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How Much Stabilizer To Add To Pool

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How Much Stabilizer Does Your Pool Need

The Right Amount CHLORINE STABILIZER To Add To Your POOL | Swim University

Opinions vary a little among experts about the proper level of CYA a pool should have, but as a general rule, it should not dip below 30 ppm or rise above 50 ppm.

Some experts argue that it will be okay up to 80 ppm, but I disagree.

Most of the time, levels above 50 ppm cause chlorine lock, which is where you have added plenty of chlorine but your tests are reading 0.

You’ll still need to monitor your available chlorine levels with your chlorine stabilizer at 50 ppm or lower; you can do this with consistent water testing.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your sanitizer levels at round 7.5 percent of your stabilizer. So, doing the quick math, if your pool conditioner is 50 ppm, you should shoot for free chlorine levels between 3 ppm and 4 ppm.

You should use about 4 lbs of CYA per 10,000 gallons of water for every 30 ppm it needs to be raised. Some product instructions vary, though, so be sure to read the label for proper dosage.;

Most of the time, you will need to add CYA at the beginning of swim season and wont have to mess with it much after that.;

P.S. this handy little calculator helps with dosage calculations for your pool chemicals.;

Do You Really Need A Chlorine Pool Stabilizer

You already know you should definitely never add conditioner to a hot tub, and you could probably guess that indoor swimming pools wont benefit from pool stabilizers because they arent typically directly exposed to UV rays.

But is there any compelling reason against using a pool stabilizer in outdoor pools?

Nope. If you own an outdoor chlorine or saltwater-chlorinated inground or above ground pool, proper stabilizer use will save you time and money on chlorine.

Sure, too much stabilizer can cause problems. Just be sure to keep an eye on it every week along with chlorine concentrations to ensure proper pool chemistry.

Youll rest easy knowing your pool is safely swimmable for your whole familywithout having to add extra chlorine for every hour of sunshine.

Happy Swimming!

Low Stabilizer In Pool: How To Fix A Common Issue

Low stabilizer in a pool is a common issue that can be easily fixed. When a pool is exposed to sunlight, chlorine breaks down and no longer sanitizes causing the sanitizer to be low. This happens quickly and on sunny days the chlorine level can go down to an unacceptable level in a matter of hours.

The following article will teach you about the benefits of using stabilizer as well as how to increase the pH along with the right products to use to do so. You will be on your journey to a clean and healthy pool in no time.

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How Much Chlorine Pool Stabilizer Should You Use

If you dont add enough pool stabilizer to your pool, your chlorine will start to evaporate, so its important to keep levels in check.

Keep in mind that, if you decide to add stabilized chlorine tablets or shock, youre automatically adding a stabilizer every time youre treating your pool with chlorine. Following the proper chlorine level guidelines for your pool should result in adding the correct amount of CYA.

Add More Stabilizer If Needed

How Much Stabilizer To Add To Pool

Usually, you should see some changes in the reading levels aweek after you add the stabilizer. If you see that the CYA levels haventreached the desired levels, then you may need to add more stabilizer. You canadd the same amount of stabilizer that you added the first time around and seewhat happens. If the CYA levels have already reached a significant point butnot the ideal level yet, you can just add a little bit more.

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How Much Cyanuric Acid Does Your Pool Need

Depending on who you ask, you may get answers from 10 to 100 ppm. Research has shown that levels over 50 ppm dont provide any additional UV protection for your free chlorine. Also, anything over that amount can significantly slow down chlorines ability to kill pathogens.

So, if you can keep your CYA at or below 50 ppm, that should provide plenty of sunscreen protection for your chlorine.

But no matter what the CYA level is, youll want to keep testing your free chlorine levels to make sure the pool remains properly sanitized. A good balance is a free chlorine level thats 7.5% of your CYA .

For example, if you have a 50 ppm stabilizer level, your sanitizer should be about 3 ppm.;

The actual amount you add to the pool will depend on the volume of water and amount of chlorine in your pool. For every 10,000 gallons, youll need about 4 pounds of CYA per every 30 ppm it needs to increase.

The Downside Of Pool Stabilizer

This all sounds great, right? So, of course, there has to be a catch. Although pool stabilizer can provide some amazing benefits in protecting your chlorine and extending its lifespan, the downside is that the effectiveness of the chlorine is decreased.

When pool stabilizer bonds with chlorine, the chlorines ability to kill bacteria is somewhat limited. The term for chlorines sanitizing power is known as the Oxidation Reduction Potential. This potential is reduced when chlorine and pool stabilizer bond together. To put it simply, stabilized chlorine lives longer but is less powerful than it would be in its original state.

