Chlorine smell??? On skin

[Puppiesonacid]

So my wife has a sensitivity to the chlorine smell. The pool is fine, I can't smell it at all.. I can smell it after I get out on my skin. Guess that is the sanitation killing the stuff on me? And when I walk by her after getting out she smells it too.

I am guessing this is normal?

 

[Texas Splash]

I think the best thing for us to help determine what may be happening is to see a full set of results. Can you post them for us please?

 

[Puppiesonacid]

CYA- 100 may be a little lower... haven't checked in a while, but a few hundred gallons won't make much difference.
TA- 110, or 100 been adding acid to lower it
FC- 9-12
CC-0
TC 260
PH- 7.5 ish

 

[Texas Splash]

I don't suppose you happened to check your CCs while you were at it did you?

 

[Puppiesonacid]

CC is 0

 

[Texas Splash]

Zero CC is good. I suppose to rule-out any chemistry issue, the most important thing would be to verify the CYA tomorrow under some good outside light if you have it. You mentioned above you haven't checked it in a while, so perhaps there has been a change. When it comes to a chlorine smell, the trio of FC, CC, and CYA will tell us what's happening. You're CC of zero is great, and maintaining a fairly high FC level that is fine for a pool with a CYA of 90-100 is fine. But if your CYA dropped some recently, that might have an effect on the balance between those three items and help explain what's happening.

 

[needsajet]

I only notice chloramine smell on my skin when I get out after swimming at shock level.

So just a double-check that you're using the 10 ml sample size and one drop = 0.5 FC? So your test was 10 ml line on the test tube and therefore 24 drops = 12 ppm FC.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Chloramine smells are not at all unusual when exiting a pool. The residual chlorine left on your body is oxidizing the sweat and oils on your skin as well as the compounds in your bathing suit. This is why, if possible, you should shower off after swimming.

You know what else causes chloramine smells - your nose. Well, actually, it's the mucous membranes inside your nose. Chlorine is a volatile compound and it can off-gas from your skin and clothes just as easily from your pool water. When you breath it in, the hypochlorous acid will react with the mucous membranes inside your nose and form chloramine compounds.

Want to test it out - open a bottle of bleach and waft (with your cupped hand) some of the air above the spout towards your nose (don't stick your nose in the dang bottle!). When you first smell chlorine bleach it will have a fresh, almost undetectable odor. Then, after a few wafts, the smell will become pungent and irritating. That's because the bleach is reacting with your the lining of your nasal passage and forming chloramines.

Given your high absolute FC levels, none of this is surprising. While your pool water is safe to swim in, the water you drag out onto your skin and bathing suit has a high residual of chlorine in absolute terms. As you sit there, it is going to be released and the chloramines are going to build up. Your wife may have a more sensitive nose for it (women tend to have better senses of smell, so always let a woman select or reject the red wine at dinner).

The prescription - take a shower right away with fresh water if you have it available.

 

[Puppiesonacid]

Chloramine smells are not at all unusual when exiting a pool. The residual chlorine left on your body is oxidizing the sweat and oils on your skin as well as the compounds in your bathing suit. This is why, if possible, you should shower off after swimming.

You know what else causes chloramine smells - your nose. Well, actually, it's the mucous membranes inside your nose. Chlorine is a volatile compound and it can off-gas from your skin and clothes just as easily from your pool water. When you breath it in, the hypochlorous acid will react with the mucous membranes inside your nose and form chloramine compounds.

Want to test it out - open a bottle of bleach and waft (with your cupped hand) some of the air above the spout towards your nose (don't stick your nose in the dang bottle!). When you first smell chlorine bleach it will have a fresh, almost undetectable odor. Then, after a few wafts, the smell will become pungent and irritating. That's because the bleach is reacting with your the lining of your nasal passage and forming chloramines.

Given your high absolute FC levels, none of this is surprising. While your pool water is safe to swim in, the water you drag out onto your skin and bathing suit has a high residual of chlorine in absolute terms. As you sit there, it is going to be released and the chloramines are going to build up. Your wife may have a more sensitive nose for it (women tend to have better senses of smell, so always let a woman select or reject the red wine at dinner).

The prescription - take a shower right away with fresh water if you have it available.

this is kind of what I thought. didn't know about the nose thing.

How long do you wait to check CYA after say 1000 gallons were changed by rain last night?

 

[Puppiesonacid]

I only notice chloramine smell on my skin when I get out after swimming at shock level.


So just a double-check that you're using the 10 ml sample size and one drop = 0.5 FC? So your test was 10 ml line on the test tube and therefore 24 drops = 12 ppm FC.

Yep. Though recently I have let it sit around 10 more often.

 

[duraleigh]

How long do you wait to check CYA after say 1000 gallons were changed by rain last night?

Why do you want to check it? 1000 gallons in a 25k pool is 4% so your CYA went from say 50 to 48.

Any reasonably normal rain has virtually no affect on a pool.

 

[mikemass]

Why do you want to check it?

He's following prior advice from Texas Splash:

I suppose to rule-out any chemistry issue, the most important thing would be to verify the CYA tomorrow under some good outside light if you have it. You mentioned above you haven't checked it in a while, so perhaps there has been a change.

If he hasn't checked it recently and has any doubts it sounds like a good practice. What's his downside? 7ml of R-0013 "wasted"?

You know what else causes chloramine smells - your nose. Well, actually, it's the mucous membranes inside your nose.

Joyful - What a great piece of information. One I never considered but makes perfect sense. I actually had first hand experience of this the other night. I decided to take a dip in the spa after a heavy workout. You know how it is after a workout. All pores are wide open, I was soaking wet with sweat, mucous membranes inflamed from the increased activity, etc. The spa was perfectly sanitized. Before I stepped in there was no chloramine smell whatsoever. Only fresh ultra clean water. As soon as I stepped in and inhaled a nice whiff of that steam coming off the spa, I immediately got the odor of what people call "chlorine smell" (what we know to be chloramines). The properly sanitized water had an immediate reaction to my sweat and mucous. After being in the Spa for a few moments, I once again was smelling nothing but freshness.

The take-away is - chloramine smell simply means that the FC is doing it's job - Sanitizing out the impurities. Excellent post Joyful!