How To Break Chlorine Lock - Test

Why Does Chlorine Lock Happen? The most common cause of chlorine lock is an overabundance of cyanuric acid (CYA). Cyanuric acid is commonly referred to as a "stabilizer" and is vital to maintaining healthy chlorine levels in your pool. Stabilizer is found in liquid, granular, and tablet forms of chlorine; and acts as a "chlorine sunblock," preventing burn-off by the sun. 

The recommended range for your pool's CYA level is 30-50 ppm for traditional chlorine pools and 60-80 ppm for saltwater pools. When your CYA creeps above this range, that's when it goes from an aid to an inhibitor.

An imbalance of pH levels can also cause chlorine lock.

How to Test for Chlorine Lock - Determining the severity of your chlorine lock can be done by calculating the Combined Chlorine of your water. 

Combined Chlorine = Total Chlorine (TC) - Free Chlorine (FC)

• Good Result: 4 TC - 4 FC = 0 CC
• Bad Result: 7 TC - 3 FC = 4 CC

The good result means our water’s chlorine level is healthy; the bad result means there is more “dead” chlorine than active, which causes Chlorine Lock.

Chlorine Lock Prevention Method 1 - Solution by Dilution - the most effective way of breaking chlorine lock is diluting the concentration of CYA in your pool. You can lower CYA levels by draining a percentage of your pool then refilling it with fresh water. This method is the only guaranteed way of lowering pool water’s CYA significantly in one fell swoop.

By draining the pool, you have more control over the amount of CYA more control over how CYA is purged.

Chlorine Block Prevention Method 2 - CYA Reducer - CYA reducing chemical agents are a relatively new product that removes the need of draining and refilling your pool. A CYA reducer may be your best choice in preventing or treating chlorine lock if you live in a water-restricted area due to drought or general climate.

A CYA reducer is usually made of the chemical compound Aluminum Sulfate, which acts as a coagulating agent called a flocculant. The flocculant is essentially dirt particle flypaper; everything sticks to it until it becomes a larger mass. Eventually, that coagulated material sinks to the bottom can vacuum to waste.

For in-depth instructions on using Aluminum Sulfate, you can find them here: Lowering Your CYA Without Draining.

Chlorine Lock Treatment Method 3 - Non-Chlor Shock (Oxidization) - Non-Chlorine Shock, also called Non-Chlor, uses oxidation to break down contaminant compounds in your pool water. Oxidation is different from sanitation, whereas oxidation breaks down chemical compound sanitization to kill bacteria.

You will need to subtract the Free Chlorine (FC) from the Total Chlorine (TC)  and multiply that by the number of gallons in the Pool divided by 10,000, then multiply by 2. 

How to calculate the amount of Non-Chlor Shock Needed:

(TC - FC) ✖ (Pool Size in Gallons ➗10,000 gal.) ✖ 2

The equation for our Pool:

(7 - 3) ✖ (20,000 gal. ➗10,000 gal.) ✖ 2

Becomes,

4 ✖ 2 ✖ 2 ＝16 pounds of Non-Chlor Shock

Chlorine Lock Treatment Method 4 - Breakpoint Equation -Breakpoint chlorination is the chemical bond that ties nitrogen, chlorine, and ammonia together by using large amounts of chlorine, causing the chlorine residual to drop rapidly. Reaching an actual chlorine breakpoint is vital to breaking a chlorine lock. If a breakpoint is not reached using this method, the problem will only worsen.

Chlorine Breakpoint Equation (Cont.) - It takes 7.6 free chlorine molecules to break apart an individual combined chlorine molecule to accomplish a breakpoint. The amount of product you will need will vary depending on the type of shock you are using.

Aside from knowing your total chlorine, free chlorine, number of gallons in the pool, and the weight of a gallon of water (8.34 lbs.), you will also need to know the type of pool shock you are using.

Before attempting this method, the pH needs to be between 7.2-7.4. This equation will be a two-part process