Chlorine Smell Why?

[astrolite]

This past weekend I had a couple of people over, everyone including me could smell the chlorine in the pool. Just a faint smell, but a smell none the less. I'm using liquid bleach to sanitize and my CC has remained consistently < 0.5. I'm using the TF-100 to test.

Should you be able to smell that small amount of CC?

I figured from reading here that you can't smell FC, but is there some threshold limit at which you can smell FC? I am maintaining the FC at 5 - 8 ppm due to my CYA being 60 ppm.

Thanks

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I wouldn't think so. Not sure. I'll be watching to see what the guru's say. You sure it wasn't the power of suggestion? (one person "thought" they smelled it, mentioned it, and then everyone chimes in) Who smelled it first (LOL - sounds like a joke coming) it wasn't by chance a doubter of the BBB method?

 

[Casey]

I know that I can smell just a *hint* of chlorine at times in my pool but I have to get real close to the water line and I never go over .5 CC either. I just add a bit more bleach. 8)

Now, I went down the road and I could smell the CC's of my friend's pool standing 3 ft away from it! She says she prefers a minimun of 1 FC and less and won't hear anything about the BBB method and her pool turns all kinda funky colors. It's a shame, it could be such a nice pool.

As far as smelling that small amount of CC... I guess it's like some people who swim in salt water. Some can taste the salt and some can not. It just so happens that everyone in your pool had a good sniffer that night.

 

[Blessed- with a pool]

I notice that our swim suits smell of chlorine when my kids hang them to dry over the tub. I rinse them out and it goes away quick. I don't think the pool smells at all.

We have the same .5 CC. I keep my pool at 4ppm FC-- cya is at 30.

Blessed

 

[duraleigh]

A properly chlorinated pool will not smell acridly of chlorine. It may smell briefly like the fresh chlorine coming from the jug but if it's acrid, it's combined chloramines and the solution to it is to burn them off with more chlorine in your pool.

When my pool has been allowed to get too low on chlorine and I add a big dose to get it back on track, it is not uncommon to get that CC's smell for a few hours after adding it.

 

[JohnT]

I wonder if you could have locally high CC formation that could produce the smell before the reserve of chlorine in the pool eliminated it. :?:

 

[chem geek]

There can be a small local buildup of chlorine in the air just above the pool water if there isn't wind. If the smell is similar to the "clean" smell of bleach, then that's probably what you are noticing. It's very faint and sometimes I notice that in our own pool. The pool usually measures <= 0.2 ppm CC.

Nevertheless, even in a properly maintained pool, if you sweat then you will have Combined Chlorine (CC) form on/near your skin. Chlorine combines with ammonia in just seconds, but with an FC level that is about 10% of the CYA level it takes about 1-1/2 hours for half of the CC to breakdown (over 4 hours for 90%) if there is no sunlight. So one can sometimes smell the more acrid monochloramine smell on their skin when they get out of the water though usually it's not very strong since the quantity that stays on the skin is small.

I'm not sure about swimsuits, but suspect small quantities of urine since just a few drops contain a LOT of ammonia and urea.

In a pool with too little chlorine (low FC/CYA ratio) the CC can build up and that's when it smells like a "bad" pool smell even from a distance.

Richard

 

[freetime]

Could the smell be from standing water on the pool surround?

At my local (indoor) public pool CC smell is very noticeable in the changing rooms (but not at all on the poolside) only way I can think it gets there is on the swimmers, or maybe pool water used for wash down.

 

[ping]

I'm taking a guess at this, the changing rooms do not have a good exchange of fresh air like the pool has and the "pool" smell stays in the changing rooms.

 

[chem geek]

Also, the changing rooms might have bacterial growth and that can smell.