Rotating bleach

[wawaverider]

It's important to know what your disinfectant and water purification can do. Make sure your bleach is rotated out at least yearly if not more often. Also use the 1:9 parts rule, 1 part bleach to 9 parts water, dilute more for drinking water 2 drops of bleach per quart of water (8 drops per gallon).

http://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_20060213/bleach.html

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[MrNatural]

Try here for a detailed discussion of storing bleach.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=18&t=617672

Since liquid bleach turns to salt water surprisingly quickly in storage, best way to store bleach is as a powder (i.e. Pool Shock). The thread discusses it.

 

[wawaverider]

Good article, thanks.

I'm learning all sorts of great things from some of the replies pertaining to water and bleach.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

Try here for a detailed discussion of storing bleach.

Storing bleach - AR15.COM

Since liquid bleach turns to salt water surprisingly quickly in storage, best way to store bleach is as a powder (i.e. Pool Shock). The thread discusses it.

There is an excellent post on this link, post #10 that is worth a second revival that I found in the dungeon.

 

[PBinWA]

+1 on pool shock. A little goes a long way. Easy to store too.

 

[knuckle Head]

A very valuable video to watch is right here, How To Prepare For Any Disaster Part 3: Water Storage & Purification - YouTube

 

[chemist]

I suggest that you disregard these unsubstantiated online opinions and start a test yourself. Today, With the oldest bleach in your house.

If you keep bleach sealed in its original container in a cool, dark, place, it WILL NOT DECOMPOSE. For decades. Seriously.

If it does decompose, you will be able to tell instantly when you loosen the cap. If it doesn't vent gas, it hasn't broken down. Hypochlorite vents either oxygen or chlorine gas when autocatalytically decomposing. It has to. There's no other place for the Cl(+1) to go - unless it runs into some kind of organic material, metal, or something else that oxidizes readily.

I don't want this to turn into a shoutfest. But I'm sick to death of hearing this nonsense, which was originally started by the Clorox people - no surprise there - and since has been repeated endlessly by folks who have never performed a single test.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

I suggest that you disregard these unsubstantiated online opinions and start a test yourself. Today, With the oldest bleach in your house.

If you keep bleach sealed in its original container in a cool, dark, place, it WILL NOT DECOMPOSE. For decades. Seriously.

If it does decompose, you will be able to tell instantly when you loosen the cap. If it doesn't vent gas, it hasn't broken down. Hypochlorite vents either oxygen or chlorine gas when autocatalytically decomposing. It has to. There's no other place for the Cl(+1) to go - unless it runs into some kind of organic material, metal, or something else that oxidizes readily.

I don't want this to turn into a shoutfest. But I'm sick to death of hearing this nonsense, which was originally started by the Clorox people - no surprise there - and since has been repeated endlessly by folks who have never performed a single test.

Whats your take on Calcium Hypochlorite as an alternative?

 

[PBinWA]

I suspect the bleach bottle itself is more likely to break down over time than the bleach.

 

[Gunner3456]

Whats your take on Calcium Hypochlorite as an alternative?

Calcium Hypochlorite powder when mixed with water is bleach. When people say pool shock, they need to be sure it is that, and not an alternative shock. One 10# box from Wal mart will purify 16,000 gallons of water, or about the average home pool.

The trick is to know the ratios.

Dissolve 1 heaping teaspoon of 78% of calcium hypochlorite for each two gallons of water. Don't drink this... It's "bleach"!!! If you find something like 52% powder, do the math and add more.

To disinfect water add one part of your above chlorine solution to 100 parts water. That's about 8 drops per gallon. That's also what you'd do with regular bleach.

You need at least 20 minutes after adding the bleach to be sure your water is safe.

Chlorine won't remove chemicals. That's a job for filtration. It doesn't hurt to know how to make a sand and charcoal filter. Chlorine will kill most nasty bugs.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

Thank you for the reply, it's important that we do not feed bad info.
John.

 

[chemist]

Household bleach is the sodium salt of hypochlorite, which is functionally but not chemically the same as the 70% calcium hypochlorite that's used as "pool shock."
I won't own calcium hypochlorite powder because, like all solid oxidizers, it is classified as a bomb-making material by BATFE.

It sucks, but it's the way it is. If you don't have a pool, don't stock up on calcium hypochlorite. There's no way that I can prove what I did or didn't intend to do with it, so there's no defense against a charge of possessing bomb-making materials. Likewise I wouldn't buy gunpowder because I don't have reloading equipment.

