What do most of you use for your pools…Chlorinating Liquid or Chlorine tablets?

I Have always used chlorine tablets

I recently used some leftover Pool Essentials Chlorinating Liquid that I had originally used for soft washing. It worked surprisingly well in clearing up my pool after the pump failed, leaving the water cloudy and with some organic growth.

This got me thinking about experimenting with liquid chlorine, or possibly a hybrid approach using both liquid
And tablets.

Thoughts?

I have had a pool for 26 years. Always used powdered chlorine for shocking and tablet chlorine for everyday chlorination. My pool has an automatic tablet chlorination system. It has worked well for the past 26 years.

Have always used tablets, been at this house over 30 years. (Pool was old old when we moved in)

I had a pump issue 3-4 years ago, and had same cloudy issue that I had trouble clearing up. I bought a cheap digital pH meter and found out my pH was way off. A box or two of arm&hammer baking soda and water cleared right up.

I moved from tablets and granular shock to liquid chlorine a while back. The key advantage is being able to control CYA levels independently of chlorine. Check out the information on Trouble Free Pools website for a deeper dive. Also, Pinch-a-Penny has a good program for liquid chlorine. You put a deposit down on as many 2.5 gallons jugs as you want and you swap them out for new ones when empty.

I use both liquid and tabs to keep the CYA level in check.

I went to a liquid service last year. Way cheaper and the pool has never looked better.

How much of the liquid chlorine are y'all having to use a week to maintain the pool per week?

Pinch a Penny for Liquid chlorine, Salinity Acid, and buy Sense S2 for no more water testing errands.


https://waterguru.com/products/waterguru-sense

aggies4life said:

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How much are of the liquid chlorine are y'all having to use a week to maintain the pool per week?

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I probably go through 1-1.5 gallons of liquid chlorine a week. Roughly a 15,000 gallon pool.

After using tablets for 20 years, I switched to liquid chlorine 5 years ago. With the tablets and summers in Houston, the CYA levels would always run so high which limits the effectiveness of the chlorine as a sanitizer. I would always get algae growth July through September.

After switching over to liquid, I haven't seen algae in 5 years. About 4 years ago, I removed the tablets dispenser and installed a Stenner dosing pump. It runs about 30 minutes every day and keeps the levels on target. I do have to occasionally add dry CYA but probably runs less than $50/year.

I'm never going back to tablets!

ETA: A great resource that has helped me on a variety of topics.... Troublefree Pool

You can test for CYA. Once it gets to a certain level you should stop using the tabs. Tabs have CYA. That's why they call it stabilized chlorine. CYA helps keep the sun from breaking down your chlorine. Chlorine breaks down eventually but the CYA doesn't and stays in your water unless you splash it out or drain it or backwash. Once your CYA get to a specific level you can use liquid or shock to maintain your proper chlorine levels. Too much CYA can limit the chlorine effect. Trouble Free Pools explains all this very well. I just refinished my pool so it was drained and filled. Using tabs for now but will probably stop this fall.


I will also say I'm a big fan of No Mor Problems pool additive. Works great.

I own a pool service company. I've found that the most economical way to do this and avoid CyA issues is to use a combination of tabular and liquid chlorine, adjusting seasonally. During peak months, a 15k gallon pool will consume on average slightly under 2 gallons / wk of sodium hypochlorite, or ~2.7 tabs of trichlor. Liquid chlorine, when not in a feeder, will need dosed 2-3 times/ week in order to avoid over chlorination. Tabs are less expensive than liquid chlorine in the volumes I purchase, and I believe this is also true for retail pricing. A liquid chlorine feeder in my opinion is the easiest path to maintaining chlorine and overall chemistry, although not the most economical path. Liquid chlorine feeders have a higher maintenance cost than inline tab feeders. Hope this helps answer some of your questions.

AG1904 said:

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I moved from tablets and granular shock to liquid chlorine a while back. The key advantage is being able to control CYA levels independently of chlorine. Check out the information on Trouble Free Pools website for a deeper dive. Also, Pinch-a-Penny has a good program for liquid chlorine. You put a deposit down on as many 2.5 gallons jugs as you want and you swap them out for new ones when empty.

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This is the way. Trouble Free Pools website will educate you on everything you need. I moved to a liquid chlorine/tablet combo about 4 years ago and my pool has been much clearer and easier to manage. Liquid Chlorine weekly for my "pool maintenance day" and then a couple tablets in the chlorinator to keep the chlorine level constant for the week.

I do not use Pinch-a-Penny, although one just opened in the town I live. I use the gallon pool chlorine jugs from WalMart. They are a little cheaper than the ones from Lowe's in my town.

