Has anyone ever made their own chlorine bleach?

Greetings Fellow Primates:

Please correct me here, if I am wrong. But, I believe a household chemical, chlorine bleach, like Clorox, has a specific shelf life? (Not sure if I read that somewhere, some time ago - or, if someone told me that.) If so, have any of you good folk ever made your own chlorine bleach, as you needed it? I imagine the ingredients to make it, like caustic soda and soda ash, are not so limited?

The idea of having to chlorinate our bore (well) in case of any introduction of bacteria from flood waters, or by other means, is what caused me to ponder this. Naturally, we will have the bore (well) drilled on the highest part of the property that we can. But, Mother Nature may have other plans.

 

Likewise, thanks for the links.

 

You are correct, liquid chlorine does have a limited shelf life. It gets weaker over time. It is better to store powdered chlorine such as pool shock. Every salt water swimming pool has a chlorine generator. I purchased this unit some time ago. It runs on 12 volts and makes small batches for water purification in undeveloped regions. $50

Chlorine Producing Unit | Safe Water International Ministries (SWIM)

 

Chlorine is a gas in its natural state, so yes, if you leave liquid bleach sitting around eventually all you have left is water and whatever else they put in bleach. This happens fairly quickly, in a matter of months even if the bottle is sealed. If you open an old bottle of bleach and smell it, you will notice that it barely smells like bleach, if at all. That's because all the chlorine gassed out.

This is also why pool owners are constantly adding chlorine to their pools.

@T. Riley 's gizmo is super cool, but you don't even have to go that far. There are plenty of recipes on the internet on how to purify water with ordinary pool shock and no other special equipment. Use some sense so you don't poison yourself.

The "water purification tablets" sold in camping & sporting goods stores are just basically glorified pool chlorine.

 

We buy Chlorine tablets and just make liquid whenever we run out. Tablets are cheap and a bucket will last a decade.

 

Dry pool chlorine does loose potency.
In 2015 I found some chlorine pool shock and tablets I had bought back around 2008.
Pretty much 0 chorine.
So it does have a shelf life.
You will have to rotate stock.

The only thing I know of that will keep for a real long time is iodine. Since it doesn't off gas.

Spa bromide may keep longer than chlorine, because the bromide doesn't seem to off gas as much as the chlorine.

 

Looks like yet another good use of a "surplus" small solar cell. Water filters are nice, but they don't disinfect etc and we hope that the silver coating will kill viruses. Use bleach to remove metals etc from my well water, the bleach in concentrate goes bad in about a year, diluted it will last at most a couple of months and pool shock will give you the other components in the chemical process as well as the chlorine. Looks like a chlorine generator, a couple 12 v leds, a pair of radios, a rechargeable flashlight, an older laptop or such, a marine battery, and about 100 watts of solar cells and a controller would be real nice to have in a Faraday cage. That would give you chlorine for sanitation and purifying water, basic lighting, comms, and access to your stored data. Would need to rotate the electronics if they have rechargeable batteries as well as the 12 volt battery if it isn't stored without acid. I donate to some of the church groups I know, usually to the individual who is going to be to be in the field. Have found out that most "conventional" aid groups spend the majority of their funds on overhead and transportation, and that the inertia and struggle to live each day renders most of the aid that requires some inputs worthless in a short period of time. If you give them pump and a well, it will be used until it either needs some part that is not available locally, or the pump is stolen, or the people using it contaminate the water supply that it is drawing from, or some group decides it is "their" water and either wishes to sell it to others or refuses to share it with others. Kind of sounds like what might happen to you in the long run if you had a well and pump in a SHTF situation doesn't it? Some of the best information on survival I have ever received was from an elderly Mennonite missionary who had worked for many years in Rhodesia in a very successful development project and was driven out and the fruit of his labor stolen and wasted by the new regime. His main comment was a take off on the old Mao and the fish swimming in the water, you need to work with the population in order to succeed, but if you are a fresh water fish, you can't live in salt water, and the new regime in Zimbabwe would not work with him or his group as they did not belong to the right clan etc. A missionary going to South America, a neighbor of mine, who pays his own way, is a retired construction company owner, can take 5 water filter units that fit into a 5 gallon bucket, make 5 water filter units, show me pictures of the filters in use, and the pastor of their church know the names of those using it and about a year later remind me that the people using them could use new filter elements. I find that a good use of a few dollars. It also gives you a real sense of what you could expect in the medium run if SHTF.

 

Yes , I use a salt / chlorine

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Intex-Kr...ove-Ground-Pools-up-to-7-000-Gallons/40900293

 

Our ancestors used alcohol to make water drinkable. As little as 1% can kill everything but the yeast that created the alcohol.

 

Good stuff folks, thanks .

 

Yes, it's true that chlorine bleach has a shelf life. After about 6 months, the bleach will degrade 20 percent annually until it’s nothing more than water and salt. Also, store your bleach in a cool place because if it is stored above 70 degrees then it’s going to degrade faster.
I have stored hypochlorite which is a dry version, but even that degrades over time. Still testing out alternatives.

 

Bleach has another very important and essential use besides treating water - it's excellent for sanatization and disinfecting. When the TP runs out and you can't find any lamb's ear for personal cleaning you will likely resort to "personal cloths" which require cleaning and sanitization after each use. Ditto for cloth diapers. For that matter, latter generations likely don't realize the reason why underclothing and shirts were typically white.

 

check in resources under Handbooks, Guides & How to. the file is Beyond Collapse, its towards the back under Recipes (page 350) it lists things like how to make turpentine,gunpowder, bleach check it out. here's another way to make also, remember YMMV.