Adding bleach every other day or less?

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steve57765

steve57765

0
Aug 1, 2015
47
Lexington NC
My pool is in great shape as I've been adding 1quart of bleach daily keeping FC at about 5.

I just added today's dose and thought what about adding 2 quarts now, will that be enough for 2 days and just add bleach every other day?

Or even 3 quarts for 3 days etc.

Thanks all
Steve
 
Re: Adding bleach for 2 or more days?

It would be great but it doesn't work like that. Each day, you lose a percentage of your bleach so if you lost 40% daily and started with 6 ppm, you'd have lost about 2.4 ppm.

If you start with 12 ppm you would lose about 4.8 ppm.....twice the amount.
 
Re: Adding bleach for 2 or more days?

steve57765 said:
My pool is in great shape as I've been adding 1quart of bleach daily keeping FC at about 5.

I just added today's dose and thought what about adding 2 quarts now, will that be enough for 2 days and just add bleach every other day?

Or even 3 quarts for 3 days etc.

Thanks all
Steve
Click to expand...

+1 to Dave's post above

Hi Steve,

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. There are several factors that contribute to the chlorine demand in the pool, plus you can get the initial level too high which also isn't good for your pool, or your equipment, so more isn't necessarily better.

You best option is to Test your levels daily, and add chlorine accordingly.

What are you testing your levels with? Do you have one of the recommended test kits? (either the TF-100 or the K-2006?) If not, once your chlorine reaches a level above 5 or 10ppm (depending on what you are testing it with ) your kit can't tell you where it's at because they don't read it that high anyway, so you would be blindly adding chlorine which also isn't good. I hope this helps, and have a nice day.
 
Re: Adding bleach for 2 or more days?

LOL Go Steve!! With that SpeedStir in now you'll be wanting to check daily levels anyway. Heck you'll be checking the pool, the fish tank, the Koa pond, the fill water, the lake down the road, the neighbor's pools, etc.... You will love that SpeedStir. Enjoy!!
 
Re: Adding bleach for 2 or more days?

hhmm for both the pool I have now and the old one I had, I would add bleach every time it got near the
bottom recommended level. just 1ppm above it.

one gallon for the bigger pool (last one) and 1/2 gallon for this smaller one. which equals about 2 gallons
a week in the old pool and 1 gallon per week in the new smaller pool. (in season with bather load)

Those additions would get my FC up to the top of the range recommended by pool calculator. possibly 1ppm above the max recommendation
for cya.

Lets call it 7ppm after adding 1/2 gal bleach to the new pool from a test reading of 3ppm.

my range with cya 30 is 2-6

when it tests at 3ppm I add 1/2 gallon and it goes to 7. 1ppm more than the max of 6ppm.

my pool will not drift down to 3 until a week has passed (granted no swimmer load and the water is completely debris free)

This has always been how I maintain my pools....I put in enough to get it to it's high recommended range then add enough
to reset that when it's 1ppm above the minimum.

It could be the "wrong" way to do it, but I find it the way I prefer to add chlorine rather than "ounces daily."

I certainly would not recommend this to anyone unless they know the habits/levels of their pool over a complete year on off season.
 
Re: Adding bleach for 2 or more days?

Hi Boris. I'm not sure the way you do it is necessarily the "wrong way to do it," and if it works for your pool to do it that way, and your levels remain within the recommended range at all times, that's great, I wish myself, and many others were as fortunate.

As mentioned before there are a lot of factors that can affect ones chlorine demand. Most people will over time establish a pattern of loss, and some can back off some on the daily testing, and/or wait longer between adds etc. based on their particular pool's demand, but to be certain until one is sure what their pool requires, testing it daily is the best way to ensure they don't drop below minimum risking algae, or they don't get their levels overly high from adding too much trying to extend their time between, therefore, risking damage to their pool/equipment, or having unsafe swimming levels, etc.
 
Re: Adding bleach for 2 or more days?

borjis said:
when it tests at 3ppm I add 1/2 gallon and it goes to 7. 1ppm more than the max of 6ppm.

my pool will not drift down to 3 until a week has passed (granted no swimmer load and the water is completely debris free)
Click to expand...

