Where to buy Calcium Chloride in Austin

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D

DIYconvert

0
Jul 30, 2007
70
Austin, TX
Pool Size
26000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
I need about 50 lbs of Calcium Chloride to raise my CH. The only pool stores left in Austin are owned by Leslies and they charge almost $100 (including sales tax) for two 25 lb buckets of Hardness Plus. (They don't carry the larger size in the stores.) I know I can use a deicer such as Peladow or Dowflake; however, there isn't a lot of demand for deicer in Austin during the summer so I can't get it at the local Home Deport/Lowes.

I can find it online; however, it's about $50 including shipping for 50 lbs. Without shipping it should only be about $25 if I can find it locally.

I've read similar posts with lots of good suggestions of where to try and find it; however, I was hoping to hear from someone in the area that knows where to get it here in Austin.

Thanks!
 
I buy mine in the pool section at the local chain Ace Hardware franchise, 25 pounds sells for under $30 in nice screw top pails. Sometimes even doing BBB there is a reason to at least look in the pool supply section. Here in Louisiana it is far easier to find it marketed as CH increaser than as de-icer any month of the year.
 
Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately, Warehouse Pool Supply was recently bought by Leslies so their price won't be any different. They were the only other pool supply store in Austin, as far as I know. Now it's just Leslie's. Of course, the various hardware stores (including Home Depot and Lowes) offer a limited supply of pool chemicals in their outdoor living departments. It's not that I can't find the product, it just that it costs too much if you buy it packaged as a pool chemical. It's just crazy that a simple chemical like calcium chloride can cost $0.40/lb when sold as a deicer but is also sold for as much as $4.50/lb as a water hardener.

Several of the store websites (such as Ace, Home Depot, and Walmart) offer deicer products under various names; however all of them say you can only buy it at the store and "Ship to Store" is not available for this product. I tried to bypass the online ship-to-store restriction by calling Ace Hardware. My local Ace store said they cannot ship it to the store because it is not stored in their distribution warehouses (which are located in Dallas and Little Rock). They said they might be able to have it special ordered but I would have to pay freight which would put the cost over what I can get it for online.

Someone said to try Tractor Supply because it is used as weight in tractor tires (???). I call them and was told by their receiving manager that they do not supply calcium chloride in any form, ever, in Austin.

Next, I'm going to try aquarium stores (apparently they sell calcium chloride for use in salt water tanks) and concrete suppliers (calcium chloride is used to speed up the drying process). Pool builders sometimes add calcium chloride to their plaster mix to speed up the drying process so I might try asking one of them where they get theirs.
 
I know, right? I was surprised that the water was so soft. I've never had to add calcium here in Austin before when refilling my pool. I filled the pool from my garden hose and I do not have any water softer system in my home. The hardware store said it was unusual and that I should bottle it and sell it! I tested it twice myself and also had it tested at Leslies; 50 ppm every time.
 
DIYconvert said:
I know, right? I was surprised that the water was so soft. I've never had to add calcium here in Austin before when refilling my pool. I filled the pool from my garden hose and I do not have any water softer system in my home. The hardware store said it was unusual and that I should bottle it and sell it! I tested it twice myself and also had it tested at Leslies; 50 ppm every time.
Click to expand...
How about just chlorinating with Cal-hypo for a few weeks?

Or get a submersible pump and a couple hoses and steal some hard water from a neighbor's pool? :mrgreen:
 
Thanks, MarkAZ. That price matches what I've been finding on the web.

Update: according to their website, Autozone has some available for in store pickup here in Austin for about $1/lb. (http://www.autozone.com/autozone/ac...ice-melter/_/N-25rj?itemIdentifier=41166_0_0_). I may call them tomorrow to confirm and, hopefully, pick some up. However, I first want to consider Richard's idea above and use Cal Hypo instead of bleach for a while since that form of chlorine sanitizer will also gradually increase your calcium hardness. I'm wondering if my cost for the deicer ($50 for 50 lbs.) is greater than the extra cost of cal hypo compared to bleach. It will depend on how much cal hypo I will need to raise my 26,000 gallon pool from 50 to 250 ppm. Anyone want to figure this one out?

