Liquid Chlorine Price and Supply

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ajonesaz

Active member
Sep 12, 2019
35
Gilbert AZ
Is there a 2021 Price thread yet ;)

As someone who keeps their pool open year round, the last 2 months have been difficult for finding affordable liquid chlorine.

Home Depot was sold out, which is odd for this time of year. Price increased to 9.99 for 2-10%, no more bulk discount.
Wal-Mart, also sold out of pool chlorine and their store brand bleach appears to have been watered down again to 5% for the same price it was at 6%, also couldn't find the date on the new bottle. The 'concentrated' doesn't appear to be any more concentrated.
The best price I could find was $21 for 4 12.5% refills at a pool store that used to be 15.99 at this same time last year.

Anyone else seeing the same trends? Anyone have any luck finding any sales lately?
Hoping these are temporary setbacks and won't get worse as demand increases come Spring.
 
ajonesaz said:
Is there a 2021 Price thread yet
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I did a quick search and didn't see one started yet.

ajonesaz said:
Price increased to 9.99 for 2-10%, no more bulk discount.
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That's disappointing. That's where I always went.

My Wal-Mart restocked, but it looks like they broke-out their old stuff (2020 - 281 day). Other sources are in smaller bottles for the same or higher cost than before. Ridiculous. I got my SWG just in time last year.
 
Texas Splash said:
I did a quick search and didn't see one started yet.


That's disappointing. That's where I always went.

My Wal-Mart restocked, but it looks like they broke-out their old stuff (2020 - 281 day). Other sources are in smaller bottles for the same or higher cost than before. Ridiculous. I got my SWG just in time last year.
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Can I ask what you paid for your SWG, did you install it or pay someone to? That route is looking real good right now.

Bleach has been overproduced due to the pandemic, everything was really old and overpriced :-(
 
ajonesaz said:
Can I ask what you paid for your SWG, did you install it or pay someone to? That route is looking real good right now.
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I ordered my Circupool RJ-45+ on Amazon, although it was sourced from Discount Salt Pools. I don't recall the cost right now (on the road). See the link below for comparisons of various model.

I did install it myself. A fairly easy DIY project if you take your time and think it through.

Circupool RJ-45 Plus Install

This weekend I finally installed my RJ-45. I've been stalling on this for a long time, but the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and resulting chlorine shortage finally pushed me over the edge. Plus, it was simply time. The Circupool Installation and Operation Guide is quite good, but here are some...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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I was just getting ready to start a new thread on this topic, glad I found this one.

I've been occasionally Googling the supposed "chlorine shortage" to see what is going on. The local pool store here in our small town in central Maryland left me a voicemail two weeks ago stating that they are expecting serious chemical shortages this year, especially stabilized chlorine. I was skeptical and thought that maybe they were hurting like other small businesses due to COVID, but after a quick phone call the store manager told me that they actually had a really good year because pool sales were up. They have limited storage onsite and were trying to get customers to order early and take delivery early because they are expecting supply issues and prices to increase significantly. I briefly looked online and the 4-in-1 TriChlor shock definitely seems to be more expensive, I'm not sure that's simply because it's the off season and this is normal or if it reflects the current state of the market.

I have enough going on in my life between work, herding our young children, and the 17 projects my wife has me working on and don't feel like dealing with additional issues. So I just ordered a Circupool CORE-35 SWG as well as 600lbs of salt from Wal-Mart ($6.95 a bag delivered). I picked up 50lbs of DE from the pool store along with another 6 gallons of chlorine. I'm hoping after I get the pool open for the season I can get the SWG dialed in pretty quick. As a backup plan I have about 2/3rds of a large COSTCO sized 5 gallon bucket of the tabs, (10) 4-in-1 shock packets, and I'll have 4 gallons of liquid chlorine left over after I use 4 to shock the pool when I open it. Hopefully with the SWG this will get us through the season.

Regarding the OP's comment about the availability of liquid chlorine - all of the Home Depots around here show having significant quantities in stock, but they won't actually let you buy it. I'm wondering if it is in the store but not on display and it put away on the racks for the season. I just paid about $5.25 a gallon locally for 12% at the pool store.
 
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I was in Home Depot (buying tarps for the cold weather coming to Houston) and I walked past the pool aisle. They had about 12 boxes of LC - all had mfg. dates of late Nov 2020. although it is stored inside. Price was $13 + tax for a 3 jug box (1 gal each) of 10% sodium hypochlorite

I did purchase 4 gallons of 12.5% from Leslie's the other day for $20 + tax.

