free chlorine

[Kim]

What exactly is free chlorine? Is that what's in the SHOCK or the tablets that my floating duck holds? Any help is appreciated.

[Kim]

Hey, is anybody out there?

[Cyber36]

Free Chlorine isn't actually a type of chlorine, it's the diffrence between what your pool water actually uses/consumes & what is left over at that point.

[Kim]

OK, so how do I add it back to my pool?
thanks!

[Guest]

Free chlorine is the chlorine that is availiable to dissinfect the water. Combined chlorine is the chlorine that has joined with the ammonia and has formed chloramine. This is what causes the chlorine "smell". This is why you "shock" the water (to remove the Chloramine). Total chlorine minus combined chlorine equals free chlorine. Check out poolsolutions and look for info on "Breakpoint Chlorination".

[Pool Help]

Free chlorine is the portion of any chlorine you have added to the pool water that is available for disinfection.
Combined chlorine is chlorine that has started disinfecting but has run out of steam. It smells real bad and burns your eyes, but does nothing to keep the water clean.
Total chlorine = free chlorine + combined chlorine.

Free chlorine should be kept at 1 - 3 ppm
Combined chlorine should never exceed half the free chlorine value or 0.5ppm, whichever is the LOWER.
Combined chlorine is unwanted and undesirable; the less you've got the better.