Think All Pool Acids Are the Same? Think Again

Your pool pH keeps climbing, you add “the right” amount of acid, and nothing changes. That’s not always a mystery problem, it’s often a measurement problem. We walk through what muriatic acid strength really means, how Baumé ties to concentration, and why the same dose can work perfectly with 31.45% pool-grade acid but fall flat with weaker big-box products. If you’ve ever wondered why your pH won’t move, this breakdown gives you a cleaner way to diagnose it before you waste chemicals. 

We also dig into the quiet powerhouse behind most stubborn pH issues: total alkalinity. I explain how alkalinity buffers the water, why higher alkalinity demands more acid to hit the same pH target, and why pH can rebound fast when buffering is strong. You’ll hear practical dosing examples for a 20,000-gallon pool and why tools like PoolCalculator help when you can set the exact acid percentage you’re using. This is the kind of pool chemistry clarity that makes water balancing feel predictable instead of random. 

From there we get hands-on with alternatives and safety. We compare liquid muriatic acid to dry acid (sodium bisulfate), including why dry acid can be slower and more finicky at high alkalinity and why dissolving it matters for protecting plaster, vinyl liners, and other pool surfaces. We also talk about fumes, spill risks, deck damage, and safer habits like gloves, eye protection, and avoiding leaks. Finally, we cover Acid Magic as a lower-fume hydrochloric acid option that can shine for homeowners and salt cell cleaning, with an honest look at the price tradeoff. 

• how Baumé and percent strength affect muriatic acid dosing
• why big-box store acid can require a much larger dose
• using PoolCalculator to match acid percentage and volume
• how total alkalinity buffers pH and causes pH bounce
• when sodium bisulfate dry acid helps and when it frustrates
• dissolving dry acid to avoid surface damage and staining
• handling cautions including burns, fumes, and eye protection
• preventing deck damage including leak awareness and the dip method
• Acid

