Free Chlorine Vs Total Chlorine Vs Residual Chlorine. Historically, municipalities have relied mostly on free chlorine disinfection to provide the. Free chlorine is that portion of chlorine that is available to kill pathogens upon contact.
Since clean chlorinated water contains no combined chlorine, total chlorine in a sanitized pool is the same as free chlorine. It is an irritant and has a strong chlorine aroma. Free or residual chlorine is chlorine that is present in the form of hypochlorous acid, hypochlorite ions or as dissolved elemental chlorine.
Maintaining these levels will assure your pool water is at an ideal quality.
Total chlorine is the sum of free chlorine and combined chlorine. The chlorine residual is the concentrati on of free chlorine. So… if you want to know how much free chlorine you have versus how much combined chlorine you have, simply subtract the free chlorine concentration from the total chlorine concentration: Total chlorine is the sum of free chlorine and combined chlorine.
