Can You Put Too Much Shock In A Pool?

Swimming pools are a great way to cool down during the hot summer months. However, it’s not always easy to know when you should add a shock treatment and how much is too much. Can you put too much shock in a pool?

It’s both possible and dangerous to put too much shock in your swimming pool. When this happens, you will notice cloudy water and experience burning eyes and skin rashes if you take a dip. To counteract the excessive shock, add sodium thiosulfate to reduce the chlorine concentration, and wait 4 days before swimming.

Continue reading to find out if it’s possible to put too much shock in a pool and what happens when you do this. Additionally, we’ll cover how to counteract an over-shocked pool and determine the necessary amount of time to wait before swimming.

Shock treatments contain a certain percentage of chlorine intended to kill bacteria in the water. If a pool has too little or no chlorine, unpleasant odors will arise from the release of sulfur compounds due to algae blooms or other growths.

It’s 100% possible to put too much shock in a pool. Even mild symptoms, like burning eyes and skin, indicate that excessively high chlorine levels are present. Other physical signs include cloudy water, foam in the pool (which can also be caused by too little salt if you have a saltwater pool), and reduced effectiveness of chlorine tablets.

Chemical burns to the eyes or skin should always be treated right away with copious amounts of water and medical attention.

There are four main types of pool shock:

If you’ve overdone it and put too much shock in your pool, don’t panic just yet. There are a few ways that you can bring the chlorine levels back down to normal.

Add sodium thiosulfate or hydrogen peroxide to reduce the chlorine concentration in your pool. Then, lower the water’s pH levels back to normal by adding muriatic acid, if necessary.

Additionally, filter out all of that extra calcium hardness. You can do this by running the filter for a longer period of time or by using a chemical flocculant. This will cause the calcium deposits to clump together and sink to the bottom of the pool, which is easier for removal.

It can take a while for the excessive amounts of chlorine and extra chemicals to dissipate.

It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact time frame, and it depends primarily on your pool size and how much you used. Generally speaking, you should wait at least 4 days before swimming again and test the water’s pH and chlorine levels beforehand.

However, it could take even longer than that, depending on the extent of the damage. If you notice any physical wear after shocking your pool, get that repaired first.

Overall, a higher concentration of chemicals will require more time for all traces to disappear.

Related Questions

Is pool shock the same as chlorine?

Pool shock is just an extremely concentrated version of chlorine, meant to “shock” your pool into a sanitized state and fade away over time.Chlorine tablets are intended to maintain a clean pool by killing bacteria and keeping algae at bay.

How often should you shock your pool?

It really depends on your pool. If it’s an in-ground pool that experiences heavy use, you should shock it every 7 days to 2 weeks. Letting it go longer will throw off the normal chemical levels.If you aren’t using your pool as often (like in the wintertime), you should shock it once a month. You’ll need to take the cover off to do this and leave it that way for a couple of hours.

Do you need to shock a saltwater pool?

Yes, even saltwater water pools need to be shocked! Do so once a week during the high season and every month or so during colder times of the year.