For those of you who do not have or maintain a swimming pool, there is a shortage of chlorine.

I opened our pool quite early this year in the beginning of May because it needed a great deal of work. I bought a 25lb bucket of 3" chlorine tablets and paid about $100 for the bucket.

Since then the shortage hit and none of our local pool companies, WalMart, HomeDepot, Lowes, etc. have any tablets for sale.

Only have 5 tabs left so off to the internet I go...


$170 for a 25lb bucket

I don't use dichlor or trichlor because 1) I don't need excessive levels of CYA building up in my water, thank you very much, and 2) "pool chems" are a hell of a lot more expensive than the chemicals without the "pool chem" labels.

That said, I've had no trouble finding 12.5% sodium hypo (yes, in the pool section) at BJs this season.

Even better - if you can take delivery of a 55 gal. drum and store it safely, you should be able to find that for about $225-250. Works out to less than $5/gal.

Good luck.

-Rob

No visible shortage (Store brand & other) the last few times I've been in Leslie's here in N Houston (2 locations) the last few times.

No shortage around here either.

Having said that, I don't really buy chlorine because I've got a salt water pool so I manufacture my own chlorine.

What's funny is how there's a shortage, but the local GROCERY store has gallons of it for sale!
Rural King is another supplier who has had a good supply too.

The shortage is from a factory which went up in smoke.

Timely rant! I was just at a HD and Lowe's today looking for liquid chlorine. Neither had any, and both were also completely out of tabs too. Was able to get some powder shock at Lowe's to get me by for now. Amazon has a 1 gallon 4 pack of liquid CL...for 70 bucks. For reference they're around $4 per gallon at the store.

I got a 35 lbs bucket at Home Depot for $99 three weeks ago and they had hundreds of them. Sam's and Costco were cleaned out, but HD and Lowe's had plenty.

I use liquid with a dosing pump.

I buy my yearly supply in Spring…and ran short.

I usually buy Home Depot HDX but they are all sold out.

Had to buy Leslies liquid. X2 in cost but they had plenty.

I’m looking into buying a drum next year from a chem supplier. That would last my season.

Just checked my local pool supply. 3 in 1 Tabs for a 25lb bucket is $99. I usually buy the 25lbs buckets as usually anything larger usually the tabs aren't lasting as long and start to crumble. I'd usually go thru a bucket every two months or so. Depends on how much rain we are getting.

Plenty here at WalMart, Costco, Pool Stores.

We switched to a Salt System, no more chlorine tablets, no red eye or itchy skin, it would be a good time to move to a salt pool, water is soft, cleaner than it's ever been in 25 years.

Should have done it sooner..

https://www.hayward-pool.com/s...t-water-chlorination

the shortage is specific to 3' tabs - liquid and granulated is still plentiful. no price increase for liquid and about 50% for granulated.

My new pool has a salt water chlorine generator. It’s awesome. Chlorine levels always stable. I’ve not had one algae bloom since it went in last year. I haven’t even had to adjust pH this year. Maybe time to invest in one?

For the salt water chlorinators--you do need to clean the fins on the chlorine generator.

Over time--the fins are coated with a brown sludge that decreases perfomance. Unscrew the generator. Use a 1" paintbrush with muriatic acid to remove the brown scale. Work from both ends of the generator. Use a black marker to indicate water flow prior to cleaning. Flush by running the pool pump.

Might be specific to brand and/or model of chlorine generator, but I cleaned the one I had every few years even though it looked fine. I plugged the one end, poured acid into the other, and let it sit for awhile. Then I dumped the acid out, flushed it with a garden house, and reinstalled it.

I did not clean my generator the first year. I do plan to clean it when I winterize this year. I store the salt cell indoors for winter so it's the perfect time. It looked brand new when I stored it last year so I didn't bother.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGfourme:
For the salt water chlorinators--you do need to clean the fins on the chlorine generator.

Over time--the fins are coated with a brown sludge that decreases perfomance. Unscrew the generator. Use a 1" paintbrush with muriatic acid to remove the brown scale. Work from both ends of the generator. Use a black marker to indicate water flow prior to cleaning. Flush by running the pool pump.

I've had 2 different Salt Water Chlorinators, one from Zodiac and one from Hayward (my current one) and you can't clean either one the way you're mentioning. They're both sealed in the middle and around 10"-15" long with openings on both ends. In both cases the only way to clean them is to seal one end and fill them with a 10% solution of Muriatic acid and water and let them sit for 10 minutes, then rinse and reinstall.

My local Leslies pool experts advise cleaning them every two weeks around here and that's what I've done for the last 16 years.

My S-I-L in New Jersey switch their pool over to a salt water pool and has been very happy with it. Far less cost and better water quality.
Rod

I wish we could down South but chlorine is still preferred. I haven’t met a pool man in 15 years that suggests switching to salt water here in the hot humid south, only salesmen. The heat, humidity, and that sun, chlorine is definitely the way to go.

Chlorine prices are definitely up. I usually buy it in the 100 lb bucket once a year when they put it on sale. It’s always a brief sale, days, up to one week but not last year and not this year. I bought my first 50 lb bucket in like 15 years. Tabs are the same, $$. No discounts, no sales. Even Muriatic acid has been challenging at times. I’ve seen a shortage for 2 weeks straight. It will be nice when regular use chemicals and such are stocked to normal levels. If I hear chip shortage or pandemic reasons cited for more shit going forward I’m going to lose it. Just trying to run a household not reinvent the wheel. Fuck last year year we were struggling to acquire TP to wipe our asses!

quote:

My local Leslies pool experts advise cleaning them every two weeks around here and that's what I've done for the last 16 years.

Holy crap, every 2 weeks? That's insane. You really should only have to clean the cell if you are getting scaling. If you have scaling every 2 weeks you need to work on your pH, alkalinity, and calcium levels. But if you've done it for 16 years I guess you don't mind the extra cleaning.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
I wish we could down South but chlorine is still preferred. I haven’t met a pool man in 15 years that suggests switching to salt water here in the hot humid south, only salesmen. The heat, humidity, and that sun, chlorine is definitely the way to go.

What is it about the 'hot, humid south' that so precludes salt water as an serious option? Seriously...