How about powdered chlorine?

Jul 3, 2011
113
Central NC
Hey all,

I’ve been here since 2011, and I’ve recieved a lot of help here. I’ve been buying my generic bleach for almost 10 years now, and it’s all worked out great. Last year, it began to become tedious finding bleach in stock anywhere. Dollar stores, discount stores, even grocery stores were out of stock a lot. I barely got by last year. We have a lot of local pressure washing businesses that buy all the stock up as soon as it comes in. I’m not sure why these guys are messing around with 6% stuff anyway. They should be using 12% - makes more sense on their end. But I digress.

Last year, I considered buying a pallet at the beginning of the season so I don’t have to make bi-weekly trips to the store to find the bleach is not available. I ran across powdered chlorine - like this.


What about using something like this? Does anyone see any issues with it? If not, this might be a viable solution for many. Thanks for your input.
 
Active Ingredient:
Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate, dihydrate 5-15% per SD


I believe that means in addition to chlorine the powder contains CYA. That will lead to excessive CYA for which the only fix is draining substantial amounts of the water.

All solid chlorine products contain either CYA or calcium. Both of which you do not want growing amounts in your pool water.

Chlorine is a gas. To create a solid product they need to bind the chlorine to either CYA or calcium.

Only liquid chlorine or a SWG will sanitize your pool without causing other issues.
 
That is (shortened name) Dichlor and will add A TON of CYA to your pool and you will be rather quickly overwhelmed by how hard it is to manage your pool. I wouldn't touch it.

Pressure washing suppliers are GREAT resources for GREAT chlorine (as you say) It is most always very fresh and at a decent price. Have you tried to find a supplier?
 
Well, the terrible idea of using dichlor aside, let's look at this even deeper. This is at best 15% dichlor.

First, what is that other 85-95%? Do you want it in your pool? If you don't know, then adding it would not be smart.

Second, that means that at best you are getting the equivalent of 7.5 lbs of dichlor (and at worst 2.5 lbs) for $120. In The Swim (just as an example) has 10 pound buckets of dichlor for $75.

So, to summarize: It's a bad price for dichlor. It's mostly "mystery ingredient". And you don't want to use dichlor to chlorinate in the first place. In other words, this is about as far from a viable solution as they get.
 
That is (shortened name) Dichlor and will add A TON of CYA to your pool and you will be rather quickly overwhelmed by how hard it is to manage your pool. I wouldn't touch it.

Pressure washing suppliers are GREAT resources for GREAT chlorine (as you say) It is most always very fresh and at a decent price. Have you tried to find a supplier?

I have not. That's what I'm in the process of doing now. I'd like to buy in bulk and I wouldn't mind getting 10%-12% if possible.

Dollar General used to carry generic 8.25% for a few years. The last couple of years they moved to 6% and the price stayed the same. Now I can't find any locally reliably. I just went there today and the same old story. Every shelf was stocked with bleach except the 120 oz. plain ol' 6%. The shelf was completely bare.
 
Thanks for the responses. Back to looking for bulk bleach suppliers. Just thought I'd run it by and hear what everyone had to say.
Do you have walmart pool essentials liquid chlorine available?

Most hardware stores and some farm stores will also stock 10%-12.5% liquid chlorine.

Do you have any janitorial or cleaning supply stores available?
Have you tried asking your local pool stores? It's taken 3 yrs, but mine are finally starting to carry out! ROFL!!
 
I went by Leslies today because I found an old store credit I need to use. Asked the manager if they carry liquid chlorine, and he said no. I asked why not. He said because it goes bad too quickly. I can buy that I guess. But then he added --- AND it raises your pH too much so you should use granular instead.

I didn't have the energy for a discussion, so I bought some acid with my credit and got the heck out of that store...ugh.
 

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Do you have walmart pool essentials liquid chlorine available?

Most hardware stores and some farm stores will also stock 10%-12.5% liquid chlorine.

Do you have any janitorial or cleaning supply stores available?
Have you tried asking your local pool stores? It's taken 3 yrs, but mine are finally starting to carry out! ROFL!!

Thanks for the pointer. I'll check it out. Even if my local store doesn't stock it, I should be able to order and pick up at the store. This is a great option. Cheap too.

There is a great chlorine (pressure washing grade) supplier in NW Raleigh right by the airport.....are you close?

I'm not too far away. My wife works in Morrisville - takes about 35 minutes for me to get there. What's the name of the place?
 
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