there as soon as I heard about the shortage) and as always would shop somewhere like that long before I go to the local pool shop for their overpriced tablets. HD, Walmart, Ace or Lowe's are usually my go-to for pool commodities like chlorine.
I'd agree that I think this is just a temporary supply issue due to the fire and hopefully this is not normal inflation. I'd just buy enough tablets to get through the summer months for the time being before you really opt to look at alternatives such as a salt pool/cell for producing chlorine. Check around at places like HD/Lowes/Sam's Club as they may have some supplies. Ultimately, this summer may be a little more costly, but probably not that significant (how many tablets are you going through monthly?) vs. other things like the price of gas.

Take a sample of your pool water to a place like Leslie's and they will tell you how much stabilizer you have. Odds are, if you are using tablets normally your stabilizer level is probably higher than ideal (they usually advise you empty some water out and replace it with fresh water to keep that number in check). As such, you may be able to do fine with liquid chlorine vs. tablets for the time being. In any event, only add liquid chlorine at night as the sun will break it down quickly.

You additionally might be able to manage/head off algae via use of algecides more than you may have used typically.

If the cost of chlorine tablets never goes down, then the finances of things like a solid pool cover would start to make more sense.
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whodidntante
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by whodidntante »

Irradiation is a solution. It's a good idea to clear the pool of any turtles first because the pizza bills can really hurt your cash flow.
Vanguard Fan 1367
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by Vanguard Fan 1367 »

I like my salt system. Getting started with my Hayward system has a cost.
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riverant
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by riverant »

Converting to salt water is the best long term strategy IMO. If you’d rather not, bleach/liquid chlorine is the best option. The tablets really aren’t good for your pool…they add stabilizer which as it gets higher, requires higher levels of chlorine to sanitize. At some point, the tablets can’t provide that and you have to replace some water. Pool “experts” that sell expensive chemicals or maintain pools will also talk about regular “shock” treatments and ridiculous concepts like “chlorine lock.” While you likely don’t need to worry about stabilizer given tablet usage, you can test for cya levels yourself and add some if needed very easily.

As others have suggested, read up on the Pool School over at troublefreepool.
WhatsIRR
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by WhatsIRR »

Sam_78 wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:17 pm Salt cell system. Just like dosing bleach every day, no CYA needed to stabilize. There is still chlorine in the water but some people like the salt water feel I guess.

If you like adding the bleach (and you should do it daily) you can go with chlorine from the pool store with reusable containers. It will be high strength and no additives like store bought might have. I've found troublefreepool and their pool math app to be great resources.

You still need CYA in a SW pool. It is actually recommended to run at a higher concentration than the same chlorine values in a traditional pool.

If you tried to run without CYA your SW cell might be able to keep up but you’ll shorten it’s life.

https://www.troublefreepool.com/blog/20 ... cya-chart/
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RickBoglehead
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by RickBoglehead »

Nothing to do with inflation as stated.
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lazydavid
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by lazydavid »

Liquid chlorine. My local hardware store has 1260 gallons in stock. Should be able to get it at your local pool store too.

As others have said, the ultimate solution is switching to a Salt Water Chlorine Generator. But absent that, liquid chlorine is definitely the way to go, puck shortage or no puck shortage.
marcopolo
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by marcopolo »

WhatsIRR wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:23 pm
Sam_78 wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:17 pm Salt cell system. Just like dosing bleach every day, no CYA needed to stabilize. There is still chlorine in the water but some people like the salt water feel I guess.

If you like adding the bleach (and you should do it daily) you can go with chlorine from the pool store with reusable containers. It will be high strength and no additives like store bought might have. I've found troublefreepool and their pool math app to be great resources.

You still need CYA in a SW pool. It is actually recommended to run at a higher concentration than the same chlorine values in a traditional pool.

If you tried to run without CYA your SW cell might be able to keep up but you’ll shorten it’s life.

https://www.troublefreepool.com/blog/20 ... cya-chart/

This is right.
You can run the salt cell at lower output and it will last longer of you keep the recommended (higher than for standard pools) CYA levels.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Globalviewer58
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by Globalviewer58 »

Look at the concentration of Sodium Hypochlorite in the bleach product. At Walmart you find bleach with about 6% concentration priced at $3.24/gallon. If you have a Menard’s look for Pool Shock gallon jug with 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite priced at $3.99. Then use the free Pool Math calculator at troublefreepool.com to learn how much of the bleach product to add to your pool.

If you want accurate pool chemical test results try Taylor FAS-DPD test kit. Start by measuring chlorine, pH and CYA. Adjust to proper pH level first. Then use the CYA value to determine target chlorine level. Be careful when adding CYA as the chlorine stabilizer may require 24 hours to fully dissolve.
chazas
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by chazas »

TFP FTW.

Read up on tabs. They add tons of stabilizer to your pool. Eventually the chlorine becomes ineffective and you’ll have to drain and refill. Salt cell or bleach.

To the poster who suggested Leslies for testing, no! Get a good drop based test kit. Leslie’s can be so far off it’s insane.
FIREmeup
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by FIREmeup »

Chlorinating liquid from Walmart. 25k gallon pool i put in 4 cups in morning and 4 at night. Will do 5 to 6 if having a heavy load of swimmers. Stock up now as they usually run out by August.
Luke Duke
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by Luke Duke »

whodidntante wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:33 pm Irradiation is a solution. It's a good idea to clear the pool of any turtles first because the pizza bills can really hurt your cash flow.
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whodidntante
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by whodidntante »

Luke Duke wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:30 am
whodidntante wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:33 pm Irradiation is a solution. It's a good idea to clear the pool of any turtles first because the pizza bills can really hurt your cash flow.
Cowabunga!
I'm glad that someone got it. :P
lazydavid
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Re: alternative to costly chlorine tablets for pool

Post by lazydavid »

whodidntante wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:49 am
Luke Duke wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:30 am
whodidntante wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 8:33 pm Irradiation is a solution. It's a good idea to clear the pool of any turtles first because the pizza bills can really hurt your cash flow.
Cowabunga!
I'm glad that someone got it. :P
I smiled immediately, just didn't respond. Well played sir. :mrgreen:
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