I did quite a bit of research on the subject of calcium chloride sold as a deicer so I thought I'd share my findings here:

Calcium Chloride is sold as a deicer under several brand names including:
• Peladow
• Dowflake
• Kemira
• NedMagtm
• Excel
• Pellets of Fire
• Prestone Driveway Heat
• TETRA Flake
• Thermocal
• C-Forcetm
• HotStuff
• Qik Joe Ice Melter
• Tetra 94 Pellets

Some deicer products are termed a calcium chloride blend (Ex: Road Runner Ice Melt http://www.scotwoodindustries.com/uploads/51/original/Road_Runner_MSDS.pdf?1281364761). Since you only want the calcium chloride (which has a lower concentration in these blended products) and the other chemicals may not be something you want to put in your pool in larger quantities (such as magnesium chloride), I'm looking for something that is at least 90%. The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) can help you determine what's in the product.

You will find several different forms of deicers including pellets, flakes, granules, etc. It doesn't really matter what form you get because the best way to add it to your pool is to first dissolve the product in 5 lb. batches in a bucket using water from your pool and then pour the mixture back into the deep end. Be careful; the solution will become hot when you mix it (which is why it is used as a deicer) so don't put your hand in it or splash it on you.
 

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DIYconvert, this is a great summary.

I'm in California, San Francisco area, and it does not snow here, either.

This April 2013, I also found Scotwood's Excel deicer sold at a distributor called Fastenal:

http://www.fastenal.com

No shipping if delivered to the store! I was able to find 50# of Excel (94-97% pure CaCl) for $35 which with tax is less than $1/pound.

This forum is great, thanks to all the folks willing to share info!
 
DIYconvert said:
I'm wondering if my cost for the deicer ($50 for 50 lbs.) is greater than the extra cost of cal hypo compared to bleach. It will depend on how much cal hypo I will need to raise my 26,000 gallon pool from 50 to 250 ppm. Anyone want to figure this one out?
Click to expand...
From Chem Geek's message in an old thread, "for every 10 ppm FC added by Cal-Hypo, it also increases Calcium Hardness (CH) by 7 ppm."

Pool calc sez about 1 pound of cal hypo will raise 26,000 gallons by about 3ppm Cl, so it will also raise the CH by about 2ppm. Cal hypo costs about $2.00 per pound, maybe $3, depending on your source.

Off hand, it looks to me like it's a wash at $2.00 per pound. Buy cal hypo to meet your Cl needs, get higher CH for free.

My math skills are like my wood cutting skills, though (measure w/ a micrometer, mark w/ a grease pencil, cut w/ an axe). If do your math w/ a slide rule, you'll probably get a finer answer.

Good luck!
 
Morton Salt sells a de-icer product that is 100% Calcium Chloride called Safe-T-Power. Many of the other brands of de-icer products are only 85%, including some of the products sold by pool stores.

http://www.amazon.com/Morton-7877-Safe-T-Power-Calcium-Chloride/dp/B005Y34T3W

If you have Amazon Prime you can get free shipping and theoretically 2 day shipping - I think they have an introductory offer where you can sign up for Amazon Prime, buy things and get free shipping and then cancel your Prime subscription if you don't think it will work for you. Can only do that once though.

If you buy the blended type de-icers which include Potassium Chloride and Strontium Chloride your really not getting what your paying for and the cheaper price is just hiding the real cost.

I read some place that the "flake" style of Calcium Chloride is not the kind you want. The pelletized version is the correct stuff, but I can't put my finger on where I read that or why.

EDIT: Apparently the flake version is Calcium Chloride Dihydrate, which contains 35% less available Calcium than the what's commonly available in the pelletized versions.
 
You should normally start your own thread when it's a new question (perhaps a moderator can split this off at your post into its own thread).

You should first add chlorine to the pool since your FC is 0. Since your CYA is low, you can either use Dichlor to add both chlorine and CYA at the same time, at least to start out, or you can buy some pure CYA and start adding that along with chlorinating liquid or bleach. Probably the latter approach is better for you unless you already have some Dichlor. You add the CYA in a sock hanging over a return flow or in a sock or T-shirt in the skimmer (if you have other suction such as floor drains or your skimmer has a pipe opening into the pool for alternate water flow if the skimmer gets clogged).

You'll need to tell us more about your pool to know if the CH needs to change. You only possibly need a higher CH if you have a plaster pool. A vinyl pool does not need CH. Your TA is on the high side and may be why your pH is higher. You can just add acid over time to keep the pH down and your TA should drop slowly. For now, take care of the chlorine and CYA and just use acid to control the pH and not worry about the TA. After everything else is handled, you can then consider to Lower Total Alkalinity if you feel the pH is rising too fast and adding acid regularly is too much of a pain.
 
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