Pool Owners Beware: There is a Chlorine Shortage So You May Be Paying More For Pooltime

The unofficial beginning of summer is just a few weeks away, and pool owners may be paying more to keep those pool crystal clear this summer.

According to NewsWest 9, chlorine tablets are in high demand right now but supplies are low, so residential pool owners may have to take a hit to the pocketbook or figure out a new way to keep the pool clean a sparkling this year.

Pool supply stores are already reporting an increase in the cost of chlorine pool tablets.

"They've probably gone up 50% already, and I expect them to go up more," said Marty Johnson, owner of The Other Guy's Pool Supply.

So it will cost a bit more to keep pools clear this year, if you can even find any pool tablets.

"There’s been a chlorine shortage since last year, since last summer, with COVID and everybody being home," said Johnson. "They can’t go to the public pool [last year] so they’re at home. So they're using more chlorine at their home pools, so that made a shortage. The hurricane hit the plant, it burned, so now there’s really a shortage."

The plant he is speaking of is in Louisiana and was hit by a hurricane last August and has made the chlorine tablets hard to come by this year.

"It’s definitely a possibility, but we’re kind of in the dark as an industry," said Emma White, Vice President of Pool Techniques Inc. "We don’t know what the situation is with the plant, how quickly it’s being you know rebuilt or if there’s an investigation going on for any reason. So I mean we could be looking at this for the next year to maybe even two years. We just really don’t know."

Public pools are not seeing the same shortage, both Midland and Odessa say they are prepared for this summer.

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