My neighbour has a temporary pool in his garden. One of the metal framed PVC things. He has a pump/filter and chlorine float that keeps the water clean.
When he takes it down at the end of the summer is there any harm in me filling my water butts with the water? The chlorine gets used up over time doesn’t it? So If I store it int he water butts how soon can use it? Or can I use it at all? He just drains the water away every September and it seems like a waste to me.

Don’t worry about chlorine, it evaporates or combines with other things over time. However if he’s been using anti-algae products the water might contain copper sulphate, ammonium something, silver salts, simazine… .

I’d use it for anything other than a vegetable patch or things I’d be likely to eat.

So fine for the lawn then?

IMO (ex-Welsh Water), yes.

Cheers

I forgot to answer the how long for th echlorine to evaporate part of the question. After a couple of weeks there won’t be much chlorine left, your neighbour will no doubt have a device to check if you have a doubte.

They are using Clearwater Algaecide which contaons QUATERNARY AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS, BENZYL-C8-18-ALKYLDIMETHYL, CHLORIDES.
SHould be OK on lawn I hope?

It’s amazing what people are prepared to pour into their swimming pools and swim around in. I had to Google BENZYL-C8-18-ALKYLDIMETHYL as I wasn’t familiar with it:

“Danger! According to the harmonised classification and labelling (CLP00) approved by the European Union, this substance causes severe skin burns and eye damage, is very toxic to aquatic life, is harmful if swallowed and is harmful in contact with skin. ”

https://echa.europa.eu/fr/substance-information/-/substanceinfo/100.058.301

And I have no idea what effect a low concentration in water would have on grass. So sorry I can’t help on that one. The other anti-algae substances I listed wouldn’t do your lawn any harm in low concentrations, they have agri applications such as anti-fungal treatment of vines but that one I don’t know.

Edit: I shouldn’t have put Simazine in my list, it’s been banned (in Germany at least) since 2000, so I doubt it’s still used.

It’s amazing what people are prepared to pour into their swimming pools and swim around in.

Like most things, concentration is important.
Don’t drink it out the bottle, do go for a swim in the pool. It’s not that difficult.

Same principal as bleach. You definitely don’t want it anywhere near any part of you straight out the bottle. Yet sufficiently diluted it’s considerd food safe as a no-rinse sanitizing spray.

Yes chlorine is also very nasty stuff, but fine in the concentrations you use in a swimming pool.

As above just stop any water treatment to let things evaporate/metabolise a bit. It doesnt take long for algeae to take over a swimming pool if you don’t keep it treated and filtered, So also as above I’d suggest it’s fine for general watering but just maybe not on the veggie patch just to be very super safe.

It is okay perhaps once or twice but we managed to kill an area of our lawn where we used to empty the hot tub 2-3 times a year and it has taken 3 years and a re-turf for stuff to grow back

It is okay perhaps once or twice but we managed to kill an area of our lawn where we used to empty the hot tub 2-3 times a year and it has taken 3 years and a re-turf for stuff to grow back

I’d guess if you’re just dumping it straight out of the hot tub/pool onto the grass on a regular basis it could cause an issue, as it will have ‘fresh’ chemicals in it, but if it’s transfered to a water butt and left alone for a while it would allow the chemicals to evaporate off/metabolise?

is very toxic to aquatic life

Actually it really should be self explanatory that a chemical able to keep a stagnant pool free of aquatic life would carry this warning, if it didn’t then there’d be a problem 😂

we harvest our hot tub water.

we dont use much extra crap in it though just chlorine – which evaporates fairly quickly.

we leave the water for a week or so before using it in the pond/tub things. otherwise we use it for plants no problem. not when its fully chorinated though haha

we have to test our hot tub water everytime we use it. After one day it looks like the chlorine is evaporated/gone. The levels for safe bathing water is pretty low so disappears quickly! So if you’re storing it in your butts you’ll be fine to water the garden with it as it takes a while to use the water in the butts

The only bit of our lawn that is green, is the patch where our paddling pool leaked. Was treated to the correct concentration a month ago

Actually it really should be self explanatory that a chemical able to keep a stagnant pool free of aquatic life would carry this warning, if it didn’t then there’d be a problem

You would think someone who worked for the water board would realise this. Guess he never worked in water treatment or he’d have a shit fit if he knew what went into drinking water. 🙄

Still doesn’t sound like nice stuff, even in low concentrations.
What makes you think he didn’t realize this? He only quoted the warning, and stated he didn’t know if it would be harmful, which seems fair enough.

