Pool School

Matt Giovanisci: 00:00

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 am the founder of swimuniversity.com. And on this episode, we're talking about how to add chlorine to your pool. So let's dive in.

Matt Giovanisci: 00:31

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. Now before adding anything to your pool, you need to know your current chlorine levels. Your free chlorine should be between 1 and 3 parts per million with 3 parts per million being ideal. These levels naturally drop as your chlorine gets used up throughout the week. Now they'll also drop after heavy pool use if your cyanuric acid levels are too high or too low or if you have a lot of organic contaminants or rain has gotten into your pool water.

Matt Giovanisci: 01:07

So you wanna plan to test and add your chlorine once a week to test your pool water to keep your levels in range. Okay? So if your chlorine levels are at 0 or they rapidly drop after adding chlorine, you might have a larger issue. So be sure to check out some of our content on how to raise free chlorine. We have other podcast episodes about that.

Matt Giovanisci: 01:30

When you're testing your chlorine levels, you'll also wanna test and adjust your pH and your total alkalinity. When your pH is in range, it helps your chlorine to work more effectively. And total alkalinity also helps your pH from fluctuating. So each week, test and balance your alkalinity, your pH, and then your chlorine in that order. Now once you know your current levels, it's time to measure out your chlorine.

Matt Giovanisci: 01:58

For weekly maintenance, here's a rough estimate of how much chlorine to add to a 10,000 gallon pool. A half a cup of granules, 2 to 3 chlorine pucks, or a gallon of liquid chlorine. There is enough chlorine to keep things in range week to week. K? And it's assuming that your chlorine levels aren't constantly dropping to 0 or that you don't have a chronically high chlorine.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:24

Okay. Now, we're ready to add chlorine to the water. Always wear the right safety gear. I have to stress that all the time. This means gloves, goggles if you have it, clothes preferably that you don't mind if a little splashes on and bleaches it out, that's ideal.

Matt Giovanisci: 02:41

And make sure that your pump is running to help your chlorine circulate. So first, here's how to add chlorine tablets. You can use a floating dispenser or an automatic chlorinator. If you have a floating dispenser, simply add your tablets to the floater, adjust the dispenser settings, and then toss it back into the water while your pump is running. Now keep in mind that floaters tend to dispense chlorine unevenly, which means that your levels may fluctuate.

Matt Giovanisci: 03:06

And they can get stuck in one spot in your pool like behind ladders and that can discolor or even damage your pool liner if you have one. That's why ultimately we recommend an automatic chlorinator or a chemical feeder. If you're using a chlorinator, turn off your system before adding any tablets to that feeder. Now once they've been added, you wanna close the chlorinator and turn the system back on, and then you wanna adjust the chlorinator settings as needed. This is gonna happen over time.

Matt Giovanisci: 03:34

Keep in mind that tablets will only dissolve in your chlorinator when your pump is running. So whenever your pump is off, your tablets won't dissolve and they won't they won't disperse into your pool. Now whether you're using a floater or an automatic feeder, just don't fill it to the top with chlorine tablets. You wanna use the correct amount of tablets based on the amount of water you need to sanitize, and you'll wanna avoid using 3 inch tablets in smaller pools since that can quickly over chlorinate the water. It may take time for your chlorine reading to change since tablets dissolve slower compared to granules or even liquid chlorine, and water temperature also affects how quickly tablets dissolve.

Matt Giovanisci: 04:16

So finally, keep in mind that whenever you're adding chlorine tablets to the pool, you're also adding cyanuric acid. So cyanuric acid or, shortened to CYA is added to trichlorochlorine tablets to protect your chlorine from breaking down under direct sunlight. But CYA can start to build up in your water with tablets. So be sure to test these levels each week. And unfortunately, chlorine tablets are acidic and that means that your pH levels can drop when using tablets.

