Clorox itself recommends using between 100 and 200 ounces of regular-strength bleach per 10,000 gallons of pool water -- one gallon is 128 ounces, and many bottles of bleach are available in one-gallon or half-gallon sizes. Pool professionals tend to recommend more conservative amounts of bleach.
Household bleach, Clorox and liquid chlorine can all be used to sanitize a pool. They are all types of chlorine. Household bleaches such as Clorox usually contain about 5-6% available chlorine, about half that of pool liquid chlorine.
The solution to maintaining a clear pool is to use readily available liquid bleach as your chlorine source. Chlorine bleach, as discussed above, is not bound to a stabilizer, so when you add chlorine bleach to the pool, it will go right to work killing microbes and sanitizing.
It is a good idea to wait at least 20 minutes after adding the water balancing chemicals. If you use calcium chloride in your pool, you should wait at least 2 hours to swim.
High concentrations of chlorine (above 1.5 ppm) will attack the liner and bleach it, thus damaging it. Any level below this range will weaken its ability to kill off bacteria.
(Clorox® Regular Bleach2 will not harm plastic pools.) Do not reenter pool until the chlorine residual is between 1 to 3 ppm. The chart below is a guide to the amount of this product to add to various sized round pools.
Clorox itself recommends using between 100 and 200 ounces of regular-strength bleach per 10,000 gallons of pool water -- one gallon is 128 ounces, and many bottles of bleach are available in one-gallon or half-gallon sizes. Pool professionals tend to recommend more conservative amounts of bleach.
They are identical in every way, with the exception of strength. Household bleach is usually a 6% concentration (although some of the cheaper stuff is 3%), while pool chlorine can typically be found in strength between 10% and 12%. All of this is sodium hypochlorite, and works the same in sanitizing your water.
Green algae, unlike its black counterpart, is a true algae; it isn't resistant to chlorine, so you can control it by shocking the pool. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on expensive pool chemicals, you can shock with household bleach.
There are alternatives to chlorine including bromine, ionizers, and ozonators, though with each you'll still need to use some chlorine. A fourth alternative is PHMB, which doesn't require the use of any chlorine. All four have drawbacks, including cost.
Answer: It is true that pool chlorine is stronger than bleach. For bleach and water to be the same strength as pool chlorine and water, you would have to adjust the ratio, increasing the bleach and reducing the water. But no matter which chlorine you use, make sure to test a small area before doing the job.
What can you use instead? Bromine — considered a safe substitute for chlorine. Looks for BCDMH tablets, which are typically 66% bromine and 27% chlorine. If unable to find, you can use just bromine but it may leave the water a dull green color.
Calculate the amount of bleach you need based on the fact that 1 gallon will raise the free chlorine level of 30,000 gallons of water by 2 ppm. If you need to mildly shock a 30,000-gallon pool by raising the free chlorine concentration to 5 ppm, you need 2.5 gallons of bleach. To raise it to 10 ppm, you need 5 gallons.
In a clean, freshly filled 500 gallon wading pool, add a quarter cup of unscented household liquid chlorine bleach to the water. Then, at the end of each day, test the water and add an additional 1/8 to 1/4 cup, depending on the reading.
Bleach can be used to keep a kiddie pool sanitary as long as it's used in the proper amounts. Hot summer months and children go together like the sun and the beach.
Common unscented household bleach (sodium hypochlorite) works well to shock a pool.
For small inflatable pools that you don't want to empty and refill so often, you can add a small amount of bleach to the water to sanitize it. Add about a 1/4 tsp for every 10 gallons of water, or for medium sized inflatable pools, add 2 1/2 tsp for every 100 gallons.
Swimming pool shock contains 12.5% sodium hypochlorite (bleach) vs. 6-8.5% for Clorox (bleach). Some Clorox products go as high as 8.5%. At a 12.5% concentrate, liquid pool shock is approximately 2x's stronger than Clorox bleach.
Chlorine is a sanitizer, and (unless you use Baquacil products) is necessary for maintaining a clear and healthy pool. Shock is chlorine, in a high dose, meant to shock your pool and raise the chlorine level quickly.
Pros of Saltwater Pools
There's less chlorine and less of the heavy chemical scent and content. They're gentler on the skin, with less irritation to the eyes, hair and swimsuits. The water has a softer, silkier feel to it compared to chlorine water. They have lower maintenance costs than chlorine pools.
Increased demand.
As COVID concerns curtailed vacations, more American homeowners put their money in their backyards. Swimming pool construction surged during the pandemic, with many contractors reporting order backlogs well into 2022. More pools mean more demand for chlorine.
Clorox is considered to be the most common bleach product that is used for pools. It has a 5.7% concentration, so if you have a 5,000-gallon pool, you will be using 3 cups or 24 oz to raise the chlorine levels.
During the fire, around 40% of the entire nation's chlorine was destroyed, sending a shockwave through the pool industry and setting up supply issues going into 2021. Now, as the industry prepares for pool season 2022, this very important factory has yet to be completely rebuilt and is still not producing chlorine.