Cloromax in pool

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PeteT1

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Apr 29, 2018
6
Omaha Nebraska
Ok. Let me start by saying I screwed up. Opened pool last week, picked up a couple 3 jug cases of the old standby - Clorox bleach at Costco, only to find out it was replaced with the Cloromax additive. Pool water is balanced, looks beautiful and is slimy and smells gross. I have tried draining down below drains and filling. I have run the filter, adding a small amount of DE. Have not seemed to make any progress getting this polymer slim out. Any ideas? or I'm I faced with figuring out how to drain/refill the pool? Thanks. Pete
 
Hello and welcome to TFP! :wave: Maybe I'm missing it, but in their MSDS, it only lists sodium hypochlorite. Of course there are some "trade secrets" withheld. :confused: I suspect those are "additives". Often times this is done in an effort to hide a lower % strength yet charge you more. Not sure why you would notice a smell and slimy feel though. Maybe those "additives"? Can you post a full set of test results for us?

Here were previous discussions:
Chloromax Texhnology?
Clorox

- - - Updated - - -

From the 2nd post above:
Clorox Reply:
Thank you for reaching out to us at Clorox, we always appreciate hearing from our consumers. Clorox Regular Concentrated Bleach should be the only type of bleach you put in your swimming pool. Although Clorox Performance Bleach with Cloromax Technology is an excellent product, it is not intended for swimming pools."

The Cloromax stuff has polymers.
Buyer beware ---
Take care.
 
Unfortunately no amount of shocking or filtering will get rid of the additives in cloromax bleach.
The smell and feel of the water has not changed. Anyone else fighting this?
Looks like my only solution may be to completely drain/refill.
 
Pete, your last numbers on the 29th were good, but not SLAM level. Since regular chlorine levels haven't shown the progress you had hoped, have you considered increasing the FC to about 24 for a day or two? I'd be curious to know if your CC level spiked during the SLAM as the chlorine tried to eat that junk up. If you do SLAM, make sure to lower the pH to about 7.2 first though.
 
If these polymers can withstand the chlorine concentration in the container with out breaking down (5-10% per MSDS) or 5,000 - 10,000 ppm of Sodium Hypochorate,
I'm thinking that raising the FC in the pool to shock levels of 24ppm would have little effect.
There may be another way of breaking them down, possibly sunlight or filtering them out not sure. Draining and rinsing the pool is a sure way of removal. Sorry about your situation.
 
A last ditch effort might be to try using non-chlorine shock (MPS) to see if that helps? It’s a long-shot, but an peroxy-based oxidizing chemical may have better luck at breaking down the polymer. If it doesn’t work, then you simply drain, rinse and refill.
 
Thanks for the great replies guys. I did try raising the FC level to about 20 for 36 hours. I also thought that if this stuff lives in strong concentrations of FC, Shocking would have little effect. I did put about 3.5 jugs of the Cloromax tainted bleach in the pool. Sun, time, shocking and filtering have not reduced the smell one bit. I haven't tried the MPS shock recommended as by JoyfulNoise, but I don't have much faith in that at this point. I'm nervous about draining a fiberglass pool that has been full for 15 years in a very hot and cold climate. I gave the local fiberglass pool installer a call asking for help checking for water under the pool and possible bracing of the side walls. BTW its a Viking Rockport pool.

If anyone is curious about what Clorox added to their bleach with Cloromax, I found this link below. It's a long complicated article of chemicals etc.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2016/0137871.html

There are several threads over at an aquatic artificial reef site were folks were also fooled by this additive. They apparently use bleach in their cleaning process. The also stated that the residual is deadly to fish...
 

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You may have some luck putting in a submersible pump in the deep end and a hose refilling on the other end at the same time, disturbing the water as little as possible. I've heard of 90% exchange rates using this method.

Sorry to hear about your issue, that is such and easy mistake to make and shame on Clorox for not changing the bottle to orange or something to make it REALLY obvious it's different.
 
