How to Lower the pH in Your Pool with Dry Acid (Sodium Bisulfate) the Easy & Safe Way!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2024
- Dry acid is one pool chemical not talked about much. I think mainly because the use of muriatic acid to lower the pH in a pool is so widely entrenched in the minds of pool pros and homeowners that Dry Acid is often overlooked. It is also a bit more expensive to use over muriatic acid, although as the price for muriatic acid continues to rise dry acid is becoming more and more popular because of the safety and storage benefits.
You will see dry acid sold as pH Reducer, pH down or of course labeled as Dry Acid. Just look for the active ingredient sodium bisulfate on the label.
Safer to Use:
Sodium Bisulfate (Dry Acid)
Sodium Bisulfate is a dry, granular form of acid. This makes it safer for handling, and it is far less corrosive in a pump room or other space as it is not a strong oxidizer like muriatic acid. It Sodium bisulfate needs to be stored in a dry place, without moisture getting into the container. Sodium bisulfate must be pre-dissolved before being added to the pool, just like any other dry chemical. But if you spill it or get any of it on the pool deck it won’t burn your skin or stain your deck.
Benefits:
Does not burn your skin
Longer shelf life
Easy to store
No toxic fumes
It won’t rust everything around your house or equipment room
Strong as muriatic acid with proper dosage
Easy to use
Adjusting the pH in your pool is critical for proper water balance and to make sure that the water in your pool is not scale forming nor is it being corrosive. The pH is one important element in this. Note also that when you adjust the pH you are also adjusting the Alkalinity. And that the higher the Alkalinity is over the baseline of 80-120 ppm the more dry acid you will need to lower the pH. This is because Alkalinity is a buffer in the water and will slow down the effect of any acid you add if the water is very alkaline.
Dry acid is a bit more expensive than muriatic acid if you are comparing pound for pound which is a bit more difficult because one is in a dry form and the other in a liquid form. But if you measure the dosage of the dry acid correctly it is just as strong as 31.45% muriatic acid. I think for the safety and storage benefits dry acid is hands-down better for homeowner use as well as some service pro use. I like to carry 50 lbs. bucket in the back of my truck and find it very handy as it gives me more space to carry my other chemicals and equipment. It is also good for adding acid to those service accounts were pets are present or the homeowner is next to the pool. The last thing you want to do is pour in a quart of muriatic acid and have them overcome by fumes.
It is best to pre-dissolve the dry acid in a bucket and then once it is dissolved to pour it around the perimeter of the deep end with the pool on and running for at least 3 hours minimum. You can toss it directly in but it is not advised and it only takes 3-5 minutes to dissolve it in a bucket. You will also need a scale to weigh the product to get the exact dosage and I recommend using an online app to get the right dosage amount. Remember that Alkalinity is a factor so if it is above 120 ppm you will need more of the dry acid to move the pH down.
A good online tool is the www.poolcalculator.com/
There are many very good reasons to switch to dry acid and of course, the fact that it is safer to use is a big one.
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Most of the guides were talking about muriatic acid and all local suppliers where I live sell dry acid only.
Many thanks!
Tx sir
Love your tips
Keep it coming
Keep well
Greetings from South Africa
Good stuff. Thanks. David is much like the Antenna Man for users/owners trying to gain information and knowledge on TH-cam for DIY'ers and pros alike. They both keep things simple and come across with zero pretense and with a total helpful attitude without simplifying things so much that what they say is technically or scientifically incorrect; at least never intentionally. What this method of having knowledge combined with a knack for uploading content and also being a good teacher does is that it creates trust, and David's got my trust.
There is another pool care video uploader on TH-cam who is popular that has his heart in the right place; extremely likable; no pretense; just sits in his car and talks about pool care; no condesending attitude; no intentional decpetion, but much of what he says is just plain wrong from a chemistry standpoint, and so him being out there doing videos is disastrous.
So it's not enough to want to help and to not belittle anyone and be likable, and be a good teacher, you have to also be like David and be able to know what is true and what is false, question established methods, and admit it when you don't know.
Most for-profit industries have a lot of intentional market deception going on. The pool industry has this but I don't think it's all as intentional as propurted to be by some, at least with respect to retailers and pros, (maybe chemical companies), and it's not nearly as bad as the antenna industry where they try to sell tiny antennas claiming 250 mile range, but there is a lot of vudu chemistry taught due to the fact that for fifty years no one ever looked hard into the effects of stabilzer on chlorine's effectiveness in pools. So I'd say that the biggest issue in the pool care industry was/is a lack of effort and competence to look at the issues for pool owners and see if there were simple fixes, but it took a consumer advocate from outside the industry. Richard Falk came in and did and is still doing the hard work and proving the right and best way to care for pools. He is almost single-handedly changing the industry very quickly, and I know this is true, because it used to be that the only place you ever saw, read, or heard of managing fc and cya as a ratio with one another was at troublefreepool.com. Since Richard left the website in 2015 to do work for the CDC and to advise other water chemistry gurus in the industry, that methodology is now popping up everywhere including upcoming CDC guidance on proper chlorine level and cya level management.
