First time buying Calcium Chloride in Houston TX, where is the cheapest?

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Morketh

Morketh

0
Oct 17, 2018
113
KATY/TX
So I am looking at calcium chloride to raise my calcium hardness here in houston and I have found it for $19.97 for 50 pounds at lowes, HOWEVER, they do not sell that here is houston and it shows not available to ship to me :(

$19.97 for 50 pounds
Shop 50 lbs. Fast Acting Calcium Chloride Ice Melt at Lowes.com


I found these 2 below but the company says not to use them in pools... so if they say calcium chloride on them I'm assuming they have other additives or are not really calcium chloride judging from the answers in the questions from other people...
It is because of these 2 items below I am making a post because I don't want to screw up and buy the wrong stuff since this is my first time trying not to depend on a pool store.


$25.24 for 50 pounds (but says NOT to use it in pools by the company in the questions on this item)
I did find this at home depot which is a bit more expensive: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Snow-Joe-50-lb-Re-Sealable-Bag-Calcium-Chloride-Crystals-Ice-Melter-MELT50CC/205668963

Also says NOT to use it in pools by the company...
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-50-lb-Calcium-Chloride-Ice-Melting-Pellets-7892/202590325

Where and exactly what are you buying to raise calcium hardness?
I know I read the pool school and it tells me to get dow peladow and dowflake but when I google it these are the things that come up and the ones where I can clearly see are for a pool are MUCH more expensive. These are .50 cents and .32 cents per pound where as others were $1.71 per pound.
 
You don't live in an area renowned for freezing weather and a need for antifreeze type products around the house walk ways and such......so.....I personally would just buy the pool calcium. It is known to be safe (unlike those others that say to *not* use them in pools) so for the extra $5 you get peace of mind.

To *me* that would be worth it.

If you were in the North of the US you'd have a few more options readily available.

Maddie :flower:
 
Whats stopped a lot of us from using ice melt products is they never say 100% calcium chloride. That snow joe melt is 94%. Who knows what the rest is and if itll lead to trouble.

there is a puri-tech brand I’ve bought through ebay and amazon thats sold in large boxes (up to 50lb). Its still a lot more than ice melt products but much less than walking into a pool store.

the stuff is pricey when you need a lot of it.
 
back_yard_lap_pool said:
I’ve ordered snow joe melt from Walmart. Ships for free. 50# bag for $20

Snow Joe MELT Calcium Chloride Pellets Ice Melter, 50 lb. Resealable Bag - Walmart.com
Click to expand...


Is there anyone else that uses this? I see 3 reviews on the site of people using it for pools and they love it because the price is so great.
How long have you been using that? Just curious if that other 6% that isnt calcium chloride is going to affect my pool negatively in any way.

Also, how are you measuring this out? Pool math says I will need 91 ounces which is 5.6 pounds. What should I go buy to easily measure this out and put accurate amount in the pool?
 
I used it after initial fill of pool. Water from lake Houston appears to be hard enough to maintain calcium levels so it hasn’t been an ongoing expense. I use a bucket and my bike scale for precision measurements though a cheap $10 hanging fish scale (for fishermen) would be good enough I imagine. (For calcium, I was measuring by the bag as it took about 250# for the initial fill) [emoji38]
 

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Based on your refill water CH and your evaporation rate, you will be increasing CH do to evaporation/refill. It being winter, that may take a bit longer than in summer.

If you're only going to add 5 pounds, may be best to get the higher priced pure stuff and be done with it. No use storing a large quantity long term - especially since you wo't need it unless you drain/refill again.

Play around in PoolMath - vary pH, TA, CH. Based on water temp, keep the CSI in the 0 to -0.30 range. With a lower CH, keeping pH in the upper 7's will help attain that CSI range.
 
Yea they have a 10 pound jug available for $12.69 at walmart and that was what I was going to get so it will not take up much room in my garage.


Just going to spread half of the 10 pound jug across the deep end of the pool. Should I have the pump on when doing this? it didnt mention that in the recommended pool chemicals link.
I figured I would pour it in then wait 45 mins and sweep the bottom of the pool to mix it up more and get it dissolved and then turn on the pump after about 1h30m?
 
Just get it dissolved in the pool and use pump to mix. No need to wait to turn on pump.

whatever hasn’t dissolved after a few minutes use a brush to mix it up. Most of it will dissolve quickly
 
Bvacchiano said:
I use the Clorox Calcium Hardness increaser. 5lb container Raises my CH 50 ppm per container. $10.97 at Walmart/Lowe’s. Works great. I’m very happy with it.
Click to expand...
That's double the price almost though of the Snow Joe MELT Calcium Chloride Pellets Ice Melter,10 lb. Jug for $12.69.
I'm not okay with that and don't understand why they charge so much.
You good with paying double for that?
Being in Houston do you have to buy it very often or not enough to care about the price?
 
I live in Houston (Spring to be exact) and also use the 5 lb containers from Clorox. The only time I have to mess with CH is when I dump water from the pool so it’s convenient for me to buy the smaller containers as I know exactly the quantity needed which leads to no excess being purchased and having to store.
 

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