dichlor vs calcium hypochlorite

[smartial]

Pool store says they are the same except calcium hypochlorite needs to be dissolved first. Is that accurate?
Wheres the best place to get dichlor?
thanks in advance
-s

 

[zea3]

Calcium hypochlorite and dichlore both add chlorine, but they are not the same.
Calcium hypochlorite adds calcium to the water in addition to chlorine. Pools do need some calcium, but too much is problematic and requires a partial drain and refill or a reverse osmosis treatment to lower calcium levels.

Dichlor/trichlor adds CYA to the chlorine. Outdoor pools also need some CYA, but too much is problematic and requires a partial drain and refill or reverse osmosis treatment to lower the level in the pool.

Both are sold in powder form as "pool shock". Both can be broadcast into the pool. Both are sold in pucks that can be used in an inline chlorinator or floating chlorinator. Over use of both can lead to frustrating problems with your pool balance.

Also, and this is very important, these two forms of chlorine do not play nice together! Never put calcium hypochlorite into a container that currently or has once held dichlor/trichlor. You will get a violent, caustic chemical reaction accompanied by explosion and/or fire.

As far as availability goes, just about any pool store will have their own brand of dichlor/trichlor products. Sometimes you can find it at places like Lowes or Home Depot.

 

[smartial]

Lawd a mercy!
Good looking out Zea3!
thanks

 

[anonapersona]

I don't dissolve calcium hypochlorite first. I pour it into the pool in the shallow end, all in one spot, then use the Wall Whale to brush it up and around. It swirls over to the deep end pretty quick. Probably better to do that in the deep end and I used to do that, but in the shallow end I don't have to extend the pole and the pole is stored at the shallow end -- call me lazy.

Second, I'll guess that the pool store is suggesting to you that you need to "shock" your pool with one of these products each week? Here at TFP, we only shock when the pool NEEDS shocking, as in visible algae, increased chlorine demand suggesting invisible algae, or some sort of emergency like when I saw vultures sitting around my spa, leaving awful bits of "something" floating in the water. When we shock, we do it at a specific FC level and until specific indicators tell us that we are done. It may take many applications of chlorine over many days to do a proper shock.

 

[JasonLion]

I definitely prefer to pre-dissolve cal-hypo. If the powder sits on the bottom of the pool in one place for very long it can damage the pool surface. Brushing it around can take care of it, but pre-disolving seems like less work to me.