Again, my pool is crystal clear using liquid chlorine. I was never able to get it looking like that with tablets/powder shock only.

Are salt cell chlorinators not common anymore? Mine was built in 2008 and I'm still doing the salt thing. Cleaning the salt cell is easy, and I think the occasional bags of salt are still cheaper than chlorine tablets, but I don't know.

I'll never go back from salt. So much less maintenance overall. I did the bleach method for years before finding 12% started getting tough, and then 10%, etc. Then the cost rose a bit. Dosing was finicky.

I put three things in my pool. Salt, acid and liquid CYA. Maybe every fives years I may have to add some calcium.

oh no said:

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Are salt cell chlorinators not common anymore? Mine was built in 2008 and I'm still doing the salt thing. Cleaning the salt cell is easy, and I think the occasional bags of salt are still cheaper than chlorine tablets, but I don't know.

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Built a salt water pool over the winter, talked with 5 pool builders and every single one tried to talk us out of it

Pools that use electrolysis generated chlorine are great if the pool and surrounding area are designed around the corrosive nature of the system. Most older pool systems, porous decks, and nearby patio areas incorporating metal have terrible resistance to degradation, oxidation, and staining. I would avoid builders trying to talk you out of salt for a new pool build.

Stringfellow Hawke said:

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Pinch a Penny for Liquid chlorine, Salinity Acid, and buy Sense S2 for no more water testing errands.


https://waterguru.com/products/waterguru-sense

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I like the idea of the remote monitor but it has a 3.2-star rating on Amazon, yikes. Many of the reviews say it craps out in less than a year.

Have you had any issues with yours?

ol'Porkbelly said:

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Stringfellow Hawke said:

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Pinch a Penny for Liquid chlorine, Salinity Acid, and buy Sense S2 for no more water testing errands.


https://waterguru.com/products/waterguru-sense

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I like the idea of the remote monitor but it has a 3.2-star rating on Amazon, yikes. Many of the reviews say it craps out in less than a year.

Have you had any issues with yours?

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None of the electronic chemical measurements are worth a damn. The 10 minutes you save from running a full test kit battery every few weeks plus the 30 seconds to check just pH/chlorine weekly will be spent on calibration and troubleshooting the system.

Get a good test kit like tfttestkits.net sells and you'll be in much better shape. Combine it with the PoolMath app that troublefreepool put out years back and it takes all the guesswork out of the equation.

The Sun knows is correct. Recommend spending some time on the Troublefree Pool website. The guys there know their stuff and are not sponsored by any manufacturer.

It's important to know the concentration of liquid chlorine. Walmart pool bleach is 10%, laundry bleach can be 6%, 7.5%, or unmarked which probably means 3%. I think Pinch a Penny is 10.5%. Patriot Cleaning Supply in Katy sells 12.5% for $3.25/gallon, and I understand Elite Chemical in Kemah is under $3/gallon.
My 18,000 gallon pool has 20 year old plaster with many pits which hold algae, and I use about 3 gallons of 12.5% per week. It would probably be half that with smooth plaster.

Us the chlorine system based on what else your pool needs.

If your CYA <40, use tabs.
If your CH< 250 ish (plaster), then use cal Hypo
If CYA is good and CH is good, use liquid.

I get my chlorine in 25 gallon increments from pinch a penny or Patriot pool supply in Katy.

I have a rola-chem 303Mp liquid chlorine feeder pump that runs when my pool pump runs. I also have a tab feeder. So I adjust their rates of feed based on test results and chlorine consumption rates. So in the winter it's slow it down and summer i speed it up. I will run tabs when my CYA is <40, and then just liquid.

I mostly use liquid these days. It probably costs me about $85 every 3 weeks in the summer, but it keeps the CYA level down and also keeps the water crystal clear.

Rola chem is great once you upgrade all the feeder lines. The OEMs pinhole and plug after a year or two if in direct sunlight.

The Sun said:

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ol'Porkbelly said:

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Stringfellow Hawke said:

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Pinch a Penny for Liquid chlorine, Salinity Acid, and buy Sense S2 for no more water testing errands.


https://waterguru.com/products/waterguru-sense

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I like the idea of the remote monitor but it has a 3.2-star rating on Amazon, yikes. Many of the reviews say it craps out in less than a year.

Have you had any issues with yours?

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None of the electronic chemical measurements are worth a damn. The 10 minutes you save from running a full test kit battery every few weeks plus the 30 seconds to check just pH/chlorine weekly will be spent on calibration and troubleshooting the system.

