Pool Water Perchlorination

Perchlorination of swimming pool water. If you have a swimming pool, you will certainly at some point have carried out the superchlorination or shock chlorination process, of course following the instructions given to you for the chemical treatment of its water.

It is a given that the term and the process are used as a panacea for all water turbidity problems and not only!!

But really, how many know clearly, what are the categories of superchlorination, when should we do superchlorination, what is the correct procedure, what should be the amount of feed, which category of chlorine is suitable for superchlorination and finally in what ways we can avoid it or even if we reduce the frequency and quantities of feeding.

Perchlorination of swimming pool water - Chlorination categories SOK

There are three categories of shock chlorination and they are
a) Shock chlorination at the beginning of the swimming season.
b) Shock chlorination to deal with green water problem.
c) Shock chlorination to deal with the "smell" of chlorine or the bound
chlorine.

In the first two cases, the quantity of feed is related to the volume of water, while in the second it is combined with the parallel feed of algaecide.
In the third case, the amount of supply is not only related to the volume of water, but also to the presence in the water of the amount of bound chlorine.

The first step is to adjust the pH value

Before we continue giving you more information about the third case, we consider it useful to mention that in all three cases any action we take should be done after adjusting the PH to the desired levels (7.2-7.6) and cleaning the pool filter.

In almost all swimming pools indoor, but also in outdoor swimming pools that receive high contamination loads and in which chlorine is used to treat the water, once used by swimmers, we have the creation of the characteristic "smell" of the pool, which in many cases can be accompanied by cloudiness of water.

See our informative article in more detail, in which we present the forms of chlorine that form in pool water and which are of three types: Free, Bound and Total.

Hyperchlorination of pool water to deal with the problem of water turbidity in combination with a strong chlorine <smell>.

Problems of water turbidity and strong pool "smell" are caused when the amount of bound chlorine exceeds half of the amount of free chlorine and generally the amount of 0.5 ppm. (international organizations recommend perchlorination when bound chlorine is greater than 0.2 ppm)

In these cases our necessary action is the process of shock chlorination.

In this case, we do not only need to know the volume of water, but additionally the content of bound chlorine in the water as well as the type of chlorine that we will use for superchlorination.

We should know that the process of perchlorination is a process All or nothing. If we don't feed enough chlorine to reach the breakdown point, we will make the problem even bigger, if we feed more, we will have an excess chlorine problem later on.

For the above reasons, in this third case of hyperchlorination, it is good to contact the company that supplies you with the chemical products you use to calculate the correct amount of supply, informing them of the amount of bound chlorine, the volume of the pool water and the type of chlorine you will use.

A factor that can affect the whole process is the presence of the stabilizer in the pool water and this should also be taken into account in the perchlorination process.

Various ways and procedures can reduce the presence of bound chlorine and consequently the need for frequent perchlorination, such as:
– Frequent supply of fresh water
– Recirculation of surface water.
– Oxidizing materials without chlorine.
– Reduced chlorine supplies.
– Use of zeolite
– Use of ultraviolet rays.
– Use of ozone.

Conclusion

The case of superchlorination to remove the turbidity and "smell" of the pool, due to the excessive presence of bound chlorine, is not such a simple case, it needs attention and knowledge.