As the summer heat bears down on Tucson, area pool owners are finding it harder — and far more costly — to keep their pools sparkling clean due to a nationwide shortage of chlorine products linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and a major supply disruption.
Supplies of chlorine tablets — a popular way for homeowners to keep their backyard pools clean and clear — have been limited and prices have skyrocketed since early spring, after a sharp increase in pool installations and usage credited to the pandemic.
On the supply side of the equation, an August 2020 fire in the wake of Hurricane Laura devastated a plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, that was a major supplier of chlorine pool tablets to the retail market, crimping supply until the factory is rebuilt.
A major supply disruption and the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a shortage of chlorine products for pool users.
As a result, some retailers have periodically run out of tablets, and after a nearly 40% increase in prices in March further increases are expected through the summer.
And pool services are passing along the increased chemicals by bumping up their monthly rates.
Tablet troubles
The shortage mainly affects so-called “trichlor” pool tablets, which contain a stabilized form of chlorine, said Steve DeCook, co-owner of Tucson-based E-Konomy Pool Service & Supplies.
DeCook said the fire cut out a significant source of supply of the tablets, just as demand soared as more people built pools or used their existing pools more as the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to stay home.
“There is definitely higher demand and less product, especially of the trichlor 3-inch tablets,” he said. “We’ve been able to get the tablets, though we’ve run out for a couple days a couple of times.”
Pool-building boom
The COVID-fueled boom in pool installations is a major factor driving the chlorine shortage, with the Tucson area outpacing the nation in new pools.
Nationally, installations of in-ground pools rose 23% in 2020 compared with 2019, according to the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, an industry trade group.
Locally, the number of building permits for pools or spas issued by Pima County rose 47% in 2020, to 608 from 413 in 2019, county officials said.
And in the city of Tucson, pool-building permits jumped 74% last year, to 277, after 159 in 2019 and an average of about 150 annually over the prior three years.
Keeping up supplies
DeCook said E-Konomy — a 60-year-old local business which he has owned with his brother, Bill, since 1983 — has been able to keep a steady supply of 3-inch trichlor tablets at its two Tucson-area stores, though like other retailers it has had to raise prices and limit purchases.
DeCook said the company has had to raise its prices for its chlorine tabs for pool-cleaning service to cover its higher costs — in some cases absorbing some of the extra cost of stopgap supplies just to keep prices affordable.
E-Konomy is selling 50-pound buckets of trichlor tablets for $224.99, nearly double the price of a year ago, and limiting sales to one bucket per customer address.
Ricardo Villa, E-Konomy Pool Service and Supplies pool technician, checks the chemicals in a customer's pool water. The price of chlorine products to keep pools sparkling has risen significantly.
DeCook said the 50-pound buckets contain about 110 tablets, should last about a year for the typical backyard pool, depending on pool usage and other conditions.
“I think customers are finding what they need, but the price increase is hard to swallow, and it’s not getting better,” he said.
Pool owners do have alternatives to trichlor tablets, including liquid pool chlorine, he noted. (Household chlorine bleaches are not recommended for pools because they may contain harmful additives.)
DeCook said he urges customers to consider liquid chlorine anyway, because routine use of trichlor tablets can result in an accumulation of a common stabilizer that can reduce the effectiveness of chlorine over time.
But the shortage of chlorine tablets has also put upward pressure on prices for liquid chlorine, he added.
Other alternatives to chlorine tabs, like converting to saltwater systems that generate chlorine from salt, may require costly equipment replacement.
Limiting sales
One of the nation’s biggest pool-supply retailers, Phoenix-based Leslie’s Swimming Pool Supply, says it’s faced some short-lived shortages of chlorine tablets but is managing the issue.
“We have faced a few delays in supply chain resulting in temporary shortages in some areas, but we believe we are well-positioned with product,” Leslie’s spokeswoman Tracy Dick said.
“Our team is working diligently to manage the flow of chlorine to ensure our customers have what they need throughout the season.”
Like other retailers, Leslie’s is limiting purchases of its large bucket of 3-inch trichlor tabs to one per customer to help cope with the supply crunch.
The Phoenix-based company, which has more than 900 stores nationwide including 14 in the Tucson area, is selling its 35-pound bucket of chlorine tablets — about 70 tabs — for $139.99. Last October, the company was advertising the same bucket online for $99.99.
Among the big-box retailers, Lowe’s and The Home Depot are selling 35-pound buckets of 3-inch trichlor tabs for about $100, but availability is in-store only and may be spotty.
More pain ahead
Pool owners could see a price jump of about 58% from June through August, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a Goldman Sachs report citing data from the research firm IHS Markit.
“I think we’re getting close to the peak of the use season, so we’re probably going to get through OK without having any major, long-term shortages,” DeCook said.
As the result of the fire at the BioLab Inc. plant in Louisiana and its impact on chlorine tablet supplies, Leslie’s Dick says the company anticipates “a continued impact on industry availability and pricing.”
BioLab says it plans to rebuild the plant and expand its capacity by 30%, but the project isn’t expected to be completed until sometime next spring.