My favorite is at Pinch a Penny - 2.5gal jug for $7.88 + tax. This is 10% sodium hypochlorite.
 

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Should I buy this now? Its 10% and $4.64 a gallon. This will be my first year with the pool actually filled with swimmable water, lol. I anticipate 3 months of use June July and August. Sunlight on pool about 8 hours a day. 30K gallon pool. So how many gallons should I buy? Will there be a shortage? Did they rebuild that factory in Louisiana? Should I buy tablets now just to get my CYA up in the spring?

 
I too hit up Pinch-a-Penny with my refillable bottles when I need chlorine.
 
IUsedToSail said:
... So I just ordered a Circupool CORE-35 SWG as well as 600lbs of salt from Wal-Mart ($6.95 a bag delivered).
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Make sure to check your salt level before actually adding any salt, so that you don't overshoot your target amount. You'll be surprised by how much salt you already have in your pool.

And you'll never regret having the SWCG. You'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier.
 
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+1. Check before and only add 75%. Creep up on the target thereafter. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube so to speak. :)
 
Here in New Orleans the 12.5% is $5.00 per gallon. The pool store guy said the tablets are hard to get right now. He says the large chlorine fire after Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles LA was from a plant that produced about half the chlorine in the US. That facility was heavily damaged and is not producing now. I actually shot this image of the fire on assignment covering Hurricane Laura.

Caption: A fire at a chemical plant, BioLab Inc., that handles chlorine for swimming pools burns on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Westlake, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

AP story here
 

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Dtkokay said:
Make sure to check your salt level before actually adding any salt, so that you don't overshoot your target amount. You'll be surprised by how much salt you already have in your pool.

And you'll never regret having the SWCG. You'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier.
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I actually returned the Circupool CORE-35 to Amazon and bought a Circupool CORE-50 using the $10 upgrade sale.

I plan on shocking the pool using liquid chlorine and have been researching it on the web but the suggested numbers are all over the place. My original plan was to use four 1 gallon jugs of 12%, my pool is between 18.5-20k gallons.

Our local pool store still has lots of 12% liquid chlorine and it's like $4.50 a gallon.
 
IUsedToSail said:
I plan on shocking the pool using liquid chlorine and have been researching it on the web but the suggested numbers are all over the place. My original plan was to use four 1 gallon jugs of 12%, my pool is between 18.5-20k gallons.
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Longterm users of TFP have found 2 items of greatest use. The first is PoolMath which allows you to not only track your data but there is a feature to use called "Effects of Adding" that is very helpful. I put in 20k gals, 12% and it stated 1 gal of LC will raise your FC by 6ppm. 2 gals would be 12ppm, 4 gals would be 24ppm.
The other important piece is FC/CYA Levels. Look at this chart for using LC (not SWCG) and use the line that matches to your CYA. Then read across to the target FC and further along is the SLAM FC. That is the maximum FC you should have for SLAM that is a short term need. You should always keep your FC in the Target zone unless you need to SLAM.
 
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mikes112 said:
Should I buy this now? Its 10% and $4.64 a gallon. This will be my first year with the pool actually filled with swimmable water, lol. I anticipate 3 months of use June July and August. Sunlight on pool about 8 hours a day. 30K gallon pool. So how many gallons should I buy? Will there be a shortage? Did they rebuild that factory in Louisiana? Should I buy tablets now just to get my CYA up in the spring?
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Stock up now on however much you have storage space and that is not a terrible price for your area. I just got 18-20 jugs and put them in my garage closet to stock up after last year's shortages. Home Depot bleach in Memphis was $8.99 per 3 gallon pack in all previous years but is now $12.99 (44% increase). You are going to likely need more than normal since this is your first season and won't yet have a rhythm established. Just store the bleach jugs out of the sun and heat. Even if you have 10% bleach which has degraded to 6-7%, it is still better than having no bleach.

I use a combination of trichlor and bleach so if your CYA is down near 20-30, feel free to use the trichlor tabs in moderation. You just have to monitor your CYA increase and be prepared to do a water exchange if you get in the 70-80 range.
 
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Is this regular liquid pool chlorine? We are still waiting on a plumber to check out the plumbing post freeze and are running into supply issues.
 

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