Has anyone found liquid chlorine in the northern suburbs of DFW? We’re converting over to managing our own pool chemistry and finding only bare shelves. I know we’re nearing the end of summer, but I expected to find more options.
Best Places to Buy Liquid Chlorine
- Thread starter JohnT
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reggiehammond
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- Oct 4, 2020
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Lowe’s and Home Depot have both had good stock almost all summer in west Fort Worth. I did notice two visits ago some empty shelves, but a few days later a couple of full pallets were there. I don’t buy it so I only see it when I walk by…
I read yesterday that Hurricane Ida will cause chlorine shortages again; so now may be the PERFECT time to move to SWCG.
I am in Lewisville area. Had great luck all summer buying 10% liquid at Ollie's across 35E from the mall (former Toys R Us location). Went today and they are out and can't say if/when they will get any more in. Hit three Walmarts and two Home Depots in Lewisville and Denton and zilch. Did find a bucket of Clorox blue 3" tablets at one of the Walmarts in Lewisville but I won't use those because they contain an algaecide. But it did prompt me to check their website and the 25 lb bucket of the plain Clorox tabs (just straight trichlor/stabilizer, no algaecide) is available with free 2-day delivery for $85. Even as I rarely use tabs, I jumped on that as I have less than two weeks' worth of liquid remaining and don't want to get caught with no options for the final two months of the swimming season. The shelf life of tabs is longer than liquid, so between keeping the pool clear for the rest of this season if I cannot find suitable liquid, vacations, and occasionally upping my CYA, those will get used up over the next year and a half. Plus, with word that Ida may have dealt an untimely blow to the Louisiana chlorine factory, best to get now before the tablets get more scarce and pricier again.
But I will continue to search and post if I locate a liquid source in north DFW. Ollie's has their "big" truck (whatever that means) coming on Thursday morning, so maybe? I will keep checking at Walmart and HD and give another looksie at Aldi and Winco for plain bleach. But that has all come down to 6% strength, so you have basically transport double the jugs. Big pain in the arse but whatcha gonna do in these times???
Good luck to all.
We only have several gallons left, but luckily I’d purchased chlorine tabs in late spring when there were rumors of a shortage. I was paranoid we would be unable to use the pool during our first pool season if the shortage came to fruition. Our CYA has crept up using the pool company though and I was really hoping to make the switch to 100% liquid.
- Jun 24, 2021
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TL;DR: Went on a search today for anything in my area of DFW. No luck on liquid 10% anywhere. Ollie's still says they might get more in but no guarantees. A couple of small hardware stores can have me 10% within three days, but they want $6.99+ a gallon and I would be committing to purchase not knowing the date codes. Winco has 81 oz jugs of 7.5 unadulterated bleach aplenty, but that comes out to just shy of two $3.18 jugs to equal one 10% full gallon. So those become last resort options. No tabs or liquid at Walmart in Lewisville, Hickory Creek, or Denton. Leslie's in Lewisville has some way overpriced Cal-Hypo in bags and buckets, but no tabs or liquid. Home Depot and Lowe's-Nothing. Wal-Mart has 12 lb and 25 lb buckets of Clorox pure Tri-Chlor with stabilizer (not blue; no algaecide) for online orders with free shipping but shipping times will vary up to 10 days. I ordered a 25lb bucket just in case nothing else is available and to give myself cover for early next season.
Green, I hear ya. At a time when a lot of northern pool owners are planning for over-wintering, we in the south are still hitting 100 degrees. If the past is prologue, even without a heater, our swimming season still has several months left. I have swum in the daytime as late as Thanksgiving, although that is a rarity. I rarely use tabs, but right now it is "CYA be darned" if I cannot get my hands on some reasonably priced liquid. Honestly, as much as I would hate it, if $6.50 to $7 a gallon becomes a new normal, I would rather go back to just using tablets and dumping a third to half my water every year or so. It would be a wash, if not cheaper, cost-wise, and a lot less time and hassle--both the actual maintenance but especially chasing around liquid like a junkie needing a fix!
My CYA is at 50, down from pushing it up in June to 60. So even if I use nothing but Trichlor tabs for the next two months, 70-80 heading into winter won't be a problem for me. I can't find any science to support it but my pool seems to lose about 30 CYA over the normal winter here in DFW. As much as 40-50 if it is especially cold and rainy. Now some of that is dumping water when there are heavy rains, but even as some have fervently reinforced to me that the only way to get rid of CYA is draining and dilution, it is simply a fact on my uncovered and unwinterized pool, CYA diminishes over the winter. Over the past five years, I have had two occasions that I ended October with 40-50 CYA and in March it was zero.
I have been wanting to go salt and had that budgeted for this spring until ERCOT tossed me in the dark for four days in February and the SWG money went to repairs. Plus, with the chlorine shortage, the cost of those has skyrocketed. Whereas last winter I could have bought a 60K gallon rated unit for $1200, now the 40K unit is $1500. I really want to triple rather than double-size the SWG so I can minimize run time most of the year and have a lot of headroom for the oppressive days of Texas summer without necessarily having to run my pump longer. Maybe if/when the chlorine situation resolves, the price of an SWG will fall back, even if never to prices pre-pandemic. There has been some speculation that the price increases are related to precious metal availability and to some extent that may be true. But the cynic in me believes it is a cash grab to take advantage of the chlorine shortages. I guess that is supply and demand in its most pure form. I also realize, after weeks of watching Afghanistan unfold, rising COVID cases, and a CAT4 Hurricane kicking Louisiana and Mississippi in the teeth on the way in and putting a boot in the Northeast's butt on the way out, my chlorine dilemma is a very first-world problem, one that ranks well down the list of even other first world problems. I certainly sympathize with the many others that have it a lot worse than me, but this is the first summer that the thought of selling the house and pool and moving somewhere without one became more than a fleeting thought.
