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Did you know you can replace most of your expensive pool chemicals with common household products? If you want to stop spending extra money on things like chlorine tablets or alkalinity increaser, here’s what to use instead...
Creators & Guests
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, the founder of swimuniversity.com. And on this episode, we're talking about maintaining your pool without expensive chemicals. Let's dive in. 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.
Matt Giovanisci:Now did you know that you can replace most of your expensive pool chemicals with common household products? Well, if you wanna stop spending extra money on things like chlorine tablets or alkalinity increaser, here's what you can use instead. You can use bleach, baking soda, soda ash, which you may not know, but I'll tell you about it, and muriatic acid. So So when it comes to your pool's water chemistry, there are only a few levels that matter the most for regular weekly maintenance, and that's chlorine, pH, alkalinity, and cyanuric acid or pool stabilizer or CYA. Now the right chlorine levels keep your water sanitized and free from things like bacteria and algae, and the proper pH keeps your water neutral so it's not too acidic and it's not too basic.
Matt Giovanisci:Now 2 other elements that keep your chlorine and pH in range is total alkalinity, which helps prevent your pH from fluctuating wildly, and cyanuric acid or CYA, which helps protect your chlorine from being broken down by the sun. Now to keep these levels in check, you'll need to test your water at least once a week and add the right chemicals to rebalance your water chemistry. And that usually means going to the pool store and buying chemicals like alkalinity increaser, pH increaser, pH decreaser, chlorine tablets or granules or liquid chlorine, and chlorine stabilizer or pool stabilizer or whatever they sell it as. Now depending on the size of your pool, that can cost you 100 of dollars. Right?
Matt Giovanisci:So the good news is is that most of these chemicals can actually be replaced with regular store bought items, and you can find their substitutes in the laundry aisle, in the baking section, or at your local hardware store. And most of them have the same active ingredient as the pool chemical that they actually replace. So here's how to maintain your pool with common household products instead. Now a quick note, before you add anything to your water, you wanna test your level so that you know what needs adjusting, and you always wear the right safety gear, like goggles and gloves, even if you're gonna be using household products. Alright?
Matt Giovanisci:You'll also wanna add things slowly to your water with your pump and filter running, and you're gonna retest your water chemistry in between dosing. Finally, make sure that you adjust your water chemistry in the right order. So you're gonna follow this sequence that I'm about to tell you for the best results. You're gonna balance your alkalinity first, then your pH, and finally, your chlorine. They each affect one another, so balancing them in the right order is gonna help you.
Matt Giovanisci:Okay. Common household product number 1 is use baking soda to raise your alkalinity. Alkalinity that's sold at the pool store just has one active ingredient, and that ingredient is sodium bicarbonate, and sodium bicarbonate is just baking soda. So adding baking soda to your water will raise your alkalinity levels. It will also slightly raise your pH since alkalinity and pH hand in hand, but you'll notice a greater change in your alkalinity.
Matt Giovanisci:But how much baking soda do you need? Well, for every 10,000 gallons of water, you'll need about 1.5 pounds or 1 and a half pounds of baking soda to raise your pH sorry, to raise your alkalinity by 10 parts per million or 10 PPM. And after you raise your alkalinity, your pH is gonna naturally rise with it. Okay? Common household product number 2 is use soda ash to raise your pH.
Matt Giovanisci:Now, soda ash, or it's also known as washing soda, has the same active ingredient as pH increaser, and that's sodium carbonate. Now, the only difference between baking soda and washing soda is that it's let me alright. Let's let's get this right. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, b I carbonate. Alright?
Matt Giovanisci:Washing soda is sodium carbonate. Remove the bi, and you have those too. Alright? Found this is well, the washing soda you can find in your laundry aisle, and it can be used to raise the pH. Just make sure that your soda ash is 100% sodium carbonate without any additives because this is pretty common in laundry stuff.
Matt Giovanisci:You might also see tubs of soda ash in your pool store. But here's the thing, you can find it cheaper elsewhere. So how much soda ash do you actually need? Well, for every 10,000 gallons of water, it takes about a half a pound of soda ash to raise your pH by 0.2. So if your pH is lower than, say, 7, just pure 7, 7.0, you wanna start by adding 1 pound of soda ash at a time for every 10,000 gallons of water.
Matt Giovanisci:Now, keep in mind that your total alkalinity will also go up slightly, but you'll notice a greater change in your pH. But here's an even better secret. So you can actually bring up your pH levels without adding any chemicals whatsoever. Aerating your water with, like, a fountain or a water feature, a water slide, anything like that will naturally raise your pH levels without affecting your alkalinity and without having to add anything to your water. So the good news is you get to add more water features to your pool, make it look nice, and it keeps your pH in check.
Matt Giovanisci:Not a bad deal. Household product number 3 is using muriatic acid to lower your pH and your alkalinity. Murienic acid can be used to replace pH decreaser or what's sometimes known as dry acid. If you already have muriatic acid on hand for cleaning surface stains or your pool filters, then you can use it to lower your pH as well. Now, just keep in mind that it's much more hazardous to handle than pH decreaser or actual dry acid.