I try my best to stay current and I am open to changing the way I think and do things. The TFP forum has changed the landscape in the pool industry and I recommend those here join it. Thanks for the vote of confidence. 👍
Thanks for the video, how much dry acid I need to add to a 1700 gallon above ground pool? My ph is around 7.9 -8.0
For my pool I was told 13 oz dry acid every 4 hours for a total of 10 lbs. It makes sense to measure ounces by weight but in the back of my head I'm worried they mean ounces by volume.
I had already quit using muriatic acid I’m favor of ph minus for all the reasons u listed. And have never looked back! Learned something knew from u though about muriatic acid and rust. Now I know why my pool deck had rust stains! Hoping this change will protect my lanai hardware such as door knobs from the same. Although the chlorine might take its toll there. Any thoughts?
Thanks for the great feedback. Muriatic Acid is a very strong oxidizer and I doubt if the chlorine is doing any damage.
Swimming Pool Tips, Reviews & How To - SPL Thx for that input. Gaining yet more knowledge from u.
Help David, I just Royally Screwed Up and put too much Muriatic Acid. I was curious why you didn't follow the pool calculators alkalinity adjustment recommendation of adjusting the pH level way down to 7.0-7.2 to adjust your high alkalinity? Instead you only followed the pH drop recommendation which is less of an adjustment to only 7.6, wouldn't that leave your alkalinity still too high even though your pH is in range? I ask because I just did this today and adjusted my 146 alkalinity per the calculators recommendation down to 7.0 Did I just royally screw up? I'm going for a water test tomorrow and hope I don't have to spend big bucks because I followed the calculators alkalinity recommendations. I ended up adding a lot of muriatic acid that took me all day to wait 4 hours in between each 32oz application. Please help because I just did a 70% drain and fill due to a 103 CYA level. As Always Awesome video they're always appreciated! You're the Best!
You should be fine. With ALK that high the pH probably bounced right back up to 7.4
when adding. I sometimes find a bit of aggitation to my throat.
Is this in any way corrosive to the throat?
Probably would wear a mask. It's the low pH of the product I would think.
Can damage your lungs permanently!
@@SPL You have to wear a nose and mouth respirator mask rated by NIOSH for toxic "fumes". N95 is good for Dry Acid. Separate eye goggles recommended.
My alkalinity is slightly too high,and my ph is slightly too low.yes strange but we had will fires so who knows what was in the wild fire (smoke/ash). So i will add this then some baking soda to raise ph
I know you posted 6 months ago but get your Alkalinity in range then use surface agitation if you can to raise your PH rather than adding baking soda. Works well if you have a water fall or something.
I've been using Muriatic Acid for my pool, but it just gives me the bejeebies every time I use it. Especially when you catch a tiny whiff of it on a wind less day.
You might also like Acid Magic
1) Why bother pre mixing it? 2) Why Pentair iChlor recommends not to use dry acid for salt chlorinator equipped pools?
It has the possibility of maybe staining the surface, although I have tossed it in without any issue. The salt cell does not react well to the Bisulfate from what I was told.
According to chemistry, sulfate-based chemicals are corrosive solids. It will increase TDS in the water ruining concrete/gunite pools, it will cause plaster etching, destroy salt cell plate coating. The sulfates will accumulate in the water just like salt. So I think you should put a disclaimer in your video.
Another great video! The pros of dry acid given here are valid; but there are many pros to muriatic acid, and for most people, muriatic acid is going to be the better choice overall mainly for two reasons: no pre mixing required to protect pool equipment and price. A big negative of dry acid is that it can damage pool surfaces, but David overcomes this possibility by pre mixing first; but premixing is a hassle, because it's an extra step; sort of like cal hypo chlorine versus bleach for non stabilized chlorine sources. However, another pro of dry acid is the fact that the dose can be more easily and safely measured out. The safest way to dose MA in a pool is to pour directly from the manufacturer's jug into the pool, but most-times that's not an option, because one needs to dose a specific number of ounces and the jugs have no graduations on them. So what happens is that you have to transfer the dose amount to something like a glass measuring cup, and you have to do this slowly and carefully to minimize fumes and splash. Also, with MA, it's a wasted step to premix, but if you do decide to premix, you can make a disastrous mistake; you must NOT pour water into a dose of acid; rather it must be the other way around to prevent a violent reaction. But as long as one is willing to take a little more care and doesn't mind taking a little more care also in storage, MA is the way to go for most users; but they both do the same thing.
@@arthurvin2937 If the possibility of ruining pool surfaces and equipment using dry acid, save SWG pools, is due purely on the fact that this product raises TDS, then, while it may be chemistry, that would be vudu chemistry as high TDS is a made-up issue concerning pools. The industry likes to say high TDS instead of, specifically, high CYA, to give themselves cover for causing high CYA in their customers' pools. Read the articles about the TDS "myths" at troublefreepool.com. There are made-up concerns developed within the pool care industry about TDS, LSI, often also phosphates, so that retailers and chemical companies can sell more chemicals. It's the parameters that make up TDS that matter; amd usually it's only high cya that's a problem. Even Dr. Robert Lowry has this wrong or at least, misplaced blame. Phosphates, nitrates and nitrates are never going to be the reason to drain a pool; as they are just trace particles making up a portion of TDS.
@@arthurvin2937 I've read that on one site but haven't seen it written anywhere else. I will have to verify that info. It is not on the container in any form.
Does this increase your TDS?
Somewhat.