Bleach Prices 2014

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Just posted this in another area:

After quite a few calls I was able to find a source for reasonably priced liquid chlorine in Northern NJ.

The company info:

Universal Chemical
100 N. Hackensack Ave.
South Kearny, NJ 07032
(973) 589-1525

The gentleman I spoke to is named Jerry. He was very friendly and accommodating.

He will sell LC in any volume, up to tanker truck loads. The most inexpensive way to purchase is to bring your own container(s) for him to fill.


The cost is $2.75 per gallon of 12.5%.
The deposit for a 5 gallon carboy is $7.50 EACH.
Don't forget 7% NJ sales tax and a $2 insurance surcharge.

Hope this helps!
 
Some of you are are buying the 5-6% laundry bleach? The price is good on those, but don't you have to offset the pH increase with the same amount of expensive muriatic acid as you would the 10%-20% concentrations? Meaning you would have to use 3 times as much acid to balance out the pH rise of a gallon of 5% CL vs a gallon of 15% CL.
 
arizona480 said:
Some of you are are buying the 5-6% laundry bleach? The price is good on those, but don't you have to offset the pH increase with the same amount of expensive muriatic acid as you would the 10%-20% concentrations? Meaning you would have to use 3 times as much acid to balance out the pH rise of a gallon of 5% CL vs a gallon of 15% CL.
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Welcome to TFP!

The net effect on pH of adding bleach is close to nothing. No acid is required to stay pH neutral.
 
JohnT said:
Welcome to TFP!

The net effect on pH of adding bleach is close to nothing. No acid is required to stay pH neutral.
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Thank you! I thought it raised it at least a little, but I always wanted to at least take the pH down to 7.4 anyway for more Chlorine effectiveness; which I read that thread and was also wondering if that still holds true.
 

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For Memphis and the surrounding area.

Smith Pool Supply has 2.5gal jugs of "Liquid Pool Shock." for 5.99 refill.

The jug cost 5.00 initially then only 5.99 for refills!

10% NaClO so .187 per oz. of NaClO!!!

Best I can find since ALDI changed their bleach from 96oz/6%/1.29 to a 64oz/8.25%/1.39

This got me shopping for a new sodium hypochlorite source!

yay!!
 
JVTrain said:
Yep. that's the formula. I find it easier just to remember that math, use my phone's calculator rather than visit the website and fumble through the browser with my fat fingers.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
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I totally agree. It's great if you have an SO that does most of the shopping and isn't interested in remembering how to calculate the price though. That said, most jugs are 121oz 8.25% now and you can simply divide the jug price by 10 and get a very close price per ounce of chlorine.
 
I personally have searched the entire Silicon Valley, and the best I can do is a place called the "Pool Guys" who sell 12% HASA liequid chlorine by the "case" (four gallons) for $19 a case (plus California tax), but, with their perennial coupon for buying 6 gallons in order to get 2 gallons free (plus tax on the price of the two gallons) plus a card for buy 11, get the 12th free (I'm not kidding, that's their "plan"), in the end, it costs us $3.85/gallon for the 12% chlorine if we buy in 8-gallon increments (which is fine for my large pool with a huge sun load).

I wouldn't put up with the price complexity, except I can't find fresh 12% chlorine easily, and nothing (fresh or box store) under $4/gallon anywhere else out here, and, I generally buy 16 gallons at a time.

Note that it's not intuitive how to calculate effective cost for different concentrations of sodium hypochlorite:
- How to calculate cost per effective chlorine liquid
a) liquid chlorine: $cost/gallon x 1gallon/9.7pounds x 1/10.8% by wt available chlorine
b) liquid bleach: $cost/gallon x 1gallon/9.0pounds x 1/5.7% by wt available chlorine
c) solids: $cost/pound x 1/xx% by wt available chlorine, as listed on the container
 
I'm guessing that different states have different rules as to what percentage chemicals can be. i say this because i have looked high and low at the local big chain suppliers ( WalMart, HomeDepot, Lowes ) and i can't get any higher then 7.86% in a off the shelf bottle. Even the $2.98 for the 121 oz. in my Walmart's are different in %'s.
 
