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There are a lot of different types of chlorine you can add to your pool: tablets, granules, even household bleach. And some kinds of chlorine work better than others depending on how you add it to your water.
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What is Pool School?
A podcast for pool owners covering pool maintenance and water chemistry.
Everyone, and welcome to Pool School by Swim University where we help you keep your pool clean and clear all year. My name is Matt. I'm the founder of swimuniversity.com. And on this episode, we're talking about what's the best chlorine for your pool. Let's dive in.
Matt Giovanisci:Real quick. If you want more help taking care of your pool, be sure to grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimu.com/cheat sheet. Now there are lots of different types of chlorine that you can add to your pool. There's tablets, granules, and even household bleach. And some kinds of chlorine work better than others depending on how you add it to your water.
Matt Giovanisci:So first, what are the different types of chlorine? Well, the first type that you need to know about is well, the first difference, I should should I should say, that you need to know about is stabilized chlorine versus unstabilized chlorine. Stabilized chlorine contains cyanuric acid, also known as CYA or pool or chlorine stabilizer. It protects your chlorine from being destroyed by the sun's UV rays. Now unstable unstabilized chlorine on the other hand doesn't contain cyanuric acid, and that means it dissipates more quickly and you'll have to add more chlorine more often as it breaks down in the sun.
Matt Giovanisci:So liquid chlorine, bleach, or sometimes chlorine shock like calcium hypochlorite shock or we shorten it to cal hypo shock are unstabilized chlorine. Be but most of the chlorine that's sold to you to keep your water consistently sanitized is stabilized chlorine, and the most common stabilized chlorine is either trichlor3 inch chlorine tablets or dichlorgranules. And no matter what type of chlorine that you use, the goal is to keep your chlorine levels between 1 and 3 parts per million with 3 parts per million or 3 PPM being ideal. And you'll want to make sure that your pH is in range before adding chlorine because the pH helps your chlorine work more effectively. Your pH should be between 7.47.6.
Matt Giovanisci:So which one is better? Is chlorine granules or chlorine tablets? Chlorine granules are usually made from dichlorchlorine and dissolve quickly in the water, helping them fight algae and contaminants fast. They have a lower chlorine percentage of around 60%, and granules are added directly to your pool water, giving you complete control of the dosage. But you do have to measure and add it yourself, which makes it more dangerous and cumbersome to handle.
Matt Giovanisci:You'll also need to pre dissolve the granules by adding the measured amount of of the granules to a bucket of pool water and then pour the chlorine around the perimeter of your pool. Finally, granules don't work in an automatic feeder or what we call a chlorinator since they dissolve way too fast. Trichlor tablets, on the other hand, are placed in things like chlorine floaters, in pool skimmers, well, we don't recommend it, and automatic chlorinators or the inline automatic feeders. They contain up to 90% chlorine as opposed to 60% chlorine, but keep in mind that trichlor will affect your pool's pH. These tablets usually come in 1 inch or 3 inch pucks.
Matt Giovanisci:One inch tablets are a smart option for smaller pools, and 3 inch tablets, Small I should say smaller pools and hot tubs, and 3 inch tablets are great for larger pools. And when I say smaller pools, I mean, probably anything less than 15 foot around. So we're talking in gallons, it's probably less than, like, about 5,000 gallons or less. That's what I would say. And a 3 inch tablet can because, yeah, a 3 inch tablet can sanitize up to 5,000 gallons of water.
Matt Giovanisci:So that, you know, that makes sense. Now tablets are one of the most popular choices of chlorine options simply because they're super convenient versus adding the granular chlorine or even adding liquid chlorine to your pool by hand. They're slower dissolving and provide sustained chlorination. But if you want a quick boost of chlorine and cyanuric acid or you want more control over your chlorine amounts, then granules are gonna dissolve more quickly. So what's the best way to add chlorine tablets to a pool?
