On top of the previous reccomendations, Walmart has 10% pool essentials chlorinating liquid in the pool aisle for $5.67(?).
Check the dates to ensure it's fresh
Chlorine Date Code Decoder - Further Reading
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Opening my pool and want to do it real nice this time
- Thread starter monsterman
- Start date
Check the dates to ensure it's fresh
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- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,934
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Granular stabilizer/ cya also sometimes called conditioner. It’s ingredients list should say 100% cyanuric acid .
It is ok to use different forms of chlorine occasionally depending upon your needs so long as they don’t have unwanted ingredients & your pool actually needs what they provide.
Note * Many Trichlor tablets are not 99% trichlor & contain copper so you must read the labels.
Cal hypo tablets are often hard to find
Both types of tablets are generally more expensive than liquid chlorine when you compare the fc they provide.
Adding individual chemicals separately is also much easier to deal with & more predictable instead of using a “multi function” product that moves multiple parameters in various ways.
Sunny Blues
LifeTime Supporter
You have to hunt/research. I couldn’t find it anywhere around us ten years ago except the American Sale store. I found 10% varieties at Home Depot and Lowe’s, but the pool stores and Walmart only offered 6-8% options and a bunch of other multi-use “mixes” with junk that my pool didn’t need. Once we found the 12.5% we never looked anywhere else in all this time.
I envy those that can just purchase refills and reuse the bottles. LOL But we do like having a few cases on hand for convenience and less shopping/travel, so right now my husband has 4 cases (four gallons in each) sitting on my kitchen floor. We have only used 1.5 gallons of it so far after opening about 10 days ago. Our water was so well balanced upon opening it only requires little bits here and there.
These days it’s offered at more places since demand rose from our growing population.
If you can’t find 12.5%, the 10% will work just fine. I know Home Depot has 10%. Always check the ingredients and make sure no other chemical name is listed other than sodium hypochloride. If there is don’t buy it and keep looking.
Ours is called “pool shock liquid chlorinator”, by Champion and there is no other chemical named in the ingredients. I’ve seen a lot of other products in pool stores and aisles with same name (shock, pool shock, liquid chlorinator) so one might think they are the right product, but they had additional junk in them. Read the ingredients always, not just the name or titles.
Careful with buying online. Prices are heavily padded for shipping, like up to $80 for the 4-gallon case I pay $20 for in person. I’ve found it online for $5.99/gal but that doesn’t reflect whatever shipping will be at checkout.
There is a thread here where members from all over post their local stores they found it at. So far there are 68 pages to the thread so you should find some help/ideas somewhere in there for your area: Best Places to Buy Liquid Chlorine
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,934
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
You can also use this tool to source liquid chlorine
www.troublefreepool.com
Where to find Liquid Chlorine
We want to help you with your pool and maintain your water. Help users find a quality source of Chlorine around them or find a source for your pool.
www.troublefreepool.com
Sunny Blues
LifeTime Supporter
I haven’t used strips since using our quick setup Intek kiddie pool. LOL I honestly can’t say what it would tell you, other than whether it’s lower than 3 ppm. Sure you can use it to see if your chlorine is zero, but not knowing what your CYA levels are makes it hard to know how much liquid chlorine is actually needed. Maybe it’s safe/ok to just add enough liquid chlorine today and tomorrow to keep it at 1-3 ppm FC. It might be too low and burn off too quickly but then you just test more multiple times a day and add more, and at least you know your aren’t too high. It’s only tedious babysitting for the next two days. Tuesday will be here soon and you can get down to accurate precise care.
As for buying anything other than liquid chlorine before Tuesday, I wouldn’t waste the money. However it never hurts to have CYA on hand for when it’s lower than you desire. It WILL get used at some point, whereas baking soda may sit around for years before you’d need it.
Muratic acid is always nice to have on hand to help with high pH, or to help lower alkalinity, or to add borates to your pool. But you need precise testing results to know when and how much. So you can buy a gallon or two and it too will get used at some point so wouldn’t be a waste of money, but I wouldn’t use it this weekend at all while waiting for the test kit.
