How about the other 91.75%?

[ewkearns]

OK, had a friendly argument with the PB about liquid chlorine. He is absolutely opposed to "Bleach," for reasons I feel are specious.

That said, though.... he got me thinking. I get the part about Sodium Hypochlorite, by any other name, is just Sodium Hypochlorite, but what about the "Other Ingredients" found in every bottle?

One reason I ask is because my Liquidator has a LOT of undissolved solids and it has been fed a diet of Walmart bleach. Maybe the PB is right for all of the wrong reasons.... if it isn't the sanitizer that he sees problems with.... Could it be the "Other" stuff??

 

[Patrick_B]

Please tell us what he said incase it's a new reason, just for fun. The reasons they give are so far out wrong sometimes, it's amusing.

Bleach is water, Chlorine and Lye basically.

 

[JasonLion]

Bleach/liquid chlorine contains: water, salt, and just a very tiny bit of lye. All are harmless in this context. All forms of chlorine contain salt, bleach just has a little bit more salt than other forms, not enough to make any real difference. Lye is dangerous in solid form, but there is only a tiny amount in bleach and since it is mixed in water it is harmless.

 

[ewkearns]

It sorta went like this. Him: That liquid chlorine will dry out the elasticisers in your liner. Me : How is that different from just bleach? Him : well that bleach is too acid, you need to use tabs. Me: what about the tabs running the CYA through the roof? When we drained the pool it had a CYA of 200+ PPM! Him: Well, water is the cheapest thing you can put in a pool.... Then he went into some anecdotal evidence concerning a variety of folks that turned their liner into something the consistency of old newspaper.

Up to THAT point, I'm calling BS...... BUT, the conversation is always about that 6%-12% portion of sanitizer. I've never heard a discourse on the 90% of whatever it is that we dump into the pool besides the chlorine. And, again, there is a lot of something in that bleach, because it is sitting at the bottom of my Liquidator.....

 

[Patrick_B]

Funny, he has it backwards. Bleach is high pH in neat form. The addition of Bleach raises your pH at first, but the reaction and use of it winds up neutral. Pucks are acidic and lower pH the whole time they are in. Unfortunately, this is very common with builders and service people too. Not all, but enough to surprise you.

 

[JasonLion]

The debris at the bottom of a Liquidator consists most of minerals that precipitate out of the pool water because of the extremely high PH inside the Liquidator, rather than anything coming from the bleach directly.

Bleach has a shorter shelf life if there are impurities in it, so they generally go to some trouble to make sure it is very pure.

 

[chem geek]

See this post that describes the chemical content of various products including grocery store equivalents to pool store products.

Note that some bleaches do contain additional chemicals you don't want -- you don't want to use the splash-less or outdoor bleaches or those with fragrance. The splash-less or outdoor bleaches have thickeners in them and they will cause temporary foaming if added to the pool. Regular bleach is fine to use and you can show your PB the service bulletins from Clorox that say the bleach can be used in swimming pools and spas.