Liquid chlorine - why you need safety glasses!

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artellan

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Jun 5, 2014
17
Canada
I found out the hard way why safety glasses are recommended for pouring any hazardous liquid, regardless of how careful you are.

Yesterday I poured liquid pool chlorine (10.5%) from a measuring cup into the pool with my arm outstretched, and the cup only 4 inches or so from the surface of the water. Same way as I'd done for 10+ years. But this one time a very small droplet of liquid chlorine splashed back up into my eye -- splashing approx 3 feet up after only a 4 inch drop. Even after flushing the eye immediately I had to go to the hospital for medical attention.

It seems to defy physics, but it's possible as long as the droplet is small (a "piece" of the original drop gets the energy of the rest of the drop transferred to it).
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Safety glasses from now on!
 
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*goggles.

The droplet will seemlessly change direction in mid air to make it around the glasses then hook again to hit the eye. Ask me how I know. Except it was Muriatic Acid. 😁

Glad you're OK now.
 
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I know it's a lot easier for me to do with an above-ground pool, but the safest way to introduce liquid to the pool is to float the container at the water's surface and pour at or just above the surface. I ruined many a shirt when I was a teen and added liquid chlorine standing up in to my father's pool. Nowadays when I have added chlorine to his pool I've sacrificed my knees on the textured concrete rather than risk splashing.
 
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artellan said:
I poured liquid pool chlorine (10.5%) from a measuring cup into the pool with my arm outstretched, and the cup only 4 inches or so from the surface of the water.
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Pour straight from the jug into the pool. Same concept applies to MA. Every time liquid chemicals are handled (measuring cup, bucket dilution, etc.) it increases the risk of spilling or splashing, which is unfortunately what happened to you. Pour slowly in front of a return with the mouth of the bottle ~1" from the surface of the water. It's faster, easier, and much safer.

The exact amount isn't critical. You can always add more if needed.

Open the bottle over the water. Pour in front of a return with the pump running. The bottle opening should be just above the surface of the water. You can partially submerge the bottle and use its buoyancy to assist. Slowly pour (pencil stream). Keep the bottle over the water when replacing the cap. When the cap is snug, dunk the entire bottle under the water and slowly swish around to remove any liquid that may have trickled down the outside of the bottle. When done pouring, use your pool brush to mix the area and you're done.

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Thanks. For some reason I thought it should be higher than an inch in order to allow the chlorine to get deeper into the water instead of staying near the surface (especially with the cover on). I agree with 1 inch of clearance it would be far less likely to splash up into your face!

Note I was doing a pencil stream (I think even narrower than a pencil, actually) at the time this happened. I guess the ~4 inch height was the culprit. (It's possible it was as high as 6 inches, I don't remember and obviously wasn't measuring!)
 
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