I'm looking for bleach to disinfecting water storage containers. Five years ago I could still find plain bleach, but now the local markets don't seem to carry bleach that doesn't have other labels. It seems that all non-scented bleach is now "low plash" formula. Does anyone know what that is? Is that safe for my intended use?

It's an excellent question.

In my area, simple chlorine bleach is available but the low-cost brands have stopped putting the concentration on the label. So, how can I calculate sterilizing quantities? I smell shenanigans, and less active ingredient.

Bingley, can you tell us all the ingredients on the label?

I don't have a photo. I remember looking at a box that said

x% chlorine
y% other ingredients

The label literally said "other ingredients." I almost said aloud, THAT DOESN'T HELP ME!!!

I'll keep looking and perhaps find a more useful list of ingredients.

I wonder if a chlorine only pool shock solution (no cyanuric acid or other chemicals) would be a substitute for the goofy bleach cleaner products.

Find a good pool store and talk with them. They might have pool test strips you can use to verify chlorine levels.

KenK, pool chemical is a good option. This has been recommended to me for shock chlorination of my well. But in my case we're talking about thousands of litres at a known concentration. And that's the volume of a pail of pool chemical, at least as far as I know.

It's crazy that a consumer can't buy a simple jug of simple bleach. I hate to recommend Amazon for anything, but it comes to mind.

If long-term chlorination is not the object, sometimes hydrogen peroxide can be purchased in larger volumes from pharmacies or vet supply stores. Mixed with a little water and swirled around, it sterilizes bloody well everthing with great efficiency.

I just remembered another option: shops that sell supplies for home wine and beer brewing also sell high quality sterilizing compounds for fermentation vessels, carboys, and bottles that are food safe.

I have some direct experience -- my BIL has been making wines that survive without sulfite preservatives for many years, and so mature nicely. It's all about clean practices.

This product is readily available around here and I imagine the company's help line can direct you to stores in your area.

https://www.clorox.com/learn/water-purification-how-much-bleach-purify-water-for-drinking/

Clorox DISINFECTING bleach....not the "no splash" kind. I imagine some "off brand" might be cheaper than Clorox, but you use so little of it...who cares. My thought is that if it disinfects water, it can clean out water containers. But
https://www.clorox.com/learn/how-to-dilute-bleach-for-cleaning/

Clorox's customer support line may be helpful, too. I will tell you this: once opened, the product has a limited effective life. So I purchase it in the smallest quantities I can for disinfection purposes.

Here in the UK I use "chlorine tablets" a dry tablet that releases chlorine when dissolved in water.
They are very cheap if purchased in bulk packs and may be used to treat water before storing it, or to disinfect water that is otherwise not safe to drink.

This sort of thing UK supplier.

Shipping to the USA might be expensive, but I presume that similar products are available locally.

+1. Good post.

I've noticed it too, harder harder to find just plain, unscented bleach. Luckily Winco has small bottles of it still.

Was going to suggest MSR's SE200 Chlorine maker. Makes chlorine from salt + water + 12v battery, but then saw the price.
$300.

Does make you wonder how hard it'd be to replicate, especially if have chlorine test strips for testing.

I did pick up a jug of unscented bleach at the store last night! Thanks for the reminder!

Bleach lasts about a year unopened, and about a month once it’s opened. Pool shock lasts far longer in storage.

I do keep a bottle or two of plain bleach (from Costco) around so that I don’t have to make some from pool shock.

The Chlorox site says use, “ Chlorox Disinfecting Bleach”. Check out their web-site.