Just got my Liquidator-

[JCJR]

ChemGeek wrote in another thread that it is better to mix 10.5% CL with non contaminated water to bring the strength down so it will last longer in the Liquidator (due to the outside elements).

My question is, I can I use my pool water to dilute the strength of CL before adding it to the liquidator?

 

[JasonLion]

Metals in the water can significantly shorten the shelf life. If you have metals in your water it might be best not to dilute the bleach. Bleach doesn't normally sit in the Liquidator all that long. Normally you would only dilute higher concentrations of bleach for storage over several months.

 

[chem geek]

The table at the bottom of this link shows how sensitive higher concentrations of chlorine are to higher temperatures. It also talks about how metals catalyze the breakdown of chlorine. So you only need to dilute the chlorine if you expect the temperatures to be high and expect the length of time the chlorine stays in The Liquidator to be long. I store my 12.5% chlorinating liquid outside in a pool shed and it lasts for at least a couple of months with very little degradation (down to perhaps 11.5%), but our temps in the summer are typically in the low 80s during the day (some days in the 90s) and 60s at night.

Jason is right that if you do dilute, you have to use water free of metals -- not tap water (and not bottled spring water -- only distilled water or filtered water that removes metals such as some carbon block filters and some water softeners). Also, even 12.5% chlorinating liquid at 90F temp 24 hours a day would have a half-life of around 70 days (> 2 months) and generally you will be going through 4 gallons in just a few weeks unless the pool is small or you have an opaque-to-UV pool cover. Even with my 16,000 gallon pool which has an opaque pool cover and only 1 ppm FC per day usage, this would be about a month to get through 4 gallons.

Richard

 

[JCJR]

I am using 10.5% CL and it does not last longer than 7 days in my Liquidator. I am going to heat my pool, hopefully to 88deg so this should not be an issu as wel. So what every one is saying there is no need for me to dilute my CL.

I did not read between the lines very well and I apologize if my question was answered, but is it OK to dilute CL with pool water as long as there are no metals?

 

[chem geek]

I agree that you do not need to dilute your chlorine. It's certainly not worth it for one week and temps below 90F. I forgot that The Liquidator will normally be around the temperature of the pool water rather than the ambient temperature when the pump is running, though at night when the pump is off I would expect its temperature to drop somewhat (but probably not by more than 10F) which helps keep it more stable. When I first wrote about possible dilution in the other thread, the context was with people having The Liquidator outside even exposed to sunlight, and then people talked about shading The Liquidator, etc. At that time, no one knew how long before the chlorine would be replaced in The Liquidator though I suppose we could have figured that out based on the 4 or 8 gallon container size.

As for using pool water for dilution (not that you need to do that), in theory it would be OK if the pool water was extremely low in metals, but even decent pool water probably has some level of metals (iron, copper, nickel) in it (even when there is no staining) and it doesn't take much to catalyze the decomposition reactions of chlorine. Remember that pool water came from tap water, plus has exposed metal in the water. I think the only way to know for sure would be to experiment both ways, using pool water and using distilled or filtered water done at the same time (in two containers) and later comparing the drop in chlorine concentration over time, but my hunch is that it's safest to use distilled or filtered water. But for most people's use of The Liquidator, dilution will not be necessary.

Richard