On a side note, you can make your own sodium hypochlorite solution at home by sticking two wires from a wall socket into a pail of salt water. That's right: AC electrolysis of hot, concentrated NaCl solution yields bleach. You can make it much more concentrated than commercial Clorox, but it's not going to attract the attention of BATFE because it can't be dried out to make a solid oxidizer. (NaOCl is only stable in dilute solution.)

 

[Gunner3456]

Household bleach is the sodium salt of hypochlorite, which is functionally but not chemically the same as the 70% calcium hypochlorite that's used as "pool shock."
I won't own calcium hypochlorite powder because, like all solid oxidizers, it is classified as a bomb-making material by BATFE.

It sucks, but it's the way it is. If you don't have a pool, don't stock up on calcium hypochlorite. There's no way that I can prove what I did or didn't intend to do with it, so there's no defense against a charge of possessing bomb-making materials. Likewise I wouldn't buy gunpowder because I don't have reloading equipment.

On a side note, you can make your own sodium hypochlorite solution at home by sticking two wires from a wall socket into a pail of salt water. That's right: AC electrolysis of hot, concentrated NaCl solution yields bleach. You can make it much more concentrated than commercial Clorox, but it's not going to attract the attention of BATFE because it can't be dried out to make a solid oxidizer. (NaOCl is only stable in dilute solution.)

I'm not at all worried about owning the powder. I have lots of preps for lots of other things and lots of long term items stored and it's just part of that. I don't think BATF goes around following up on all the people who buy this right off the shelf at Wal mart.

As for making it using bare wires, go ahead. The liquid will still have a far shorter shelf life than the powder. It's too cheap to buy to bother with. I can purify 16,000 gallons of drinking water with something that Wal mart puts on sale for $10.

 

[knuckle Head]

I'm not at all worried about owning the powder. I have lots of preps for lots of other things and lots of long term items stored and it's just part of that. I don't think BATF goes around following up on all the people who buy this right off the shelf at Wal mart.

As for making it using bare wires, go ahead. The liquid will still have a far shorter shelf life than the powder. It's too cheap to buy to bother with. I can purify 16,000 gallons of drinking water with something that Wal mart puts on sale for $10.

Yeah I bought two 5 lb boxes of pool shcok off the shelf at WalMart and paid cash for them, the clerk you must have a big pool, );like its any of there business) but without batting and eye I said no I have side business cleaning pool and dis-infecting them for cash money. The clerk just oh I see and went to talking to the next person as I left.

I have learned from people on here and through life, that if you just give the person asking question a believeable line of crap they do not pay attention to you, but if you reply with honesty they think that you are nut job and remeber you and what you said. Because most are not smart enough to think for themselves, they just along with whatever the flavor of the month is given out by the morons in the news media, I have heard people say and I quote "well it must be true, I heard it on the news last night"

 

[chemist]

No, I don't think they'll go searching for people who buy pool chlorine - unless you buy up their whole stock with fresh $100's.

What I am afraid of is that, God forbid I should ever attract their attention, in their zeal the Feds will look for any possible charges they can tack on to justify pursuing an ordinary citizen. Richard Jewell, Steven Hatfill, Wen Ho Lee... it could happen to any of us for any reason - or no reason.

 

[Gunner3456]

No, I don't think they'll go searching for people who buy pool chlorine - unless you buy up their whole stock with fresh $100's.

What I am afraid of is that, God forbid I should ever attract their attention, in their zeal the Feds will look for any possible charges they can tack on to justify pursuing an ordinary citizen. Richard Jewell, Steven Hatfill, Wen Ho Lee... it could happen to any of us for any reason - or no reason.

I understand and for you that's a good choice. My larger concern (just for me) is not having pure drinking water at some point. That powder has a very long shelf life in good storage conditions, and can be made into "bleach" as needed. It's also cheap and just as important, portable.

I reload and we don't even want to go there about quantities of ammo and powder and primers, etc. I could be seen as a nut about that, too. Same with the number of guns. "Who but a potential terrorist would need THAT many guns and THAT much ammo and the components and tools to make more?

As you know they are for fun at the range, hunting, self defense, investment, enjoyment of reloading and all that. I'm no danger to anyone unless I'm unavoidably threatened by a criminal.

Oh well...