Has anyone invented a bleach dispenser yet?

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Desiato

Desiato

LifeTime Supporter
May 7, 2015
128
Catalunya, Spain
Pool Size
17900
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Ideally I'd want one that I can program to dispense a set amount of bleach at a set time and preferably for the next two weeks. Am I asking for too much?

As the saying goes, “I'm asking for a friend”. You see, I'm maintaining a friend's pool and at the moment I visit once every two weeks and tell them what days to add a bottle of bleach. The problem is they keep forgetting and it's got to the point where I'm about to tell them 'sorry but you'll have to find someone else to look after your pool'.

So if anyone knows of a relatively cheap system for administering bleach automatically, please, I'm all ears.
 

Stenner liquid chlorine pump - How to choose and install

CHLORINE (LIQUID CHLORINE OR BLEACH) INJECTION SYSTEM Overall comment: if you can use a salt water generator (SWG), you should. Bleach is harder to do. Do you really want to use bleach? Will a SWG (generates bleach in the pool) work for you? If you have a variable speed (VS) pump, then...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

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www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
Thanks for that. As you can tell I haven't done a lot of research as I'm happy with my basic set up. The line from that post that stands out is "a Stenner pump with a 30 gallon tank, tubing, weighted strainer, and injection fitting could be purchased for under $400 including shipping." That sounds like what my friends need but I know they would prefer something cheaper but I thik they are out of luck there.
 
Thats about as cheap as it gets for auto dosing.
Saltwater chlorine generators are a bit more pricey upfront- but at least with those you’re paying for all the chlorine it will provide over the life of the cell as well.
It’s really hard to maintain someone else’s pool if they don’t play along especially if you’re only going every two weeks.
The pool eats fc every day.
Most pool services come at least once a week & that’s really not frequent enough.
 
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Desiato said:
Thanks for that. As you can tell I haven't done a lot of research as I'm happy with my basic set up. The line from that post that stands out is "a Stenner pump with a 30 gallon tank, tubing, weighted strainer, and injection fitting could be purchased for under $400 including shipping." That sounds like what my friends need but I know they would prefer something cheaper but I thik they are out of luck there.
Click to expand...
Price for the Stenner system is now over $600.00. Hasa makes a liquid chlorine feeder, but like all things pool it needs maintenance from time to time. It can be set to add chlorine each time the filter-pump is running. About half the cost, relatively easy installation (two holes). No electrical hookup. HASA Liquid Feeder™ | Daily Water Sanitizer System | HASA
 
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Mdragger88 said:
Thats about as cheap as it gets for auto dosing.
Saltwater chlorine generators are a bit more pricey upfront- but at least with those you’re paying for all the chlorine it will provide over the life of the cell as well.
It’s really hard to maintain someone else’s pool if they don’t play along especially if you’re only going every two weeks.
The pool eats fc every day.
Most pool services come at least once a week & that’s really not frequent enough.
Click to expand...

Over January and February both mine and my friends pool eats up roughly .33ppm of chlorine a day and as 1 bottle of bleach here contains 2.75ppm, 1 bottle a week has been working fine for me. I brush and vacuum my pool once a week but my friends are on a tighter budget so they've asked if I can come less often (for a bit of cash in hand) and it's remianed clean and in balance with bi-weekly brushes/vacuums. This changes now to 1 visit every 10 days and through the late spring/summer.early fall, once a week.

You are absolutely right about the dificulty of others not playing along and two years ago I had to switch them back to chlorine pucks due to the pool regularly turning green due to missed additions. Anyway, I think I have my answer, there are solutions but as per usual, it won't be cheap.

*edited* saw I wrote .33ppm a week but that should have been a day.
 
Last edited:
1poolman1 said:
Price for the Stenner system is now over $600.00. Hasa makes a liquid chlorine feeder, but like all things pool it needs maintenance from time to time. It can be set to add chlorine each time the filter-pump is running. About half the cost, relatively easy installation (two holes). No electrical hookup. HASA Liquid Feeder™ | Daily Water Sanitizer System | HASA
Click to expand...
As you say, the Hasa feeder looks like it needs some maintentance or replacing after a year or two so yes, it's cheap but it could easily cost more in the long run. It's a good start though and gives me something to compare others to so thanks for that.
 
