Baking Soda Dose Calculator: Raise Pool TA to Target
Your pool volume and current TA set the baking soda dose needed to raise total alkalinity to target — recheck TA with a test strip once it's dissolved.
baking soda = 4.2 lb ≈ 1.91 kg
How it works
Total alkalinity (TA) is the water's buffer — it keeps pH from swinging every time you add a chemical. When TA is low, pH bounces; the fix is sodium bicarbonate, plain baking soda. The calculator finds how much to add from your pool volume and the gap between your current and target TA.
The math comes from chemistry, not a rule of thumb. TA is measured as parts per million of calcium carbonate. Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃, 84.0 g/mol) supplies one unit of alkalinity per molecule, so raising TA by 10 ppm in 10,000 gal takes about 1.4 lb of baking soda. That figure lines up with the service-industry rule of roughly 1.5 lb per 10,000 gal per 10 ppm.
Broadcast baking soda across the pool with the pump running and give it time to circulate before retesting — it dissolves readily but the reading takes a few hours to settle. Baking soda nudges pH up slightly too, so recheck pH after. As always, add product to water and test with a kit before and after dosing.
baking soda = (84.0 ÷ 50.0) × 20 × 15,000 × 3.785 ÷ 1,000 ÷ 1,000
= 1,907 g = 4.2 lb