Chemical Cost Calculator

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E

easttn

0
Jun 22, 2013
305
East TN
Thanks to the helpful and knowledgeable people on this forum, I created a calculator to figure up the cost of adding things. It may seem a bit advanced for new people so it has some instructions. Its probably a little late in the season to do most people any good, but better late than never.

http://jfhtm350.webs.com/pool/ChemicalCostCalculator.html

If anyone finds anything wrong or has suggestions, let me know and I will correct them.
 
Nice. This will come in handy. Was thinking about switching to cal-hypo next year but I can't remember how much it was at the pool store. I will look the next time I am there.
 
Shirker said:
Nice. This will come in handy. Was thinking about switching to cal-hypo next year but I can't remember how much it was at the pool store. I will look the next time I am there.
Click to expand...

Your sig says you have AG pool so CH isn't a problem unless it get's high. Could get there using strictly Cal Hypo. Liquid chlorine is best IMO ?
 
I noticed when I typed in the cost of calhypo vs calcium, the calcium was cheaper, but when I typed in the cost of trichlor/dichlor vs drycya the trichlor/dichlor was cheaper for adding CYA.
But then you have to ask yourself how quickly you need the CYA (If you had 0). It can take a week for Dry Cya to dissolve and Trichlor takes awhile to dissolve too, so which would you be better off with? Im not sure how quickly Dichlor dissolves but I suspect the cya in it takes a while to dissolve too.

Also I wouldnt put full trust on the calculator keeping your data. It can be deleted by deleting your cookies. There is no way to back up and restore the data that I could find. The plus side of using localStorage is the abilitly to store more data than cookies and there is no expiration date, but still can be deleted
 
Shirker said:
... Was thinking about switching to cal-hypo next year but I can't remember how much it was at the pool store....
Click to expand...
I use a good bit of cal hypo. Check online for the best price. I normally buy it at one of the pool catalog stores with the best price that day & w/ free shipping. Surprisingly, I've found the one pound bags of cal hypo shock to be cheaper than buying it in bulk/buckets.

Good luck!
 
Your sig says you have AG pool so CH isn't a problem unless it get's high. Could get there using strictly Cal Hypo. Liquid chlorine is best IMO
Click to expand...

I'm not too worried about calcium at this point. My fill water is has a CH of 75 but I will keep a close eye on it. I will use which ever is cheaper (because I am cheap) as long as it does not cause other problems. Right now I'm thinking the bleach is going to be cheaper for me though.
 
Updated.
Added customizable calcium hypochlorite and trichlor percentage boxes.
Added some info to help people read msds sheets. Its under Tools/MSDS Info.
Changed the color of the chemical brands tooltips.
Fixed a couple other things.
 

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Updated.
Added more customizable percent boxes.
Now when adjusting the borate cost, the calculator will automatically use the cheapest hydrochloric acid cost between the two (31.45 and 15.7). The 15.7% field is costomizable.
Straightened up the looks to less confusing.
In order to see the chemical information, you have to click the chemical name.
 
Updated.
Changed the bleach calculations so now each one uses its own specific gravity for improved accuracy instead of using a static specific gravity. This is user adjustable and the specific gravities are hidden beside the "notes" field. This should be considered an "Advanced" option and there should be no need to adjust them. Changing the specific gravity to an incorrect value can really mess up the calculation.

If anyone is using IE8 and you want to save the data, you should check to see if IE8 will save empty values in any of the fields beforehand. This causes IE8 to crash on my system when loading the empty data back. I dont know why or maybe its just on my configuration. It doesn't do this with IE9 on Vista. Firefox works fine. I'm not sure about anything else.

Updated the instructions and other minor improvements.

A side note, just because a chemical is cheaper than the other doesn't necessarily mean that's what you need to use. Thats not exactly what this calculator means. It just compares costs. Example is Trichlor or Dichlor comes up cheaper than bleach. If your CYA is too high then you dont want to use Trichlor or Dichlor. Doing this could actually cost you more if you end up getting algae because your CYA is too high and your Free Chlorine is too low. Trichlor and Dichlor should only be used if your CYA is low to raise it and you should check PoolMath to see how much of it you can use.

These are the side effects of some of the chemicals one should know about when selecting the proper chemicals to use:
Sodium Hypochlorite (Bleach): Adds FC and a little salt.
Calcium Hypochlorite: Adds FC and increases CH.
Trichlor: Adds FC and increases CYA.
Dichlor: Adds FC and increases CYA. Dichlor increases CYA faster than Trichlor.
Lithium Hypo: Adds FC and a little salt. Generally expensive.
Muriatic Acid: Lowers pH. Be cautious of spillage and the fumes.
Dry Acid: Lowers pH and adds sulphates.
Sodium Carbonate: Raises pH and the TA a little.
Borax: Raises pH and adds Borates.
 
Updated.
Had to fix a problem with the specific gravities changing back which wasnt an issue if it wasnt being changed.

Just out of curiousity, how many people are using this calculator so I know I'm not wasting my time?
 
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