Educating the Pool Store

ajw22

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Jul 21, 2013
65,058
Northern NJ
Pool Size
35000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I like supporting local family run business and I think we need more of them in our towns. There is a local pool store , family run by the 2nd generation brother and sister, where I buy liquid chlorine, muriatic acid, salt, and small stuff I need like the tail scrubber for my Polaris cleaner.

I opened my pool a few days ago and used the 4 gallons of liquid chlorine and 3 gallons of MA I had leftover from last season as I described in...


I was on my way to an appointment that took me right by the pool store and had an extra five minutes to pickup some liquid chlorine and MA. The pool store would be closed by the time I was done with my appointment. But they are usually empty around 2PM on a weekday so I figured I could breeze in and out.

I walked in, said hello to the gal, put my credit card down and said I need 4 cases of liquid chlorine and one case of acid. She rang it up and then we walked to the stack of liquid chlorine cases where she was going to help me carry it out.

Now it being April and they closed over the winter I assumed their liquid chlorine would be reasonably fresh. They had a stack of cases 4 high and 4 deep ready for the season. As I reached down to pickup a case I glanced at the date code - 24 241. Uh oh! I did not need to take out a calendar to figure out that chlorine is close to seven months old.

I walked around the stack of boxes hoping it was just an old case but they were all the same date code. I called the gal over and pointed out the date code and explained to her what the 241st day of 2024 was approximately. 120 days before the end of the year, 4 months, and we were over 3 months into 2025.

She did not know about the chlorine date codes or that chlorine degrades and after seven months it probably lost 20% or more of its potency. She was honestly surprised, grateful for the discussion, and said she will discuss it with their distributor.

I asked for a refund on three cases and I would take one case now and check back with them in a few weeks and see if they got a fresh supply.

I will see if I changed at least one pool store a bit for the better.

And check those date codes on liquid chlorine.IMG_0282.jpeg
 
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I dont know why you are worried about the date code. That stuff doesnt have CYA in it and everyone knows that unstabilized chlorine will instantly be gobbled up by the sun's UV rays.


:poke:
 
I tried. Made me feel good.
My PBs store was staffed with extended family or family friends and they usually stayed for years. Every last one genuinely wanted to be helpful, they just couldn't think for themselves if it wasn't on the biogaurd printout.
 
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