Muriatic (HCl Acid) - Price !

[Katy-Texas]

Ouch, we have an in-ground 39' 26000 USG pool with salt system.

Have to add acid once per week to keep pH in range, presumably as salt generator raises the pH.

Normally buy my acid from Home Depot, today price is 25% higher ! ! ! Who says there is no inflation.

Last week's price USD7.96 for box of two 1 gal bottles of 31.45% muriatic acid, today USD9.98+tax ! ! !

Will have to try getting from Lowe's . . .

[Brock]

Wow, it is typically $1.99 a gallon and just went up to $2.49 a gallon. I shouldn't complain.

[Katy-Texas]

Actually went from $4 a gallon to $5, yep guess it's still cheap as only use 1-2 gallons a month . . . . so only an extra 20 $/year . . . . nothing compared to price of electricity . . . .

[rmeden]

$5/gal at Home Depot here in Dallas too...

Where do you get it for $2.50/gallon?

[waterbear]

I paid under $4/gal at Pinch a Penny pool supply(My friendly neighborhood pool store franchise) here in N. FL. They were cheaper than Lowes and Home Depot and closer to my house! (and they test with Taylor stuff so if the Owner does my tests I have some confidence in the results---just use them to check things I can't test for just to keep tabs on whether I ever have any metal problems)

[StoshJ]

Last week in So Cal, the two gallon box was around $8 I believe. It was only $6 two months ago.

[dalparadise]

one other thing to note --I am also in the Houston area and used to add bottles of acid to my pool per week when it was new -- now, it's much more stable.

Something I noticed: the muriatic acid I got at Home Depot or Lowes seemed much less effective than the stuff I got at a local pool store. Pool store acid was consumed at a slower rate and required much less to move my numbers.

The only reason I can think of is that both HD and Lowes store their acid in the garden department, outside, where the temperatures get up to 100 degrees and the humidity is high. In the pool store, the bottles are stored in the air conditioning.

BTW -- my pool store never tries to sell me anything I don't want. Last time I bought acid there, it was $3.00 per gallon...but that was a month ago. It's in Pearland, though, so that's no help to you.

This temperature thing is just an assumption on my part. Does anyone smarter than I am have an idea about this?

[CAL7]

I am also curious about storage of Acid. Is inside (78d F) better than in the hot garage? How about outside in the shade, but still bright light?

Also, I put on a new DiamondBrite finish four months ago. pH has tended high since then. Will it drop off any over the next few months, or has it leveled off?

[rallan]

Menards in Minneapolis around $2