Why not use liquid chorine instead of bleach ?

[giroup01]

Liquid chlorine does not exist in nature, and the only way to get it is to compress and deep chill to liquefy it. It will only remain a liquid under pressure and low temperature. When exposed to normal pressures and temperatures it will quickly flash off to a greenish yellow gas. If you were hanging around liquid chlorine without a respirator you would most likely now be in a hospital with chemical pneumonia, unless you were already dead.

Yup, you're so right.

But then I always see people going for the trichlor instead of the cal hypo/bleach/whatever because it says "90% available chlorine" on the label. Good marketing eh?

[CarlD]

I'm not sure I know why you need chlorine in Canada...I thought nothing grows in water that's just above freezing...Man, that's cold!!!

[giroup01]

I'm not sure I know why you need chlorine in Canada...I thought nothing grows in water that's just above freezing...Man, that's cold!!!

I want to let you know that, contrary to what you and others may think, Canada is not a cold, freezing country. Just to prove my point, it's the middle of July and my pool water has reached its highest temperature so far this season, behold, it's a sizzling 72F. So there. And it may go even higher, it may reach 74F if we're lucky and the weather holds. Now that's hot my friend. So we may not need our polar-lined speedos this weekend. Heck I may even have to turn ON the AC in the car! So there.



Best regards,

Paul

[brent.roberts]

The wild card in the cost equation of Canadain Tire chlorine or pool store "liquid chlorine" is that at 10 to 12% solutions, it is unstable and will relatively quickly degrade.

If the shipping and storage was not up to par, you may be getting only 7 or 8% by the time you stand at the edge of the pool and start pouring.

5 or 6% solutions, on the other hand are relatively stable and you should get pretty much everything you paid for, into the pool.

[aquarium]

The wild card in the cost equation of Canadain Tire chlorine or pool store "liquid chlorine" is that at 10 to 12% solutions, it is unstable and will relatively quickly degrade.

If the shipping and storage was not up to par, you may be getting only 7 or 8% by the time you stand at the edge of the pool and start pouring.

5 or 6% solutions, on the other hand are relatively stable and you should get pretty much everything you paid for, into the pool.

Not saying you're wrong, but this assertion is supported where?

[brent.roberts]

It has been frequently reported on this forum that the 12% stuff was unstable and I had a discussion with the manager of a local pool store manager and he readily admitted the degredation is a problem. He has 2 small ( 5000 litre ) tanks and gets weekly small deliveries so he can control his stock on a first-in first-out basic. Keeps it fresher than one 10,000 gallon tank where new stuff gets mixed with old stuff.

There is a chemical engineer type here who worked at a chlorine production facility and posted recently. I hope he sees this thread and can cite some more authoritative sources.

[cleancloths]

It has been frequently reported on this forum that the 12% stuff was unstable and I had a discussion with the manager of a local pool store manager and he readily admitted the degredation is a problem. He has 2 small ( 5000 litre ) tanks and gets weekly small deliveries so he can control his stock on a first-in first-out basic. Keeps it fresher than one 10,000 gallon tank where new stuff gets mixed with old stuff.

There is a chemical engineer type here who worked at a chlorine production facility and posted recently. I hope he sees this thread and can cite some more authoritative sources.

YUP, we at one time looked at making high strength bleach (this is back in the 1980's) and decided against it because of the degredation issues. You typically use a nickel or iron catalyst in the bleach production process and trace metals that remain in the bleach cause it to rapidly break down. So, you are best to stick with 6% or lower bleach - as you know that you will actually be getting what you pay for.

As far as the temps in Canada, Montreal can actually be hotter at times in the summer than NYC!

[CarlD]

I want to let you know that, contrary to what you and others may think, Canada is not a cold, freezing country. Just to prove my point, it's the middle of July and my pool water has reached its highest temperature so far this season, behold, it's a sizzling 72F. So there. And it may go even higher, it may reach 74F if we're lucky and the weather holds. Now that's hot my friend. So we may not need our polar-lined speedos this weekend. Heck I may even have to turn ON the AC in the car! So there.



Best regards,

Paul

72? 74? Ugh! That's COLD my friend! I'm too soft--I need a 3/4 wet suit. Water here is COOL at 85!

[chem geek]

According to Clifford White's Handbook of Chlorination, the half-life of 10% chlorine solution at 77 degrees (F) is 220 days which is not too bad. It is also my experience that if there is a decent turnover of chlorine bottles and they are kept out of the sun, then I tend to get properly concentrated chlorine from my local pool store. I get the expected increase in chlorine levels by adding an amount of chlorine based on the 10% level (the 10% is by weight of NaOCl while the 12% available chlorine is by weight of the HOCl you get by putting the chlorine in water).

[chem geek]

On my last post I was wrong about the 10%/12%. A 12.5% (by weight) solution of chlorine bleach (NaOCl) is actually considered to be 11.9% available chlorine because the standard is Cl2 gas at 100%. 12.5% * (70.906 g/mole Cl2) / (74.4 g/mole NaOCl) = 11.9%