Chlorine Lock is Fake… and the Industry Let You Believe It Anyway

We can't tell if the chemistry is good by looking at it, it wasn't clear yesterday!

From the last time, the saltwater pool is a chlorine pool!

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Listen, pools don't care what the ICDS suggests.

It cares what you actually added.

So, let's connect the dots.

If you're scooping instead of weighing, you're guessing.

And if you're guessing, you're inconsistent.

And if you're inconsistent, you don't have a process what you have as a ritual.

Welcome the Friday!

I'm Rudy Stankwitz.

This is the Talking Pool's podcast.

I hope you are doing well.

Guess what?

Finally, one day is in warm nights.

This little bit of a freeze we've been having at night.

I think we had a freeze warning in the beginning of the week.

I'm here in North Central Florida, so I can't imagine how cold it's been in other parts of the country.

I know some of you still have snow on the ground.

Hopefully we don't see any more of that shit for this year.

Beautiful to look at outside a window.

Amazing all the way up until you have to do something in it.

I'll tell you what, if I never have to scrape ice from a windshield again,

I will be a happy camper.

But today, I want to talk about snowflakes.

I want to talk about chlorine demand.

But before we do that, I want to clear up a couple of things.

One of the things I want to talk about how we dose.

Not how we calculate the dose, but how we actually measure the dose.

I know riveting.

Try to contain your excitement.

But here's the thing, most pool problems.

They're not mysterious.

They're not advanced chemistry.

They're not weird water.

They're bad math.

That's it.

You got guys out there treating a swimming pool like it's a crock bot.

A little of this, a little of that.

Let's see what happens.

What happens?

You created soup.

That's what happens.

And now you're standing there staring at it like it betrayed you.

Because pool care is not about adding chemicals.

It's about adding the right amount.

And some of you are out there acting like close enough is a good strategy.

It's not.

It's a lifestyle choice.

A bad one.

So let's talk about underdosing.

You don't maintain enough chlorine.

Now you've increased the chance that contaminants stick around longer than they should.

That's how problems start.

Not because chlorine doesn't work.

Because you didn't give it enough to do its job.

And the water.

It doesn't argue with you.

It doesn't complain.

It just quietly gets worse.

Until one day, it looks like a bad decision.

Now, let's swing the other way overdosing.

More is better, right?

No.

More is more.

You dump in extra thinking.

You're being proactive.

But what you're actually doing is burning through product.

Pushing your balance out of range.

And you're setting yourself up for secondary problems.

Because here's the part.

Nobody explains clearly.

It's not just about how much chlorine is in the water.

It's about what that chlorine is reacting with.

You've got sweat, oils, nitrogen compounds.

All the stuff people bring into the water, whether they admit it or not.

And when chlorine reacts with that, now you're building byproducts.

Chloramines.

The stuff that actually causes that pool smell that people think is too much chlorine.

So no, that sharp smell and irritated eyes.

That's not having extra chlorine.

You all should know that.

I know you know that.

That is dealing with problems that you created, though, while guessing.

At least they can be in a lot of cases.

And speaking of guessing, let's get to the real crime scene here.

Volume versus weight.

Because this one.

This one secretly wrecking pools all over the country.

One cup is a unit of volume.

One pound is a unit of weight.

They're not the same thing.

They've never been the same thing.

And yet somehow we got people out there scooping chemicals like they're baking cookies.

Yeah, I added two cups of what?

Because two cups of product does not weigh the same as two cups of another.

Not even close.

And here's where it gets even better.

Even when the chemical is the same, the weight per scoop can still change based upon brand.

Why?

Because what you're actually dealing with in the field is bulk density.

In the field is bulk density, not theoretical density, not textbook numbers, bulk density.

How tightly that product is packed, granular size, moisture, settling in the container, how it was manufactured,

how long it sat on a truck in Florida, heat, turning it into a science experiment.

And all of that changes how much is in your scoop.

One product.

Two cups might weigh close to a pound.

Another.

Same cup.

You're barely at half a pound.

Same volume.

Completely different reality.

And this is where people go wrong trying to sound scientific.

They'll say, I chuck the specific gravity on the SDS.

Okay, slow down.

That works great for liquids.

For dry chemicals, that number often reflects particle density.

Not how the product actually behaves in a scoop.

What you care about in the field is bulk density.

Or better yet, put it on a food scale.

How many dry chemicals do you actually work with?

Four, five.

