I just bought some of said Pool Essentials 10%, it had almost no bleach smell, but worked as expected. Here's a question: Is all bleach created equal? In other word, does the way it is produced matter. When I called a local pool store to inquire about liquid chlorine, they really pushed the way it is made. Is FC just FC, CHEMICALLY? Or would an "inferior" product not be as effective, or last as long?
Liquid chlorine (or bleach) is nothing more than 4 ingredients -
1. Water (majority)
2. Sodium hypochlorite (what you want)
3. Sodium hydroxide, or lye
4. Salt
The process of making liquid chlorine starts with brackish salt water and sodium hydroxide. A special electrolysis reaction converts some of the salt into sodium hypochlorite. The reaction is run until a specific concentration is reached and then that resulting mixture is diluted to various strengths as needed. It's a little more complicate than that, but that's basically what happens.
There are a number of things that can wrong -
1. If the pH is not set high enough (not enough lye in solution), then the hypochlorite is not stable and will breakdown into oxygen and chloride salt faster. Typically you want the pH of a bleach solution to be above 12.
2. Trace impurities from the manufacturing process, such as iron, nickel, etc., can lead to a faster breakdown rate even when the pH is high. If the manufacturer doesn't use care in making sure the input water is clean or doesn't properly setup the manufacturing equipment with as little exposed metal as possible, then trace impurities can enter the product stream and cause problems. Many high-end chlorine manufacturers will use extra filtration steps at the end to remove metallic impurities.
3. Improper storage is by far the most common problem. When bleach is allowed to be stored in excessive heat, the breakdown of hypochlorite is faster.
I have, on occasion, purchased bleach for my pool. I have always been floored to find bleach bottles with date codes on them that are over a year old. At that point, you are basically buying a bottle of salt water with some very minor amounts of hypochlorite in it. This is why TFP
ALWAYS recommends you check the date codes on the bottle before you purchase it.
Smell is not a good indicator. Fresh bleach will have almost no detectable odor to it. What does cause a "bleach" smell is the bleach vapors getting up into your nose and then the hypochlorite reacts with the mucous membranes in your nose causing chloramines to form. The chloramines are what causes you to "smell" bleach and everybody's nose is different with different threshold levels of detection. If you pour the bleach into your pool and you get the expected FC rise, then the bleach was roughly the correct concentration.
Also, can someone tell me what the date is when it says: 16 190 07:15