You also need to keep an eye on the stabilizer levels in your pool, just as you do with the other chemicals floating around in there. If the amount of stabilizer in your pool water gets too high, theres the possibility of getting chlorine lock when the chlorine is actually overwhelmed by the stabilizer.;

Chlorine lock is bad news because it completely throws off your water testing, giving a negative result for chlorine levels, even if its present in the pool.;

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Do You Need To Use A Stabilizer In Your Pool

If you have an outdoor pool or hot tub or an indoor pool or hot tub in a room with windows, its essential to use a stabilizer. The only time you would not need a stabilizer in your pool or hot tub is if its indoors in a room with no windows like some hotels have.

When CYA forms an ionic bond with chlorine, it takes longer for chlorine to reach its full Oxidation Reduction Potential and start sanitizing the water. However, without the ionic bond, the chlorine will evaporate in the sunlight.

If you treat your outdoor pool with chlorine and do not use a stabilizer, youre throwing your money away. It only takes two hours for the suns UV rays to consume 95% of your pools unstabilized chlorine in the shallow end and 75% of unstabilized chlorine in areas deeper than four and a half feet.

Of course, how fast you lose chlorine depends on other factors like water temperature and PH level. But the bottom line is that if you do not add a stabilizer to your pool with your chlorine, your chlorine wont last very long at all.

The Best Time To Use Pool Stabilizer

How much cyanuric acid to add to a pool.

You will probably only need to add pool stabilizer to your pool water once a year. No, that is not a misprint.;

Once. A. Year. Amazing right?;

Pool stabilizer not only stabilizes the chlorine in your pool but is pretty darn stable itself. It just stays and stays and stays in your water, working hard, doing its job, and not getting used up .

Its because of this chemical longevity that you dont need to add it very often to your pool, which is good news for your schedule and your wallet. The only caveat to this is if you use a combination product like stabilized chlorine.;

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When Theres Too Much Stabilizer In Pool

If there is too much stabilizer in the pool, you may have a bit of a problem on your hands. You really want to make sure that you keep the stabilizer levels balanced so that you dont run into this issue.;

There are a few products out there that are designed to lower the cyanuric acid in the pool, but for the most part, they are not all that effective. The best way to lower the cyanuric acid is to drain some pool water and add fresh water back in.;

The stabilizer is not a chemical that will dissolve naturally, and that is a major reason why this is something you usually only add to your pool once per year. Of course, if your pool is open all year long and you experience quite a bit of sun to your pool, you may need it a bit more often.;

When Pool Stabilizer Is Low

When pool stabilizer is low, you will want to get the levels up as soon as possible. If you dont get the level of stabilizer higher, you will end up wasting a good bit of chlorine. We highly recommend adding a little less stabilizer than you think you will need so that the pool stabilizer level does not get too high. You can always add a little more, but as we mentioned, it is hard to remove stabilizer from the pool.;

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How Much Stabilizer Do I Need For My Pool

The good question to know the amount of stabilizer needed gets so confusing as some experts proposed quantities vary. Well, the standard says your stabilizer should fall between 30ppm-50ppm. Most experts would say 80ppm could be the maximum, but this proposes a great risk to your water. I would not advise you to stick to that recommendation.

Even though your pool is stabilized at 50ppm or lower, you still need to monitor your water and do regular pool testing. The idea is to keep your water sanitized at 7.5%, which implies keeping it at 3-4ppm when the water is stabilized at 50ppm.

To treat your pool with a stabilizer, you should use about 4 pounds of cyanuric acid for 10,000 gallons of water in every 30ppm you need to maintain. Most of these instructions can be gotten in the products you purchase. Make sure to go through properly before adding chemicals to your pool.

What Is Pool Stabilizer And What Does It Do

How Much Stabilizer To Add To Pool

Using a pool stabilizer is a necessary part of keeping your pool clean. Pool stabilizer is made from cyanuric acid . CYA slows down how quickly chlorine evaporates so that chlorine will stay in the water longer.

CYA works by binding to chlorite ions in chlorine and protecting them from UV ray damage. Without a stabilizer, UV rays can easily break apart the chlorite ions in chlorine, which allows them to evaporate into the air.

Pool stabilizer comes in several forms:

  • Granules
  • Combined stabilized chlorine tablets or sticks
  • Combined stabilized shock

It can be a little confusing when youre researching what to get because pool stabilizer is also called pool conditioner, chlorine pool stabilizer, and chlorine stabilizer.

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How To Add Stabilizer To Your Pool

Most manufacturers say to add your CYA to a bucket of warm water first and others say you can pour it directly into the pool.

I recommend always dissolving it in a bucket of water since it is an acid that can cause skin irritation or pool liner damage.

Just pour the product into your bucket and pour the mixture around the edges of your pool.

Never pour chemicals directly into your skimmer.

What If Your Stabilizer Is Too Low

You usually wont have to add CYA to your pool after the initial dose at the first of the season, but sometimes its necessary.

For example, if your pool water has been lowered for some reason or if youve had some rainfall. After any of these events, it’s a good idea to retest your CYA levels.;

If you’ve determined that the levels are too low, go ahead and calculate the amount of CYA you need in order to bring it back above 30 ppm.

Dissolve it in your bucket and pour it around the edge of your pool. Retest again in about 24 hours. Repeat if necessary.

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Stabilized Chlorine Tablets Or Sticks Or Shock

The main difference between tablets or sticks and shock is chemical strength and how to use the product.

Tablets and sticks are for everyday pool use while shock products have high chlorine levels that shock a pool to remove chloramines, waste, and bacteria after a contamination event or to remove visible algae.

Stabilized chlorine is the easiest way to add chlorine and stabilizer to your pool at the same time without a second step. Both trichlor and dichlor contain over 50% CYA by weight. Youll likely never have to adjust chlorine levels when you add them as a combination duo.

I like to suggest first-time pool owners use stabilized chlorine tablets or shock because its easier and requires less extra work. However, I still suggest regular testing to make sure the CYA levels stay within the proper range.

When To Check Stabilizer Levels

How to add Stabilizer to your Pool

Checking pool stabilizer levels is vital if you use a separate stabilizer rather than stabilized chlorine. A quality pool-chemistry testing strip will test for CYA levels.

The first time you will want to check the CYA level in your pool is three to five days after your pool filter has been circulating water for the season. Its useless to check it sooner than that because its denser than water and settles to the bottom of the pool without circulation.

If you keep your pool running year-round, youll want to check CYA levels regularly.

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How Pool Stabilizer Works

From the moment you add chlorine to your pool, the suns powerful radiation goes to work, burning off your chlorine sometimes as fast as you put it in. No, Im not being melodramatic here:; the sun can actually eat up to 1 ppm of chlorine every hour if its not protected.

When you bolster the chlorine in your pool with a silent helper like pool stabilizer, what its actually doing on a molecular level is quickly binding to the chlorite ions in chlorine. These guys are stronger together than apart: without this chemical bond, the UV radiation would break apart the chlorine, causing it to lose all sanitizing power.

Stabilizer Is A Pool Chemical You Cant Ignore

We know that many pool owners get overwhelmed keeping track of chlorine and pH. It can be a lot of work to keep a pool balanced, but you need to do yourself a favor and add CYA to your list of chemical checks. If your cyanuric acid or stabilizer levels are too high or too low, the rest of your pool is going to have issues as well.;

Pool stabilizer is relatively easy to deal with, and most people only need to add it to the pool once per year. Knowing that this once per year chemical could help you save money all year long should be enough to help you understand the importance of stabilizer levels in your swimming pool.;

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How Often Do You Add Cyanuric Acid To A Pool

The good thing about CYA is that it doesnt get used up like other chemicals. Once you put it in, it stays at pretty much the same level unless you have to do a water change or have a big splashout or a lot of evaporation. Any dilution as a result of adding water, even from rain, will lower the CYA concentration.

Most often, the only time youll need to add any significant amount of CYA is when you open your pool for the summer. After that, if you use stabilized chlorine each week, youre adding a little CYA every time. Unless theres a significant water addition or loss, thats all the CYA youll need to add throughout the year.

Using A Skimmer Sock With Chlorine Stabilizer In Skimmer

How Much Stabilizer To Add To Pool

I poured the granules into a skimmer sock, and put that tied off skimmer sock inside the skimmer basket. This makes it easy to see when all of the granules have dissolved. I actually tried this last weekend, for about an hour. This seems like it would work. However, I very quickly realized that the main issue with doing it this way is that it takes quite some time for the entire dose to dissolve. Some reports Ive seen say it can take up to 3-4 DAYS for it to dissolve this way, which I wasnt willing to do.

Since the pump has to run non-stop while its dissolving and mixing this stuff, I always do it on the weekend when electricity is cheaper. Im not OK with running the pump 24/7 during the week, and paying a small fortune to do so.

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Can You Put Stabilizer Directly In Your Pool

Yes, if you have a concrete swimming pool. Its an acid that takes a long time to dissolve. So itll sit on the floor of your pool. I recommend brushing it up until its fully dissolved. If you have a vinyl liner or fiberglass pool, we recommend dissolving it in a bucket of warm water and carefully pouring it around it around the edges of your pool. Remember to always wear chemical-resistant gloves and goggles before adding chemicals to your swimming pool.

Dilution Is The Solution

First thing’s first. You cannot add chemicals to lower the stabilizer level. Cyanuric acid can be added, but to lower it, the pool needs to be diluted with fresh water. There is no chemical on the market that you can add to your pool water to lower the stabilizer.

If you just need help with cleaning a green pool, learn how to properly shock your pool.

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