CYA Free Chlorine Tabs Exist!

[planopool]

1 Stop Pool Store in Plano, TX is selling Stabilizer free chlorine pucks. I assume that means no CYA. I searched TFP and found no mention of such a product, only whoever invented it would get rich. This seems like a no-brainer product for those of us who have the chlorine dosing device. Simply move to the CYA free pucks when our CYA levels are at an optimum. I understand that they cost a little more, but it seems to be very much worth it. I find it hard to believe that this product exists and TFP is not abuzz with the news.

Do any of you have any information or experience with CYA Free Pucks?
Is there any reason to retrofit a liquid chlorine injection system when these tabs are available?
Isn't this product the Holy Grail to CYA/Chlorine balancing?

 

[tim5055]

Tabs made from CalHypo have been available for years. Instead of adding CYA, these tabs ad calcium, which pools in the southwest usually don't need any more of because of high CH source water.

Plus, CalHypo "dissolve" at a different rate and turn into a gummy mass as they do dissolve. They can not be used in normal puck feeders, but need a special grinder feeder.

Also available for years are Lithium tabs. The big downside to these when you can find them is high cost.

Plus, I have had pool store employees tell me that their pucks have no CYA. They have even pointed to the ingredints and said, See - CYA is not listed. When you look you will find these things listed:

Trichloroisocyanuric acid

dichloro-s-triazinetrione or dichloroisocyanuric

Both of these have CYA as part of their chemical composition.

Not a holy grail, just another tool to use if they fit your pools needs.

In it's natural state, chlorine is a gas. Many large commercial pools actually use gas injection systems to chlorinate their pools.

Now, to change chlorine into something we can use at home it needs to be bound to something to turn it into a solid. The "somethings" that are commonly used are:

Stabilizer (also known as CYA) - these are the most common pucks

Calcium CalHypo is the common name - They add calcium to the water

Lithium hypochlorite - As I said above, high cost

or --- get this water - Chlorine bound to water is liquid chlorine, also known as bleach

All of these add a little salt to your water.

 

[Donldson]

The quick answers to this:

Do any of you have any information or experience with CYA Free Pucks?
It's calcium-hypochlorite, same stuff sold as "shock". Nothing special except that they are compressed in to a tablet form or bound with

Is there any reason to retrofit a liquid chlorine injection system when these tabs are available?
You cannot use these in a standard puck feeder. They also build up calcium in the water, which becomes as much an issue in a pool as CYA. Unlike CYA though there is calcium in replacement water, so it takes more water replacement to lower the calcium level than it does to lower the CYA level.

Isn't this product the Holy Grail to CYA/Chlorine balancing?
Nope. Your metaphor is pretty spot on though since plenty of people claim to have found it but all have proven to be wrong. It's just not the tablet of a carpenter, if you get my reference.

 

[planopool]

Thank you for your replies.
I am crushed! An elegant solution gone bad.
I will check with the store to see which tablet they are selling.
Shouldn't they be advising customers of the problems with this product?

Bubbling in a little gas would be awesome, but chlorine gas is so dangerous. It's likely that chlorine gas is what caused that terrible accident in the fast food restaurant recently- bleach + acid -> chlorine gas. I encountered it once in a brewery. Run for your life.

I guess next summer I will have to add some sort of liquid chlorinator. for a simple system, couldn't I pump it into the top of the puck feeder using a timer? Seems like tapping the feeder top or putting a Y on one of the feeder hoses would be a good method to inject bleach.

 

[jimbethesda]

The holy grail is a SWG

 

[98chrysler]

I guess next summer I will have to add some sort of liquid chlorinator. for a simple system, couldn't I pump it into the top of the puck feeder using a timer? Seems like tapping the feeder top or putting a Y on one of the feeder hoses would be a good method to inject bleach.

I added a Stenner pump this year on the cheap. I found a used pump on eBay for $40 and replaced the tube with a #7 for $15. I got a Woods digital outdoor timer from Amazon for $11 and a Stenner injection nozzle on eBay for $12. I used a repurposed closed top 5 gallon bucket with some insulation tape wrapped around it and plumbed it into the bottom fitting on my Pentair puck feeder. I ran it for 33 minutes a day this summer and 9 minutes a day this fall. Top the bucket off once a week and that's it. SWG would be ideal but the initial cost, replumbing and the risk of salt corosion in my heater scared me away. Plano Walmart has a good deal on the Great Value bleach.

 

[sacredcow]

In it's natural state, chlorine is a gas. Many large commercial pools actually use gas injection systems to chlorinate their pools.

The last time I used a pool service (3 or 4 houses and a over a decade ago), they had a setup to inject chlorine gas on their trucks. As I hear, their insurance was none too pleased about them driving around with chlorine gas canisters and ended that practice. It worked great, though- other than bleaching the heck out of the liner.

 

[tim5055]

The last time I used a pool service (3 or 4 houses and a over a decade ago), they had a setup to inject chlorine gas on their trucks. As I hear, their insurance was none too pleased about them driving around with chlorine gas canisters and ended that practice. It worked great, though- other than bleaching the heck out of the liner.

Not in every market, but the chlorine gas injection companies are still out there.