Put the scoop on the scale, zero it out, fill it with enough of whatever product it is.

And then with a sharpie, make a line, mark one pound level for that specific product, for that brand.

Write it right on the cup.

So to ash, baking soda, or calypo, whatever it is you're using, write it on the friggin cup.

And then have one cup that you've measured for each dry chemical that you have.

You only have to do it once until you change brands.

Then you have to do it again.

But as long as you stick with the same brand of that product, that same cup will always measure exactly what you needed to measure.

No guesswork, not volume.

Wait, specifically.

Listen, pulls don't care what the SDS suggests.

It cares what you actually added.

So let's connect the dots.

If you're scooping instead of weighing, you're guessing.

And if you're guessing, you're inconsistent.

And if you're inconsistent, you don't have a process what you have as a ritual.

You won't first get a permission to use the target.

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I've been getting service industry news since I first stepped into this business.

And every time it landed, I did the same thing.

Flipped straight to the horror file.

The weird installs, the absurd finds the stuff only pooled pros ever see.

Then, I'd go back and read the articles.

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Listen, pools don't care what the SDS suggests. It cares what you actually added.

So, let's connect the dots.

If you're scooping, instead of weighing, you're guessing.

And if you're guessing, you're inconsistent.

And if you're inconsistent, you don't have a process what you have as a ritual.

And rituals are great if you're trying to summon something.

They're terrible if you're trying to maintain water chemistry.

Because this whole job, everything we do comes down to control.

Measured inputs, predictable outcomes.

You add this much to get this result.

Not some, not a little extra for good luck, precision.

That's the difference between a pool that holds and a pool that fights you every week.

Like it's got a personal vendetta.

So, here's the takeaway.

Stop eyeballing it.

Stop scooping like you're making brownies.

Stop trusting close enough.

Because close enough is exactly how you end up doing the same job twice.

You don't need more chemicals.

You need new chemicals.

You need better dosing.

Because at the end of the day, it's not the pool that's unpredictable.

It's the person holding the scoop.

So now, take everything we just talked about.

Bad dosing, guessing, inconsistent chemistry.

Drop that into a system that the EPA has to regulate.

Everybody keeps asking the same question.

Is sodium bromide coming back?

Is sodium bromide coming back?

No.

Not yet.

United chemical did not storm the EPA with pitchforks.

They did something smarter.

They built pools.

They ran tests.

They started collecting real world data.

Because the EPA did not restrict sodium bromide for causing harm.

They restricted it because they didn't have enough data to confidently rule out risk under all conditions.

So now, the game is simple.

United chemical doesn't have to prove it works.

We already know it works.

They have to prove that under real world conditions,

you're not creating bromate at levels that make regulators nervous.

And if you don't understand the chemistry behind that decision, the restriction makes no sense.

So let's clear that up.

Bromine is great.

It's a great sanitizer.

It works at a higher pH.

Kills efficiently.

Doesn't create that classic chloramine smell on paper.

It looks like an overachiever.

But it doesn't start that way.

You start with sodium bromide.

And I think bromide by itself is freaking lazy.

Does nothing.

So you hit it with an oxidizer.

Chlorine, ozone, UV, whatever.

You wake it up.

And that's where the concern begins.

Because when bromide meets strong oxidation,

you open the door to something else.

Not always.

Not instantly.

But under the right conditions,

bromate and bromate,

that's not something regulators ignore.

Now, here's the key point.

The EPA never said this is happening everywhere.

They never said pools are full of bromate.

They said something much more important.

We don't have enough data to confidently rule out risk.

That's what they said.

And that's how you get a restriction.

Not because something failed.

But because nobody could prove

across all conditions that it wouldn't.

Because regulators don't look at perfect pools.

They look at worst-case scenarios.

Some light, oxidizers, bad chemistry, human error.

You name it.

Because someone will do it wrong.

They always do.

So instead of banning it,

they step back and said,

outdoor pools,

we're not comfortable with that yet.

And now, the industry is stuck in this moment

where the chemistry says one thing,

the regulator says another.

And the data is still catching up.

What are they really afraid of?

They're afraid of a chain reaction.

Something that starts as useful moves through oxidation

and ends up as something they can't ignore.

And until that entire pathway is fully understood,

not guessed, not assumed, proven,

that restriction, it stays.

So this isn't about that chemistry.

It's about what might happen.

It's about what might happen

when chemistry doesn't behave the same way every time.