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In the winter there’s usually very low fc consumption. In the summer its a different story. Average is 2-4ppm/day sometimes higher.
Depending upon the rainfall (how much water gets exchanged) you may can supplement with pucks but they have their drawbacks as they increase cya & also are acidic so the mess with ph/ta.
I don’t know about spain but in the US the costs go as follows:
Pucks - most expensive per ppm of fc
Liquid chlorine- less expensive than pucks per ppm of fc
Swcg- least expensive per ppm of fc but highest initial cost

You’re not really “helping them out” by enabling them to neglect their pool & then swooping in to fix it. They will just continue this.
If they wanna let it go to pot - let them.
Personally, I would come up with a reason you can’t do it anymore (too busy etc.) & hope they either start doing what you’ve told them to do or hire a service to somewhat maintain their pool on a weekly basis. They want you to do something that’s not very practical to accomplish with the schedule that’s laid out. It has the potential to mess up your friendship.
 
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Mdragger88 said:
In the winter there’s usually very low fc consumption. In the summer its a different story. Average is 2-4ppm/day sometimes higher.
Depending upon the rainfall (how much water gets exchanged) you may can supplement with pucks but they have their drawbacks as they increase cya & also are acidic so the mess with ph/ta.
I don’t know about spain but in the US the costs go as follows:
Pucks - most expensive per ppm of fc
Liquid chlorine- less expensive than pucks per ppm of fc
Swcg- least expensive per ppm of fc but highest initial cost

You’re not really “helping them out” by enabling them to neglect their pool & then swooping in to fix it. They will just continue this.
If they wanna let it go to pot - let them.
Personally, I would come up with a reason you can’t do it anymore (too busy etc.) & hope they either start doing what you’ve told them to do or hire a service to somewhat maintain their pool on a weekly basis. They want you to do something that’s not very practical to accomplish with the schedule that’s laid out. It has the potential to mess up your friendship.
Click to expand...

Yep, that all sounds about right.

Here in the north of Spain (Barcelona) it's a little cooler than the south but even in the height of summer I rarely use more than the 2.75ppm a day that I get from our 5L bottle of weaker bleach.

It started off as 'helping her out' after her divorce as she had no idea about pool maintenance and was happy to 'pay me for my troubles'. Years later she's now married again but he's happy to leave the upkeep of the pool to me but her son kept forgetting to add the bleach (or would go away for a few days and not bother to tell anyone to add the bleach). So yeah, I've already said they should find someone else who can take the whole thing off their hands hence why I'm looking into automatic chlorine/bleach feeders, to ease the transition.

The CYA is still too high from when I switched them back to pucks 2 years ago and she doesn't want to drain the pool due to the cost and now there's water restrictions due to low reservoirs....but that's another story.
 
Desiato said:
As you say, the Hasa feeder looks like it needs some maintentance or replacing after a year or two so yes, it's cheap but it could easily cost more in the long run. It's a good start though and gives me something to compare others to so thanks for that.
Click to expand...
They last considerably longer than 1 year, last 2 I installed on a commercial pool and spa are still in place on 10 years later. Yes, the valve did have to be replaced once. The maintenance is usually cleaning the residue from the chlorine that will build up in the tank and on the valves. An owner's manual for the earlier version, the Liquidator, is attached, but they both work the same.
Just a suggestion. If you can't get someone to add chlorine its not likely they will do the maintenance needed.
 

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1poolman1 said:
They last considerably longer than 1 year, last 2 I installed on a commercial pool and spa are still in place on 10 years later. Yes, the valve did have to be replaced once. The maintenance is usually cleaning the residue from the chlorine that will build up in the tank and on the valves. An owner's manual for the earlier version, the Liquidator, is attached, but they both work the same.
Just a suggestion. If you can't get someone to add chlorine its not likely they will do the maintenance needed.
Click to expand...
I watched a few Youtube videos including one from Pool Man University where Dave from Hasa talks about their 'New Hasa Liquid Chlorine feeder' and the video is now two years old. There were some comments about this model having problems after a year or two so I'm guessing you are referring to the original model? Good to hear that the original ones lasted for 10 years, maybe I should be looking at those?

With regard to your suggestion, I'm doing the maintentance apart from the regular addition of bleach. If I can find a cheap automatic bleach dispensor, I've solved the problem of them forgetting to add it manualy.
 
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Desiato said:
I watched a few Youtube videos including one from Pool Man University where Dave from Hasa talks about their 'New Hasa Liquid Chlorine feeder' and the video is now two years old. There were some comments about this model having problems after a year or two so I'm guessing you are referring to the original model? Good to hear that the original ones lasted for 10 years, maybe I should be looking at those?

With regard to your suggestion, I'm doing the maintentance apart from the regular addition of bleach. If I can find a cheap automatic bleach dispensor, I've solved the problem of them forgetting to add it manualy.
Click to expand...
The feeders are literally "dirt simple." The problems that most people have come from not following the instructions on keeping the valve seals clean (literally a swipe with your finger), not allowing the residue in the bottom of the tank to build up so that it blocks the drop tube, or just pouring chlorine into the tank and not using it the way instructed.
 
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