Replace Your POOL CHEMICALS with Household Products (Bleach, Baking Soda, etc.) | Swim University
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Published 2024-05-25
Did you know you can replace most of your expensive pool chemicals with common household products? If you want to stop spending extra money on things like chlorine tablets or alkalinity increaser, here’s what to use instead: Bleach, Baking Soda, Soda Ash, and Muriatic Acid.
Knowing how to use each one could help you save hundreds on pool chemicals. So here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use household chemicals to maintain your pool.
⏰ Timestamps:
00:00 - Household Pool Chemicals
00:48 - What Levels Need Balancing
01:29 - Common Pool Chemicals
02:02 - How to Maintain Your Pool with Household Chemicals
02:42 - #1. Baking Soda to Raise Alkalinity
03:23 - #2. Soda Ash to Raise pH (or Use Aeration)
04:32 - #3. Muriatic Acid to Lower pH and Alkalinity
05:26 - #4. Bleach or Liquid Chlorine to Sanitize
07:16 - Other Pool Chemicals You Might Need
07:30 - #1. Chlorine Stabilizer or Cyanuric Acid (CYA)
08:18 - #2. Calcium Hardness Increaser
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All Comments (21)
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Don't forget to grab the free Pool Care Cheat Sheet at www.swimuniversity.com/CheatSheet 👍 Here's the pool chemical substitutes we cover in this video: 02:42 - #1. Baking Soda to Raise Alkalinity 03:23 - #2. Soda Ash to Raise pH (or Use Aeration) 04:32 - #3. Muriatic Acid to Lower pH and Alkalinity 05:26 - #4. Bleach or Liquid Chlorine to Sanitiz
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Great Information. Thank you
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Thank you so much for this video!
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YOY ARE A ROCK STAR!!! Thank You for that information!!
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Can you make a video about putting a main drain on above ground pool?
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What do you recommend for a 9ft x 25in bestway above ground pool filled with well water???
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Great video. Many thanks for info. Much appreciated 👏
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For the chemist in the audience, muriatic acid is ~12N HCl (very dangerous to handle and emits fumes), alkalinity is what we know as buffer capacity. NaHCO3( baking soda), is the buffer salt, but Na2CO3 (soda ash) is way more basic than NaHCO3
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this is all great, but i have problems finding some of these products in large quantities. i found Borax in a 5 gal bucket. Acid is easy, some of the others, harder to find!
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New pool owner. Water is super clear and all my testing levels have been good except water hardness. Apparently our water is very soft. I added 5 bags of Clorax brand calcium hardness increaser to our 25k gal pool with little to no change when testing. Should I leave it or add more? Also, what do most people use to test water? Type of tester? I get confused and lost when directions to fix start talking about parts per mill and I looking at a color chart????
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I get backing doda tablets to balance my ph. Works like a charm. Ironically I was thinking of getting one of thise floating fountains for my pool this year. More to help cool off the water in the evenings because the Arizona sun is brutal! I'd rather not have bathtub water again all summer if i can avoid it. Even with running the pump at night.
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Ok so I’m so new the the pool game and super excited super nervous our pool is 3548 gallons so trying to figure these measurements out is freaking me out pleaseeeee help
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do i need to lower my alkalinity if it is 180 and my ph is struggling at 6.8 and will not stay higher? or should i see if it will naturally fall on its own?
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New to pool maintenance. I have most of it figured out but I'm trying to determine the best, most cost effective way to add chlorine and I'm not sure I'm calculating correctly. According to the information I've seen, a maintenance dose for a 10k gal pool is: - household bleach (2 gallons @ $6.16 or $12.32 @ Walmart) OR - 1 gallon of chlorinating liquid ($5.67 @ Walmart) OR - 2 chlorinating tabs ($4.50 from Sam's Club when you buy the 40lb bucket) Then I would need to add some CYA if I use bleach or chlorinating liquid. So, what I don't get is why I keep hearing using bleach is cheaper; it doesn't add up to me. What am I miscalculating?
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Do the pros have any tricks for keeping CYA level from creeping up when using stabilized chlorine tablets? Or do they just drain water when CYA gets too high? I have about an 18,000 gal pool, and using liquid chlorine, even in its most concentrated state available, seems not to be a feasible option due to the amount I'd have to keep on hand.
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Why did you switch to soda ash from your older video which mentioned Borax for PH?
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Did you leave out calcium chloride as a calcium hardness increaser substitute on purpose? A 50lb bag at Home Depot is $20. A 45 lb bucket from a pool supply store is $90.
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Excellent information and help! Quick question on the liquid bleach. You say 100% sodium hypochlorite after saying store bleach is 7-10%. I'm confused. Clorox from Sam's Club is 7.55% and... other ingredients with no scent. Is this okay? Thank you for creating an awesome resource!🤔 Just found 10% liquid at Home Depot!
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What can I use to DECREASE calcium hardness?
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Hey I have a question - my PH is 7.6, Alkalinity 108, cya 88 .. I can't get my TAC and FAC over .5 it stays stuck there even after shocking - I use poolrx so my pool is crystal clear but why can't my TAC/FAC go any higher? I had the same issue last year