And regulators, they don't like might.

They like we're sure.

And right now, they're not.

So let's clarify one more thing

because this is where people really get lost.

How do chlorine and bromine both work?

And why does adding bromide slip

your pool from one to the other?

So let's forget the word oxidizer for a minute.

It just means this.

They break stuff, bacteria, algae,

all the junk and gunk and schmutz

and gack that people bring into the water.

Chlorine goes in and turns into hyperchlorous acid.

That's the part doing the work.

Bromine, same thing,

different name, hypobromus acid, same job.

So far, no drama.

Now you've got a chlorine pool.

Everything's normal.

You add sodium bromide.

Now you've got bromide sitting in the water,

doing nothing.

But chlorine sees it over there

and chlorine reacts with it.

And when it does, it converts it into bromine.

Now bromine is doing the sanitizing,

not chlorine.

And every time you add more chlorine,

it keeps converting bromide into bromine

over and over again.

So what you think is a chlorine pool,

it isn't, it's a bromine pool now.

And you can't undo it.

The bromide stays in the water until it outgasses,

which repeated additions of calcium hyperchloride,

liquid, liquid, and hyperchloride, liquid,

sodium hyperchloride over a period of time

will cause that to happen.

But until it leaves, it's there.

So again, any type of chlorine you add,

you're feeding a bromine system.

That's not opinion.

That's chemistry.

Now you don't have to guess anymore.

And if you stop guessing, the pool stops fighting you.

All right, the real topic for today.

I told you, I teased you about it at the beginning.

I'm not going to leave you on the hook.

Let's go, chlorine demand.

What the fuck is that?

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Super easy, right?

Super easy.

Every single week,

somebody asks that exact same question.

They walk up to the counter,

or they post in a Facebook group,

or they call their pool guy,

or they call a buddy who's a pool guy,

and they say,

my pool will hold chlorine.

And then the answer starts,

oh, that's chlorine lock.

Your chlorine is locked up.

You need to break the chlorine lock.

Now, let me say something that might upset a few people.

Chlorine lock is not a chemistry term.

It's not in any chemistry textbook.

It's not in any water treatment manual.

No chemical engineer anywhere on Earth has ever said.

Gentlemen, the chlorine appears to be locked.

That's not a thing.

That's something the pool industry invented

because saying,

I don't actually know what the chlorine is reacting with,

takes longer and sounds less confident.

But chlorine demand, that's real,

and it's not mysterious.

It's chemistry.

When chlorine disappears from a swimming pool,

it didn't run away.

It didn't evaporate out of spite.

It didn't get bored and decide to move to Boca.

It reacted with something,

because chlorine is a chemical,

and chemicals react.

That's literally the job description.

Now, here's where things get interesting,

because chlorine is one of the most reactive oxidizers

we use in water treatment.

It's aggressive.

It's unstable.

It's constantly trying to rip electrons away

from whatever molecule happens to be nearby.

Sunlight.

Sweat urine.

Sunscreen.

Leaves.

Body oils.

Bacteria.

Algae.

Every single one of those things is a potential reaction partner.

And if chlorine finds something to react with,

that chlorine molecule is gone.

Now people like simple explanations.

They want one answer, one cause, one magic fix.

But that's not how chemistry works.

A swimming pool is not a bucket of water.

It's a chemical reactor.

You've got sunlight blasting UV radiation into the water.

You've got swimmers introducing nitrogen compounds.

You've got organic molecules floating around.

You've got microorganisms forming biofilms on surfaces.

You've got metals catalyzing reactions.

And all of these things are happening all at the same time.

And every one of them is competing for chlorine.

So when someone says my pool won't hold chlorine.

What they're really saying is,

there's a reaction happening in my water that I don't understand yet.

And the moment you start thinking about it that way,

the whole conversation changes.

Because now we're not guessing anymore.

We're asking the right question.

What is the chlorine reacting with?

Is sunlight destroying it?

Is ammonia reacting with it?

Are organic contaminants oxidizing?

Are radicals forming?

Is a biofilm protecting algae?

Those are the chemistry questions.

And chemistry has the answers.

But before we get into all of that,

we need to understand what chlorine actually looks like in water.

Because chlorine doesn't just float around as chlorine.

When chlorine dissolves into water,

it forms something called hypochlorous acid.

That's the active disinfectant.

That's the chemical that actually kills microorganisms.

And hypochlorous acid exists in equilibrium

with another form called the hypochlorite ion.

