- There are a few ways to lower chlorine levels
in your pool.
Whether your chlorine reading is too high
or you just like to start using less chlorine in general,
we'll show you how to reduce your chlorine levels and usage.
Check it out.
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And before we dive in, if you're looking for help
keeping your pool clean and clear,
check out our free pool care Cheat Sheet
at swimuniversity.com/cheatsheet.
It's a totally free easy to use guide
to help you keep track of taking care of your pool.
Okay, first, how do you know
if you have too much chlorine in your pool?
Well, the easiest way is to just test your water.
Your coring level should be
between one and three parts per million.
When you test your water, you're looking to see
how much chlorine is active and killing contaminants.
This is known as free chlorine.
When that chlorine has been combined with contaminants
and has been used up,
it's called combined chlorine, aka chloramines.
Now, if you notice a chlorine smell in your pool,
it actually doesn't mean you have too much chlorine.
That smell comes from the chloramines
and it means your sanitizer has been used up.
You can also get rid of chloramines by shocking your pool,
this helps to reactivate your sanitizer.
And what if your eyes feel irritated when you swim?
Is that from high chlorine levels?
That's usually caused by an improper pH level.
Your pH should be between 7.4 and 7.6,
anything much lower or higher will cause burning red eyes.
So what causes high chlorine levels in the first place?
Well, there are a few reasons this can happen.
One, you may simply have added the wrong amount
of chlorine to your pool.
This can happen when adding shock to your water
or putting in too many chlorine tablets in your skimmer.
Two, you may have added too much chlorine
after adding chlorine stabilizer.
Chlorine stabilizer, aka cyanuric acid,
slows the process of the sun burning away your chlorine.
And three, your chlorine isn't breaking down
because your pool isn't in the sun,
so your levels just stay high.
Okay, so here are a few ways
to lower chlorine levels in your pool.
Number one, stop adding more chlorine, duh?
Turn off your chlorinator, saltwater chlorine generator,
or chlorine feeder, and take any chlorine tablets
out of the pool floater or your skimmer
while you wait for the levels to go down.
Two, you can let the sun burn off some of the chlorine.
A few hours of direct sunlight
can reduce your chlorine levels up to 90%,
just make sure that your chlorine doesn't drop
below the recommended range of 1-3 parts per million.
If you use cyanuric acid to stabilize your chlorine,
this might not work as well.
Remember, CYA protects chlorine
from being broken down by the sun.
Use hydrogen peroxide, pool-grade hydrogen peroxide
reacts with chlorine to produce water and oxygen.
Just be sure to test your pH before adding it.
It works best at pH levels of 7.0 or higher.
It will also lower your pH after using it,
so be sure to test and adjust your levels then too.
Number four, add a chlorine neutralizer
like sodium bisulphate.
This is one of the quickest and easiest ways
to lower your chlorine level, but it's easy to overdo it
and it will significantly lower your pH.
Start by adding smaller amounts to your pool
and testing your chlorine levels as you go,
and be sure to test your pH levels after you're done.
You don't want your pool to become too acidic.
You'll also wanna test your cyanuric acid levels.
Number five is dilute your pool water.
You can dilute your pool water by draining
and refilling a little bit of your pool water
with fresh water.
The diluted water will lower your chlorine a bit,
but it will also lower the other chemical levels
in your pool.
So be sure to test and balance your water when you're done.
Finally, what if you wanna start using less chlorine
in your pool?
Well, there are a few ways to reduce chlorine and usage.
Number one is to add a mineral system.
Minerals like silver and copper can kill bacteria
and help reduce chlorine usage up to 50%.
Mineral systems only need a 0.5
to one part per million of chlorine.
Another advantage, they're easy to use.
An in-skimmer pool mineral system lets you place
the dispenser right in your skimmer basket.
And these lasts about six months
and can sanitize pools that hold up to 30,000 gallons.
Two, you can switch to a saltwater system.
So you can stop buying chlorine altogether
by making it yourself with salt.
That's right, saltwater pools are actually chlorine pools.
The salt added to your pool passes through
a saltwater generator built into your filter system,
that salt gets converted to chlorine.
Salt water systems also automatically monitor
and keep your chlorine levels at three parts per million.
So while technically you still have a chlorine pool,
you're adding salt to the system instead.
Now, if you wanna learn how to convert your pool
to a salt water system, go check out our guide
at swimuniversity.com.
While you're there, grab our free pool care Cheat Sheet
at swimuniversity.com/cheatsheet.
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That's it, thanks again and happy swimming.