The smell is from chloramines, not chlorine.

That strong “chlorine” smell is actually a sign your pool chemistry is off. Pure chlorine in water doesn’t smell much at all. The smell comes from chloramines — compounds formed when chlorine reacts with ammonia from sweat, urine, and other organic stuff people bring into the pool.

When chlorine levels are low, you don’t have enough free chlorine to break down those chloramines, so they accumulate and reek. Counterintuitively, the fix is usually to add more chlorine — a “shock” treatment to oxidize the chloramines and get your free chlorine back up.

Test your water. If free chlorine is low but combined chlorine (chloramines) is high, shock it. A pool that smells like a chemical lab needs more chlorine, not less.

A clean pool has almost no smell.