Coming chlorine shortage? - It is Here!

[red-beard]

If you must use Cal-Hypo, I have found this packaging to be easier to handle, easier to measure, easier to work with, and safer to store, although not the cheapest. Maybe you can order from JJ Chemical directly?

Calcium Hypochlorite"Ca(OCl)2" Minimum 99% Pure! 70% Chlorine. 10 pounds in Bottles: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Calcium Hypochlorite"Ca(OCl)2" Minimum 99% Pure! 70% Chlorine. 10 pounds in Bottles: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.com

Calcium Hypochlorite 99% PURE MIN. 12 X 1lb Bottles (FREE SHIPPING)

68% Chlorine Granules, Commonly Used in Pools to Sanitize

mindymaterials.com

I take the pouches and store them in an old pool bucket. And that bucket is a cal-hypo 50 lb bucket!

 

[BassPlayingDude]

Nice ... I was tempted to buy one of those buckets, but I couldn't stomach the thought of storing a potential 50lb bomb in my garage! If one of the 1 lb containers were to leak it could cause a problem but it would be 1/50th smaller problem ;-)

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Last year was horrible, constantly searching multiple big box/grocery/farm stores and finding no bleach that didn't have additives (even our pool stores were low and they are so expensive). I decided I never want to play Where's Waldo with bleach again. It made being a pool owner stressful, and that isn't what a pool is for!

I ordered a large delivery to store in the garage, in their boxes, covered in a tarp to block the light. Took the risk on the age, and it is 4 months, could be worse! I paid $5/gallon for 10% because of the delivery charge, and it is degradating over time. You can have any opinion you want about my decision, but I don't care. It is still cheaper than the conventional pool method and the cost of BBB will be even lower relative to tabs this year. I have a feeling that after the tabs run out pool stores will direct pool owners to liquid and the price of liquid will go through the roof and supply will disappear. New pools are being built everywhere....

I'm at peace knowing I don't have to drive 30 mins to find out no one has bleach. I printed out the chlorine degradation chart and Pool Math will do the work for me.

Opening in 3 days, woo hoo!!!!

I did a similar thing last year. After the pandemic got rolling, I was getting concerned about chlorine shortages going into the summer. In May, I bought like 32 jugs of 10% and put it in my (dark, 69 degree-ish) basement. A few weeks later, after a lot of thought/debate, we decided to pull the trigger and just get a SWG.

I ended up giving 20+ gallons to another TFP member, and I kept about 9 gallons just to have on hand in case I needed a shot of chlorine here and there. Long story short is, I still have 6 gallons left and used it open this year until I could add salt. Based on my testing before and after my additions, it's still half-strength (5% ish). I'm sure yours will be fine for the summer considering your precautions. Btw, the julian date on my bottles is 20 015, so it's about 16 months old!

 

[BassPlayingDude]

If you have a plaster pool and soft water like I do, consider hoarding some cal-hypo instead. It doesn't lose its potency very much over time. You can store it for years. Just don't put it in your basement!

 

[mgtfp]

Thanks to the mods for moving my post into this thread. Looks like @JoyfulNoise already came to the same interpretation as I did ...

 

[mgtfp]

But it was ‘proprietarally blended’ with trade secrets of course.

You have to see the business opportunity here. Find a cheap way to remove the add-ons, sell the clean bleach on, and you'll be a rich dude.

And then you move on to attaching the rubber bands that you were able to produce from the leftovers of the bleach to every single sheet of your 10 year supply of toilet paper and sell them on as face masks. And because you only ever buy the premium triple layer TP, you can even charge the premium for triple layer masks.

Well played, only a real Dude could pull that off. Because of your integrity and insight to understand the importance of actually removing the gunk from the bleach, rather than just relabeling the bottles, you will be able to move on to step 2 of your business model.

 

[mgtfp]

Some shortages are due to irrational behavior and some are due to other factors.

I guess part of the problem is, that it's only ever "the others" that show irrational behaviour. And that's why you have to rush to the supermarket to buy as much toilet paper as you can, before all the loonies come and empty the shelves.

So, in the end everyone will think they acted very rationally.

 

[JamesW]

So, just to sum up.

Everyone panic and prepare for Armageddon, right?

 

[mgtfp]

So, just to sum up.

Everyone panic and prepare for Armageddon, right?

You nailed it. Again.

 

[JamesW]

I always though that Armageddon would be a good name for a World Championship arm wrestling contest.

 

[red-beard]

Chlormageddon

 

[JamesW]

 

[Saturn94]

…. Today no chlorine, tomorrow no chlorine generators.

I just checked, the Hayward T15 cell on Amazon recently went up $50.

 

[Sunnydaze]

I keep being told there's a shortage but I went to Walmart and home depot tonight. WalMart had a full pallet and some loose gallon jugs of liquid chlorine. I didn't look for tablets or granular shock. Home depot had 3 full pallets of liquid chlorine and tons of buckets of tabs. I think as long as people don't panic buy, it'll be fine.

 

[JamesW]

The number one reason that people panic is the announcer panicking.

That's why airline pilots are trained to sound calm under all circumstances.

The following announcement was pulled from the black box of a commercial 747 and the pilot was perfectly calm.

"Hello passengers, this is your pilot. We are cruising at 30,000 feet and our wings just snapped off.

We will begin our descent into the ocean where we will hit the water at approximately 795 miles per hour and the plane will disintegrate into a million pieces.

Please ask the stewardess for a free pack of peanuts and a can of diet soda as compensation for the inconvenience.

Thank you for flying with Discount Airlines and have a wonderful day."

And, because the pilot remained so calm, no one panicked.

True story.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I think the situation was worse last year when everyone was hording chlorine and toilet paper. You really don't want to buy a whole summer's worth at once anyway, just pick up few jugs when you see a good price.

The gal that took over my pool service back in Illinois is having trouble obtaining supplies. One of my old sources runs a local hardware store and someone came in when he wasn't there, and a worker allowed the customer to buy out their stock, 35 cases. I told him going forward to limit to 6 per, because with the tablet shortage and pool season just beginning peak opening times in Illinois, it will only get worse as demand increases. Many people will be turning to liquid as an alternative, I expect membership here will increase.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I keep being told there's a shortage but I went to Walmart and home depot tonight. WalMart had a full pallet and some loose gallon jugs of liquid chlorine. I didn't look for tablets or granular shock. Home depot had 3 full pallets of liquid chlorine and tons of buckets of tabs. I think as long as people don't panic buy, it'll be fine.

I agree. That being said, people are panicking now that the news outlets have picked it up. one guy bought out a local ACE and they LET him. Not having heard about apparently. 35 cases!

Also in the northern states they are just reaching peak opening season which will last another 5-6 weeks. The demand is only going to grow.

 

[mguzzy]

I was by my local mom and pop pool supply store today.. they are seeing the same thing. He said one patron wanted to buy a pallet of liquid chlorine.. he told him no, and that he wouldn't be able to use it all anyway before it turned into salty water! With all the news coverage they are not distinguishing the type of chlorine that is in demand.. so the general public thinks its all types of chlorine... gee thanks for that CNN, FOX, Reuters and AP!

 

[Bperry]

I think it’s just like the TP. Someone heard/spread rumors about a shortage and so they buy up lots of it to sell later at a markup.

 

[mguzzy]

Actually it was all the service companies thay bought up all the tabs... liquid chlorine has a shelf life unlike TP.. so good luck with that