CBSIMONSEZ said:
I'm guessing that different states have different rules as to what percentage chemicals can be. i say this because i have looked high and low at the local big chain suppliers ( WalMart, HomeDepot, Lowes ) and i can't get any higher then 7.86% in a off the shelf bottle. Even the $2.98 for the 121 oz. in my Walmart's are different in %'s.
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I ran an extensive survey in 2012 on *all* possible sodium hypochlorite sources in Silicon Valley (mostly San Jose) stores, and IIRC, the results were that unscented supermarket/Costco bleach was something like 6%, which has the virtue that diluted sodium hypochlorite lasts longer than concentrated, but that's about it for advantages. Cost was astronomical (I need to dig up that study as people in Kansas had different cost equations).

The box stores (e.g., Lowes, Home Depot, & Orchard Supply) had the 10% stuff, but you could just tell by looking at the aged boxes that they were old and dusty (I asked at the time, and I think they said they get a shipment every 30 days or so), and the prices were no better than Leslies.

Then there were the pool stores, who had just OK prices, but the best was HASA by the case. IIRC, I called HASA and the least they would deliver to my house was 18 cases (which is 18x4=72 gallons, which is a bit too much, even for me), so I'm stuck going to the place they recommended, where, after their convoluted cost/discount structure is taken into account, the cost boiled down to about $3.85/gallon for 12%.

As can be seen from the photo below, adding the right amount of CYA (in this case, it's the nicely powdered cyanuric acid that I'm using), cut down on my need for bleach, but now I have to keep my FC at at last 5ppm to be above the 40ppm CYA levels (as per Richard, the chem_geek's calculator).

14288463955_ac49c388f9_b.jpg


EDIT: I found the calculations I ran a few years ago ... here they are!
rock said:
I drove all over San Jose, California today to run a price survey of supplies off the shelf at:
a) Leslie's Swimming Pool Supply
b) Home Depot,
c) Lowes
d) Costco (seasonal item only)
e) Hasa (two different suppliers, 3 different prices)

Armed with the"chem geek" calculations I was able to compare the 6% & 12% (nominal, see "chem geek" details here) liquids with the solids dichlor, trichlor, & calcium-hypo given real Silicon Valley prices (pre tax, and rounded to the dollar when within a couple of pennies of the dollar):

1. Household bleach
Costco = $9/182 fl oz x 3 bottles, nominal 6% = $2.11/gallon
Safeway = $3.89/1.42 gallons, nominal 6% = $2.74/gallon

2. Pool bleach
Hasa = $21.44/8 gallons = $2.68/gallon (See note C)
Hasa = $11.72/case (where a case is 4 gallons) with a minimum sale of 36 cases delivered COD, nominal 12% = $2.93/gallon (See note D)
Home Depot = $6.86/2 gallons, nominal 12% = $3.43/gallon
Lowes = $6.90/2 gallons, nominal 12% = $3.45/gallon
Hasa = $18.40/4 gallons = $4.60/gallon (See note C)
Leslie = $10.49/2 gallons, nominal 12% = $5.25/gallon

3. Dichlor
Costco = $55/24 one-pound packets, see note A = $2.29/pound
Leslies = $122/40 pounds, 55% available Cl = $3.05/pound
Lowes = $70/22.5 pounds, 99% dichlor, 56% available Cl = $3.11/pound
Home Depot = $80/22.5 pounds, 99% dichlor, 56% available Cl, See Note B = 3.56/pound

4. Trichlor
Home Depot = $75/37.5 pounds, 99% trichlor, 90% available Cl = $2.00/pound
Costco = $84.79/40 pounds, 94.05% trichlor, 84.65% available Cl = $2.12/pound
Lowes $75/35 pounds, 95% trichlor, 85% available Cl = $2.14/pound
Leslies = $80/35 pounds, 90% available Cl = $2.29/pound

5. Calcium hypochlorite
Leslies = $107.19/25 pounds, 73% available Cl = $4.29/pound

Here are the "chem geek" calculations for available chlorine per pound:
1. Household bleach
Costco = $9/546oz * 128oz/gal * 1gal/9.0pounds * 100pounds/5.7pounds = $4.11/pound of available Cl
Safeway = $3.89/1.42 gallons * 1gal/9.0pounds * 100pounds/5.7pounds = $5.34/pound of available Cl

