Where to buy Chlorine and other chemicals

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I buy store brand concentrated bleach at the Kroger when I grocery shop and I buy muriatic acid and cya at Lowes. I'm not in santa clara, but these stores are in santa clara too.
 
Liquid chlorine is know as Bleach, @ 8.25% and lower
If its higher than 8.25, its usually known as liquid shock, ususally available at pool stores in 10 or 12 percent concentration, or if you are really resourceful, try janitorial supply and industrial cleaning supply shops.

If you want the best price, you will just have to shop around and see how much bang you get for the buck.
In order to know that though, you can either figure out the math of cost per fluid ounce of chlorine, or use this handy little calculator that will do it for you.
http://poncatechsquad.com/Dan/Chlorine/
 
prasadkm0204 said:
Hi,

I reside at Santa Clara,CA and was wondering which place is the most cost efficient and has good quality chemicals (Chlorine,Acid,etc..)
I realized from reading the forums that liquid chlorine is usually better.

Thanks,
-Prasad
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I'm 45 minutes up the road (680) from you. If there's a wallie world near to you, they have 2 gallons of LC for $6.50. I've also read about a 2 for 1 coupon for a place on the penninsula where you can get 8 gallons~20. Search for yourpoolguys on TFP. Hills bro in SJ is rumored to sell bulk to the public and is a good lead to check

For Acid, Leslie's seems to have the best price IMO.

If there's anything I can help with, pm me
 
Lowes, HomeDepot and OSH all sell KemTek 2gal case (12.5% chlorine) here in the south bay ($7-$8). OSH would sometimes have them on sale and that's when I stock up. Prices keep going up and I think the last ones I bought were $6 for 2gal.
In the past, I've also used Chlorox (6.25%) from Costco, but they've since raised prices.
Local store brand concentration levels range from 1%-6% and is usually not worth it.

For acid, those never seem to go on sale and they're $10 at the 3 hardware stores.

Let me know if you find anything cheaper.
 
Patrick_B said:
That's a great price if it's 31.45%, but be aware, some Big Box store Acid is only 15% now. If it doesn't list strength, it's likely going to be 15% and that isn't a good buy. Just an FYI to look out for. :cheers:
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It was the 31%. It was located way in the back corner of the Garden Center. They had the 15% over near the paint section and it was more expensive, $8.99 a gallon.
 
Just remember to calculate the cost per effective oz of chlorine. DanielP made THIS calculator to determine cost.

Running the cost the 10% KemTek from Lowes would save me .01 per effective oz, as long as the 10% KemTek has not degraded at all. 8.25% is a little more stable than higher percentages.

This difference is not sufficient for me to buy the higher %. Now, if my pool stores sold 12.5% in 2.5 gal carboys I'd probably be all over it.
 
OP, I'm new to my current location (Las Vegas) so I've had to figure out the best places to buy chemicals. I went to Home Depot, Walmart, Target, etc pricing everything out and found that, based on freshness of stock (important for bleach/chlorine), my best bet was Target 8.4% bleach at just under $3/gal. The Home Depot 2 1gal KemTek liquid chlorine was from sometime in 2014 so I didn't even bother - not enough turnover in stock. That's something to watch out for with bleach/chlorine but you don't need to worry about that with Muriatic Acid.

A week ago, a local pool store, NPS (has stores in NV and AZ) ran a sale on both liquid chlorine and muriatic acid. The liquid chlorine is 10% and was fresh at ~$5.75/2 gal. The muriatic acid was ~$7.75/2 gal of 29%. Since this was cheaper than Target, I stocked up on both chlorine and muriatic acid.

The above prices are useful for me, but I suspect that prices will be different for you so you'll need to do some casual research.

I don't know how much bleach/chlorine people have on hand, but I'm only trying to keep one month of bleach on hand. I stocked up on muriatic acid though; probably enough to last close to a year. I just need to make sure that there's no leakage.

Read this for manufacture date codes: http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/83147-Chlorine-Date-Code-Decoder-Easy-Way-to-Measure-Strength
Basically, if you see '14' or '15' with a 3 digit number, that's likely your manufacture date. I won't buy bleach with a 2014 manufacture date.
 

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Thanks everyone for your suggestions.
@Lummy - I checked with Hills bro and they don't sell to individuals. They have 53 gallon container priced at 2.5dollar per gallon.

I'll check the stores locally and watch out for manufacture date and expiration one by one overtime.
 
might also want to check for local stores that carry Hasa 12.5% liquid chlorine - I like that I can buy them as a case of four 1-gallon bottles that the company reuses, so you pay deposit on the case/bottles with your first purchase and afterwards you return the empty case and bottles when you buy a fresh case, and periodically they mail you coupons for "buy 3 gallons, get 1 free". So it feels more eco-friendly to me even if per gallon prices might be better at big box stores. ihttp://www.hasapool.com/m_hasa.php?ID=3190
 
jt-cali said:
Lowes, HomeDepot and OSH all sell KemTek 2gal case (12.5% chlorine) here in the south bay ($7-$8). OSH would sometimes have them on sale and that's when I stock up. Prices keep going up and I think the last ones I bought were $6 for 2gal.
In the past, I've also used Chlorox (6.25%) from Costco, but they've since raised prices.
Local store brand concentration levels range from 1%-6% and is usually not worth it.

For acid, those never seem to go on sale and they're $10 at the 3 hardware stores.

Let me know if you find anything cheaper.
Click to expand...

Where does HD keep the liquid? I saw a whole pallet baking out in the garden center one day, but it disappeared and wasn't near the pool chemicals (also outside). Worried about shelf like in that respect, but didn't ask for help since I don't need to buy for another couple months.
 
trentblase said:
Where does HD keep the liquid? I saw a whole pallet baking out in the garden center one day, but it disappeared and wasn't near the pool chemicals (also outside). Worried about shelf like in that respect, but didn't ask for help since I don't need to buy for another couple months.
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The Sunnyvale store seems to always have it out in the garden area by the cashiers where it does get baked. I prefer to get mine from OSH where it's indoors or out in the shaded warehouse.
 
Ace yearly sale. Well today my flyer came in the mail. It's

"HTH" FAST CHLOR CLEANING LIQUID
*Gal.
*For swimming pools
*10% available chlorine 2 for $5 (1gal each) The sale dates are May 22 to May 25. Visit the local store and order the cases you need. Last yr I got 16 cases (4 jugs per case)
 
Patrick_B said:
That's a great price if it's 31.45%, but be aware, some Big Box store Acid is only 15% now. If it doesn't list strength, it's likely going to be 15% and that isn't a good buy. Just an FYI to look out for. :cheers:
Click to expand...

My home depot in Temecula is now 14.5% 2 for 10. Leslie is the 20 baum 34.5% 2 for 14 or so. I was buying it at home depot since the start up to stay away from the pool store at all costs. It appears they are not all evil in their prices as this was much better.

I wonder why some home depots are carrying the stronger percentage for 2 for 10 and the others are the weaker mix....

- - - Updated - - -

Their website even only shows the 14.5 now.
 
Don't count out pool stores. I'm very fortunate that I have a good pool store nearby (not all pool stores are evil :) ) that stocks the 4 gallon case of the HASA 12.5%. Using that spread sheet above, it is my most cost effective solution. Full strength muriatic acid price is comparable to Home Depot so I get that there too.
 
Agree about not ruling pool stores out. I am fortunate that I am 5 minutes from an an NPS pool store that throughout the summer usually has 10% chlorine for 4.95$ for 2 gallons and they store it inside, just bought some today....so definitely shop around......Walmart to pool stores check them all out.
 

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