Turned my pool into a clothes washer...

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M

mit43

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Apr 20, 2009
8
Yep, I made the same newbie mistake others have made and accidentally added Arm & Hammer laundry detergent instead of Baking Soda. I have read a couple other threads about this issue, but still have a few questions.

After the initial jump in PH, I have all the numbers in line.

The cold weather has caused the foam to rise to the top and freeze during the night. I have been scooping it off the last 3 mornings and it is noticeably less each day.

Here's my question. Is there any reason I would need to refill the pool if my numbers are good and eventually there are no more suds? Will there be any left over residuals that I would need to worry about?

I am going to go ahead and shock the pool. I saw that recommended on another site for this situation.

Thanks!
 
Welcome to TFP! :wave:

You're doing great and I think you won't have any residual problems from the mistake. Just keep removing the foam layer and as you point out shocking will speed up the breakdown of what is leftover, though it will go faster once the water warms up (all chemical reactions are sped up at higher temperatures). I'd probably just do the scooping now, but wait to shock until spring; otherwise, with the cold water temperatures, you'll be at high chlorine levels for quite some time. In the spring with sunlight, it won't take long to get the chlorine lower after the shock process.

The detergent chemicals are annoying due to the foam, but they won't harm your pool in such relatively small quantities.

Richard
 
I wanted to update this because when I searched I found very little info on this situation. I'm sure it will happen to someone again in the future.

I now have no suds. All levels are in line and everything looks great. Maybe instead of recommending the pool be drained as other threads I found recommended, we should just recommend a good shock and give it some time to clear up on it's own. Mine seems to have done just that with no draining. It took about 2 weeks to clear up. I think I put about 8 lbs of the detergent into 18,000 gallons.
 
mit43 said:
Maybe instead of recommending the pool be drained as other threads I found recommended, we should just recommend a good shock and give it some time to clear up on it's own
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Where did you see a recommendation to drain the pool? We never recommend that for something as minor as detergent in the pool.
 
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