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question about muriatic acid color

April 10th, 2007 · 2 Comments

OK…it seems strange to be asking about this, but here goes…
I have been buying muriatic acid at Home Depot for a while now, and the
color of the acid has always been a pale yellow. Yesterday I opened a
new box. When I pulled out one of the gallon containers I noticed that
the acid was more of a pale red color instead….completely different!
I have never seen this before. Is this normal, or is it possible that
the wrong product was packaged?
Greg

Tags: swimming pools

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Blaine Matthews // Apr 11, 2007 at 5:18 pm

    Well, just in case any of you were curious…
    I phoned Kem-Tek and they told me that it is indeed the same stuff, but
    a bit more diluted. They add a weak red dye to the less concentrated
    version to differentiate it from their stronger one. I did notice that
    this one had no noticeable fumes, which was nice. The dye is weak and
    disappears immediately in the pool from the chlorine. They also told
    me that if I have the acid for several weeks, it’s possible that the
    dye will mostly fade away right in the container because it’s that weak.
    I just wish the packaging, or Home Depot, had made it more obvious that
    I was buying a weaker solution than what I was used to. The cardboard
    box looks the exact same as the other version. I wonder if I paid the
    same amount as I did for the stronger stuff…..hmmmmmm…
    Greg

  • 2 Adeline Sang // Apr 13, 2007 at 12:11 am

    i guarantee you did. this was discussed here not too long ago about
    home depot chemicals versus pool store chems.

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