won't turn pink

[engrav]

put 870 in pool water and won't turn pink
put 870 in dilute HTH 10% chlorine and won't turn pink
put 870 in laundry bleach and won't turn pink
get out new vial 870 says to expire 6/25
same thing
get out new measuring tube
same thing
I think I am losing my mind
what dumb thing am I doing?

 

[TinFoilHat]

How old is the powder? Most people don't have issues even if it's a little clumpy and grey. Are you using a heaping scoop with the tiny blue scoop? Are you putting it into 10 ml of water?

 

[engrav]

thank you

exp date 6/2025
10 cc water or dilute HTH chlorine or laundry bleach
heaping blue scoop
thought maybe gone color blind but can see red tops on the bottles

 

[Donldson]

The diluted test and straight bleach is bleaching the reagent out.

Do you have a yellow OTO test to check the pool water? It doesn't bleach out so if that stays clear then you just don't have chlorine in your pool.

 

[engrav]

thank you

Went to local hardware and picked up test strips. They indicate FC is 5 which sounds correct.

Then took the new vial of 870 and mixed the powder thoroughly.
Then rinsed all containers and obtained a new water sample.
Then did FC and….
Drum roll please
It turned pink and FC to be 6.

So it seems
Powder at the bottom of the vial is suspect
Powder that has not been thoroughly mixed is suspect.

 

[Donldson]

Test strips bleach out at fairly low FC levels, and sometimes just don't work at all. That's why I explicitly said the yellow OTO test, because it never bleaches out and is very reliable at determining the presence of chlorine.

 

[engrav]

True you said OTO but I don't have OTO and I could get test strips. And they worked, confirmed FC was not zero.

And this AM
with a new vial of powder, thoroughly mixed, all is well. The world is again pink and FC 8.

So will conclude it was just bad, poorly mixed powder at the bottom of the vial.

Thank you.

PS: The strips might be good enough for winter FC and pH when nothing changes day to day and no one is swimming. Would save lots of monkey business.