Matt Giovanisci: 04:48

So if you're having trouble keeping your pH levels in range, your tablets may be the issue. Okay. So here's how to add chlorine granules. Now these are added directly to your pool water. You wanna start by measuring out your chlorine granules in a measuring cup.

Matt Giovanisci: 05:04

Some chlorine granules work best when predissolved in a bucket of water. So you add your chlorine granules into the bucket of pool water and then using a wooden stick like a wooden paint stirrer, you can stir it in. Then you wanna pour this mixture around the perimeter of your pool starting in the deep end while the pump is running. Now, premixing granules helps it from settling on the bottom of your pool which is great for a vinyl liner. But always follow the manufacturer's directions.

Matt Giovanisci: 05:35

I just have to to emphasis I have to put emphasis on that. And if you add your granules directly to the water and you notice it's on the bottom of your pool, it's not a big deal. Just get a pool brush and that brush it up and it will help it to dissolve. And never add granules to an automatic chlorine feeder. It just dissolves way too fast.

Matt Giovanisci: 05:54

Now since granules are quick dissolving, you should notice a faster change in your chlorine levels compared to tablets. Granules also contain cyanuric acid to help protect the chlorine from breaking down in the sun's UV rays. But it's not a big of it's not as big of an issue compared to tablets. So it's still worth testing your CYA levels each week and most test strips and liquid test kits have, cyanuric acid pool stabilizers, CYA test on them. Now, when using granules, check your water at least once a week to make sure that the chlorine levels are within range because granules are quicker to dissolve and contain less chlorine than tablets, so you may need to add the chlorine more frequently.

Matt Giovanisci: 06:37

Finally, here's how to add liquid chlorine. You wanna make sure that you're using a pool grade liquid chlorine, which contains 10 to 12% 10 to 12% of chlorine by volume. Household bleach, on the other hand, only has half of that concentration, sometimes even less. So to add it to your pool, measure out your liquid chlorine and pour it slowly into your pool water while the pump is running. Pouring it slowly in front of your return jets while the water is moving will help it disperse into the center of the pool and and help it to mix in with the water.

Matt Giovanisci: 07:15

Otherwise, you can walk around the perimeter of your pool pouring slowly and I would start at the deep end. Liquid chlorine is unstabilized and that means it does not contain cyanuric acid and it means that you don't it means actually, it means not that you don't. You'll actually have to add CYA which is sometimes called chlorine stabilizer or pool stabilizer at to protect the chlorine from breaking down in the sun if you use liquid chlorine. Otherwise, you know, the chlorine is just gonna break down way too fast and you'll have to add it several times a week. One final note of caution here.

Matt Giovanisci: 07:52

Why you should avoid adding chlorine to your skimmer? It used to be a popular option to add chlorine tablets directly to your skimmer. In fact, we've gone on record to say that this is completely fine to do, and we have footage of us actually doing it. But, unfortunately, this can cause more damage than it's worth. If you have tablets in your skimmer and there's no water flowing when your when your pump shuts off, then that water will sit stagnant and create an acidic pool of water.

Matt Giovanisci: 08:23

That can cause stains on your pool walls and erode your skimmer walls and basket. Now, there is a chemical, I'll have to I have to make note of this. It's called SmartSticks. It's made by BioLab or BioGuard, and that was designed they're more expensive, and they create this film over the the tablet or they're in the form of sticks. But there's but they're very similar to 3 inch tablets.

Matt Giovanisci: 08:51

And so when the water stopped moving over them, they would create this film to stop them from dissolving, and this was to help save that. But in general, if you're not gonna use a product like that, you're just gonna use regular chlorine tablets which are much cheaper and I recommend, do not add them to your skimmer. Add them to a floater, which is not my favorite, or the best thing you can do is get yourself a chemical feeder or a chlorinator. 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 tutorials on your favorite podcasting app.

Matt Giovanisci: 09:29

And when you do, please leave us a review. Your support will help us will help help us, of course, but your support will help more pool owners just like you find this show. So that's it. Thanks again, and happy swimming.