Chemical Expenses

[adroverj]

I started using your methods this season, and I am new to the website.

I feel that I have a better grasp of what is going on with my pool, and it has been clear water except for one time when we went away and I used 3" tabs and the pool CYA got too high.

But somehow I feel that I am spending a lot more money on Chlorine, than I would have used on 3" tabs.

I have a 30,000 gallon pool and need to add about 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of 12% Bleach every day. I also realize it's been a hot summer.

So I use about a case a week of 12% bleach.

In everyone's experience, is this too high for my situation ?

Please let me know.
Thanks,
Juan

 

[Bama Rambler]

Looks like you're using about 2ppm per day and I'd say that's pretty good.

If you were getting the pucks on sale then you were probably pretty close to the same cost but fixing the potential problems it can cause will cost you much more.

 

[duraleigh]

BBB has never been about being the cheapest (although it ususally is) more, it's about understanding your pool chemistry and being able to manage your pool effectively with blindly throwing money at it.

Tri-chlor pucks may work well for you but overall, they are not cheaper than bleach.....promise!!

 

[kplaster]

BBB has never been about being the cheapest (although it ususally is) more, it's about understanding your pool chemistry and being able to manage your pool effectively with blindly throwing money at it.

Tri-chlor pucks may work well for you but overall, they are not cheaper than bleach.....promise!!

Yes,,,This is the first year,,I can say I have spent about the same.But,I have had a troublefree year for the first time than I can remember..I checked my water today..Been the same since I opened up...No Algeeeee..No shocking.Just crystal clear water all summer long&that is worth every bit of money that I have spent...So in the long run I can say it is cheaper the BBB way.Less banging my head&throwing money away with the pool store or in my case Wally World..

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

A 25lb bucket of decent 3" pucks is about $65. Assuming they are 8 oz. each, I would use 3 lbs per week for my 25,000 gallon pool. Thats about $7.80 a week. Plus baking soda and washing soda, that brings it to about 10$/week for chems retail and $14 a week to power my pump.How many memories of the parties and family time do I get for that $25/week? More than enough. If I switched to bleach and Muriatic, that would likely drop too but I can't trust my teenaged kids to get the bleach added every day and I don't have time. Bear in mind that I get my tabs and chems at wholesale usually since I am in the business so my actual chem costs are a bit lower.

Scott

 

[anonapersona]

In my pool I add something like 4 ppm of chlorine every other day

1 big jug of bleach gives me 3.8 ppm FC... cost $2.80 in the 3 pack box at Sam's Club
2 trichlor pucks give me 4.2 ppm FC ... cost about $2.26 in the biggest size bucket BUT adds 2.5 ppm CYA
1 lb cal-hypo gives me 3.8 ppm FC... cost $1.81 in the biggest size bucket, 100 lb. BUT adds 2.7 ppm CH

When I know I can afford to add the CH and the CYA, I will gladly use the pucks or the cal-hypo. In the spring, after winter rains, CH and CYA are both low. Now that I know that, I plan when to rely on pucks or cal-hypo and when to rely only on bleach.

I am finding that in the heat of the summer, the garage is at 100 degrees, and storing bleach outside or in the garage is not really a great idea, so I will tend to rely on cal-hypo in the heat of summer, CH levels permitting. Once CH is at the upper end, then it is back to bleach.

I tend to save the pucks for vacations, just to make it easy on the kids who take care of the pool for me. A two week trip will add almost 20 ppm of CYA to the pool so I have to be careful with that.

 

[zea3]

I finally have my pool where I want it! My TA is about 100, pH is holding steady at 7.5, CH is around 200, Borates of 50 and CYA of 40. I use a 96 oz jug of bleach every other day to stay at the top of my FC range and my pool has never looked better! I can't say I noticed much difference to the feel of the water after I added the borates, but man does it sparkle in the sun! I spend at most $1.98 for a 96 oz jug of bleach so even if I estimate 4 jugs a week that is roughly $32 a month. I can live with that! Before I found TFP I would use 2-3 lbs of chlor brite to "shock" every week and kept 2 floaters loaded with 4 tabs each going full time. All for cloudy, bleh water. I was spending around $70 a month for that fiasco. So glad I found TFP!

 

[chem geek]

Juan,

As shown in this post, for the same amount of chlorine, Trichlor pucks are usually less expensive than any other source of chlorine, but their acidity requires the addition of washing soda (pH Up) and/or baking soda and when accounting for this extra cost Trichlor becomes somewhat more expensive. So if you are only looking at the cost of chlorine alone and not any additionally required chemicals it will seem that you are spending more.

Also, if you are keeping a lower CYA level than you typically had when using Trichlor, your chlorine usage could be higher. What is the CYA level in your pool and how much direct sun does it get?

Richard