How to Make Homemade Chlorine Bleach
One of the main components that you’ll want to have around the house (or apartment) during a SHTF situation is chlorine bleach. Not only can it be used for cleaning water (although boiling is hands down more effective and healthier) it is excellent for keeping things sanitary.
Unfortunately, the average shelf life of liquid bleach (being stored between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit) is around 6 months. After that, bleach will lose 20% of it’s strength at around the year mark and then 20% each year after that. So if you’re not vigilant about keeping it rotated, chances are when you need it for disinfecting water or to keep things clean you’ll be fresh out of bleach and luck.
There is a better option. What if you could make your own fresh chlorine bleach that could be used for both keeping things sanitary and will disinfect water? Here’s how:
How to Make Chlorine Bleach
Before we go into how to make it, I just wanted to point out the differences between this homemade chlorine bleach and your standard household Chlorox variety.
First off, liquid chlorine bleach is a solution made from mostly water and 3-6% Sodium Hypochlorite. This homemade variety is made from Calcium Hypochlorite which you can easily find as “pool shock” at your pool-supplier store or Walmart. Both are used throughout the world for water purification and are the main chemicals in standard household cleaning products.
The Benefit of Calcium Hypochlorite
The major benefit of using Calcium Hypochlorite over Sodium Hypochlorite is shelf life. Calcium Hypochlorite (pool shock) is sold in a solid granular form and has a 10 year shelf life when stored in a cool, dark place. This will easily meet your long-term storage needs.
The other benefit is the amount of available chlorine. The concentration of chlorine is much higher with Calcium Hypochlorite. For example, a small 1-pound bag of calcium hypochlorite can disinfect up to 10,000 gallons of drinking water. That’s around 5 gallons/day for one person for 5 1/2 years! Not bad for only 1 lb of granules.
Making Chlorine Bleach
To make a chlorine bleach solution using calcium hypochlorite, here are some formulas I got from the Army Technical Bulletin entitled, “SANITARY CONTROL AND SURVEILLANCE OF FIELD WATER SUPPLIES” (TB MED 577).
From the Army manual, to make a concentrated chlorine solution that you can use for disinfecting water (or to be used in maintaining a clean and sanitary living environment), you’ll want to use calcium hypochlorite that has around 70% available chlorine.
If you’re buying pool shock, on the back of the bag it will tell you what percentage of chlorine is available. The one I use is called “Zappit 73 Pool Shock, it is pure calcium hyphochlorite that contains up to 73% available chlorine and sells for around $5 for a 1lb bag.
To make the homemade chlorine bleach solution, you’ll need to do the following:
- Mix 2 level Tablespoons of Calcium Hypochlorite to 3 cups of water.
After you’ve made your stock of chlorine solution, you’ll want to follow the formula from the Army Technical Bulletin in determining how much of the above stock chlorine solution you’ll need for your desired number of gallons of water to be disinfected. *Note: I’ve updated the formula to calculate the same concentration that household bleach has. If you have questions, fire me an email and I’ll be more than happy to explain the math.
mL of stock chlorine required = (desired concentration (mg/L)*number of gallons to be treated)/18.12
The desired concentration refers to how much chlorine in mg/L you want the disinfected water to have. A recommended amount is 7 mg/L of concentration. This equates to adding 8 drops of household liquid bleach to 1 gallon of water (the recommended amount when disinfecting water with household bleach).
Given these amounts, if you wanted to disinfect 1 gallon of water with the homemade chlorine solution, the formula would be as follows:
(7*1)/18.12
This equates to .38mL or 8 drops of the concentrated solution per gallon of water. Just like normal household bleach!
So the 3 step process is as follows:
- Place 8 drops of homemade chlorine bleach in 1 gallon of water
- Let stand for 30 min
- If water is still cloudy, repeat steps until clear; otherwise it is ready to drink
Keep in mind, that once the homemade chlorine bleach is made it will follow the same shelf-life limitations as standard household liquid bleach. So be sure to only make amounts you will be using within that time frame.
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Men who know how to make bleach are hot. If they know how to clean with it, even better.
Have you ever drank the water when using this method or any pool shock method?
No that statement was HOT! Better hang on EJ looks like you have a following!
Man, who would’ve known..?
Matt,
Yes I have drank water using both liquid chlorine bleach (the store bought kind) as well as the homemade variety using calcium hypochlorite for a disinfectant. Was there a specific question you had in mind?
I use the liquid bleach.
I have just never met anyone who has made the cholrine from the pool shock and actully drank it. I hear alot of things with survivalist touting it but no one seems to actually do it. I wonder what the “inert” ingrediants are and what they do. I have actually not stored it because of this, I have some because we have a small cheapie pool but I have not considered it a part of my serious prepartions because no one seemed to actually use it to include the FEMA folks who put out a bulletin a long time ago about it.
I’m pretty picky about using and storing stuff for my survival. I run all my stuff thru pretty rigorous testing first.
Hey Matt,
I’m there with ya man. I am very adamant about researching and testing all my survival plans as well.
As for your great question about safety. Here is the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for one of the pool shocks I use (i assume it’s the same for most other calcium hypochlorite flakes as well but it’s best to double check your brand): https://buyat.ppg.com/EHSDocumentManagerPublic/pdf_main.aspx?StreamId=4936251a2265a6230000&id=4936251d2266b3140001
If you read toward the bottom of the MSDS there’s a section entitled: 16. Other Information. In that you’ll see the following:
“Other Information:
NSF Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals Listing – PPG calcium hypochlorite is certified for maximum use at 14 mg/L under NSF/ANSI Standard 60.”
Since I use the formula in my post above (which is 7mg/L of chlorine), I’m well within safety limits.
Great questions though and I appreciate you keeping me honest. I hope this changes your mind for using pool shock.
Also be aware that I store this mostly for keeping my living space sanitary during a SHTF scenario and will be using boiling and water filtration as my primary purification method. Chlorine for water drinking is a back up.
Have you ever been swimming in a chlorinated pool? Chances are you drank some water treated with calcium hypochlorite then – it’s hard to avoid ingesting at least a little water when swimming. Plus, you need to weigh the benefits relative to the risks. At some point your only choice may be drinking from a tainted water supply or using a little pool-shock treatment to clean it up. It’s pretty clear which is the more risky choice.
One question about storing pool-shock -anybody have a safe way to do it? I’m leery of storing it indoors, even someplace where it’s not likely to get wet.
DPM,
You are correct in being cautious about pool shock since it is an oxidizer. Referencing the MSDS for Zappit 73, it details storage considerations:
“PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN DURING HANDLING AND STORAGE:
Store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place. Keep in original container. Keep container closed when not in use. Keep away from heat, sparks, flames, direct sunlight, and other sources of heat, including lighted tobacco products. Use only a clean (new, if possible), dry scoop made of metal or plastic each time product is taken from the container. Do not add this product to any dispensing device containing remnants of any other product. Such use may cause violent reaction leading to fire or explosion. Add this product only to water. Never add water to product. Always add the product to large quantities of water. May cause fire or explosion if mixed with other chemicals. Fire may result if contaminated with acids, organic materials and other easily combustible materials such as oil, kerosene, gasoline, paint products wood and paper. Do not reuse container. Residual material remaining in empty container can react to cause fire. Thoroughly flush empty container with water then destroy by placing in trash collection. Do not contaminate water, food, or feed by storage or disposal of this product.”
DPM, Yep been swimming, swallowed some. I can say the same for the farm ponds, rivers, lakes and other waterways to include ones overseas that I trained and Soldiered in. Swallowing it and drinking it are 2 different things. Most didnt hurt me, none killed me but one of those “swallows” during waterborne training put me out for 3 days too while my guts flowed out. I lost one of my Soldiers to bacterial menegitus too from a bad water source.
Swallowing aint the same and i’m trying to weight out the advantages/disadvantages over just boiling the water or filtering it with the other sources I store and adding other safer chemicals like ones I carry from aquamire in my GMHB and BOB. I know the pool shock is cheap and does a gazillion gallons but EJ is the first guy I have ever heard that has actually drank the water used from pool shock from literally thousands of “survivalist” that are on forums. I ask all of them, nothing personal here, don’t take my word for it though, just type in “Matt in Oklahoma” along with “pool shock” where you find me and read away. Not one single “yes” answer to any of my posts asking this.
I’m not trying to sharpshoot no one, just researching because there are alot of mall commandos out here that think they have done stuff to include the ones that put out them bulletins from FEMA and State Emergency Sources that have never tried pool shock and to include the guys who built the “desert solar still” in the Army Survival Manual that has never worked other than in theory. Now some have made there way to tv too.
I agree with your risky choice statement however until I see clear methods this one isnt going to be a part of my preparations. I use, try and test everything because it is my responsibility to do this for my family. It’s a good article and I copied and pasted it into my digital library and have put it on my list of “to try things”. If SHTF happened I would go with it as it seems that it has been given it alot of thought.
The shock I store for the pool is in the garage away from anything it can corrode with the vapors and any accidental spillage and in a cardboard box so it can “breathe”.
Hey Matt,
I’m not sure if you caught the comment above (under the one where you mention “I’m pretty picky about using and storing stuff for my survival. I run all my stuff thru pretty rigorous testing first.”). In it I have a link to the MSDS sheet for the pool shock that states it is safe for drinking water treatment that I thought you might find interesting and might change your mind.
Thanks for the great comments.
Thanks, I’m gonna give it a whirl and test it soon.
I have drank some, but just as a test. Every 6 months I rotate my stock, and when trying to get the ratio’s right I drank a little out of each 5 gallon can. The idea is to have a LITTLE chlorine taste – like your tap water, but not a strong flavor. You can reduce the amount of chlorine in the water by aerating it if you have to use it before the majority of the chlorine dissipates out. (YMMV)
That’s correct.
I have (78%) calcium hypochlorite sold by a pool store in a 17 lb container. How much must be added to a gallon of water to get a solution equal to a gallon of bleach sold off the walmart shelf? I’m not talking about just disinfecting water and I know what they sell is not a full gallon. I want to treat the result of the mixture as though it was off the shelf. What’s the rate I use?
Hey Don,
Sorry for the late reply on this. 10 tablespoons is close and would definitely work as a concentrated solution for cleaning and disinfecting water, but if you want exact numbers, the equation is as follows:
grams calcium hypochlorite = (desired mg/L chlorine x gallons to be treated x 3.785 L/gal)/(1,000 mg/mL x (%chlorine in HTH/100)
Given this equation if you figure the standard household bleach contains a 5% or 50,000 mg/L chlorine solution, it would be the following:
(50000 x 1 x 3.785)/(1000 x .78) = 242 grams of your calcium hypochlorite per gallon of water would make an equivalent amount as one gallon of household bleach.
Since this is a weight (we’re dealing with solids here) and not volume, it’s best to use a kitchen scale (digital being ideal). At that point if you want exact tablespoons you’ll need to figure how much grams of your calcium hypochlorite would fit in a level tablespoon. Then you can have that as your personal formula for future reference.
Hope that helps.
about 10 tablespoons?
This is a little more serious than I like to get into. I am not a “survivalist” as was mentioned in an above comment, I am into woodcraft, as what most would call the “hillbillies” would refer to it as. But I DO know, as you’ve said, boiling water is the way to go, and of course removing the visible stuff is a huge help. Even though all this “end of the world”, no government or luxuries and all that isn’t my cup of tea, I do like the water subject. So here’s my point, now I’m done talking about myself. I have a healthy group of hermit crabs for pets, but before buying them was making sure Fort Wayne doesn’t have fluoride in the water and if it did, how to remove it. I read a few interesting articles that stated that boiling fluoride water actually concentrates it. Well, that’s not very heartening when you think about it, in terms of survival, woodcraft or just plain I’m thirsty and I’m in the middle of nowhere. What kind of crap is in the water that actually concentrates when boiled that require that extra oomph from the bleach?
Hey Jason,
You are correct in that boiling water will only concentrate the flouride concentration (since you are removing water). While boiling is an excellent form of water purification, it does not remove chemical additives or pollutants. Neither does bleach. It is however ideal for killing off biological contaminants such as cryptosporidium, giardia, and so forth.
If you are concerned with chemical impurities then you’ll need to use an effective chemical filter such as the Berkey filters which will not only filter out biological contaminants but chemical as well (they also sell filter “extensions” that filter out flouride and arsenic).
If you’re “woodcrafting” it, then the only other option is distillation (just think of the solar still). Just pour some of your water that you want purified around and in your still and with time and sunlight you will have distilled water without the chemicals.
Okay, that’s simple enough. Described in those words, you’ve made it seem so simple I feel dumb XD Of course the living organisms die in excess heat! Oh well, we all have stupid days. Thanks, yet again.
Hi Frank,
The 242 (~1/2 lb) grams is specific to the commentor’s %concentrate of Calcium Hypochlorite. Keep in mind this is to make 1 gallon of concentrated Bleach solution. In other words, you wouldn’t be drinking this solution.
What’s the % of calcium hypochlorite that you have?
I have been researching this extensively and while I can’t find Trichloro-s-trianzinetrione being used as a bleach agent or a sanitizing agent, I’m curious how the calculations work for making bleach and sanitizing water when the Chlorine content of the tabs is 90%.
I found that Chlor Floc uses dichloro-s-triazinetrione.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as I understand Trichloro has a great shelf life.
Just a word from an old marine corpsman… When in the field, medical handles water sanitation. S.OP. was the treatment of the ‘water bulls’ (I think they were like 250 gal) with granular calcium hypochlorite. Made it into a slurry in a canteen cup, poured into the top, tested later for chlorine. Drank lots of it. If too much was used, tends to give diarrhea, but obviously, if the 1st MarDiv used it… I would feel more comfortable using lab grade (technical, or even reagent grade) as opposed to pool shock… Pass on the undefined inert ingredients…
This stuff is a really powerful oxidant. Contact with greases and oils is to be avoided. Unless you had some say Vaseline, and mixed some Ca(ClO)2 in, and utilized the resultant fire… YMMV…
HM2,
Thanks for the great words of wisdom.
- Erich
This article and discussion has been fantastic. I’ve really gained a lot of knowledge including the formula posted here for determining amount of calcium hypochlorite needed. Many water filter systems use a charcoal filter to filter out chemicals. I’m wondering if this also filters out fluoride?
In terms of distillation, there have been tests done which surprisingly prove that chemicals are NOT filtered out of the water post distillation. There are some cases where distillation needs to be done multiple times to ensure chemicals don’t still remain. Here is a simple youtube video experiment showing this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sqRvUzqDCE
Also I thought I would help add value here by showing how to actually make bleach from scratch if you don’t already have pool shock. I have never tried this, but think it could be very useful and it appears to be very simple with non-lab equip:
http://www.pqs.org/ingl.htm
I look forward to any positive responses.
Thanks,
Alex http://www.cataclysmlevelingarea.com
Very nice link Alex. Thanks! I’ll definitely be trying this one out.
Oh, man, are you sure it is 242 grams per gal.? I want to start mixing my own instead of buying it pre-mixed. I use a lot before painting. Thank you. ps… you dudes are very smart. Frank.
Yes, I know. To drink that mix would be to end my needs for anything, lol! About 65% available chlorine mostly. Plain old pool shock. There are other products such as sodium dichloro-5-triazinetrone, that is pool shock and has a algaecide mixed in it as well. If the algaecides would be in this pool shock for long term effect, it most likely isn’t what I would be looking for for pre-painting. Because I use this before painting, it needs to kill anything that will interfere with my paints ability to stick to the surface I am painting. So, my question is, would calcium hypochlorite or the other types be better for pre-painting? And if the 242 grams per gallon of fresh water is the right mixture, this is what I will use. I was kind-of taken by the 1/2 lbs per gallon. I didn’t expect it to be that much. Hey, thank you so much by the way. I was looking in my e-mail for your answer, but it never did come in. I re-found this site after losing it. Sincerely, Frank.
Here’s a question; How many grams (or any other unit of measure) of dry pool shock per gallon of water would it take to sanitize that gallon of water, skipping the whole “make bleach first, then add to water to sanitize” ?? Skipping the middleman, as it were.
Hello!
I bought the stuff from Wal-Mart and it’s not as strong in Chlorine 48.6% as the stuff you are talking about. So I’ll try again and buy the stronger versions, since you have all the measurements already mentioned here.
Now what I’d like to know is when I mix this up based on about 10 Tablespoons per gallon of water, is will this work just like Clorox bleach when washing white cloths?
I make my own laundry detergent and various other household things at a fraction of what it would cost to buy it in the store. I’d also like to make my own bleach, no more than a gallon at a time since it does start loosing strength over time. There will also be times when I’ll go through a lot of bleach, such as cleaning my drive way and the out side of my house, so I’d love to be able to do it this way.
Please get back with me and let me know and I’ll go get the stronger stuff and take back this Wal-Mart version.
Hi Chris,
If you’re making the stock chlorine solution per the directions above (using pool shock that has around 70% available chlorine) it should yield you the same amount of concentrate that standard household bleach has.