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Transcript

Welcome And Episode Focus

Acid Strength And Baumé Basics

Dose Math With Pool Calculator

Dry Acid Pros And Pitfalls

How Alkalinity Changes Acid Demand

Handling Muriatic Acid Safely

Preventing Deck Damage While Dosing

Acid Fumes And Acid Magic Option

Bucket Versus Direct Pour Debate

Cost Reality And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Hey, welcome to the Pool Game Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about muric acid. I'm also going to touch on acid magic and dry acid as well. But primarily I'm going to talk about pool acid so you kind of get an idea of this product in really great detail. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the Pool Guy Coaching Program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support from me. I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. The first thing you need to know about the acid is that it's measured in boomet, which is a scale that measures the actual weight of the acid. It's pretty interesting if you think about it. When you pour the muitic acid into the pool, it's much heavier than water, and that's why you're gonna see it drop down to the bottom of the pool. You've probably seen this when you pour it in, it just kind of sinks to the bottom of the pool. So the Bome degree indicates the percentage of the muradic acid, and most people on the West Coast use the HOC acid, the 31.45% or 20% boomet acid, and that's the percentage of the acid, which is pretty much the industry standard for the strength of the acid. If you go to Home Depot or Walmart and get muradic acid there, that's a lot weaker, and it's a smaller percentage of the acid, so you're gonna have to kind of double the dose sometimes to get any measurable results when you're trying to lower the pH in the pool. This is something that is kind of critical because a lot of times I'll get messaged by someone on YouTube saying that they've been putting acid in the pool, the pH isn't going down, and they're kind of at a loss of what's going on. So the first thing I ask people is what muatic acid are you using in your pool? What strength are you using that or using dry acid? So there's a lot of different variables, of course, when you're going to lower the pH. Not only is the alkalinity a factor because the higher the alkalinity, the more the water is buffered against the acid, and the less effect the acid will have in the water to lower the pH down. So that's one factor. But another factor that you can't rule out is the actual strength of the muratic acid that you're using. Most LSI charts are going off of 31.5% muratic acid, and that's the one that's again an industry standard. So let's just say, for example, you had a 20,000 gallon pool, your pH is it is at 8. Let's just say the alkaline is at 100, and you wanted to lower it down to 7.4. If you go to Home Depot and buy the acid there, that's 15 point about 15.7% muratic acid roughly. And therefore, you're going to need to add about 71 ounces of acid to the 20,000 gallon pool to lower down the pH or to have any effect on the pH being lowered. Now, if you're using the industry standard muratic acid, you would have to add only 36 ounces of muritic acid to the pool. A big difference, and so if you are using the Home Depot 15% acid, you're gonna have to basically double the dose that you're getting out of the calculators that you're using. Now, the calculator that I like you to use is called the poolcalculator.com. You can find it on the with the web, you can do a one-time purchase on the App Store, and you can actually change the percentage of uretic acid to get these doses, which I'm reading to you right now, and depending on how strong the acid is, again, 31.45 is the standard, and again, it's about you're gonna use the regular amount of acid using that percentage versus having to double it with a weaker acid. I remember during the COVID-19 pandemic when muriatic acid prices were skyrocketing, when you couldn't find the product really, it was hard to find. Everyone was switching over to dry acid, which is the sodium bisulfate. And the dry acid does have some pretty good aspects to it. It also has some drawbacks to it as well. The thing I like about it is that it's dry, and so you're not gonna have the same kind of effects with the liquid muetic acid, which I'll touch on some of the cautions with that in a minute. But with the dry acid, there are a few things you need to know about it before even using this product. Number one is that the higher the alkalinity in the pool, let's say 140, 160, the less effect it's gonna have on the water, and the more of the product you're gonna have to use in the pool to lower down the pH. So, unlike standard 31.45% muatic acid, which doesn't really it is affected by alkalinity for sure. The dry acid has is much more affected by the alkalinity level than the liquid acid. And even on the label, if you read the label carefully on the bucket, if anyone reads labels anymore, it says that this is more effective when the alkalinity is lower in the pool than when it's higher. It basically goes to the explanation there, and so you want to make sure that if you are going to use the dry acid in the pool, the sodium bisulfate, you do want to make sure the alkalinity is at 80 or 90 parts per million for it to be much more effective in the pool. Secondary, you can't just take the dry acid and broadcast it into the pool because it is it does sink to the bottom and it will burn some pool surfaces or stain other surfaces like a vinyl liner. So you want to make sure that you dissolve it in a bucket of water. The problem you're gonna have with this is that it's time consuming to dissolve this in a bucket of water, especially if the water is colder and it takes longer for it to dissolve. So, what I do when I use this at a stop, I'll get to the pool, I'll do the reading, I'll measure out how much dry acid I'm gonna need, I'll put it in a five-gallon bucket, and then I'll do my regular work, walking around the pool, doing everything I need to do, cleaning it. And then at the end of the stop, when I'm pretty much finished, I'll stir it up a little bit, and then I'll pour