Trust the chlorine. It combats and protects from most problems. Take several readings today and tomorrow with your strips and add the amount of chlorine needed to keep your ppm at 3 until Tuesday. If you believe there is CYA in your pool and have an idea how much, like say you know it’s at least 50ppm, then you need to use the Chlirine/CYA chart to know how much chlorine you need to keep steady. it will be higher, 4-6 ppm, and the strips will become difficult knowing where you are at. My last experience with strips was knowing the yellowest color meant 3 ppm or greater. Well … how much greater? If you need 5 how can you know you don’t already have 5? It only shows it’s at or higher than 3. That’s why I’m suggesting just keep it to 3 ppm and wait until the test strip results in a lower amount before adding more.
and so it begins---washed covers and letting them dry-and letting the robot do some vacuuming- then I will manually vacuum (after I fill the pool)then finally after all that I will test with strips to get an idea and keep you posted until I get the tF100 kit plus the stirrers. And I will add some liquid chlorine-- that is it-- hope u have a great holiday weekend- will keep u posted
Sunny Blues
LifeTime Supporter
Best of luck for an enjoyable holiday!! It’s hard for new people to get help at the last minute so that their holiday isn’t ruined. The anxiety over that can be forgotten by us veterans. I know you mean to learn more on your own, and you really didn’t have much time to do that properly to save the holiday swim, so you needed quick advice from others just for the weekend. I myself forgot it was a holiday weekend when I first read your thread.
Some of us who found TFP long after we were pool owners and doing the pool store methods forget just how much time it took us to learn what we needed to know, clearly enough to apply smart moves in a 48 hour period. That’s really hard to do. Especially when it’s like learning a new language. You’re speaking English and everyone around here is speaking TFP Swahili forgetting you can’t understand them.
Sure you can grab and read our Learn to Speak Swahili threads but by the time you understand what you need to in the way that you needed to it will be Wednesday morning and the holiday long gone. I’m glad you got sound advice that will get you through the weekend. Spend some time here over the next few weeks reading and ask questions that you have to clarify what you read. By this time next year you will be providing someone else advice on Memorial Day weekend trying to help save their holiday and speaking a different language than them. Lol
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,934
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
I doubt this will happen to you next year anyway if you stick with TFP as we’re the open early & close late crowd! It’s about water temperature not a day on the calendar.
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Closing (Winterizing) Your Above Ground Pool
Closing an above ground pool at season’s end should be a fast and worry-free process. Learn the basics of above ground pool winterization in easy steps.
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- May 30, 2020
- 227
- Pool Size
- 21000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
I get my liquid at BJ's Wholesale Club. Looks like there are a couple of stores located on Long Island, if you are a member and they are close enough for you. 4- 1 gal jugs, 12.5%. ($19.99 in Maryland).
As others have mentioned, there is a ton of information already posted to the forum. I understand how one might get frustrated to keep reading and either not understand the TFP method or try to equate TFP information with that of other web sources. I lurked and read many of those for 1.5 years until I finally convinced myself to take charge of my pool testing and make corrections to the water based upon MY test results. TFP has served me well for the past 3 years. Pick one topic for clarification, search the forum for that one item, see if others have been through the same or similar experience, see if the solution applies to you, try that solution (or not), ask if you need more help. Once that light bulb comes on, you'll see how easy pool maintenance can be.
Thank you-- but I bought my liquid chlorine at ACE Hardware-- and the item is called CDS Liquid Chlorinator-- and as for the ingredients it says as follows-- ACTIVE INGREDIENT--10% sodium Hypochlorite-- and then under that it says OTHER INGREDIENTS-- 90%-(BUT NO NAMES OF ANYTHING??) and under that it says TOTAL- 100%.. So as you mention above-- other ingredients-- this has to have something but it is not listed?
everything going smoothly-- My robot vacuum is working nicely and I brushed all the walls etc. I am in the process of filling up the pool- it is taking a long time as expected. It will either not be done tonight or if it is- it will happen by 11 PM or after. Right now the water is NOT up to the skimmer area yet- so I cannot turn on the filter because there is NO water in the skimmer basket. Thus I do not think I can shock the pool tonight. My question is- can I shock it during the day tomorrow- JUST to get things moving a bit?
