SMELLBOOK REFERENCE · SB-0024
Chlorine / Pool
Permanent ID: smellbook: · updated 2026-10-06, revision 4
Character EDITORIAL
Pool water smells sharp, clean and faintly bleach-like, with a stinging edge that can feel bright or harsh depending on its strength.
Words: sharp, clean, chemical, fresh. Families: Fresh and clean, Sharp and bitter.
States: indoors (VERIFIED). A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
Met in: Swimming pool.
Evidence
Scientific evidence
- Trichloramine in the air of indoor pools (CLM-POOL-001). Christina Schmalz, Fritz H. Frimmel & Christian Zwiener, Trichloramine in swimming pools – Formation and mass transfer, Water Research, 2011.
Molecules named in these claims: trichloramine. A molecule listed here is named in a VERIFIED claim about this smell. It is not presented as the cause of the smell; each claim says what its source supports.
Cite
SmellBook. (2026). Chlorine / Pool (revision 4, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:chlorine-pool. https://smellbook.com/smells/chlorine-pool
https: