How To Raise Free Chlorine And Bromine In Pool
If you know the amount of combined chlorine in your swimming pool, think of it this way: If total and free chlorine levels are the same, thereâs no combined chlorine in your water, meaning none of it has been used up yet. Adjust sliders to calculate the amount of bleach or chlorine to raise free chlorine levels in the pool.
No bromine or any chemical is needed on ECOsmarte spas or
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What Are The Reasons For Not Being Able To Get A Chlorine Reading In Your Pool Water
If you test your pool water and cant get a chlorine level reading at all it may be due to a very high chlorine demand.
A high chlorine demand is the inability to keep an adequate level of chlorine in the pool water even though the water appears to be balanced and properly maintained.
That means that oxidation levels have increased to a point where chlorine is being consumed faster than it can be put in to the water by either shocking or normal applications.
Contamination, low pH or low chlorine stabiliser levels could cause this situation.
The water might appear cloudy, the pool walls be slimy or the pool may look relatively OK.
When Should You Test Your Cyanuric Acid Levels
Well, besides regularly testing your pool water, youll want to test your water at the beginning and the end of pool season.
If your cyanuric acid is low at the beginning of the season, youll end up using more chlorine in the month ahead.
And if its high at the end of the season, it might be time to change your pool water.
Secondly, test your pool water right after a major rainstorm. Diluted water can also result in lower cyanuric acid levels.
Finally, if you notice the strong chlorine smell on your pool, that can be a sign that theres actually too much cyanuric acid affecting your chlorine.
So, check your chlorine and your cyanuric acid levels.
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How To Raise Pool Chlorine
The Association of Pool and Spa Professionals recommends keeping free chlorine between 2.0 and 4.0 ppm. The Center for Disease Control recommends free chlorine be kept above 1.0 ppm for pools and 3.0 ppm for hot tubs. If you find your free chlorine to be below these recommended ranges, it is important to add the appropriate chemicals to your pool to increase free chlorine back to the desired level.There are several chemicals that may be used to raise your free chlorine. These include chlorine gas, chlorine tablets, sodium hypochlorite , calcium hypochlorite , trichloroisocyanuric acid , dichlorine , and lithium hypochlorite. For more information about each of these sanitizing agents, read our post Types of Pool Chlorine Sanitizers.To determine how much sanitizer to add to raise your free chlorine to the desired levels, we recommend using the Pool Calcualtors free chlorine test. More information about how to use the test can be found in the video below. When your free chlorine levels get too low, we recommend using calcium hypochlorite to raise them back up.
How To Add Pool Stabilizer
Some pool chemical instructions tell you to add them at the filter, while others may be poured straight into the pool water. When it comes to pool stabilizer, you dont want to do either of those, even if the instructions say its okay.
Remember that pool stabilizer is an acid. The chemical dissolves very slowly. In fact, that the acidity can damage your pool surfaces or skimmer if left to sit there and dissolve in its own time.
We recommend buying a five-gallon bucket, filling it with water, then dissolving the stabilizer in that water. This way, whether it takes ten minutes or an hour to dissolve, you wont be damaging expensive pool surfaces or delicate circulation parts by leaving an undiluted acid lying around on them.
Note: Never add chemicals to your skimmer and through your pool filter. This can be very dangerous and could damage your pool filter system.
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Raising Chlorine With Dichlor Granules
Use dichlor chlorine for indoor pools and spas.
Dichlor, or Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate, is also popular, but is used more for above-ground pools and spas.
Some advantages of dichlor:
- Fast dissolving. Great for times when a quick dose of chlorine is needed prior to using the pool.
- Only a slight affect on pH, which is about 6.7, and is also good for spas where pH is notoriously hard to control.
- Does not have any effect on total alkalinity.
A few disadvantages of using dichlor:
- More expensive than trichlor.
- Not recommended for chlorinators, feeders, or floaters as it dissolves too fast.
Key Misunderstandings And Problems In Pool Water Chemistry
Welcome to this overall look at the problems facing service techs regarding pool and spa water chemistry presented here in two parts.
Before we get started, consider this: If we think about all of the following issues together, we can come up with an easy way to take care of pool water that makes sense. By contrast, when we try to fix one of these without considering the way it affects other chemical constituents, we often create another type of problem.
Well start off with a brief explanation of each problem and its solution. Then Ill follow up with more complete answers.
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The Short Short Version
Test strips are the easiest way to test free chlorine but test kits are more accurate. Add sanitizer to raise chlorine. Elevated chlorine should drop quickly with use and sunlight.Chlorine is the most important chemical when it comes to maintaining sparkling clean water that is safe to swim in. Chlorine sanitizes your pool water by attacking and killing harmful microorganisms, called contaminates, that could lead adverse health consequences, including death. For these reasons, it is critical to know how to test the chlorine in your pool or hot tub, as well as what to do when your chlorine levels are outside recommended ranges.If you arent familiar with the different types of chlorine, you may want to read our post What is Free Chlorine, Combined Chlorine, and Total Chlorine? If youd like to know more about why its important to keep your chlorine in recommended levels and what those levels are, you may want to read our post What Should Chlorine Levels be for Pools and Hot Tubs?
Why Is My Pool Chlorine Level Too Low
There are a number of factors which can contribute to low chlorine in swimming pool water. I discuss some of these in the article titled Maintaining Swimming Pool Chlorine, but here are what you can expect to happen with swimming pool water with a chlorine level that is too low for an extended amount of time:
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Why Is The Ph Always Going Up In Pools What Is The Correct Total Alkalinity
Total alkalinity and CYA together create of the buffering systems in pool water they keep the pH from changing too quickly and by how much. They are better at keeping the pH from drifting low or going down. But total alkalinity is causing the pH of the water to go up. If you have high alkalinity , it will continually raise the pH, which requires frequent acid additions to lower pH. If you dont lower the total alkalinity, the pH will go up between visits.
The real proper total alkalinity for pools is 90 ppm. If you are experiencing the pH drifting up to high levels between weekly visits, you should lower the alkalinity by 10 ppm and use that as your new target alkalinity. So if you have a pool in which the pH in one week goes from 7.5 to 7.8 or 8, and the alkalinity is 90 ppm, you should lower alkalinity to 80 ppm and maintain that level as your new target alkalinity. If 80 ppm doesnt work, change the target to 70 ppm. You should adjust the total alkalinity for each pool so that the weekly pH change is minimal. You may have to add a small amount of acid each weekly visit. This would be normal. But if you are having to add large amounts of acid each week, your alkalinity is way too high.
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So, what is pool shock, exactly? “Shocking refers to the process of adding chlorine or non-chlorine pool chemicals to the water in order to raise the “free chlorine level. The goal is to raise this level to a point where contaminants such as algae, chloramines and bacteria are destroyed.
A pool that smells strongly of pool chlorine doesn’t mean that it’s clean. In fact, a clean pool will be almost odor-free. Strong chlorine smell is a sign of improperly treated water. The odor actually comes from chloramines, also known as combined chlorine. Chloramines form when the chlorine in the pool mixes with the nitrogen in sweat, oils and urine. However, smell alone does not dictate when you should shock your pool.
In general, you should shock your pool when:
- Algae begins to grow in your pool.
- The free chlorine level of your pool measures zero.
- The chloramines or combined chlorine level rises above 0.5 parts per million .
As you learn how to shock a pool, it’s vital to understand the difference between the types of chlorine.
When youre shocking a pool, the goal is to raise the free chlorine level of the pool water to roughly 10 times the combined chlorine level. Reaching this mark is the breakpoint chlorination.
Shocking a pool should be done at dusk. The sun will burn off unstabilized chlorine. Shocking your pool at night makes sure the chemicals work properly.
Here’s how to shock a pool:
Potassium peroxymonosulfate: A less costly, non-chlorine shock.
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Breaking Your Chlorine Lock
While there are many ways to solve this issue, we will only be covering a few of them. Please select the option you are most comfortable with.
Partially Draining Your Pool
One of the simplest methods to breaking chlorine demand is by partially draining your pool. The severity of the chlorine lock determines how long this method takes. Unfortunately, theres no exact science to this. Simply drain your pool little by little, refill it, test it, and repeat if necessary.
Shock Your Pool
Another method of breaking chlorine lock is shocking your pool. Bring your chlorine levels to 20ppm or three times higher than the current levels. We recommend using a non-chlorine oxidizing shock until your free and total chlorine reads the same.
We typically see more pools with a high demand for chlorine during spring opening season. A lot of the times, pools sit for months accumulating a ton of different contaminants. This is one of the reasons we always recommend balancing your pool before you close it. You dont want to compile pool issues or push them to the side. Although high chlorine demand is more common than you might suspect, it is something pool owners can handle themselves.
Give us a call if you think your pool is experiencing this same issue. Make sure you have your most recent chemical readings before we can offer any help.
Its Important To Keep A Close Eye On Your Free Chlorine
So be sure to pay close attention to the free chlorine level in your pool every time you take a test reading of the water. You now know how important it is to know the amount of chlorine in your pool thats free and available to act as a sanitizer.
Keeping your free chlorine at the proper level will help your pool water be safer to swim in and keep it clear and pleasant to look at too. If you are not going to look at one chlorine measurement than ignore total chlorine because free chlorine is much too critical to proper pool water chemistry to overlook.
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Do Value Of The House Go Higher With Pools
How much value does a pool add to a home? The experts are a split on how much a pool can contribute to a homes value. One HouseLogic study suggests an increase of 7 percent, at most, under ideal conditions, while HGTV reports that the average inground pool can up your propertys value by 5 to 8 percent.
