Cal hypo

[Fireman John]

I usually add my cal hypo to a bucket of water and dissolve before pouring into the pool. I have read not to pre-mix and even the directions on my bags of Cal Hypo (65%) say not to. Am I doing this wrong , and why do instructions say not to? Says to broadcast and brush. My neighbor did this and it really faded her vinyl pool liner.

 

[kul]

We do not recommend cal hypo unless you are purposely trying to increase calcium. Only liquid chlorine or salt water generator (which also produces chlorine) are appropriate to sanitize the pool.

Welcome! Below is some reading to help you get started with TFP if you’d like:
Pool Care Basics
Test Kits Compared
PoolMath

 

[Newdude]

, and why do instructions say not to?

Adding water to cal-hypo is dangerous and people screw it up even when they know they should do it the other way by adding Cal-Hypo to water.

Also, they must use a bucket which never had other forms of chlorine. Cal-hypo does not play well with others, and even a trace of residual tabs(etc) can cause an issue.

Both issues are easy enough to work around but people gonna people so it's easier to tell them no, then to warm them of the consequences and let them screw it up anyway.

If you broadcast and brush it, it's gone really quick and most never even hits the floor.

 

[Fireman John]

Thanks for your response. I figured that was the reason but thought I would ask. I would add not to use a bucket that has had anything else in it not just chlorine. I use a bucket that has had nothing but cal hypo in it or a new bucket from Home Depot etc. and I still wash it good and then only use it for that purpose.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Mixing a pound of dry cal hypo into a 5 gallon bucket that most people can’t lift when there’s more than 3 gallons of water in it creates an incredibly concentrated and caustic bleach mixture. Most of the cal hypo won’t dissolve anyway. It also gives off a little bit of heat. So now you have 3 gallons of highly concentrated liquid chlorine (probably well past 30%) that is warm, sloshing around and emitting chlorine fumes…

That’s basically asking for a product liability lawsuit if a person were to be instructed to do that.

Better for them to throw it in the pool and let their liner get screwed up which they can then simply blame on you. Win-win … for them.

 

[Fireman John]

Has anybody used this product. 65% Cal Hypo. I saw it on Amazon and is a really good price. Product of India. That doesn’t mean it is a bad product, but the price throws up a red flag. Gets some good reviews though and a few bad. Seems a big issue is getting top off bucket?

 

[MITBeta]

Without a link to the product it will be hard to evaluate. Generally, cal-hypo is cal-hypo.