Pool chemicals are crucial to keep water safe, balanced, and healthy for your guests. They can also cause harm, injury, and even explosions. Storing pool chemicals safely requires careful attention to rules and recommendations–find ours ahead to ensure you prevent damage, keep employees and guests safe, and keep your pool chemicals in good condition so they’re effective.
Storing Pool Chemicals - Key Takeaways
- Keep pool chemicals dry, in cool (room temperature) and well-ventilated areas, away from exposure to humidity and sunlight. Also, keep out of areas that may be susceptible to flooding.
- Store in an area designated for pool chemicals only, and avoid cross-contamination with other chemicals and substances.
- Read the product labels for each chemical carefully and track expiration dates. Keep laminated Safety Data Sheets posted near each chemical.
- Train every employee on the basics of safe chemical storage and handling.
Where to Store Pool Chemicals
To start, familiarize yourself with your local or state-mandated building and fire codes. This step not only ensures your pool or aquatic facility maintains compliance and prevents fines and closures, but also helps provide you with essential guidance.
There are, however, universal considerations and recommendations you should follow, to keep chemicals safe, secure, and effective. These primarily have to do with variables that interact with these chemicals to cause reactions.
Storing Pool Chemicals and Moisture
It seems counterintuitive, but you must avoid exposing pool chemicals to moisture at all costs, as adding water or moisture to chemicals leads to rapid rises in heat and/or toxic gas creation. Water-reactive chemicals, including both stabilized and non-stabilized chlorine, can quickly and easily explode, causing fires and significant health and safety hazards.
Take, for example, the recent fire at Georgia-based chemicals lab BioLab. While the initial source of the fire remains undetermined, it triggered the facility’s sprinkler system, igniting water-reactive chemicals before workers were able to move them away from the water source. The resulting fire released plumes of smoke and chemicals into the surrounding air, causing the evacuation of 17,000 people and a shelter-in-place order for the county. Chlorine, chloramine, chlorine compounds, and bromine were all released into the air; exposure to these chemicals can be toxic, depending on the concentration, and cause symptoms from nose and throat irritation to nausea, chest tightness, and breathing problems. In this case, the concentration of exposure was unlikely to lead to issues and no workers have been reported as injured.
However, the risk for ignition, fire, and damage from chemical exposure remains serious–especially in commercial and municipal pools and facilities, hotels, and other aquatic centers where your chemical storage is likely to be located near people.
This means pool chemicals should be stored away from moisture and humidity, in dry conditions–far from the pool and any splash zones. Your storage location should also not be susceptible to flooding.
Just in case though, keep chemicals stored off the ground–though not so high that employees risk spilling or dropping them. A general rule of thumb is off the ground, but not above the average employees’ head.
Ensure lids are tightly sealed, and your storage location is weatherproofed.
A certified pool operator will be trained in handling pool chemicals safely and effectively, but together you should also ensure every employee knows that when diluting, always, always, always add chemicals to water–never add water to chemicals. Doing so can result in splashing, spillage, and increases the risk someone gets chemicals in their mouth, eyes, or on their skin.
Storing Pool Chemicals and Ventilation
As we covered, environmental exposure to many pool chemicals, or their off-gases, can be toxic. Depending on the chemical, their container may be vented to allow for gases to escape and prevent dangerous pressure from building up. If your pool storage area is tightly sealed, with little air flow, those gases and fumes will build up, escalating the risk of you or an employee inhaling them when they enter. And while it’s important to train employees thoroughly on the importance of careful chemical handling, toxic fumes are still a risk from accidental spills and reactions, loose lids, or even open containers.
Adequate ventilation, with vents to allow for air flow, is crucial. This is something to consider for your storage area overall, as well as for any locked storage cabinets you keep inside.
Storing Pool Chemicals and Temperature
Pool chemicals should be kept in consistent temperatures that stay below 95℉. Check the product label and SDS for the manufacturer’s specific conditions for storage. Keep them out of direct sunlight and away from moisture and humidity.
If your climate is moderate, with low humidity, technically you can store pool chemicals outside but if your climate experiences fluctuations and, in particular, high heat, you should store your chemicals inside.
You also want to avoid temperatures that are too cold, below freezing, as extreme cold can dilute their potency and efficacy. However, heat is far more damaging than cold temperatures. High temperatures and heat creates pressure inside the chemicals, and can lead to dangerous conditions.
Storing Pool Chemicals and Location
We’ve established that you need to store pool chemicals away from water, moisture, and humidity, out of direct sunlight, and protected from temperature extremes. It’s also important to keep them off the ground, but within reach so as to help prevent spills and drops.
Other location considerations include proximity to other, incompatible chemicals. Chemicals react to each other, and need to be separated appropriately to prevent dangerous results.
Dry and liquid chemicals should be stored separately, and if you keep all your chemicals together in the same storage area, always store liquids below dry chemicals–or better yet, in their own separate pool chemical storage cabinets.
Oxidizers, including chlorine, should be kept separate from other chemicals, especially any acids, including dry acid.
Similarly, pool chemicals should be kept separate from all other facility chemicals, from cleaning chemicals to gasoline.
They should also be kept far away from any electrical outlets, heat sources, and sparks or open flame. Ensure employees know it is unsafe to smoke around pool chemicals, and post signage to remind them.
Other Safety Considerations for Storing Pool Chemicals:
- Keep and store chemicals in their original, manufacturer-issued containers. Contact the manufacturer if the container appears damaged.
- Keep your chemical storage area clean and tidy, and prevent debris, rags, and trash from building up inside.
- Ensure only employees who have been trained to handle pool chemicals safely are handling them and using the storage area.
- Use OSHA (Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration) resources and recommendations.
- Never stack chemical containers, as this can easily lead to spills and reactions.
- Clean out your pool chemicals annually, checking expiration dates and replacing expired chemicals. Expired chemicals are less effective, which can cause you to use more, which can both cost more and lead to unbalanced pool water.
- Don’t combine old chemicals with new chemicals, even if they’re the same. Never reuse containers.
There’s a lot to manage when it comes to storing pool chemicals, from storage to balanced, healthy water that’s safe for your guests. But it’s worth it, for safety, for compliance, and for the sustainability of your business, to ensure you’ve taken the steps to safely store pool chemicals.
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