What causes the itchy skin or smell of chlorine?

[sharper4]

I know its a newbie question but its hard to find a definitive answer just reading threads with these keywords. I haven't really had much of a problem with either but I've been to pools that smell of chlorine badly or make my skin really dry and itch when I get out. How do I avoid that?

Latest test results... so I don't get hit for them:

FC 3.06
TC 3.25
CC .19
pH 8.1
CH 314
TA 114
CYA 54

 

[Richard320]

Typically it's a pH issue or combined chloramines. That's actually the chlorine smell you get in public pools. Chlorine oxidizes organic wastes - essentially flameless burning. The half-burned stuff would be the smoke in a fire and the smell in a pool. Raise the fire - get it going furiously - and there's very little smoke. Same with a pool.

Organic wastes include dead skin, bugs, leaves, even snot.

 

[flyweed]

Yup...as Richard said....your CC's should be less than .5 ppm..since they are not, you have organics in your pool and thus the "chlorine" smell. Itchy skin..your pH is too high. Use the pool calc. and get your pH back down to between 7.4-7.6. Your skin AND eyes will feel much better.

 

[sharper4]

You guys rock. I'm not sure what's best about this site... the knowledge or the fact that nobody flames newbies for simple questions. I really appreciate your help.

 

[ship of fools]

Yup...as Richard said....your CC's should be less than .5 ppm..since they are not, you have organics in your pool and thus the "chlorine" smell. Itchy skin..your pH is too high. Use the pool calc. and get your pH back down to between 7.4-7.6. Your skin AND eyes will feel much better.

time for you to move from pool school to math school

.19 is less than .50

 

[Donldson]

We don't flame newbies, we oxidize them!

Chlorine oxidizes organic wastes - essentially flameless burning.

Hope you all heard a rimshot when you read that!

It would also help you avoid both issues if you did your own testing. Pool store results are always suspect and rarely accurate. Using your own testing will help you keep FC, CC, and pH all right in range and help you maintain a pool that is smell and itch free. Just personal experience, my wife's legs get very itchy after showering, even if she doesn't shave them. She has not had a problem with that after swimming since we have switched to BBB and done our own testing.

 

[chem geek]

Another factor is that commercial/public pools that are indoors and sometimes some that are outdoors don't usually use CYA in the water so chlorine's strength is not moderated. So the active chlorine level in those pools is 10-20 times higher than in your own residential pool. The chlorine oxidizes skin, hair and swimsuits 10-20 times faster as a result. So your skin gets dry from losing its oils and itchy from surface layers of skin getting oxidized and sloughed off.

The higher bather-load of commercial/public pools makes them harder to control chloramines and some of these, nitrogen trichloride in particular, can be very irritating and smelly. The lower active chlorine level as well as the low bather-load in residential pools makes nitrogen trichloride a non-issue. Also, outdoor pools exposed to the UV of sunlight tend to have fewer chloramines since the UV reacts with some of them while the hydroxyl radicals formed when chlorine breaks down reacts with others (as well as with organics so probably helps control urea concentration).