Bleach Storage

[frustratedpoolmom]

So I opened my pool today. Had 2, 182 oz jugs of Walmart brand bleach left over from September, stored in my garage. Dumped them in anyway for the heck of it thinking they would be very weak. Huh. Nope - FC was 14 when I tested a few hours later, so they still had some juice left. I was surprised.

 

[woodyp]

Congrats! Looks like it seems to hold up fairly well in storage at least over the "cooler" months. Just caught some on sale and bought enough to cover through June here. July and August purchases will be one month purchases at a time though.

 

[PaulR]

According to this link 5% bleach at 75F has a half-life of over 3 years. At a constant 90F it still has a half-life of one year.

Yes, bleach degrades; but unless you get the double-strength liquid chlorine and keep it a while in the summer, it's not a practical concern; and even then it's noticeable but not huge. My 12.5% degraded to 9.5% after 6 weeks, last summer; it was probably running 90+F daytime high temp.
--paulr

 

[Isaac-1]

I think the big worry most people should have on this topic now is buying 10% liquid chlorine that has been sitting around for 6 months are longer over the slow winter season.

Ike

 

[chem geek]

My local pool store intelligently cuts back their chlorinating liquid purchases such that their inventory is drastically lower during the winter season so that the slow turnover matches demand. They store the chlorine outside in a shaded area so it stays much cooler in the winter (we rarely get freezes cold enough or long enough to affect the chlorine). So people still buy chlorine over the winter, but instead of my buying a case with 4 gallons for one month, I buy 1 gallon that lasts 2-3 months during the off-season.