I’ve never used it to wash clothes but I would assume that it would perform the same way (not sure if the sodium vs. calcium hypochlorite would have any affect on clothing) since the amount of chlorine in the solution is the same.
I’d love for you to try it out and let us know how it turns out!
Good deal, I’m going to give this a try. I will tell you that the people at the pool supply store are clueless about this. I went by there yesterday and ask them about it and the guy treated me like I was missing a few marbles.
I do know if you get the chlorine to strong in a swimming pool that it will take the color out of your clothes. So that in itself tells me this will work. I also know if you happen to splash Clorox on your clothing it will take the color out as well as with some clothing it will eat a hole in it. That being said it will be very important to not get this misture to strong and to never pour any type of bleach straight on any clothing.
Off to the store to get this right this time and in a few days after I’ve washed the whites I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Look forward to your updates!
I now can’t find the Zappit 73 or any thing close to it in the town that I live in.
I then went online and now I’m totally confused. Not sure which of these products I do need.
Super Zappit 73 – Quick Dissolve comes in 1 pound bags
Zappit Shock 73 – Smallest is a 25 pound bucket
Super Zappit Shock 73 – Comes in a 25 pound bucket
Needless to say the bottom two are way more than I want to order at one time, until I’m sure of what I’m doing. From what I’ve read this stuff has a shelf life of 10 years as long as it is stored properly. so if this does what I need it to do then 25 pounds would be okay afterwards, but don’t want to order that much to begin with.
I also located another brand via ebay that claims to be 73 percent and I can order as little as six 1 pound bags of it for 22 dollars.
So if you can tell me which one of these Zappit’s I need, that would be much appreciated as it has got me all confused.
By the way I clicked on the link in the Zappit you have listed above and that place doesn’t have it listed any longer.
Thanks for you help and hopefully we’ll get this figured out.
Soduim hypochlorite is what most household bleach is made from I have been told. 5-6% in fact. And all I can find is the calcium pool shock. What the following is I haven’t a clue! Question…. does anyone know what the difference is? ….. Sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione 63% copper 0.26% other ingredients 36%. Sodium is better? Question… does anyone know where I can get the sodium hypochloride pool shock, if there is such a thing? I went to a chemical company supplier, but they will not sell to me. Thanks. Frank.
Sodium hypochlorite is a very unstable solid that is not typically sold OTC due to the dangers inherent in it.
Regarding purifying water, there really is no one better than the other since it’s the available chlorine (not the sodium or calcium) that does the purifying. As far as calcium hypochlorite goes, you probably have drunk a bunch of it in your water already in your lifetime since many areas of the U.S. use it to purify local tap water.
By using your calculations, it appears you only need about 134 ounces of your homemade bleach to sanitize 10,000 gallons of water. That is just over 1gallon of homemade bleach. Are my calculations wrong? Thanks for the help.
It appears that by my calculations 2/3 of a cup of 73% calcium hypochlorite (pool shock) granules will make 1gallon of your homemade bleach. That is 10 2/3 tablespoons of 73% calcium hypochlorite granules. Please let me know if this is correct as I am going to sanitize several hundred gallons of RO water made for mobile car washing-a good cheap source of very low dissolved solids water (about 8 ppm) that once sanitized with homemade bleach can be filtered through my Berkey filters, a cheap carbon filter that removes chlorine, or my Zero water pitcher to make fairly pure water. Appreciate the help.
Hi Dale,
Yes, 10.7 Tablespoons (around 2/3 cup) of ~70% calcium hypochlorite will make a gallon of bleach.
By the way, what is RO water (reverse osmosis?)?
What are the negative effects of Calcium Hypochlorite on the environment? Are there biodegradable alternatives?
I’m not sure there is an environmental impact since it is used throughout our nation (U.S) and abroad for purifying public drinking water. The non-chemical alternative is pre-filtering and boiling.
Thanks.
Yes, RO is reverse osmosis and though what I am getting is for mobile car washers and they claim not for drinking (they aren’t certified for drinking water) it is the same as any other RO water and only 8 cents a gallon. Sanitization with bleach and then filtering through any filter that removes chlorine should make it about the cleanest water you can drink. Four dollars per 50 gallons of good drinking water seems cheap enough.
That’s a fantastic idea Dale. Do you have a good link to one of the mobile car washers you recommend (or use)?