Aussie Family❜s Pool Device Explodes ❛Like a Bomb❜

A Melbourne mum and her daughter are lucky to have dodged serious chemical injuries after their pool-cleaning device exploded on a hot summer day.

Taking to social media to share her horrific experience, the mum describes the terrifying moment when the device "...exploded like a bomb. Literally a bomb. The device shattered into pieces, there was a loud bang, gas cloud and my ears are still ringing."

Aussie Family's Pool Device Explodes 'Like a Bomb'

If you're lucky enough to be a pool owner in Australia, you can expect a refreshing cool-down when temperatures reach above 30. What you shouldn't expect, however, is for your trusty pool-cleaning device to explode on a hot summer day as was the unfortunate case for one Melbourne family. 

Aussies are being warned about the risks of using mis-matched pool chemicals as one family experiences first-hand the dangers of a chlorine explosion. 

Taking to Reditt, one mum shared the terrifying moment she and her daughter were swimming when her daughter "...noticed the floating device that has pool tablets in it smelled bad. Like rotten eggs. I told her not to touch it, and I grabbed the stick to push it into the corner. And it exploded like a bomb. Literally a bomb. The device shattered into pieces there was a loud bang, gas cloud and my ears are still ringing. If we had been any closer [we] would have been seriously injured."

Explosion Risk From Swimming Pool Cleaners

The pool device used is a very common floating dispenser that slowly dispenses chlorine tablets into pool water. The pictures shared look to be of the Hy-Clor Pool Floating Dispenser from Bunnings, to which the user claims she added the Hy-Clor 3-in-1 Tablets and which she believes caused the chemical explosion.

Reditt users were quick to comment that chlorine is non-combustible and couldn't have exploded on its own, with one user, a pool shop owner, pointing out that "Hyclor will not explode - at any temperature - unless it is mixed with a hypochlorite." 

"I suspect that a hypochlorite based chlorinator chemical had been stored in the container, and some remained. Never mix any cleaning chemicals, just in case", he added. 

The Hy-Clor 3-in-1 Tablets the user claims to have used aren't available at Bunnings, only the granular variation, which should never be used in a floating device.

So is this a case of using the wrong chemicals in the wrong device? Several Reditt users believe so and were quick to warn against only using the chemicals designed for floaters and not topping them up with chlorine of your choosing. 

We've been warned!

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