Small inflatable or plastic kiddie pools and water slides don't have the same protection against germs that a swimming pool, hot tub, or water playground do. That's because it is unsafe to add germ-killing disinfectants, such as chlorine or bromine, to the water in kiddie pools and water slides.
Many of us want to cool off in a backyard pool, but we also want to make sure there are no dangerous bacteria lurking in these pools that do not have any filtration system in place. You can use Clorox® Regular Bleach2 to treat the water in a child's wading 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.
For small pools, add chlorine to sanitize the water if you don't have time. The recommended amount is a quarter a teaspoon for 10 gallons of water. Likewise, medium size inflatable pools will need about two and a half teaspoon for 100 gallons. Also, you can do this after several weeks to shock the pool.
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.
You should use one tablet per week for a kiddie pool of 200 gallons or less, and two tablets weekly for kiddie pools of over 200 gallons. An additional benefit of using chlorine in the kiddie pool is to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs in the pool.
For most inflatable pools or plastic kiddie pools following the guidelines listed above, the water should be changed every two weeks at a minimum. If you are not adding chlorine to kill bacteria, drain the pool every other day.
It is important to know what exactly bleach is before you put it in your pool. 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.
Of course, too much chlorine in pool water can be dangerous. Exposure to over-chlorination can provoke asthma, lung irritation, and potentially skin and eye irritation. As well as being potentially bad for you, it's bad for your pool.
Chlorine is a natural element and an ingredient of bleach, while bleach is a solution and the product of combining chlorine and other chemicals. 2. Chlorine exists in nature, while bleach is a manufactured product.
Start by draining all the water from your kiddie pool. You can pull the drain plug for a gradual drain or deflate the pool and let the water spill over the deflated sides. Next, grab a bucket and fill it with water. Add a few drops of soap to the water and stir well until it gets nice and soapy.
A simple and non-toxic way to clean a paddling pool is to clean it with white vinegar. White vinegar is great for cleaning because it can remove all the horrid bacteria that sets up up home in your paddling pool. It's also colourless, so it won't stain the pool either.
How To Clean Without Chemicals: For the pool, you see in the picture (this one here) I simply added one cup of distilled white vinegar to it each day. Then I would mix it around with my hand and that is it. The kids would hop in right after not having to worry about chemical burns.
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.
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.
Liquid chlorine
Household bleach (the same as you use for your laundry) and pool chlorine are the same thing. They are identical in every way, with the exception of strength.
According to Clorox, a manufacturer of bleach products, you can use bleach in a child's wading pool. A little goes a long, long way. For every 100 gallons of water, add 1/8th a cup of bleach. Clorox says this should be new water, not what's already in the pool.
Clean and disinfect the kiddie pool after each use: Drain or empty the pool after each use. Leaving the pool full overnight is unsafe, both because it is a potential drowning risk and a potential waterborne disease risk.
“It's important to change the paddling pool water every day – drain it and let it dry at the end of the day and use an anti-bacterial spray to kill any germs so it is safe to use the next day.”
While the quart or so of water that was setting in the hose may have some chemical contaminants in it, by the time that is diluted into thousands of gallons of water, it's of no concern. That is of course assuming that your swimming pool is not your primary source of all drinking water.