PeteT1 said:
Thanks for the great replies guys. I did try raising the FC level to about 20 for 36 hours. I also thought that if this stuff lives in strong concentrations of FC, Shocking would have little effect. I did put about 3.5 jugs of the Cloromax tainted bleach in the pool. Sun, time, shocking and filtering have not reduced the smell one bit. I haven't tried the MPS shock recommended as by JoyfulNoise, but I don't have much faith in that at this point. I'm nervous about draining a fiberglass pool that has been full for 15 years in a very hot and cold climate. I gave the local fiberglass pool installer a call asking for help checking for water under the pool and possible bracing of the side walls. BTW its a Viking Rockport pool.

If anyone is curious about what Clorox added to their bleach with Cloromax, I found this link below. It's a long complicated article of chemicals etc.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2016/0137871.html

There are several threads over at an aquatic artificial reef site were folks were also fooled by this additive. They apparently use bleach in their cleaning process. The also stated that the residual is deadly to fish...
Click to expand...

Sounds like water replacement may be the solution, or more accurately, dilution. A friend in Jacksonville, FL has a fiberglass pool and wanted to replace water and had the same fear. His pool was relatively small. We drained only 10% at a time and refilled. I don't remember exactly, but I think it was either six or seven iterations to complete.
 
domct203 said:
So sorry to see this.

How much of the Cloromax bleach did you actually add to the pool?
Click to expand...
I just (yesterday) dropped 9 bottles into a 29000 gal pool that has just had it cya level set at 50. Are you telling me that i have to drain, refill, then new cya and bleach? ****.

I didn't even notice the difference, until I saw the surface bubbles.

Oh man this sucks.
 
The bubbles will go away. We do not like to add things to pools that we don't know what they are. We do not know what Cloromax is. We have asked, but did not get a reply.

Stay the course, but use plain bleach or liquid chlorine.
 
mknauss said:
The bubbles will go away. We do not like to add things to pools that we don't know what they are. We do not know what Cloromax is. We have asked, but did not get a reply.

Stay the course, but use plain bleach or liquid chlorine.
Click to expand...
Bubbles are still there, but WAY less than 2 days ago. Going today to get plain bleach, which is what i've used (bbb) for 5 years now.

Just to be clear, @mknauss: this was a mistake, not a conscious choice. Had i realized it was different i would not have used it.
 
Oh boy!

We inadvertently added 121 oz of this Cloromax to our 12,500 gal AGP yesterday. I just now noticed the new label, "Performance" and "Cloromax Technology". What symptoms would I notice? The water is clear, doesn't have an unusual odor, and tests normal (no changes in test values). I cannot drain and refill as we're on a well and would have to buy the water from Aquaduck. Is the Cloromax harmful to people and dog swimmers? What will it do to my pool liner, if anything?

We bought this stuff at Sam's and never noticed that it isn't regular bleach.

Thank you for your thoughts.
 
Only issue that has been reported are bubbles. So you should be ok. Check the waterline or skimmer for a sticky residue from the polymers.
 
Thank you. I haven't noticed any such residue yet. Hoping that one bottle of mistake won't cause any permanent grief.

We went out looking for plain regular Clorox today but could not find any at four different grocery stores and a couple Dollar stores. All Clorox products have Cloramax. The generics we found that were named 'bleach' almost certainly come from China and who knows what's in them.

We normally use liquid chlorine which we buy in carboys at the pool store. Concentrations is between 10% and 14% (they say). I've not tested it and assume 10% in my calculations. It's too late in the season to buy another carboy, I'd not use it all, which is why I'm reaching for the bottles of Clorox. Not being able to find regular Clorox makes me feel like I lost an old friend.
 
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The bleach is not shipped from China. It is all regionally or locally bottled. Some have found a commercial Clorox at cleaning supply companies but all the Clorox at consumer product stores has Cloromax.

You can buy Walmart or other store brands. Just be sure it shows a strength on it. Most household bleach is now 6%.
 

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