Matt Giovanisci:We mentioned the 3 common ways being, floating dispensers, inside the skimmer basket, which I can already tell you is a loser, and in an automatic chlorinator. Now, keep in mind that there are other things like pool water temperature and water pressure that can impact the amount of time it takes for a tablet to dissolve. And the larger 3 inch tablet's gonna break down a lot more slowly than the 1 inch tablet. Now floating dispensers, which are like these, you know, you see them, they're usually blue and white, or they have a funny animal floating on the top of them, will gradually dissolve your chlorine tablets, but it's pretty inconsistent. It all depends on how they move through the water and they can get stuck in one spot in your pool like behind ladders, which causes them to unevenly distribute chlorine when the pool's not running.
Matt Giovanisci:Placing tablets in your pool skimmer will give you a steadier rate of dissolving that because the continuous water flow through the filter will evenly break down the tablet and send that sanitized water back into your pool. But your pump and your filter has to run every day. Otherwise, the chlorine dissolves and collects in the skimmer basket and that can cause staining and erosion. Now about that, I get a lot of comments on our social media posts when we show people putting chlorine pucks in their skimmers. People do it because they don't if they don't have a chlorine floater or the or the best option, the most reliable option being the automatic chlorine dispenser, that's really the only thing you can do.
Matt Giovanisci:Now, there are chemical companies that make products that are tablets and sticks that they have this I know BioGuard has a product, I think they call it now they used to call it SmartSticks, but now they call it SilkGuard. And the idea is that it when the water stops flowing so if you put them in a skimmer basket and the water stops flowing over them, it creates this, like, film around it that stops it from dissolving super fast. And so it it's a lot better to use that in if you're gonna use, tablets in your skimmer, it's a lot better to use that than just regular, you know, normal dissolving tablets. But really, it's just not the most reliable option. It's gonna cause long term issues to your equipment.
Matt Giovanisci:So if you can avoid it, avoid it. Because the most reliable option for chlorine tablets is definitely gonna be an automatic chlorine dispenser, which we also call a chemical feeder or a chlorinator. These are installed after your pool filter sending that chlorinated water into your pool without going through your filtration system. You simply add several tablets into the chlorinator and then you set the rate at which you want the tablets to dissolve. Chlorinators are best as a set it and forget it method, but they're not and they're not extremely expensive, and they can be retrofitted into most pools.
Matt Giovanisci:And if you have an above ground pool, it's really easy. In an in ground pool, it's a little bit more difficult, but it should be pretty easy as well. So if you can do it, do it. Now, what about liquid chlorine or bleach? Now, liquid chlorine and bleach have the same active chemical as other pool chlorine.
Matt Giovanisci:Liquid chlorine is cheaper than tablets and granules, but it's unstabilized. So you'll need to add cyanuric acid to protect it from the sun. And it has an extremely high pH, and it's highly corrosive. Household bleach is also really affordable and easy to find, but it has the smallest concentration of chlorine and it's also unstabilized. And that means you'll need to add a lot more of it to your pool and you'll need to add it frequently and you'll also need to add stabilizers.
Matt Giovanisci:So all there goes all the all the time and money that you were saving with, with using bleach. And finally, is there a way to use less chlorine in your pool? Well, yes. Using a mineral system can help sanitize your water without the need to add a ton of chlorine. These systems use minerals like silver and copper to actually kill bacteria.
Matt Giovanisci:And if your chlorine levels ever drop too low, the mineral system ensures that there's always something fighting contaminants. You'll also need to add a lot less chlorine with a mineral system. Only 0.5 to 1 part per million, which is a lot lower than 1 to 3 parts per million being 3 being ideal. And if you have an indoor pool, you don't wanna use stabilized chlorine since the chlorine won't be broken down by the sun. So consider using a chlorine alternative like bromine.
Matt Giovanisci:Remember, if you need more help with pool maintenance, grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimu.com/cheat. And if you found this episode helpful, subscribe for more pool maintenance tips on your favorite podcasting app. And when you do, please leave us a review because your support will help more pool owners just like you find this show. That's it. Thanks again, and happy swimming.