Get a good test kit like tfttestkits.net sells and you'll be in much better shape. Combine it with the PoolMath app that troublefreepool put out years back and it takes all the guesswork out of the equation.

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I'm bench testing a water guru against 2 lamotte photometers right now and so far it has been great. I've had it for 3-4 months and I am using the C5 cartridges. All reading have been within error range of the lamotte testers. C5 tests pH, TC, alk, cya and hardness.

I've been considering pulling the plug on our pool company. Spent some time on trouble free pools. Just haven't jumped in yet.

Our pool is 5 years old. We get a crazy amount of calcium/mineral buildup on our water line tile. To the point of having to have it media blasted every 2-3 years. I know our pool company uses chlorine tablets, not sure about liquid.

Is there a relationship between tabs, CYA, and calcium / mineral deposits?

Multiple companies have explained it as "it's just the water in our area, that's what's causing it". I did my best to fact check this statement and it doesn't seem to be the sole cause.

Yea, I've had my lines break and shoot chlorine everywhere. So I now replace them on a yearly basis. I also cover them in a "wire loom" type cover so the sun doesn't deteriorate them, however the tube that is in the pump system will break about 1 / year even out of the sun. I love it for chlorine as I only worry about it 1 per week and in between I forget about it. I've thought about getting one for acid as well.

Im not entirely sure if this is the answer, but look up the "lime saturation index" or LSI calculation. As I started paying more attention to keeping that as close to zero as possible, I got less calcium buildup and water is clear. My Taylor test kit has a little "dial" in it that gives me a rough estimate of it when I test. Its a combination of Alk, CH, pH, and water temperature. Depending on what "ranges" you use for the above can affect the LSI. I use ranges recommended by troublefreepool which are different than you will see on a Leslie's test report.

My experience using rola chem for muriatic acid was not a good one. It was pretty much impossible for us to get the feed rate dialed in. Primarily because the feed rate dial adjustments for rolachem do not really line up nicely for pool chemical feed rates. (They have 2 variations of their pump for different feed rates. Bleach is pretty forgiving because it's consumed so quickly, acid is not.

I used to buy bulk bleach from a chemical company in Tomball that sold it fresh, until they stopped selling to household consumers. I found patriot and I really like the guy but found I was using a lot more bleach to maintain levels. I ended up testing his bleach and it was a lot closer to 6% than 12%. I ultimately switched to a salt system due to unreliable bleach sources/rising cost of quality bleach.

I have a tab doser for day to day and add about 2 gal of liquid chlorine per week in the summer only for a 10000 gallon pool. I occasionally use muriatic acid to control ph and about once a year use some phosphate remover then clean the filters. That's all I've ever bought. I clean my filters 3-4x per year because it seems to keep algae away easier and cuts down on brushing needs.

Reading some of y'all's posts, I feel like I won the pool lotto. I never have any problems and do all the testing/maintenance myself. I've never heard of half the chemicals and issues yall are mentioning.

dr_boogs said:

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I've been considering pulling the plug on our pool company. Spent some time on trouble free pools. Just haven't jumped in yet.

Our pool is 5 years old. We get a crazy amount of calcium/mineral buildup on our water line tile. To the point of having to have it media blasted every 2-3 years. I know our pool company uses chlorine tablets, not sure about liquid.

Is there a relationship between tabs, CYA, and calcium / mineral deposits?

Multiple companies have explained it as "it's just the water in our area, that's what's causing it". I did my best to fact check this statement and it doesn't seem to be the sole cause.

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Out of the gate, those companies don't know what they're talking about or don't want to bother with making sure your water chemistry is balanced.

As agcive- mentioned, there is a CSI (aka LSI to some) that takes your test measurements to calculate the corrosiveness or potential for scaling. You are having a scaling problem which means the calcium in you pool has a higher likelihood of coming out of solution and depositing on your hard surfaces.

All of the test measurements, including water temp, has an effect on CSI.

The PoolMath app calculates this value for you. You want to stay between -0.6 and +0.6, better between -0.3 and +0.3 and ideally as close to 0.0 as possible. Once you get your chems balanced maintenance is a piece of cake.

I would post a screenshot of the app but I guess Imgur took away bbcode links.

Thanks for the reply. I downloaded the pool math app and ordered a test kit that was linked on the TFP website. May reach out with some additional questions once I get the kit in and start testing, if you don't mind.

Appreciate the reply. About to pay a fair amount of money for media blasting to remove it all and don't want the calcium scaling to continue to be a problem.

We've used liquid for several years now. Buy it from Pinch-A-Penny.