it in the pool. And usually after that 10-minute period or 15-minute period, it is dissolved out the porn of the pool. I don't necessarily use this product much because of the time factor and the fact that I think that the muradic acid, in my opinion, is still more effective and it's a better product as far as ease of use and effectiveness in lowering down the pH in the pool, really regardless of the alkalinity level. Of course, the higher the alkalinity, even that will affect how much mutic muradic acid you're going to use in the pool to lower it down. I'll give you a quick formula before I end this segment so you can get an idea what I mean by the alkalinity level affecting how much muriac acid you need to add to the pool. So I'm back at the pool calculator app and basically 20,000 gallons of water still. pH is 8.0, the goal is 7.4. The alkalinity was at 100 prior to that, and I gave you the ounces for that. Let me just give you that again so you have it in your memory. That would be 36 fluid ounces of muriatic acid to lower it down from 8 to 7.4. But if you test the alkalinity, it comes in at 180. The alkalinity at 180, I need to add 61 fluid ounces, so almost double the amount of urinic acid with the alkalinity at 180 to lower it down from 8 to 7.4, and there's also a bounce that's gonna happen. Since the alkalinity is at 180, when I add the acid to the pool, it's going to yes lower to 7.4, but since there's so much alkalinity in that pool buffering it, chances are it's gonna bounce right back up to 8.0 within the matter of a day or even sooner. So the alkalinity will cause the pH to bounce up or down if it's too low. If your alkalinity is at 60 and you added the acid to the pool, in fact, I'm gonna lower it to 60 here on the app. So you can see that you don't need that much acid at that point. If the alkalinity was at 60 in this same pool, you would just need 23 fluid ounces to lower it down from 8 to 7.4. And this is why the alkalinity reading is kind of critical in a pool. Now, I know a lot of people don't take the time to do this often, it doesn't really change that often anyway. And you can do alkalinity every two weeks or three weeks, sometimes even every month if the pool is pretty stable. But weekly or every two weeks, if you're having a problem with the pH rising in the pool, it's highly recommended. That way you get an accurate alkalinity number and know exactly what you're up against. If it's too low in the pool and you add too much acid, you could bring the pH down the corrosive levels. If the alkalinity is too high and you add too little acid, it's gonna have zero effect on lowering the pH down. So this is something to consider. And you also have to understand that pH and alkalinity are also tied together. When you're lowering down the pH, you do lower the alkalinity down as well. Some handling cautions with muradic acid. It is an acid and it will burn your skin, and it will burn it pretty badly as well. Probably the worst burn that I have, and I still have the scarf for it. I was using the Hasa Muitic Acid, the 4x1 case, and I don't know exactly what happened. I guess there was a leaker. You get leakers at the factory sometimes. It's not very often. Typically, it's the chlorine that you get leakers from, and the chlorine leaks are kind of annoying. But if there's ever an acid leak in one of these containers, which happened here, I wasn't really paying attention, and I took out the acid and I put it in there, and it actually splashed acid out at me, hit my shirt, and my on my chest area. Of course, immediately I got the garden hose. I rent, I was on the driveway, and I ran to the garden hose. I sprayed off my shirt really quickly, but in that time it took me to realize that I splashed it on myself and get to the customer's garden hose and turn it on, which is like a 20-second period. The acid already had gotten onto my skin and actually burned it, and I still have the scar from that. It was a pretty big splash, by the way. And thankfully it didn't hit my face. I wear the sunglasses that are safety glasses built in with like a kind of a dual purpose anyway. Even on cloudy days, I'll wear these glasses for that sole purpose of protecting my eyes. I've heard pool guys pouring it in the pool and the splashing up, hitting their face and getting in their eye. Of course, there's a little bit of water dilution there, but still it burns pretty badly. And really, you would want to be wearing nitrile gloves whenever you're handling the acid. If you go to my website, swimming poollearning.com, I'll go there right now. If you scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on pool guy gear, you're gonna see the nitrile gloves that I recommend on Amazon. Click on that link and you'll be taken there. And they're really inexpensive to get these gloves. Looks like the sixth pair out of stock. But you get 12 pairs of these for$15. They're really long-lasting, and they'll definitely protect your hands against any kind of acid burns by handling the mineric acid bottles. And like everything on Amazon, the product name is actually the product description. So these are GNF products, 12-pair men's work gloves of microfilm coating, garden gloves, texture grip, men's work glove for general purpose construction yard work. That's basically the title and the name of the product. Another caution with numeric acid, besides being careful not to splash it on yourself and burn yourself, is to be careful you don't splash it or drip it onto the customer's deck. I can't tell you how many group members have this problem to where either them or an employee have an acid bottle and they don't realize that it's leaking, and they're walking to the pool, you know, they have it in their pool cart and it starts dripping and it leaves dots all over the deck. That's a big problem because the deck is now burned. Even if you had water and splash it on there within like three seconds, it's too late. The acid's already burned the cement. And typically, if it's like stamp concrete, you're in a world of hurt. If it's regular cement, there are some fixes for that. Typically, with the regular cement, if it's an older deck, you just basically give it like a little acid wash