The balance between these two forms depends on pH.

Lower pH means more hypochlorous acid.

Higher pH means hypochlorite ion.

And hypochlorous acid is dramatically more effective as a disinfectant.

This relationship between pH and chlorine activity

has been well documented in water treatment research

for decades.

In fact, studies in water disinfection chemistry

show that the effectiveness of chlorine

as a disinfectant is strongly dependent on the fraction present

as hypochlorous acid rather than hypochlorite ion.

You can find that in the white handbook of chlorination

and alternative disinfectants.

So look, right away we learn something important.

Not all chlorine is equally effective.

The chemistry matters.

But even when chlorine is present in the correct form,

it is consistently reacting with things in the water.

And those reactions create what we call chlorine demand.

Now, let's start with the biggest chlorine thief of all.

The Sun.

Sunlight destroys chlorine.

Not slowly, not politely, violently.

Ultraviolet radiation breaks chlorine molecules apart

in a process called photolysis.

When UV light hits hypochlorous acid,

the molecule splits and forms radical species,

hydroxyl radicals, chlorine radicals,

extremely reactive molecules that start attacking

whatever contaminants they encounter.

Research on chlorine photochemistry has shown

that ultraviolet light can generate hydroxyl radicals

and chlorine radicals when hypochlorous acid absorbs UV radiation.

These radicals are incredibly reactive,

which means chlorine is destroyed in the process.

In an outdoor pool with no stabilizer,

most of the chlorine can disappear

in just a few hours under strong sunlight.

That's why cyanor gas had exists.

Cyanor gas had forms of reversible bonds

with chlorine that slowed down photo-degradation.

We talked about that the other week.

But it doesn't stop it from happening.

It just slows it down.

So sunlight is always one piece of the chlorine demand puzzle.

Now, let's talk about swimmers.

Because people are nasty.

Swimmers are walking chemistry experiments.

Sweat contains ammonia.

Euring contains urea.

Skin cells contain proteins, cosmetics,

contain organic compounds.

Every person who jumps into a pool introduces chemicals.

And chlorine reacts with all of them.

One of the most important reactions is between chlorine and ammonia.

This reaction forms chloramines.

Monocloramine, specifically.

Dicloramine, nitrogen trichloride,

each step consumes chlorine.

And in tall, those nitrogen compounds are fully oxidized.

Chlorine will continue disappearing.

This entire process is known as breakpoint chlorination

of phenomenon widely studied in water treatment and engineering.

So chlorine is being attacked by sunlight and nitrogen compounds.

And we haven't even talked about organic contaminants yet

because chlorine also reacts with oil,

solution, sunscreen, and plant debris.

Each of those reactions consumes chlorine.

Each of those reactions contributes to the chlorine demand.

And every one of those reactions is happening simultaneously.

Which brings us back to the original question.

Why won't the pool hold chlorine?

The answer isn't magic.

It certainly is not chlorine lock.

The answer is chemistry.

Even if you have a good chlorine level

but the pool keeps turning green,

don't assume that it's chlorine lock.

Assume that you have something else in there going on

and you just don't know what it is as of yet.

So why talk about chlorine demand today?

Why talk about sodium bromide?

Why talk about all these different things?

You know what? It's spring.

First day of spring was what?

A few days ago, pools are going to start opening.

You're going to have chlorine demand problems.

It's going to happen.

You're going to wish you had sodium bromide at some point in time

to treat mustard algae.

I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.

There's just a lot going on.

It's the beginning of the season.

God bless you guys.

God bless the pool pro.

You guys are about to go through hell.

The floodgates are about to open.

You're going to be busy from now and through Labor Day

and for some of you, well beyond that.

So kudos to you.

I've done it.

I understand.

I appreciate it.

You guys are warriors out there.

What you do is not easy.

It's a hard job.

Yet you do it anyway.

That's what makes you a fucking superhero.

So until next time.

Be good.

Be safe.

I just wanted to say thank you for listening today.

I'm hoping you enjoyed the episode as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you.

Listen, it's been a couple of wacky, crazy screwed up years from pandemic to pool again.

And I just want you to know that we are all in this together.

If there's anything that we can do for you, send me an email at talkingpools at gmail.com.

Again, that's talkingpools at gmail.com.

We're here.

This is your podcast.

We are the pool people's podcast of the pool people for the pool people by the pool people's podcast.

This one is about you.

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