Cal-Hypo

[perryy]

I've been doing BBB for the last year or so and the pool is great. But, i'm getting tired of lugging large jugs of 6% bleach from Walmart, so was thinking about a more convenient alternative. The local chemical supply has 68% cal-hypo. I calculate that it will cost me about two-thirds what it costs for bleach if I buy a 100 lb bucket of cal-hypo. However, I read in pool school that this will result in too high CH after a while.
So, given that I have rather low CH now (vinyl pool liner, so I haven't been concerned about it), seems like i could use cal-hypo until my CH gets up to 300 or so, and then go back to bleach.
Is this a reasonable plan?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Sure. Just keep your PH below 7.8 and it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[X-PertPool]

I use cal-hypo indefinitely and my ch has not increased to high levels yet, this is what I primarily use to "shock" pools. Although if you really love BBB and you are willing to shop at a pool store why not go with liquid chlorine it's essentially just a stronger version of bleach about 15%, it doesn't store well though because it loses it's potency

 

[JasonLion]

In 20,000 gallons, 100 lbs of cal-hypo will raise CH by about 270. If your fill water CH levels are low and you backwash your filter regularly that can work for quite a while. But do keep an eye on the CH levels, calcium scale can cause some serious problems.

Large quantities of cal-hypo can be extremely dangerous if you ever have a fire. The odds of having a problem are very low, but still, I am not sure I would ever want to have 100 lbs in my house. You also need to be sure to keep it cool (room temperature cool, not refrigerated or anything like that). It can degrade at high temperatures, especially when stored for a long time.

 

[X-PertPool]

In 20,000 gallons, 100 lbs of cal-hypo will raise CH by about 270. If your fill water CH levels are low and you backwash your filter regularly that can work for quite a while. But do keep an eye on the CH levels, calcium scale can cause some serious problems.

Large quantities of cal-hypo can be extremely dangerous if you ever have a fire. The odds of having a problem are very low, but still, I am not sure I would ever want to have 100 lbs in my house. You also need to be sure to keep it cool (room temperature cool, not refrigerated or anything like that). It can degrade at high temperatures, especially when stored for a long time.

Fire hazard?! You mean I shouldn't be storing my 50lb barrels of cal-hypo on top of my furnace? lol :-D