Matt Giovanisci:So you wanna wear the right safety gear, and if you have any questions or any concerns about adding muriatic acid, you can avoid it altogether. PH Decreaser is not a bad option. Alright? But, let's say you have some muriatic acid around, you got the chemical resistant gloves, you might as well use it. So how much do you need?
Matt Giovanisci:Well, if your pH is between 7.8 and say 8.0, you'll need to add about a pint or that's about 2 cups, actually it's exactly 2 cups, of muriatic acid for every 10,000 gallons of water. Now, this is gonna bring your pH back down into the proper range to about to about 7.4 to 7.6. And if you have a smaller pool, like smaller than 10,000 gallons, just start extra slowly by adding 1 cup or less of muriatic acid at a time. Alright? Finally, household product number 4 is using bleach or liquid chlorine to sanitize your water.
Matt Giovanisci:You need chlorine to keep your water sanitized. Right? So, that's just the that's just pool care. But it doesn't have to be chlorine tablets or chlorine granules. In fact, you can use liquid bleach or liquid chlorine instead.
Matt Giovanisci:Now, household bleach and liquid chlorine both contain the same active ingredient, and that's sodium hypochlorite. Liquid chlorine contains about 10 to 12% chlorine by volume, while bleach from the grocery store is less concentrated with about 7 to 8%. Okay? So, bleach is not as powerful. And if you're buying bleach, you need to make sure that it's 100% sodium hypochlorite and that there's no added scents or ingredients, like if you go and buy that Clorox gel stuff, like, don't don't do that.
Matt Giovanisci:Just buy plain old liquid bleach that's a 100% sodium hypochlorite. Better yet, look for the labels at the store that say chlorinating liquid. This usually has a higher concentration of chlorine. For a maintenance dose of liquid chlorine, you'll need about 1 gallon for every 10,000 gallons of water. This should bring your chlorine into range if it's on the lower side, around 1 part per million.
Matt Giovanisci:Now, if you're using bleach, you'll probably need to double the dose since it's less concentrated. Now, when you're adding it to your pool, just be sure to pour it around the perimeter of your pool and make sure that the jets are running so it doesn't settle on any surfaces and end up bleaching your pool. Now, the downside to bleach or liquid chlorine is how much you'll need to have on hand to keep your water sanitized. It's definitely heavier and it definitely takes up more space than, say, chlorine granules or even tablets. And if you need to shock your pool, like to get rid of algae or something, you're gonna need twice or triple the amount for your water.
Matt Giovanisci:But this type of chlorine can be a good option for smaller pools that are way less than 10,000 gallons. Now, for those saltwater pool people out there, I know what you're thinking. What about what about me? What about saltwater pools? Well, here's the good news.
Matt Giovanisci:Bleach or liquid chlorine can be a great option for shocking your pool if you have algae or cloudy water, But you shouldn't need to worry about adding chlorine, honestly, because you have a saltwater generator that's creating chlorine for you. Alright? So those are the common household chemicals that will take care of most of your water chemistry needs. But there are 2 other pool chemicals you still might need to buy from the pool store or online, and that's chlorine stabilizer and calcium hardness increaser. Now, chlorine stabilizer, it's also known as cyanuric acid or it's shortened to CYA, helps to protect your chlorine from breaking down under the sun's UV rays.
Matt Giovanisci:Chlorine tablets and granules are types of what we call stabilized chlorine, meaning they already contain a small amount of cyanuric acid. Bleach or liquid chlorine, sodium hypochlorite, it's not stabilized, which means it does not contain cyanuric acid. And that means it'll break down quickly in direct sunlight. Salt water pools also need stabilizer to help protect the chlorine it produces because that chlorine is also not stabilized. Now, if you're using bleach or liquid chlorine to sanitize your pool, you have two choices.
Matt Giovanisci:You can either add chlorine almost every single day to your water after it breaks down in the sun, or you can add chlorine stabilizer, which is cyanuric acid, to your water to keep the chlorine protected. And if you're gonna do that, you wanna make sure that your cyanuric acid, your CYA levels are between 30 50 parts per million. Any higher, and it could cause issues with just keeping chlorine in your water. The other chemical that you may you might need is calcium hardness increaser. Now, low calcium hardness levels in your water can corrode pool surfaces and equipment, And high calcium hardness can cause scaling and, you know, build up.
Matt Giovanisci:And if it's too low, you'll need to add calcium hardness increaser. But, if you have a small pool and you take it down every year, you don't need to worry about this at all in your water. That's because the erosion from low calcium hardness levels happens over a long period of time. Okay? And if you want if you need a lower calcium hardness, then the only way to do that is by diluting your water and filling it with fresh water.
Matt Giovanisci:There is no chemical to bring down calcium hardness. Finally, no matter what product you add to your water, they won't work if you don't keep your filter and your pool surfaces clean. So you gotta make sure that you're cleaning and backwashing your filter and you're skimming your surfaces and you're brushing and you're vacuuming your pool. Those things still need to be done. You can buy robots to do them for you, but they still need to be done.
Matt Giovanisci:And that's it. So remember, if you need more help with pool maintenance, grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swimuniversity dotcom/cheat sheet. 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's gonna help more pool owners like you find this show, and it keeps us going. That's it.
Matt Giovanisci:Thanks again, and happy swimming.