That is an unusually low chlorine loss especially with a CYA of 30 ppm. It's a loss of only 1 - (3/7)(1/7) = 11% per day. Do you have a pool cover or is the pool otherwise not exposed to very much sunlight? What is the water temperature of the pool?

There are some pool services who just dose once a week, but they generally have to have the CYA at near 100 ppm or more and dose to 14 ppm and come back a week later when the pool is 4 ppm. That's a 16% per day loss which one can get at high CYA levels in sunny areas (e.g. Arizona, southern California).
 
I have an old worn bubble cover but don't use it. I'll be getting a new one next spring though.
I found water, heat and chlorine loss is greatly reduced with a simple 8 mil bubble cover.

New liner just a few weeks old and a fresh fill to boot..all in perfect tfp balance.

It never gets full sun due to surrounding trees, it might get half exposed at most for a few hours.

Water temp is 64 degrees and I keep it clean constantly...I suspect it will be using up to 1 gallon per week or slightly more
with a bather load next summer, but I won't really know til then.

My last and bigger pool used 2 gallons a week during the swim season. I'd typically add a gallon on tuesday and saturday mornings.
It had CYA 80 and had 90% full sun from jun-early august. I had it covered with an 8 mil blue bubble cover at all times except weekend swim days.

This smaller pool has been half everything on chemicals compared to the bigger one I used to have.
 

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One of the (many) reasons I love my SWG - constant chlorine dosing and no need to meter out chlorine. Just test & correct as-needed. I can also stretch out my testing intervals in the off season and simply do some DPD color matching to keep it all humming along.

Salt is not for every pool but if there's no technical hurdles to an SWG install and you can afford the up-front cost, I think you'd love the convenience!


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JoyfulNoise said:
One of the (many) reasons I love my SWG - constant chlorine dosing and no need to meter out chlorine. Just test & correct as-needed. I can also stretch out my testing intervals in the off season and simply do some DPD color matching to keep it all humming along.

Salt is not for every pool but if there's no technical hurdles to an SWG install and you can afford the up-front cost, I think you'd love the convenience!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Automated additions are the way to go. I just love my Stenner. Yes, I'm still carrying bottle of bleach, but even at the height of summer I can go almost a month without refilling the tank.
 
borjis said:
I might do that instead of the swg. I inherited a puck in line chlorinator and disconnected it plugging the inlets but they are there
to very easily add a stenner.
Click to expand...

Stenners are a great automation option too. They don't work for me because the chlorine tank would be exposed to high heat and sun where the equipment pad is so I'd always be fighting degradation of the bleach.

One thing to keep in mind is that you should probably rip out the puck feeder and just install the Stenner on a straight run if PVC. Chlorine bleach and trichlor is a hazardous mixture (explosive and deadly fumes). While I know the puck feeder would be emptied, there is the potential for someone to accidentally make the mistake and you simply don't want that risk.


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JoyfulNoise said:
Chlorine bleach and trichlor is a hazardous mixture (explosive and deadly fumes). While I know the puck feeder would be emptied, there is the potential for someone to accidentally make the mistake and you simply don't want that risk.
Click to expand...
A very good point. At the very least the puck feeder should be labeled to not add pucks and I know someone indicated recently that they cut a piece of PVC pipe tot eh interior length of the puck feeder, drilled multiple holes in it's sides and inserted it inside the feeder to prevent it from being able to hold pucks.

Care should always be take not to mix pool chemicals.
 
I use a Liquidator for my chlorine. I really like it a lot...working well for me. I am able to keep it out of direct sun, however.

That is good to know about the puck feeder. I plumbed my old one in just in case but I hadn't realized about the dangerous combo of pucks and liquid chlorine.
 
borjis said:
I had thought about using the puck feeder but threw it in the trash instead. What I have now is the feed lines (plugged) going directly into the pvc return line.
Click to expand...

Ahhhhhh!! Ok.

I'm still a big SWG fan but, since you have the holes in the PVC anyway, you've got the right stuff for a Stenner setup....even if it's second best :p (tim5055 will be along shortly to ban me ;) :eek: :D )

But hey, if you want the silky softened water feel, dump a bunch of pool salt in your water and add borates, you'll love it.


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