Proper Chemical Addition

[wetchem]

I'm sure it's been pointed out before; however, with hundreds of threads...

Here's a lesson in proper chemical addition.

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/toxic-public-pool-sends-kids-hospital-parents-want-212300789.html
The compound "acid MAGIC" cited as a sanitizer in the article is a muriatic acid replacement product. If the people running the pool believed it was a sanitizer and added it at the same time as they added the chlorine product to the pool... IMHO: Sounds to me that someone tried to shortcut and added both chlorine and acid to the pool at the same time and was using an in-line mixer!

So just in-case: It is important that when adding the chemicals to the pool water that they be allowed to mix in the pool for awhile before adding the next product... and never, ever, add both chlorine (bleach, liquid chlorine, etc...) and acid at the exact same time!
-wc

 

[cheezedawg]

How long is "awhile"? I have a SWG- should I turn it off before adding acid (I always turn on my pump before adding acid, so that turns on the SWG too). Prior to adding the salt and turning on the SWG I would just add them both at the same time. Yikes.

I guess I'll be reading some more here if this has been covered 100s of times (first time pool owner, pool is ~2 months old).

 

[JasonLion]

Add acid by pouring to slowly in front of a return while the pumps is running. As long as you do that, it is fine for the SWG to be on. If pouring bleach and acid from jugs, allow five minutes between chemicals.

 

[wetchem]

...(bleach, liquid chlorine, etc...) and acid at the exact same time! -wc

Thank Lion for clearing that up... I don't know much about SWG; however, my intent was about adding the chemicals from jugs/tubs/tabs/etc... I'm sure that by the time the chemicals added to the pool water circulate it's not an issue with SWG.

This does bring up the question in my mind about those people that pour the chemicals in thru the skimmers... do they place themselves at risk by doing this? If someone were to add pH-Down in the skimmer and then follow with the chlorine within a short time, that could be really, really, bad day for someone - or for the equipment. :!:

There was a thread here that linked to an online journal that showed some pretty nasty reactions with dichlor/trichlor and calhypo... sigh... misplaced the thread, it'll show backup. Anyway some of the reactions are quite spectacular and definitely fall in the "don't do this at home... we're profesionals"

-wc

 

[JasonLion]

Some chemicals can be added through the skimmer without any significant problems, but we discourage it because there are ways for things to occasionally go wrong and get broken that way.

If the dry acid clumped up and didn't get fully dissolved, then adding bleach right afterwards could cause problems. But usually it will dissolve.

 

[Smykowski]

Here's the article.
Injuries caused by improper use of pool mechanics which resulted in hydrochloric acid mixing with sodium hypochlorite.

Translated for the masses: DON'T MIX MURIATIC ACID AND HOUSEHOLD BLEACH TOGETHER!!