Bleach gets a bad rap - probably because it's one of the strongest industrial chemicals found in a typical home. Your wife uses it, and knows it's dangerous and is therefore fearful of it. Fair enough.
But we cant forget - Bleach is what keeps the Cholera out of our drinking water. The EPA says you can have 3ppm of Bleach in your drinking water - and in fact if you dont have at least 1ppm of Bleach in your drinking water then it's unsafe to drink!
One of the things people get hung up on with "BBB" is it sounds a lot like Use Laundry Detergent in the pool. But really it has nothing to do with that. What we are in search of are the purest forms of chemistry we need - with no additives - at the cheapest price. If we found these products at an automotive store or restaurant supply - we'd go there. It happens that this chemistry is found at the grocery store.
The thing about Bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite, Chlorine, whatever) is that is can be described as "Salt (the kind you eat) + Water + Energy" It's this extra energy that gives bleach it's disinfectant properties. But the beauty is once Bleach does it's thing it looses it's extra energy and converts back to salt. So there is no build up of anything in the water - except salt (the kind you eat)
I totally appreciate the skepticism. It's really hard to trust the information you find on the internet. So much of it is bogus. But you wont find a more detailed, technical, scientific and community oriented group of people than you'll find here.
If in the end it feels better to use 12% Sodium Hypochlorite "Pool Shock" rather than 6% Sodium Hypochlorite "Clorox Bleach" - go for it. Just keep in mind ALL forms of solid pool chlorine contain additional chemicals that DO build up over time and can cause problems. It's not that they are unsafe - you just gotta know what they are.
Anyways - I wish you and your wife a great summer. Kids and a pool are really what life is all about.
You can find a very detailed discussion of the chemical makeup of these products here :
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