Rocks in my Clorox Salt

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Steve-D

Steve-D

Bronze Supporter
Jul 10, 2020
157
SW Boston Suburbs
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I spent this past weekend managing the chemistry of our pool which we had opened for us on Thursday afternoon. We had more debris than we would have liked on the bottom from closing too late last autumn with falling leaves. A lot of pine needles worked their way under the cover over the winter months, too, but the water was still remarkably clear (pool guys said it was the cleanest they had opened all day. Dumping 2 gallons of bleach in April probably helped a lot.

I added 5 bags of Clorox salt on Saturday and bought 3 more to add on Sunday to finish things off. Imagine my disappointment/frustration/anger when I poured the first bag in to find ROCKS mixed in with the salt...probably 2 or 3 lbs worth! No way I was going to open the other 2 bags! BJs refunded the full purchase price for all 3 bags but the whole experience really ****** me off. I managed to fish out about half of the remaining rocks with a net and "Flipper" (our pressure cleaner) took care of the smallest ones, but with the water temp under 60 there's no way I'm going in to remove them by hand until we fire up the heater for Memorial Day weekend. If we had a vinyl liner pool this could have been a disaster. NEVER AGAIN will I trust Clorox for salt and I am inclined to find other brands for my stabilizer and Calcium Chloride.
 

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We have had many negative reports with Clorox and Morton Salt, and we generally recommend to avoid. Many have never had any issue with Diamond Crystal Solar Naturals salt from HomeDepot (pic below). Stabilizer, generally, is not an issue, any brand...some have found that some brands have variable CYA change/addition (expected a higher result after dissolving). Personally, Calcium Chloride is the only chemical I will go the pool store to get, just for purity, my store has DowFlake.

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I usually find some rocks in Morton water softener salt. I now hang a bucket in the pool and pour the salt in the bucket. After it all dissolves there are usually a handful of little rocks left that I can dump out. If I want it to dissolve faster I stick the discharge of my cover pump hose under the salt and let it rip.
 
I've had the same problem with Morton salt. One year I was saving all the rocks and I was going to bring them to HD and ask for a refund for that weight of salt. That seemed silly as I got close to through all the bags. This year I found Diamond Crystal. Yay! Didn't see any rocks.
 
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I'll echo the experience with Diamond Crystal salt -- I also get the blue "crystals" bags pictured above, and haven't noticed any impurities; it dissolves nicely with 5-10 minutes of brushing back and forth.

I laugh at the "Solar!" marketing as if there's some other way instead of "yeah, that's how salt is formed", but it's been fine for me. I've seen it at both Home Depot and my neighborhood Ace Hardware for similar prices.
 
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