and kind of burn the dirt and calcium off the surface, and so that's why it looks like a different color. And the way to fix this is to usually power wash the entire cement area, or you can do a light acid wash to make the whole cement area match the acid spill. It won't match exactly, but it'll get pretty close. But if it's like a stamp concrete or a new deck, it's a big, big problem. So the best solution is to avoid spilling it on the customer's pool deck. I did mention a trick that I use all the time whenever I'm using erratic acid at the pool. I'll actually do the dip method. So I'll take the gallon out of my service cart or tote, then I'll dip it in the pool, and then I'll open the lid and start pouring it. This method is old school. If the person that trained me showed me this, and it's kind of like a habit. Whenever I gotta have a gallon, I'll just dip it in the pool before I start using it. And that way, if there's any kind of drips coming from the lid not being on tight or from my air, it's not going to get on the deck. And then if I ever put the acid bottle down anywhere, it's going right back into my service cart or right back into the tote. If anything, if I have to put it anywhere else else besides there, if my tote's full or my service cart's full, I'll put it on the skimmer lid, and those don't really have a problem if you get acid on them. I would never put it directly on the pool deck because there could be some residue that will stain the pool deck. Also be careful when you're pouring the acid or you open the acid that you don't take a big whiff of it. It's gonna really knock you out. It's a really strong stuff, and you can gag and you know start to lose your breath. It's powerful stuff, the 31.45%. Home Depot stuff is a little less powerful, but still the fumes can be overpowering, so just be careful and be aware that the acid does have fumes. Now, if you're looking for an acid alternative that doesn't really have fumes, and you don't really like the dry acid because you don't want to really deal with that, deal with the trouble of it. There's actually an acid product out there. Sometimes your supplier carries it, sometimes you they don't. It's also a product you can get at like those small little home stores like Ace Hardware. I think there's another one, I can't remember what it's called. They used to they carry this as well, and it's called Acid Magic. It's actually hydrochloric acid, which is the the almost the same strength, if not the same strength, of the 31.45% muratic acid that we use in the industry. But the nice thing about this is that it's user-friendly, it won't burn like the muritic acid. I think in one of their YouTube videos I show someone sticking their hand in it, so I don't recommend doing that. And then there's 90% less fumes, so this is really great for cleaning salt cells. I like using this for salt cells because if you're in the equipment area and you're using muritic acid, the fumes can build up, even diluted in water. So this is a great alternative, and it's a great alternative to use around pools where the fumes could be an issue. I do recommend this particular acid for homeowners. However, don't run out and buy it just yet because it's about twice the price of maritic acid, and that's why the pool probes don't really use it that much either, because of the price point, it's still much more expensive. The hydrochloric acid is more expensive than the muitic acid. One point that's often debated now, and the old school guys like me, and a lot of people just pour the acid directly into the pool and the deep end. We've kind of learned a technique that was taught to us back when we first were trained, that you go low to the pool. You'll see me do this in the YouTube videos that I film. You'll go with like an inch or so or two above the pool, so you're squatting down kind of and you're actually walking while you're pouring the acid around the deep end and pouring it into the pool. Of course, a lot of people now say that you should be putting it in a five-gallon bucket. You add water to the bucket first, always add water first, and the chemical after. Then you put the acid in the bucket, and then you take that and you pour that around the pool because the acid is 16% heavier than water. I mentioned at the beginning that the acid is heavier than water, and therefore it could go to the bottom of the pool and etch the surface. Now, pebble tech quartz, they're a very durable surface type, and they're less susceptible to this. Maybe some newer plaster, pouring it directly does save a lot of time. But if you really wanted the extra insurance and you wanted to make sure that you don't have any danger of etching the pool, then by all means you can pour it into a five-gallon bucket with water in there, of course, first. And just be careful when you pour it in there, you don't splash any of it on the deck. You know, that's another splash point is using the bucket method. Just be careful that when you're pouring in the bucket, none of it splashes out onto the deck around the bucket. But I have no problem with you using a bucket if you wanted to to dilute the acid to put it in the pool. It's one of those things where the old school method is really hard to you know dye out in the industry. And of course, the dry acid is much more expensive than the 31.45 liquid acid. You really you can you can't really compare dry chemicals to liquid, but really I believe it's like a 10 pound to one gallon ratio is what you're looking at. So about 10 pounds of the dry acid equals about one gallon of the muranic acid, and so a 10-pound bucket of dry acid retails for like$35-40. Whereas one gallon muralic acid, you know, can retail from twelve to fifteen dollars. So it's about double, sometimes even double and a half, close to triple the price, is double and a half a word, the price of the muratic acid gallon. So it's more expensive for dry acid as well. Another reason why dry acid hasn't caught on, it's just really expensive to use that product. Like acid magic is more expensive. And muratic acid, although it has increased in price over the last five or six years, is still the most affordable and most effective acid to use in pool service.