Still doesn’t sound like nice stuff, even in low concentrations.

True, but consider that pools/hot tubs need constant additions of chemicals to keep the flora and fauna at bay.. because they do evaporate or otherwise ‘expire’ in the water quite quickly.

So to me it would logically follow that if you stored pool/hot tub water in a butt for a week or two it’s about as inert as its going to get.

The area my folks dumped their pool to for winter last year – the grass and shrubs died and the grass did not grow there this year.

They use chlorine tabs which are only detectable in the water for a couple day and an anti algae agent – not sure if it’s the same one but either way stored and put on periodically probably wouldn’t harm – dumped on mass expect sterile ground as per wca for a while.

Not sure I’d bother but then I don’t live in a drought prone area.

The area my folks dumped their pool to for winter last year – the grass and shrubs died and the grass did not grow there this year.

Well yes if you dump it straight out of the pool it’s not really a supprise, the additives you add to pool water are specificaly to prevent stuff growing in it.
Equally if you leave a pool untreated for a few weeks stuff will start growing in it!

What makes you think he didn’t realize this? He only quoted the warning, and stated he didn’t know if it would be harmful, which seems fair enough.

Because our resident self-proclaimed polymath came straight in with his former water board credentials and started dishing our advice. I’d expect anyone familiar with the subject matter to also be familiar with the chemistry and concentrations involved but, instead…

The OP came on and asked about chlorine, as he himself suspected that evaporates or combines with stuff and after a while won’t be a worry. However, I raised the issue of anti-algae products and he got back with what the product used contained. I don’t know how persistent it is with time or how toxic to grass so I said I didn’t know. Where is the bad advice, Squirrelking?

Pity you failed to see the humour in the dig about what people choose to stick in their swimming pools. It comes from experience as a swimmer, the water in many private pools is disgusting, it seems to me thare’s often a hap hazard use of chlorine tablets and anti-alagae products and the water is rarely changed so there’s a build up of chloramines and treatment chemicals that make eyes, throat etc. sore.

We had one of those Intex pools in the back garden last year – treated with a mixture of tabs + chlorine. I had the same idea initially, but then the pool cover we were using scorched the grass when laid down wet on it. I tried a bit more after leaving the pool to go green at the end of the year – same problem, so reluctantly left it a bit longer then pumped it down the drain as the least worse option.

TLDR, I wouldn’t.

It comes from experience as a swimmer, the water in many private pools is disgusting

No need to be so discriminate – ime it’s not just a private pool issue. It’s a swimming pool issue at large – unless of course it’s a salt water pool.

Fun fact: the chlorine smell at the pool isn’t the chlorine they use to keep it clean, it’s trichloramine, which is only created when chlorine mixes with pee. The stronger the smell, the stronger the pee levels*

*thanks Mark Rober

Salt water pools use hydrolysis to produce chlorine which reacts with swimmers to produce chloramines. So salt water pools have one of the main irritants found in normal pools and their own issues to deal with as well.

As for “discrimination”, I feel the need to discriminate because IME public pools are held to standards but there’s no independant monitoring of what’s in the pool in your garden.

When you and Sqirrelking get together it’s delightful in here.

Even if I couldn’t answer about the anti-algae product persistence or toxicity to grass at low concentrations there’s a few posts to say that even once the chlorine is no longer active the anti-algae products are and kill grass.

Useful thread.

Indeed V useful. I think I will keep the water but use it for washing my bike or something as it seems like it will ruin the garden.

All this mention of water butts (phnarr) has just reminded me that i’ve got two water butts in the garage ready for an aborted project a couple of years ago.

Think i’ll get them out and see what i can do with them…

So we have inadvertently found something that will kill off all the bindweed in the garden. Thanks stw. (Runs out with bottle of algaecide to add another splash to green the pool water)