Starting to smell the Chlorine lately.....

[kris77]

So the last time we had friends over, they noticed a bleachy smell from the pool. And then the last 2 or 3 times i've been out there last week, i noticed a little bleachy smell too.

CYA 40
FC stays around 4-5. Sometimes i get lazy and miss a day or two of bleach additions and it drops to 2, but that is only once or twice a month.
CCs are non existant....EVER.
pH stays at 7.5

Am I just crazy or is there something else I can check? I've never smelt it before, but the last 2 weeks, even I have noticed it a little.

 

[pooldv]

What you smell is Combined Chlorine. Letting it drop below minimum level lets algae start growing and creates more chlorine demand. Also lots of swimming creates additional bather load which creates some CC. Dose it 2-3 ppm higher if you think you might skip a day. Add a few extra ppm of chlorine before and after a swim party to be extra sure it stays above minimum. It is safe to swim up to shock level for your CYA.

 

[kris77]

But i never have any CC show up on my tests.....EVER

 

[chem geek]

You can smell chlorine if the water is churned up since that can volatize the chlorine from the water into the air (see this post for more details). Your 4-5 ppm FC with 40 ppm CYA will have more of this faint clean bleach scent than a pool with 4 ppm FC and 50 ppm CYA or an SWG pool with 4 ppm FC and 80 ppm CYA.

It may be a subtle change in the weather, perhaps warmer temperature or different humidity and wind, that have you notice the smell more. If it's a clean bleach-like smell then there's nothing wrong. If it smells like "bad pool smell" then that would be a problem, but you'd more likely measure some CC in that case. If your pool is normally covered, then opening it up and exposing it to some sunlight would help remove chloramines or organics from the pool, but that's usually done when one sees CC.

Of course, it could be something else like some leaky chlorine bleach bottle nearby.

 

[DaninFLA]

But i never have any CC show up on my tests.....EVER

how much later after having people are you testing for CC? CC can break down pretty quick if your pool is running, in full sun and good FC levels. its one reason why some people never register CC levels during a SLAM, even though the FC is oxidizing algae.

 

[kris77]

I test mostly every night at like 8pm.

 

[DaninFLA]

are you smelling it when you test? my point is if you smelled the chlorine smell and tested a few hours later, the CC most likely is gone by then.

and tell your friends to stop peeing in the pool

 

[Agent99]

Is the smell location specific at all or just kind of all over the place?