How Often Should Someone Add Chlorine To A Pool?

It can be hard to maintain swimming pools since there are lots of factors to consider. It is a big investment to keep your pool clean and healthy. One of the many chemicals that you have to add and maintain the level when being added to a pool is chlorine.

Since it is one of the vital chemicals that you will often use, you have to know everything about it. Knowledge about how often should you add chlorine to your pool, and make the chemical properly utilized, thus making your pool such a pleasant place to swim in.

Part 1. What Causes a Pool to Use a Lot Of Chlorine?

In pools, we have a so-called chemical balance. It includes the levels of chemical components that must be maintained to have sparkling clean and safe pool water. Different factors cause a pool owner to use different dosages of chlorine. These factors are also needed to determine how often you should add chlorine to your pool. Let us get to know these factors in the list we have, below.

1. Sunlight

The first thing that you have to consider is sunlight. One of the many main factors that affect the chlorine levels of your pool is ultraviolet radiation from the heat of the sun.

When your pool water is being heated, bacteria also thrive to survive, because of this, free chlorine is forced to take action. Chlorine is also being released and evaporated into the air. When it comes to outdoor pools, specifically those that are uncovered most times of the day, sunlight can make the free chlorine levels drop at a faster rate which will require more treatment of chlorine.

2. Start the Swim Season

This is a factor to consider especially if you have commercial pools. Also, even pools inside your homes are not used all year round, there is a specific season when people swarm to enjoy it! And of course, it is only right to make it clean before it starts!

One of the initial things that you have to do during this season is to shock your pool and treat it with an initial high dose of chlorine. It is very vital since there is a greater chance that your pool will be at or almost near zero chlorination once the season is off.

3. How Frequent You Use it

There are different frequency pools are used. Some are used many times a day, while others are almost being neglected. One of the things that you have to consider on how often should you add chlorine to your pool, as well as identifying the amount or level to add, is how frequently it is being used. As the number of people that use your pool increases, the higher the dose of chlorine that you should be adding. So, if you like to have a party in your pool, you should start considering adding chlorine after!

4. Getting A Closer Look To Chlorine Levels In Your Pool

To determine how often you should add chlorine to your pool, chlorine levels must also be understood well. When chlorine is added to a body of water, it immediately interacts with bacteria in the pool and other ingredients, and this is when change happens.

Once it starts killing bacteria, the chemical becomes less effective, and this is where combined and free chlorine is formed. So, what is free and combined chlorine?

Combined Chlorine

This is the result when chlorine is used to kill bacteria. Once the chlorine has become a combined chlorine, it is already useless when making the pool clean.

Free Chlorine

On the other hand, free chlorine is the term being used for useful chlorine that can still be considered available to kill bacteria. This is what you need to keep your pool free from bacteria, hepatitis, E. Coli, and a lot more. Once the free chlorine interacts with sweat, other chemicals, sunlight, and bacteria, the free chlorine becomes combined chlorine which makes the water less safe for swimmers.

Part 2. How Often Should You Add Chlorine to Your Pool?

Now, that we have learned some information about chlorine, let us get to know how often should you add chlorine to your pool.

To determine the amount of chlorine and how often should you add it, we have what we call a dosing schedule. Once the right amount is added, considering the different factors that we have discussed in the previous part, and the right dosing schedule is also followed, then the pools we have will be safe to swim in at all times.

The level of chlorine should be maintained in the range between 1 and 1.5 ppm. This must be considered, altogether with the level of pH at the range between 7.2 and 7.6. To make sure that said levels are always being reached, water must always be tested twice a week through the use of test kits.

For routine pool maintenance, consistently add chlorine tabs or granules. Shock the pool with a higher chlorine dose every two weeks, particularly crucial for quickly adjusting pH levels, especially in sunny conditions prone to chlorine breakdown.

These are the situations when a pool owner must do shock treatment:

• Once the winter period has ended.
• After having a busy week or weekend when your pool is being used up.
• When you use your swimming pool for the very first time.
• Once the holiday period is done, the water quality has not been checked for quite some time.

These are considered situations since this is when levels of chlorine drop. To carry out diminished levels of chlorine, a shock treatment must be done. So, how often should you add chlorine to your pool using the shocking process? Let us take a look at the chlorine dosing schedule, below. Before considering the dosing schedule that we are going to share below, the packaging of the chlorine powder to be used must be checked first.

Once you have made sure that the chlorine level is right, you can always keep it at the said level using chlorine tablets as well. To determine how often you should add chlorine to your pool using chlorine tablets, you have to consider the below.

• Number of hours the pool is exposed to sunshine and the UV level or value the water is in taking.
• The leaves and insects that can be always seen at the surface of your pool.
• How frequently the pool is being used, considering the period?

In case it is not being used most of the time, always check the water quality once every week through the use of a water tester. If you use the pool more than 2 days every week, you need to check the quality of water two to three times a week, as well. You also have to make sure that chlorine tablets are completely dissolved in the pool water before adding another more.

Part 3. Conclusion

A pool owner must be responsible enough to keep their pool safe to swim in by keeping the pool water clean and healthy. One of the things to make it possible is to ensure that chemical balance is always kept monitored and checked. Also, you must know how often should you add chlorine to your pool as discussed above.

Part 4. FAQs

1. How Many Tablets Should I Put in My Pool?

If you have the 200 grams of chlorine tablet, you may need one of it for every 20, 000 liters of pool water. This should be your starting basis in calculating the number of tablets that you should put in your pool.

2. How Soon Can You Swim after Adding Chlorine Tablets?

Chlorine tablets take a long time to dissolve. But you do not need to wait until it completely vanishes before you swim, once the filtration system has been running for a little while, and the chlorine levels are checked and reached the needed level, you can finally dive in! It must be remembered to remove the floating dispenser before swimming as levels of chlorine could be higher and cause irritation to swimmers, it can also be used as toys for dogs or children using your pool.

3. How Long Does It Take for a 3-inch Chlorine Tablet to Dissolve?

Well, typically if you use a 3-inch chlorine tablet which is designed to be used on a pool that has 7,500 to 10, 000 gallons of pool water per week, it will take almost seven days to be completely dissolved.