Chlorine Reduction Is The Way To Go
At the time that Im writing this, pool owners everywhere are rethinking how they use chlorineand just how much of it they use. Due to the 2020 pandemic and a massive factory fire, theres a chlorine shortage this year, and prices have skyrocketed up as a result.
But to some, the chlorine shortage is a wake-up call. Every year, it takes a significant amount of care and cash to keep chlorine at its optimal levels.
There are already better options on the market. Its time we use them.
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How To Lower The Cyanuric Acid Levels In Your Pool
If your cyanuric acid levels are too high, check to see if youre using stabilized chlorine.
Remember, stabilized chlorine already contains a small amount of cyanuric acid. And if you see the following chemicals listed on your label, your chlorine contains cyanuric acid.
If this is the case, you may want to switch to chlorine without the added CYA to prevent your levels from rising again.
Unfortunately, diluting your pool water is the only way to lower high cyanuric acid levels.
So, drain a little water from your pool to bring down the water level, and then top off your pool with fresh water.
Now, if the levels are extremely high, you may want to completely drain your pool and refill it with fresh water. This is rare, and stabilized chlorine with CYA can hang around in your filtration system, so you may want to backwash or change your filter.
Cyanuric acid has also been found in pool plaster and in calcium scales. So if your levels climb rapidly after you refill your pool, that lingering CYA could be the problem.
How To Raise Cyanuric Acid In Pool
How to raise cyanuric acid in pool is the most requested question I get from the pool owner. So, I decided to write down the complete guide on it. Hopefully, youll get all the answers you need.
Cyanuric acid helps the chlorine to work more effectively in your pool, but if your cyanuric acid levels get too high or too low, you could end up weakening your chlorine and causing everything from algae to cloudy water.
Dont worry!
Here are a few simple steps that you can take to keep your cyanuric acid levels balanced in your pool.
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The Truth About Chlorine In Swimming Pools
This summer when you don your bathing suit and walk out onto the pool deck, you may be in for a sensory experience that conjures up happy memories of summers pastwarm sunshine, sparkling pool water and the smell of chlorine. If the chlorine smell is very strong, however, you may soon spot red-eyed swimmers emerging from the pool. Thats when the pool water is assumed to have too much chlorine in it. Ironically, a strong chemical smell around the pool and swimmer red eye may be signs that there is not enough chlorine in the water. Sound confusing? Its time to set the record straight about chlorine and swimming pools.
Chlorine helps protect swimmers from waterborne germs
Most swimmers understand that chlorine is added to pools to kill germs that can make swimmers sick. Chlorine-based pool sanitizers help reduce swimmers risk of waterborne illnesses, such as diarrhea, swimmers ear, and various skin infections. The great advantage of chlorine over other sanitizers, such as ozone and UV is that it keeps working long after it is added to pool water chlorine provides a residual level of protection against germs in the water. Chlorine is not the only game in town when it comes to pool sanitizers, but of the common products, only chlorine- and bromine-based disinfectants provide significant residual protection. Salt-water pools, by the way, are chlorinated pools in which the chlorine is generated on site from sodium chloride.
Swimmers can help keep swimming healthy
How To Reduce Pool Or Spa Chlorine Levels
Maintaining the correct chlorine level can be tricky. Different times of year require different levels of chlorine in a pool, as do varied levels of pool use.
And when super-chlorinating or shocking the pool, which is to raise the chlorine level to very high ranges to remove algae, bacteria and chloramines from the pool, its very easy to overshoot the mark, and over-chlorinate the pool.
Normal pool chlorine levels are usually 1.0 ppm to 3.0 ppm, depending on the level of stabilizer in the water . If your pool water is much higher than 2-3 ppm, read on
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Baking Soda To Raise Ph And Alkalinity In Pools
Most people know that chlorine is an important chemical in keeping pool water safe for swimming. But adding too much chlorine can lower your pools pH as well as its total alkalinity. When alkalinity falls, it is more difficult to maintain a stable pH. Plus, a lower pH and alkalinity of your pool water creates several negative effects, from itchy skin and stinging eyes for swimmers to corrosion of your pool ladders, liner, or other components.
When your waters alkalinity is too low, any chemicals you add will exponentially affect the pH, creating a condition known as pH bounce. Youll also need to add more chlorine to get the same sanitizing effect, and your swimmers will complain. Overall, pool water with inadequate alkalinity levels can be frustrating and costly.
Fortunately, there is a simple and cost-effective way to maintain your pools alkalinity and pH. You might use it in your cookie recipes or to freshen your fridge. This handy tool for pools is none other than Arm & Hammer baking soda, although youll need pounds of it rather than a pinch.
