BBB Method -- does it save $$

Jump to latest Follow Reply
I get 12.5% bleach in 2.5 gal jugs at the pool store for $7. The prices are so close that it depends on if I'm closer to one or the other. I do think you need to think for yourself. Everyone on here says to buy bleach at Walmart. So I did it without comparing the 2.5 gal jugs at my pool store. My wife had a cow. Now when I want to buy that expensive Taylor test kit because everyone says it's the best, she won't let me.

I'm surprised a lot of people say to not check your pool water with your pool store. They have a computer to analyze it! But then I really watched them do it and the instument is only analyzing the color results on the test strip of paper they used. That can't be acurate. Furthermore, everytime I went there (of course I was in panic mode) as soon as they got the results, they throw some chemicals at me and say "you need this and you need this and you need this . . ." It was a viscous cycle. Now I really don't know how acurate the pool store is, but I rely on experienced pool owners who aren't trying to sell you chemicals.

EDIT: buying bleach at walmart (6% @ $2.50/gal, right?) is still cheaper than 12.5% @ $7.00/2.5 gal. Can someone double-check that? What is is $5.20 vs. $7.00 for the same relative amount?
 
hyperchord24 said:
IEDIT: buying bleach at walmart (6% @ $2.50/gal, right?) is still cheaper than 12.5% @ $7.00/2.5 gal. Can someone double-check that? What is is $5.20 vs. $7.00 for the same relative amount?
Click to expand...

No it's not. You need to buy slightly more than 2 gal of 6%, about $5.00 for the same amount of chlorine you're only paying $2.80/gal for the 12.5%.
 
$7 for 2.5 gallons of 12% is $2.80/gallon. Can you get Great Value (Wal-Mart) or Clorox for $1.40/gallon? Good find!

The TF-100 is a better value than the Taylor K2006.

Not all pool stores suck at testing. Some have highly accurate reagent based systems. The Leslies and A&S stores I sometimes hop into (Sometimes it more a time saver than anything when it's the busy season) on occasion have the ability to test better gear. I laugh to myself when I see a store using strips. They really care for their customers, right? Well, their wallets anyway. Being a professional, I bite my tongue.

Believe it or not, BBB, while it is an acronym, is more about knowing what you are adding and why. People often say borates are optional. I would submit that using bleach is also. Tabs are a much lower cost per week than bleach, if your pool can take the CYA, as many can in the N.E. where the CYA often is diluted by backwashing, splash out, rain, winter, etc... with tabs about at about $0.80/Lb, retail, and a 25,000 gallon pool will use 3 lbs/week, that's only $2.40/week. Add some A&H Baking Soda and Washing Soda when needed and life is good.

The Pool Calculator is the greatest piece of pool code ever. I hope you're porting it to Google's Android OS for phones. Please, Pretty Please! With Cherries and Whipped Cream on top!

I love salt cells and liquidors too. Don't get me wrong.

Scott
 
The Walmart bleach I found was $2.47 for 182 oz, or almost 1.5 gallons.

I actually have not checked pool store for chlorine. (But there are no pool stores really close to me.) Found 2 gallons of 10% pool chlorine at OSH for $7 or $3.50 a gallon.

PoolGuyNJ: Tabs at $0.80 a pound? The cheapest I see them is over $2 a pound.
 
PoolGuyNJ said:
Tabs are a much lower cost per week than bleach, if your pool can take the CYA, as many can in the N.E. where the CYA often is diluted by backwashing, splash out, rain, winter, etc... with tabs about at about $0.80/Lb, retail, and a 25,000 gallon pool will use 3 lbs/week, that's only $2.40/week. Add some A&H Baking Soda and Washing Soda when needed and life is good.
Click to expand...
Trichlor only seems less expensive when you don't account for the Washing Soda you need to compensate for the pH and TA. Though the prices in this post are old, the relative pricing is still reasonable. I don't know how you can say that tabs are only 80 cents per pound -- do you have any link to any source with that kind of pricing for Trichlor? 3" Trichlor tabs from Leslie's at the largest size of 100 pounds are $227.99 or $2.28 per pound. One 3" puck is usually 1/2 pound (8 ounces) though some are only 7 or 6 ounces each.
 
