i have heard that some people put reg bleach in their swimming pool.?

Question

i have a 18x4ft. above ground pool and i heard you can put reg. bleach instead of chlorine type bleach in the pool. is this true and how much?

we have had this pool 3 yrs and i do all the proper maintenance to it and i am just asking because a friend is using reg bleach and i think there is difference and she says no different and i am just wondering if her way is okay. she spends about $5 a week and i am spending $50.

Answer 1

Hi again ;-)

Your friend is right, household bleach works perfectly fine in a swimming pool. Many of the answers you've received are from people that don't understand what's happening in a pool. All of the recommendations about going to the pool store and using their chemicals is wrong unfortunately, here's why.

The sanitizing/oxidizing agent in a chlorine swimming pool is hypochlorous acid. Hypochlorous acid forms when chlorine is introduced into water. Hypochlorite introduction is the main way to give you a hypochlorous acid.

Here's the rub. Household bleach is sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) in 6% solution. Liquid pool chlorine is sodium hypochlorite in 10% solution. Granulated/powder chlorine is calcium hypochlorite (Ca(ClO)2) in 65% yield. When any of these compounds are introduced into water the metal (sodium or calcium) disassociates from the molecule and turns into an inert salt. The hypochlorite (OCl-) though picks up a hydrogen atom and becomes hypochlorous acid (HClO)

The secondary hypochlorite on the calcium hypochlorite is what makes this a powerful chlorine additive. Pound for pound it supplies twice as much chlorine to the water than household bleach but is more expensive. 1 gallon of household bleach will add 5ppm of chlorine to 10,000 gallons of pool water. 10oz of granulated chlorine will add 5ppm of chlorine to 10,000 gallons of pool water.

There are a lot of alternate chemicals you can use in your pool to keep it healthy and happy. Drop me a line at [e-mail] if you'd like to learn more about them.

Answer 2

Laundry bleach (unscented) is the very same as liquid Pool Chlorine... just half as strong, so you need to double the dosage. You can get many of your pool chemicals at the grocery store and save considerably.
http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/grocery.html

Answer 3

There are more factors to a pool than just the chlorine level. You need to check the Acid/Ph balance to. I would spend a little bit of cash and get the proper equipment. Or at least get a tester. They are only like $5.

Answer 4

Chlorine is a poison that is readily absorbed into your skin. If you wouldn't drink the water in the pool, why would you swim in the pool? What happens to your liver after absorbing all that chlorine?
Pool stores carry chemicals to keep your pool clean and safe. Go there and ask for their recommendations. They are not there to rip you off, this is how they make a living. You will want to get a pump and a filter, a testing kit, and proper pool chemicals. Once you have the starter supplies, you can scan the internet for lower cost supplies of the same brand/type.

Answer 5

i had an under ground pool, & we put in reg. bleach, i would buy the cheapest i could find, because the kind you buy at pool stores is not as refined as reg laundry bleach,we had a 15000 gal pool, & used 8 to 10 gallons every 3 days, the sun makes the bleach disapate, it did the job just fine, now i have moved to n.c., & i tell everyone to use reg. bleach and everyone here has above ground pools, & it works fine, no problems.. you can use around 3 to 4 gallons every 3 days.

Answer 6

Pool chlorine contains a stabilizer that keeps the chlorine bound and in the water longer. That way you only have to add chlorine slowly a little at a time. If you dump in a bottle of bleach it will spike the amount of chlorine in the water making it bad to swim in and then the chlorine will rapidly disperse into the air.

In other word you lose the ability to control the amount of chlorine in you water.

Answer 7

Find out the simple truth about pool water at

http://appliancequickfix.com/

Answer 8

In the long run--she is probably saving a few bucks--everything is being treated--where as if you just used bleach--you are only killing off algea & not the other organisms that tend to pop upin a pool

Answer 9

You can but it will make your water cloudy.It has other things in it that will cause this.Go to your pool supply store they have pure bleach to shock your pool with.They told me to put one hole container at start up to get the chlorine level up and then about half every two weeks after that.If one half does not do it they told me to use more then that every two weeks.I do not use the powder shock it anymore as they told me liquid was better.Hope this helps.

Answer 10

that is new, i think a poison is always better to put in a swimming pool, especially if it is just a poison as the one you put in there before, hey i have an idea, how about plutonium, that is right, the water will look sparkling clean all year round, no germs or algae just pure clean water.