Sorry for what is mostly a rant. I hope I at least provided a modicum of information to balance my frustration...
@DencoPaul - My H was able to find liquid at the Lowe’s at 380 & Custer today. I haven’t checked the dates, but I’m counting my lucky stars we were able to find it and I still have the tabs as a backup. Interesting observation regarding the CYA; hopefully it holds true for ours if we have to resort to tabs this winter. The SWG is looking more and more appealing.
Janitorial Supply Houses..... Feed Stores..... Hardware Stores.... Walmart..... look at those places too
my normal place is local Menards. last several weeks i havent seen any at all; before that they had a small amount of very old stock. yesterday they had a limited quantity of very fresh stuff.
Good news! Kept checking in with Ollie's in Lewisville, TX and they indeed got a pallet of 10% liquid on Friday truck. Same pool essentials brand, same $3.79 per gallon. Date code: July 26, 2021. I grabbed 16 to get me through the rest of this season.
So if you are in North Dallas/Denton County area, this might be a source for you. Or check one of the other Ollie's. I talked to the store manager and as I presumed, buying and stock shipment decisions are made above store level. "We get what they send us" is what he told me, so he couldn't say whether or not they will continue to get some in past this shipment. He did say this time they only got one pallet, instead of the usual 2-3 they had been getting earlier in the summer (it appeared that a pallet is 144 gallons boxed in 4 packs). I told him that I had been touting Ollie's to pool-owner friends, both locally and here online. Said that if they continue to carry this, he will not have a problem clearing his stock and that if he had any sway with his buyers, he should make them aware.
Hope this helps some of you out.
So if you are in North Dallas/Denton County area, this might be a source for you. Or check one of the other Ollie's. I talked to the store manager and as I presumed, buying and stock shipment decisions are made above store level. "We get what they send us" is what he told me, so he couldn't say whether or not they will continue to get some in past this shipment. He did say this time they only got one pallet, instead of the usual 2-3 they had been getting earlier in the summer (it appeared that a pallet is 144 gallons boxed in 4 packs). I told him that I had been touting Ollie's to pool-owner friends, both locally and here online. Said that if they continue to carry this, he will not have a problem clearing his stock and that if he had any sway with his buyers, he should make them aware.
Hope this helps some of you out.
Thanks for the info. I'll try Ollie's next time I'm getting low on my stk.
I'm located in Irving (DFW). I've been checking with my local Home Depot (Zip 75061). They've been out of stk since the last week in June but I stopped checking daily since 2 weeks ago when I went to my local Leslie's & checked their stk. I expected them to say "We're out" but they had a pallot of 12.5% Bleach so I stocked up. The cost per jug is high, ~$5.50 with a small bulk discount. The item comes in 4-jug cartons. I didn't like paying Leslie's price but I don't want to go back to Cal Hypo for my pool dosing.
The other thing I 've noticed, at least in the DFW area, is that Home Depot's & Lowe's stopped showing their store stk about 3-4 months ago in their on-line store site's. I asked a Home Depot employee about it & they said (what I expected) due to the product shortage, they stopped showing their online store stk levels & switched to the "Check with In-Store Visits", etc.
One thing I noticed is that with the Leslie's Bleach (Mfgr "Blue Whale"), I don't see any Julian or any Mfg Date on the Jugs or the Carton. I may be overlooking it but I can't find any Mfg Date on this item. This is the 1st time I've bought "Blue Whale" Bleach product.
I live in California. is this a good deal?
I'm also curious about the chlorine tabs you put in the pool floater. are those unnecessary? I know leslies says they are "stabilized chlorine" so it's good to have them along with adding "unstablized chlorine" but after recently finding this forum, I don't want to believe much of what I learn from Leslies.
reggiehammond
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- Oct 4, 2020
- 2,258
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The HDX liquid chlorine is a great option; just provided it's not old and less effective. This year, however, that's not as big an issue given the chronic shortages.
Tabs have a place, but frequent usage is not one of them as they also contain CYA which builds up quickly, rendering the chlorine ineffective.
Your pool store advice is wrong - liquid chlorine and tablet chlorine is the same thing, doing the same job. Tabs build up CYA directly; liquid does not.
my CYA is high according to leslies. I'm having trouble getting a test kit. seems like they are sold out. my chlorine-cya ratio is bad so it seems like I should just add liquid chlorine. For the HDX, is there a date on the bottle generally? what defines it as "old"?
reggiehammond
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- Oct 4, 2020
- 2,258
- Pool Size
- 30000
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- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
The only way to fix your issue is by draining a significant portion of your water. If your CYA is truly sky high, your source of chlorine doesn’t matter much as it simply can’t do it’s job.
BUT - you need a test kit as pool store testing is known to be wildly inaccurate. There’s been recent threads of people getting CYA readings from the pool store over 100, when actually they were just fine.
My advice: wait for your test kit before doing anything.
It’s kind of been replaced by the TF-Pro which has a much better case. TF-Pro with SmartStir. Email at [email protected] if you need help.
TexEdmond
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- Jun 16, 2021
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good resource for checking dates HERE:
Chlorine Date Code Decoder - Further Reading
www.troublefreepool.com
reggiehammond
Gold Supporter
- Oct 4, 2020
- 2,258
- Pool Size
- 30000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Two full pallets of HDX Chlorinating Liquid at White Settlement, TX Home Depot this evening.
Only been out of stock once this summer that I’ve noticed.
Only been out of stock once this summer that I’ve noticed.