FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. As we prepare for hot summer temperatures, the price of relief plunging into that cool, blue swimming pool in your backyard continues to increase.
Costs to maintain swimming pools are rising sharply thanks to a prolonged chlorine tablet shortage that began after the nation's largest manufacturing facility was destroyed by fire in 2020. Costs are increasing for tablets and just about everything else related to your pool, including the workers who keep them clean, retailers say.
Chlorine shortage could make it harder to keep pools sanitized this summer
Ron Hurtibise, South Florida Sun Sentinel
April 27, 2021
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A dip in the pool might be more expensive or even impossible this summer.SABOR
Keeping your pool clean and inviting this summer could become more challenging than ever, as market forces have converged to reduce chlorine supplies and drive up prices.
And that’s not something anyone wants to contemplate at the beginning of a long sticky summer.
“It’s probably going to be in short supply this summer,” predicted Pat Allman, general manager of Tampa, Fla.-based Odyssey Manufacturing, which makes more than 40% of liquid chlorine sold in Florida. “You’re going to go to your local pool store and they’re going to be out for a day or two. It’s not going to be all gloom and doom. You just might not shock or clean or kill all of the algae as much as you want to.”
As summer draws near and Orlando homeowners start taking dips in their backyard pools again, pool stores are growing nervous about a key ingredient: chlorine.