Is Bleach Really Cheaper?

[CurtisT]

I've done some checking and found the following:

Lowes: 1 gal 10% chlorine: $3.58 = $.28 per oz of chlorine

Wal Mart: 1.42 gal 6% bleach = $2.50 = $.24 per oz of chlorine

Texsun: Silk Tabs (90% cl) = $80 for 25 lbs (400 oz) = $.22 / oz of chlorine

Leslies: 3" tabs (90%) = $94 for 30 lbs (440 oz) = $.19 / oz of chlorine

Looks like Leslie's 3" tabs are cheapest... is this a liquid vs. solid ounces thing?

Thanks.

[chem geek]

There's a minor modification because of the density of the liquid so that it isn't 1 fluid ounce equaling 1 ounce weight, but that's not the main issue. Trichlor is the least expensive chlorine per FC BUT it is also highly acidic so requires the use of pH Up (Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda) to compensate for this and that ends up making it more expensive as shown in this post (though some people have found very inexpensive source of washing soda). Nevertheless, roughly speaking, Trichlor, Cal-Hypo, chlorinating liquid and bleach are all in the same ballpark with variations locally. Dichlor is more expensive while lithium hypochlorite is a lot more expensive.

The reason to use Trichlor vs. chlorinating liquid or bleach has very little to do with expense, but rather with the fact that Trichlor also increases the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level. For every 10 ppm FC added by Trichlor, it also increase CYA by 6 ppm.

Richard