It's water. Chlorinating liquid or liquid shock is what you want, so yours is fine. Any household bleach has additives or technologies these days, and they're 4% weaker.
What's the water look like ?
If it's not a swamp, the 5ppm (daily) should be fine to keep you from going to a swamp.
If it *is* a swamp, it needs a controlled battle and blindly dumping shock or whatever in there.......... AKA 'dump and pray'...... is a waste of supplies 9 times out of 10. Heck. 99 out of 100.
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,934
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
The 90% is mainly water.
That’s the right stuff
Adding the 5ppm worth isn’t shock level. Just to get some chlorine in the water. We’ll go to battle properly when you can test.
You can add it slowly to the hose stream(away from the liner) & brush the area well so it doesn’t pool on the liner.
No it actually is blue-- just NOT crystal clear blue- a very little haziness that's all
OK so you'll be fine adding the 5ppm a day until Tuesday.
remember I will not be getting the kit as per Nate until the end of the week- since u guys are closed Monday and I am in Long Island. I don't mind adding some every day- but can you refresh me on approximately using guesswork as you did before- tell me how much liquid chlorine in ounces is 5ppm. Thanks again- by the way I just donated-- u guys are very kind.
Thanks for the emoji-- but please remind me how much in ounces is 5 ppm per day until I get the kit- I know it is guesswork- but whatever- like before- make believe my level is one # and the target is another- so how much in ounces is 5 ppm?
Did you play with PoolMath yet ? It's amazing and simple. Set up your pool details and then it has several tabs, one for each parameter. In this case, click on FC. Enter your FC level (0) and your target FC (5) and it will tell you what to do. (70 oz in this case)
That's ok. You'll be fine sticking to the plan. Err. It won't be any worse than it was going to be anyway.
The emoji took 2 seconds. It took a couple mins after that to screenshot and reply the post above.
Sunny Blues
LifeTime Supporter
It will be different for every pool because it is based on how many gallons your pool volume is. That’s why you use the Pool Math app, enter your pool volume, then tap the “+” sign at the bottom of the main screen, and tap “log test results”. Enter whatever you can about the water for that day then tap “
” at the top of screen to accept/record. Then, back on the main screen tap the FC reading. The amount you logged will be under “current”. Enter “5” in the “Target Free” field and then at the bottom select the 10% liquid bleach. Below that it will show you how much you need for 5ppm.
No advice. You're in excellent hands I'll try to offer a little encouragement though.
I know it seems overwhelming. It's easy to sit back and say trust us and the process. Very difficult to actually trust sometimes. I'm very much a "why" person. The "why" is here on the site. It's confusing at first but once you understand the simple reasoning behind the TFP method, the science makes sense.
Last summer was my first swim season with a pool. I was "sold" before that. Not just because what they offer here is simple, cheap and highly effective, but because I knew EXACTLY what was going to be in the water I was swimming in and how much of it. I also knew it WASN'T going to be a chemical stew of unknown "stuff".
That beautiful grandchild of yours will thank you for all the effort you're putting in now. You'll love how easy this really is and all the extra worry free time you'll have to play in the pool and not work on it.
I'll try to offer a little encouragement though. I know it seems overwhelming. It's easy to sit back and say trust us and the process. Very difficult to actually trust sometimes. I'm very much a "why" person. The "why" is here on the site. It's confusing at first but once you understand the simple reasoning behind the TFP method, the science makes sense.
Last summer was my first swim season with a pool. I was "sold" before that. Not just because what they offer here is simple, cheap and highly effective, but because I knew EXACTLY what was going to be in the water I was swimming in and how much of it. I also knew it WASN'T going to be a chemical stew of unknown "stuff".
That beautiful grandchild of yours will thank you for all the effort you're putting in now. You'll love how easy this really is and all the extra worry free time you'll have to play in the pool and not work on it.