How Chlorine Works

It was also one of the first products used to prevent the spread of disease from drinking water.

You might sometimes wonder just why chlorine is needed for the swimming pool.

Is chlorine safe?

And what does it do in the water? Chlorine was discovered hundreds of years ago, first as a gas. Later, compounds of liquid were developed. One of the earliest compounds was known as liquid sodium hypochlorite, commonly called liquid chlorine, and also known as bleach. Liquid chlorine was one of the earliest types of chlorine to be used as a disinfectant to prevent the spread of germs.

It was also one of the first products used to prevent the spread of disease from drinking water. So how does it work in the swimming pool? No matter what type of chlorine is added to the water, whether it be trichlor, dichlor, cal hypo, or sodium hypochlorite, there is an instantaneous reaction. Hypochlorous acid, also known as HOCl, is a very strong destroyer of invasive germs.

In fact, HOCl is created in your immune system to fight off infection. The white blood cells in your body produce HOCl as needed to deal with any invasive germs that enter the body. Since untreated pool water can harbor germs, the HOCl form of chlorine serves as a superhero protector for the swimmer. It destroys bacteria and algae by breaking through the cell membrane and disrupting the cellular activity.

A percentage of the chlorine added to the pool converts to what is known as hypochlorous acid or HOCl, and the rest converts to a hypochloride ion or OCl. Think of HOCl as the strong superhero, and the OCl as a wimpy sidekick. There's not a lot of germ killing power in OCl. When chlorine is added to the pool, there will be both the HOCl superhero and the OCL WIMP.

The ratio of hypochlorous acid to hypochlorite ion is primarily controlled by the pH of the water.

The lower the pH, the higher the HOCl superhero you have. As the pH increases, the percentage of HOCl decreases, and the OCl increases, and we have to fight algae and germs with the wimpy sidekick. In order to keep the pool water the cleanest and safest, we obviously want to have as much HOCl as possible. But too much of the OCl, and you are wasting your money and wasting chlorine.

So the secret is balance. The target pH of a pool is seven point five, and at that level, you will have fifty percent of the superhero, fifty percent of the OCL WIMP. Well, fifty percent of the strong superhero at seven point five pH is better than the twenty percent you would get at a pH of eight. Liquid Santa Claus is a very effective way to bring the superhero germ fighting power of HOCl to your swimming pool.

Hossa Santa Claus is a pure safe formula that leaves no harmful byproducts behind like solid tablets and powders do. Hey. This is Terry with HASA. If you have any questions on chlorine or water chemistry, please contact us at w w w dot haasapool dot com, or check out some of our other videos on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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