Why do swimming pools sometimes smell like chlorine or a chemical compound?

Healthy pools don’t have a chemical smell. While pool water is often described as smelling like chlorine, a well-maintained pool shouldn’t have any odor at all. The smell of pool water doesn’t come from chlorine itself, but rather from chemical compounds called chloramines, which accumulate in pool water when it’s not properly treated.

Chloramines are created when chlorine sanitizers are added to sanitize pools and when perspiration, oils, and urine from swimmers’ bodies enter the pool. Chlorine can be used to remove chloramines. “Shock treatment” or “super chlorination” involves adding extra chlorine to swimming pools to destroy ammonia and organic compounds that combine with chlorine to form chloramines.