When does liquid chlorine degrade

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jimim

Bronze Supporter
Jun 20, 2016
3,588
NE/Pa
My father just got me 12 gallons from Leslie. I put in 112 oz last night. Should have taken me from 2.5 to 8. It took me to 5 only. Added another 60 to go up to 8. Took me to 7 only. All in the dark. And yes I passed a over night test twice actually.

So I looked on bottles. They say 092921. So I’m assuming they are from 9/21? That’s old right?

Opinions?
Jimi
 
Yeah, that stuff is easily 5-6% by now and, if it wasn’t stored correctly at Leslie’s, then it’s probably even less.
 
I found some old 8.25% stuff in the back of my laundry room cabinet that dated back to June 2020 … just when the pandemic started and bleach was scarce. Aside from the slightly straw yellow color, it had no bleach scent at all. I put a drop in 250mL of distilled water and tested it with my DPD color matching test. No pink at all. It was basically high pH salt water. I tossed it down the drain.

You certainly have some LC there but it’s not fresh at all. I was in the local supermarket yesterday where they sell 2-pack of pool LC up front with softener salt and Charcoal and I glanced at the box - 21 160. So it’s basically stock from almost a year ago. And they’re selling it for $12 per 2-pack 🙄
 
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The 12.5% in my basement from last year is 8%-9% now.

You can always test the strength of your chlorine by diluting 10,000 to 1 - Put 1ml of bleach in 100ml of distilled water, mix well, then take 1ml of that and mix into another 100ml of distilled water. Then test this mixture with your test kit like normal. Whatever ppm you get as a result is equal to the percentage in your jug.
 
jimim said:
yah that makes even more mad now that you said that. and it wasn't cheap. 12 bottles were 112 my dad said
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Ouch. At those prices, I’d take a road trip to Ohio and stock up at Menards. $4/gallon for 12.5%, stored indoors, and usually only a month or so old.
 
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Homebrewale said:
Nice chart. It stops at a temperature of 70F. What is the degradation at lower temperatures? I bought 10% bleach from Home Depot dated 12/6/2021. Since they store it outside under cover, it likely was at 50F or lower most of that time since most of that time were during winter months.
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Unfortunately the spreadsheet that did the calculations was never shared.

Breakdown of bleach over time by storage temperature

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There are a lot of factors that affect the degradation of liquid chlorine other than tile and temperature. Trace metal contamination (iron, nickel, copper) as well as sodium content (from the salt that used in the electrolysis process) can all affect lifetimes and vary from batch to batch. So while those charts are great, I would only use them as a rough guide.
 
Ha... I'm using 10% that's probably less than 5% that went through a house fire nearly 2 years ago. I have like 60g in my basement right now n I pour 2 gallons in my new pool every other day to keep it clear until I can fire my SWG up.

I just couldn't bring myself to leave it or throw it out. I'm using it.
 
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JoyfulNoise said:
There are a lot of factors that affect the degradation of liquid chlorine other than tile and temperature. Trace metal contamination (iron, nickel, copper) as well as sodium content (from the salt that used in the electrolysis process) can all affect lifetimes and vary from batch to batch. So while those charts are great, I would only use them as a rough guide.
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Trace metal in liquid chlorine? I asked about that a short time ago and was told that wasn’t a thing.
 
Casey said:
Ha... I'm using 10% that's probably less than 5% that went through a house fire nearly 2 years ago. I have like 60g in my basement right now n I pour 2 gallons in my new pool every other day to keep it clear until I can fire my SWG up.

I just couldn't bring myself to leave it or throw it out. I'm using it.
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Oh I’m using mine also regardless but I want a store credit. We just bought it last week!
 
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revitup said:
Trace metal in liquid chlorine? I asked about that a short time ago and was told that wasn’t a thing.
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Any manufacturing process can leave trace metals contamination since the equipment used in the process often contains stainless steel and other metallic components. However, we are talking about parts per trillion or low parts per billion levels. Nothing that would affect pool water but certainly enough to cause stability issues with the product produced.

For example - muriatic acid is yellow colored sometimes due to iron chloride contamination. The iron comes from the metallic components used in the processing and storage of the acid. It’s not a huge concentration, maybe just a few ppb, but it’s enough to leave a faint yellow color.
 
revitup said:
Trace metal in liquid chlorine? I asked about that a short time ago and was told that wasn’t a thing
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Ahem. Excuse us. It's a thing and not a concern. Better ? :)

You are adding a possible trace and diluting it 8500 to 1. I will be dilluting it 35k to 1. So it's a trace of a trace and will never add up to be of concern.
 
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