Is there a difference between liquid shock & liquid chlorine?

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farler05

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Jun 27, 2016
5
Oxford
I have always tried to buy liquid shock from our local pool store. If we're out & don't have time to make the drive, we'll pickup liquid chlorine from Krogers or Wal-Mart. Powdered when it's the only option. Over the years I've wondered what the difference is between the two but never actually researched it. :confused: I assumed that shock had more to it, was more powerful than chlorine. Today, after adding my two gallons of shock to the pool, I finally decided to Google it & from what I'm reading, they seem to be the same thing! Liquid shock is nothing more than liquid chlorine? Does anyone have a definitive answer to the differences, if there are any? Thanks!!
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

The only difference is the strength (% of HOCl).
So you can shop for which ever is the cheaper option for the amount of chlorine you get: price / (% * bottle size)
 
Yes, they're both the same chemical but in different concentrations.

Plain old bleach at the grocery store is usually 8.25%
Liquid chlorine from the pool stores is often 10-12%
Liquid Shock is.... I dunno how strong? Could be the same as the regular liquid chlorine? Always ask before you buy.

Also make sure anything you buy is fresh as it loses potency over time and even faster if exposed to sun and heat.
 
It's the same chemical in different concentrations. It should say on the bottle. Regardless of the branding, you're looking for Sodium Hypochlorite. That's the liquid form of chlorine.

If you want to be a super nerd, you can calculate exactly how much a product costs regardless of it's concentration or volume. I compare the price of different concentrations of chlorine by plugging into pool math how much it would take to raise FC by 1 ppm then divide that by the volume of the container its sold in. That gives you how many parts per million of FC a product will produce in your pool. Then you can divide that by the price to get a price per ppm of FC.

So for example, in my pool it takes 16 oz of 10% liquid chlorine (sodium hypochlorite) to raise my FC by 1 ppm. A 128 oz jug of 10% at $2.50 then is essentially worth 8 ppm of chlorine in my pool (128/16=8). So I'm paying $0.3125 per 1 ppm of FC ($2.50/8=0.3125). Do that calculation for all your options to find the cheapest product.
 
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