Sun, Heat and Chlorine Loss
It’s July in Kansas, and it’s hot, really hot.
Because of the heat and the cloudless days, your pool’s chlorine levels are struggling. In this article, we look at sun, heat and chlorine loss to help you continue to enjoy clear, beautiful pool water.
What Does Chlorine Do?
You add it to your swimming pool to kill algae and bacteria. If you don’t add it, or your levels are low, your water would most likely turn, green and cloudy.
The chlorine you head helps kill the organisms that cause algae. To keep your pool clean, you have to keep your chlorine levels at the right levels. But, when the bright sun and heat of mid-summer come in to the equation, it’s important to know your chlorine levels so you can keep them at the right point.
What is Chlorine Loss?
Chlorine demand is the consistent inability of your pool to maintain chlorine levels.
It’s usually caused by a high level of inorganic and organic contaminants in the water. Those contaminants force the chlorine to work extremely hard to oxidize them, leaving little chlorine to protect swimmers. Proper chlorine levels cannot be reestablished without first eliminating the contaminants.
External factors such as sunlight and heat also contribute to chlorine loss. Let’s look at those.
The Effects of Hot Weather
High temperatures have an indirect effect on chlorine loss.
Why? Many species of bacteria grow better in warmer water. When the bacteria multiply, your free chlorine is used up as it kills up.
What can you do? Generally, you can add twice as much chlorine to your pool to maintain and adequate level of free chlorine.
The Effects of Sunlight
Sunlight causes a loss in free chlorine as well. When the ultraviolet rays of the sun hit your pool, chlorine is released as gas into the atmosphere.
Amazingly, you can experience a 90% loss in chlorination your pool on a bright sunny day in just a couple of hours.
To combat this loss, maintain your chlorine and stabilizers daily.
Pool maintenance workers add chlorine daily and use chemical stabilizers to prevent this loss.
Ways to Fix Chlorine Loss
First, you want to bring us a sample of your pool water. Using our computer-generated analysis, we can help you determine the extent of your demand.
Here’s a checklist of possible solutions:
- Add Pool Tonic™ to help remove contaminants
- Add BurnOut® 73, BurnOut® 3 or BurnOut® 35 to correct sanitizer levels
To prevent excessive chlorine loss:
- Add Pool Complete™ to your weekly maintenance routine to reduce contaminant levels
- Maintain an appropriate sanitizer residual of 1-3ppm
- Shock/oxidize routinely or as needed depending on bather load
- Test water frequently and adjust as needed
- Routinely check for circulation and filtration issues
Need help? Contact our expert service team – we’re here for you!