2. Pool bleach
Hasa $21.44/8 gallons x 1 gallon/9.7 pounds x 100/10.8 = $2.56/pound of available chlorine (see note C)
Hasa = $11.72/case * 1 case/4 gallons * 1gal/9.7 pounds * 100pounds/10.8 pounds = $2.80/pound of available Cl (see note D)
Home Depot = $6.86/2 gallons * 1gal/9.7 pounds * 100pounds/10.8 pounds = $3.27/pound of available Cl
Lowes = $6.90/2 gallons * 1gal/9.7 pounds * 100pounds/10.8 pounds = $3.29/pound of available Cl
Hasa = $18.40/4 gallons x 1 gallon/9.7 pounds x 100/10.8 = $4.39/pound of available chlorine (see note C)
Leslie = $10.49/2 gallons * 1gal/9.7 pounds * 100pounds/10.8 pounds = $5.01/pound of available Cl

3. Dichlor
Leslies = $122/40 pounds * 100/55 pounds = $5.55/pound of available Cl
Lowes = $70/22.5 pounds * 100/56 pounds = $5.56/pound of available Cl
Home Depot = $80/22.5 pounds * 100/56 pounds = $6.35/pound of available Cl
Costco = $55/24 pounds * 100/36 = $6.37/pound of available Cl
[EDIT: See posts below for calculation of Costco 4-in-1 intimating $6.09/pound of available Cl
$55/24 pounds x 100/55 x 85/58.2 = $6.09/pound of available Cl [/EDIT]

4. Trichlor
Home Depot = $75/37.5 pounds * 100/90 pounds = $2.22/pound of available Cl
Costco = 84.79/40 pounds * 100/84.65 pounds = $2.50/pound of available Cl
Lowes $75/35 pounds * 100/85 pounds = $2.52/pound of available Cl[/b]
Leslies = $80/35 pounds * 100/90 pounds = $2.54/pound of available Cl

5. Calcium hypochlorite
Leslies = $107.19/25 pounds * 100/73 pounds = $5.87/pound of available Cl

Note: While I was there, I researched the comparison prices of the following:
6. Muriatic Acid:
Leslies = $14/2 gallons of 29% HCl = $3.50/gallon of 14.5% equivalent
Lowes = $10/2 gallons of 14.5% HCl = $5.00/gallon of 14.5% equivalent
Home Depot = $11/2 gallons of 14.5% HCl = $5.50/gallon of 14.5% equivalent

7. Cyanuric acid:
Home Depot = $20/5 pounds = $4/pound
Leslies = $24/4 pounds = $6/pound

8. Soda ash:
Leslies = $66/50 pounds = $1.32/pound
Home Depot = $8/6 pounds = $1.33/pound

9. Calcium Chloride:
Leslies Hardness Plus (unlabeled but store said it's Calcium Chloride) = $45/25 pounds = $1.80/pound
Home Depot = $11/5 pounds = $2.20 pound

Note A: Costco item #175121, "aqua chem Shock Plus 4 in 1 pool shock 24 pack, EPA REG No 67262-27 telephone 800-252-7665 (see this thread for how we arrived at the the 36% available chlorine)
Note B: Home Depot DiChlor Pooltime.com 800-252-7665 (they said the available chlorine was 56% but I suspected it's 36% based on what we learned from aqua chem which is the same company. However, calling PoolTime back (which incidentally, is the same number as aqua chem - it's just a different option), Anita tells me that product number 22891PTM 'is' 57%!). So you never know if they don't tell you.
Note C: Update: 408-252-6280 888-POOL-GUY at 12361 South Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, Saratoga California, 95070 with a $6.00 deposit has a normal price of $18.40/4 gallons for Hasa liquid chlorine ($4.60/gallon) but they often run a 2-for-1 special (you only pay the tax on the original amount for the second case ($21.44/8 gallons) at http://www.yourpoolguys.com/specials.html which then turns out to be 2.68/gallon.
Note D: Hasa (hasapool.com) doesn't sell to the public so I called the Hasa Northern CA office at 925-432-3866 who told me to call Redwood City 650-365-0441 who will deliver 36 cases of 12.5% at 4 gallons per case at $11.72/case COD including shipping.

Q: Can we get better prices than this?
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