what is the chemical used to treat indoor pool water and why is it so dang unpleasant?

Answer 1

Chlorine. It is a toxic chemical but is used in small amounts for pool water to kill bacteria but not kill the human swimmer.

Answer 2

The most common chemical used for treating swimming pools (indoor and outdoor) is chlorine. It is unpleasant because the point of it is to kill germs. It is a poison. In swimming pool concentrations it kills germs and in high enough concentrations it kills people. In swimming pool concentrations it is generally not dangerous to people but the body does recognize it as a poison and it is not particularly good for you and so it is dang unpleasant.

Answer 3

Where I come from, people use calcium hypochlorite, or Ca(OCl)2, which has been pointed out is cheap, is solid, so it is easy to add (of course you can have chlorine tanks if you want to dabble in WMDs). In water, the hypochlorite does decompose to chloride and atomic chlorine, some of which is dissolved in water and acts as a disinfectant. This is what the lifeguard checks for with his little color comparator kit. The excess does become inhalable chlorine, which is unpleasant. Another reaction involves reactions of chlorine with ammonia-type compounds, which leads to chloramines, which can be unpleasant, particulary N-CL3.

Answer 4

Its partly a question of cost.

The pool water has to be sanitized, especially with all of the bodily fluids in the warm water.

The least expensive solution involves chlorine, and that can have a bad smell. Its "cousin" bromine is also used, has much less smell but costs more. It is often used in hot tubs, because you don't need so much. There are other solutions to sanitiziation, and they do not have a smell. But they cost.

Answer 5

Sodium hypochlorite. This is the same compound used in Clorox bleach. It releases small amounts of free chlorine, which is quite noxious.

Answer 6

Cl-? in my poor We put Fl-
it works better! ahahahh