Are they trying to "pool store" me?

[kodiak1120]

I went to my local pool store to get some stuff I needed for opening my pool. I use liquid cholorine and they have pretty good prices for the 12% stuff. I also use tri-chlor pucks when I'm away or when I need to shock the pool to help keep my chlorine levels up. I also use them to raise my CYA, which is usually low when I open. I generally keep my CYA on the low side so I can throw in pucks if anything looks strange and not have to worry about it.

Anyway, they had two brands of tri-chlor pucks. One was $49.00 and the other was $64.00. Both were 25 lbd containers and both were 3" pucks. I checked the ingredients and both listed:

tri-chlor...99%
other ingredients...1%
total ingredients...100%

I asked what the difference was and the owner of the store told me the more expensive pucks were 100% chlroine and did not contain any "binders." She said the cheaper brand were imported and used a bonding agent that can cause a black ring around the liner.

I'm suspect of this because the ingredients appear to be exactly the same and its obvious the more expensive brand was not 100% chlorine, but I can't figure out why the one brand was so much more expensive if they are the same exact thing.

Thoughts?

Kevin

 

[JVTrain]

Why would the pool store even sell a product that was supposedly known to cause a black ring around the liner? That's the question. The likely answer is that it doesn't and they're full of it.

 

[JasonLion]

All trichlor tablets have a fraction of a percent of binders in them. Some cheap brands will break apart too easily because they use low quality binders. None of which has anything to do with black rings around the pool. A black ring around the pool normally comes from using lots of sun tan oil, or occasionally from organic oils from things like pollen.

 

[duraleigh]

I think that may be assigning maliciousness to the PS employee and that's probably not the case.

More likely, the employee was simply ignorant of the difference but like so many people, just couldn't admit that so made something up.

While I would never suggest to anyone that they rely on a pool store for much of anything, I don't think the folks there are out to "get" you.

When you absorb what this site teaches, you discover that you are the expert......not the PS folks.

Kodiak1120, pucks are not a good resource to SLAM your pool. They release chlorine too slowly. liquid chlorine (or bleach) is much better suited.

 

[mrcarcrazy]

I vote "yes" they were trying to "pool store" you. I worked in Sales in college, I can attest that some sales people will do anything to get a bonus or meet a quota. Others are just idiots, and have no clue about that which they are selling, then there's the last group who actually know what they are talking about. This last group is small.

 

[kodiak1120]

I think that may be assigning maliciousness to the PS employee and that's probably not the case.

More likely, the employee was simply ignorant of the difference but like so many people, just couldn't admit that so made something up.

While I would never suggest to anyone that they rely on a pool store for much of anything, I don't think the folks there are out to "get" you.

When you absorb what this site teaches, you discover that you are the expert......not the PS folks.

Kodiak1120, pucks are not a good resource to SLAM your pool. They release chlorine too slowly. liquid chlorine (or bleach) is much better suited.

Actually, this was the owner of the store, but I hear what you're saying. I don't think her goal is to just sell more more **** (to an extent), but I think they get their infromation from the product manufacturers and probably believe what they are saying.

BTW, I meant I use pucks in addition to liquid chlorine to shock. It helps keep the levels up, as opposed to just using liquid.

 

[PharmerAnthony]

I've started asking the employees if they actually have a pool and more often then not the answer is " no but, …"

After that I'm just polite and pretend to listen.

 

[ship of fools]

I can't imagine why the store owner would say that ..... i would have bluntly asked why they would possibly sell a product that causes black rings and see what the answer was.

I also wouldn't do business with them .... if the first dealings with them result in a blatant lie then they can't be trusted.

 

[kodiak1120]

Actually, I was told something similar when I was trying to by liquid chlorine last year. The owner asked why I wasn't using pucks and I told her I perfered to use liquid chlorine because it didn't have stabilizer. She told me the liquid chlorine was inferior because you cant tell what the concentration is. I assume she meant the concentration could be diminished due to light, but I'm not sure. I wanted to ask her why she sells it then, lol.

The first time I called to ask if they sold liquid chlorine they told me they did, but no one knew what concentration it was. I had to go in and look at the container to find out it was 12%.

They're actually not that bad there for questions about which gasket you need or how something connects... just not too good when it comes to chemicals or chemicals.

 

[SwimAustin]

The first time I called to ask if they sold liquid chlorine they told me they did, but no one knew what concentration it was. I had to go in and look at the container to find out it was 12%.

If they don't sell much liquid chlorine, then that might be very old and nowhere near 12%.

 

[kodiak1120]

If they don't sell much liquid chlorine, then that might be very old and nowhere near 12%.

I don't think the age matters since it is in the big blue jugs that don't let light in.

 

[jblizzle]

Age and heat will still break it down, just slower.

 

[Patrick_B]

+1

Adding to Blizzle's comment, time as well as temperature break down Chlorine. The hotter, the faster it breaks down. You can estimate the strength by making accurate additions and testing the results carefully once you are past a SLAM or other event creating high demand on the FC.

 

[Divin Dave]

hummmmm.... as I understand it, chlorine is a gas. The way my mind thinks, if chlorine is a gas, then how could a puck possibly be 100 percent chlorine? Im not a chemist, and Im new on the pool scene, but the owers comment does not seem logical to me.

the owner of the store told me the more expensive pucks were 100% chlroine.....

Thoughts?

Kevin

 

[kodiak1120]

Re: Are they trying to "pool store" me?

Age and heat will still break it down, just slower.

Interesting... I never knew that. I regularly test though, so if I get a bad batch, I think I would notice.

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That and the fact that the label clearly said it was 99 percent.

 

[jblizzle]

Re: Are they trying to "pool store" me?

That and the fact that the label clearly said it was 99 percent.

This does not make sense. I have not heard of liquid chlorine being over 15%.

solid trichlor claims to be 99%, but that is not all chlorine (as many pool stores will try to tell you).