Where do you store you chemicals

[crabboy]

Since my pool is now full I've got some chemicals laying around. I've got young kids and dogs that eat just about _everything_, so I don't want to leave them lying around. I don't want to put them in the basement because of the possibility of the fumes. The garage is up a flight of stairs which makes it a bit inconvenient, and I'd also need a safe spot in there anyway.

I though about building a small storage box outside under part of my deck. Is there a problem storing pool chemicals outside? Here in Atlanta, we have blistering hot summers and some freezing nights during the winter. Where is the ideal place to put this caustic brew?

 

[AnnaK]

I store mine in an old pickup camper rig which is set on a concrete pad near the pool. It has a sink, cabinets, and drawers. I do the water testing in there and keep all the chemicals in there, spatially separated.

Temperatures are ambient, as is humidity. During the off season I store reagents and liquid chemicals in the basement. Haven't noticed any fumes from either chlorine or HCl bottles.

Anna

 

[JasonLion]

We have a shed that holds the equipment pad and some shelving. All of the chemicals go there, but the test kit stays inside in air conditioning. The shed does smell of chlorine, quite strongly on occasion. I have taken to openning the door, going away for 5 minutes and then coming back before going inside. The only problem we have had with storage is a bottle of clarifier left by the previous owner burst in the winter. Everything else has been fine.

It is critical that you keep solid/powdered chlorine dry, and if it gets really really hot there could be problems. Here in Maryland I keep it fairly low in the shed but up off the floor and don't have problems, probably gets to over 120 in there. I have also taken to moving the liquids into the garage for the winter.

 

[bluenoise]

We have a wooden shed on the side of the house that contains all of the gardening tools, our bicycles, and some shelves for various fertilizers and other chemicals. I used to store the pool chemicals in there, too, but as was noted above, the fumes would build up quite strongly from the chlorine pucks and powder. Also, the high chlorine content in the shed appears to have wreaked havoc on all the metal hardware (bikes, shovels, mower, screws, etc.) with lots of rust. I now store all the chemicals outdoors on a shelf under my wife's potting bench. It's always in the shade and there is plenty of air circulation. Since I switched over to a SWG, I don't need to store the solid chlorine anymore, but I still have about 30 pounds of pucks left over that I'll use to replenish CYA as needed.