The area super markets have 5.5 Lb boxes of A&H Super Washing Soda for between $3 and $3.50.
Wal-Mart 12 Lb bags of Baking Soda $7
Local retailer are selling tabs @ $70/25Lb bucket

Hmm, now that I look at what I wrote before, I must correct the tab cost. I don't know what happened or where I lost the $2/lb. It should be $2.80/lb . Most people don't buy tabs more than 25 lbs at a time due to the weight.

That is a serious delta in costs. I apologize for any and all confusion. I don't know where my head was at.

Tab/week - 6 - 8oz is about $8.40
Maybe a few lbs of BS $3
Occasional few Lbs of SWS $2.50
Bleach for Boosting FC when needed for bather load or shocking $ 7/month with a HEAVY User load.

If I were using 6% bleach, I guesstimate I would use about 5 gallons a week and about a pint of MA per week. I would expect to use some BS as rain here tends to drop Alk levels.

I would also be testing more frequently as I am not one to add anything prior to. Adding bleach daily, knowing me, would make me use my reagents faster. But hey, thats just part of me being me.

My pool is about 25,000 gallons.

I can't use borates as my dogs swim regularly and there are often small children.

Scott
 
No, no problem with kids at all. Borates at the recommended levels are safe for people of all ages.

The pet issues are very minor. There is only a slight risk and that only when the pet gets most of their drinking water from the swimming pool.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I would say when you are an informed consumer, your costs will go down. 10 years ago, when I was living in Southern California my job was a commercial account exec. for a major pool supply company. When I would go into a store to see the manager I would often have to wait and see people come in with water samples and leave 20 minutes later with a load of chemicals and $2-300 less in their bank account. I have rarely ever seen the need for that kind money to be thrown at a pool and if it did, I would be likely to drain it and start over. I almost bit my tongue off on a regular basis! In performing over 13,000 service calls in my life, I have come to the conclusion that most specialty chemicals are made to be a band aid for water that needs to be replaced due to high calcium or CYA. The one product that I would swear by is phosphate remover if you have phosphates which are quite common in tap water.

Lance
 
PoolGuyNJ said:
The Pool Calculator is the greatest piece of pool code ever. I hope you're porting it to Google's Android OS for phones. Please, Pretty Please! With Cherries and Whipped Cream on top!

Scott
Click to expand...


I use Opera Mini browser on my Android phone and thepoolcalculator.com is one of My Favorite tabs on the Homepage. It even saves the last info you put in, as well as your Pool gallons!
 
LanceF1 said:
The one product that I would swear by is phosphate remover if you have phosphates which are quite common in tap water.
Click to expand...
Lance,

Welcome to TFP! :wave:

As you'll learn by reading the Pool School and reading threads on this site, phosphate removers aren't necessary if one maintains the appropriate Free Chlorine (FC) level relative to the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level. Chlorine alone is able to kill algae faster than it can grow even at high phosphate (and nitrate) levels. My own pool had 3000+ ppb phosphates and though it was certainly very "reactive" if I mistakenly let the chlorine level get too low, it would behave normally with no algae and no unusual chlorine demand when I properly maintained it.

In fact, I recently used a phosphate remover product because it was given to me free as an experiment and I write about what happened in this thread where I noticed no change whatsover in chlorine demand in spite of the phosphate remover or the use of enzymes. There are tens of thousands of pool owners following the simple pool care methods on this and other sites (such as The PoolForum) and phosphates are simply not an issue when the proper FC/CYA level is maintained.

Now I will say that if you are a service person who cannot visit a customer more than once a week for chlorination and you don't want to use high chlorine doses or you just want insurance to prevent a rapid algae bloom in case anyone (customer, service tech) messes up or an unforseen event occurs, then a phosphate remover should be seen like a regular algaecide (e.g. PolyQuat 60) in taking the edge off of algae growth. Algae can still grow because algae can use organic phosphates that phosphate removers do not remove, but the utilization rate of organic phosphates is slower so algae growth is slower as a result.

Richard
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply