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Alternatives To Chlorine In Swimming Pool


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Yes and no. Firstly, most people are not allergic to chlorine, they are allergic to chloramines, which are products of chlorine reacting with ammonia from sweat, pieces of skin etc. To remove chloramines you need to superchlorinate the pool.

Second - the only other alternative to chlorine is bromine - and that is not suitable for outdoor pools as there is no stabilizer for it.

And finally, if your son is indeed allergic to chlorine, salt/ozone combination will not help, as SWG used in that combination still produces chlorine.

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I'm going to respectfully disagree with Strannik. Stabilizer is not a required component for a sanitizing system. It's true that you may end up using a little more sanitizer, but for my money, it's better to not have to deal with the problems that stabilizer can cause. We have a customer who uses unstabilized bromine in his pool, and it always looks pretty good. It is a bit more expensive than chlorine though.

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Jamie,

I am going to send you in a totally different direction. I too was in your position 4 years ago. I researched all of the options and was only able to find 1 chlorine free solution that would potentially work. I was lucky enough that the manufacturer of this system was only 35 miles from my home so I paid them a visit and spoke with several customers in my local area. The system I refer to is Ecosmarte. You can do some research at www.ecosmarte.com. This is a copper ionization system that uses titanium as an oxidizer. Other copper based systems that I researched still require the use of chlorine as a sanitizer in conjunction with copper. This system is totally chlorine free and it WORKS. I am just starting my 5th season with it and cannot say enough about it. It rocks. The water is chrystal clear (as long as you continue a regular maintenance schedule of water testing and balancing of your PH). You also get the benefit of reduced electrical costs due to the fact that your pump will only need to circulate for 8-10 hours per day. My electric costs dropped dramatically.

I have absolutely no affiliation with Ecosmarte other than being a happy customer. In fact after contacting them directly only then did I find out that my pool builder was also a dealer. He does not endorse the system. Why, because I am no longer placing an $800 order for a chemical package every spring. The other reason is that besides the lost chemical revenue they (pool builders) love chlorine based systems because they wear out liners and heat exchangers at an increased rate. Any swampy water problem can also be solved just by dumping enough of this caustic chemical into your pool. Many still have the mentality that I have been using chlorine for 50 years why stop now? I did and will never look back. I love the fact that my kids are swimming in chemical free water.

Good luck in your search for a product and do not be confused by all of the hype around many of the hyped systems out there. My neighbors built a pool last year and after swimming in ours demanded that their builder install a system of this type. Instead he talked them into a salt generation system by leading them to believe that this is a chlorine free option. It is not. It creates chlorine out of sodium chloride. They still have all of the chlorine side effects from their pool. If you have no sensitivity to the side effects that chlorine causes then this is a great alternative. If you want to go truly chlorine free you have to look at something else. This is an alternative.

Best Regards,

JD

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Not everyone has been happy with EcoSmarte as this thread indicates. There is a thread of mixed results here. The stuff about electrolysis producing oxygen radicals is bunk -- not that it doesn't happen, but that it's not nearly in the quantity to do any good since it's mostly oxygen gas that is produced and even then not in the quantities they claim (I write about the inaccurate claims in a technical thread here). EcoSmarte has been talked about on this forum as well such as here and here. If they used an ozone system, then that would be far better for oxidation, but only for water passing through its system and turnovers simply take far too long to kill bacteria fast enough. Some more technical info on kill rates of copper (as used in EcoSmarte) are in this post I wrote on another forum.

Basically, you are at a higher level of risk with this system, but still better than nothing in the water at all. If they used a combination of copper and silver, similar to Nature2, you'd be better off (silver kills bacteria faster than copper), though still not as good as one of the EPA-approved sanitizers: chlorine, bromine and biguanide/Baqua/PHMB. The main thing with Copper is that for it to be effective enough to kill algae and especially pathogens, you risk staining plaster unless you keep the pH low (but not too low or else you risk corroding metal) which is the main reason they have you keep the pH below 7.2. So it's a delicate balance. The main risk is that of not preventing person-to-person transmission so is not suitable for public pool environments (without some chlorine), but for a private pool the prevention of runaway bacterial growth is more important and metal ions do help prevent that for the easy-to-kill bacteria. Again, it's a spectrum of risk.

Bromine is an alternative, but as was pointed out it does not have the equivalent of a stabilizer to protect it from breakdown from sunlight (though using Cyanuric Acid can help shield lower depths from the UV of sunlight, but there is no binding of bromine with CYA to protect shallower depths). So with bromine, you use more of it and unfortunately it's much more expensive than chlorine.

Biguanide/Baqua/PHMB is the most common chlorine-free alternative for pools, but has its own issues, typically after a few years of use. This long thread gives many examples of users having problems after some time and wanting to switch to chlorine.

By the way, how did you determine that your son was allergic to chlorine? As was mentioned, true allergies or sensitivity to chlorine itself in a properly managed pool is extremely rare. It's more likely that the sensitivity is to chloramines from pools that don't use enough chlorine or other water quality factors. The chlorine level in a properly managed pool that has Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in it is extremely low. If your son experiences problems primarily with indoor pools or with some outdoor public pools, then that is not the same level of chlorine as you would have in your own pool by orders of magnitude (literally a factor of 20 or more). Even chlorinated water has 10-20 times the effective amount of chlorine as a properly managed pool (you can't just look at the Free Chlorine level, but have to account for CYA as well).

Certainly, if you get the EcoSmarte system, please report back with how it works for you.

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Whoa fellers...

Thank you for all the insight, I guess I found the right forum.

I am experiencing system overload... too much technical info for my novice brain. :huh:

My son is not "allergic" to chlorine as far as I know. He has a senativity that triggers "tics." I too suffer from the condition. I heard about combining salt systems with ozone systems as a means of sanitizing, limiting chlorine to .5%. The company is Del and the model is the trio.

Any knowledge about this system?

I don't want to exose him to silver, titanium, copper or any metal in the pool.

Jamie

Not everyone has been happy with EcoSmarte as this thread indicates. There is a thread of mixed results here. The stuff about electrolysis producing oxygen radicals is bunk -- not that it doesn't happen, but that it's not nearly in the quantity to do any good since it's mostly oxygen gas that is produced and even then not in the quantities they claim (I write about the inaccurate claims in a technical thread here). EcoSmarte has been talked about on this forum as well such as here and here. If they used an ozone system, then that would be far better for oxidation, but only for water passing through its system and turnovers simply take far too long to kill bacteria fast enough.

Basically, you are at a higher level of risk with this system, but still better than nothing in the water at all. If they used a combination of copper and silver, similar to Nature2, you'd be better off (silver kills bacteria faster than copper), though still not as good as one of the EPA-approved sanitizers: chlorine, bromine and biguanide/Baqua/PHMB. The main thing with Copper is that for it to be effective enough to kill algae and especially pathogens, you risk staining plaster unless you keep the pH low (but not too low or else you risk corroding metal) which is the main reason they have you keep the pH below 7.2. So it's a delicate balance. The main risk is that of not preventing person-to-person transmission so is not suitable for public pool environments (without some chlorine), but for a private pool the prevention of runaway bacterial growth is more important and metal ions do help prevent that for the easy-to-kill bacteria. Again, it's a spectrum of risk.

Bromine is an alternative, but as was pointed out it does not have the equivalent of a stabilizer to protect it from breakdown from sunlight (though using Cyanuric Acid can help shield lower depths from the UV of sunlight, but there is no binding of bromine with CYA to protect shallower depths). So with bromine, you use more of it and unfortunately it's much more expensive than chlorine.

Biguanide/Baqua/PHMB is the most common chlorine-free alternative for pools, but has its own issues, typically after a few years of use. This long thread gives many examples of users having problems after some time and wanting to switch to chlorine.

By the way, how did you determine that your son was allergic to chlorine? As was mentioned, true allergies or sensitivity to chlorine itself in a properly managed pool is extremely rare. It's more likely that the sensitivity is to chloramines from pools that don't use enough chlorine or other water quality factors. The chlorine level in a properly managed pool that has Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in it is extremely low. If your son experiences problems primarily with indoor pools or with some outdoor public pools, then that is not the same level of chlorine as you would have in your own pool by orders of magnitude (literally a factor of 20 or more). Even chlorinated water has 10-20 times the effective amount of chlorine as a properly managed pool (you can't just look at the Free Chlorine level, but have to account for CYA as well).

Certainly, if you get the EcoSmarte system, please report back with how it works for you.

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Sorry. I meant to say "sensitive", not "allergic". Anyway, if you don't want metals in the water, then EcoSmarte, Nature2, and other mineral ion systems are not for you. If you want to have the minimum amount of chlorine possible, then I agree that a saltwater chlorine generator system (SWG) will let you use a somewhat lower chlorine level. The addition of an ozone system with the SWG, which is what the DEL Ozone Trio system does, is probably overkill and really won't let you lower the chlorine level to 0.5 ppm. This is because any system that performs its action via filtration is only acting on the water that passes through that system -- it is not acting on the bulk pool water (only chlorine is doing that).

It takes a very low level of chlorine to keep the water sanitary so that isn't the issue in this case -- the problem is preventing algae growth. With an SWG system you will typically have a high Cynauric Acid (CYA) level (usually 60-80 ppm) and you could probably get away with around 1 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) level if you were able to prevent algae growth through other means. The combo of FC and CYA is a VERY low level of chlorine technically equivalent to only 0.01 ppm FC if no CYA were present (this is because CYA significantly reduces chlorine's effectiveness and that includes it's ability to irritate). However, to keep away algae, you will have to use some sort of supplemental algaecide and since metal ions (e.g. copper) is out of the question, that leaves two choices: PolyQuat 60 or a phosphate remover. Either one will work to prevent algae growth. The PolyQuat is a polymer that is similar to a clarifier so attaches to algae interfering with their ability to get nutrients while simultaneously clumping them so they get caught in the filter. A phosphate remover combines with phosphates in the water and phosphates are a critical nutrient of algae so you effectively starve the algae which prevents it from growing.

By the way, I found this thread on tics from chlorine that you may find of some interest. Just FYI, the chlorine level in tap water is far higher than that in the kind of swimming pool I'm describing above. Before investing in a swimming pool system, I think it would be a good idea to simulate that water first and see how your son reacts to it. If that's of interest to you, I can tell you what you need to add to the water to make such a simulation, perhaps in a bathtub which is typically 50 gallons. I'd hate to see you buy an expensive pool system and then find out that it doesn't help your son (or you). For this test and for your pool maintenance, you are going to need a good test kit so I suggest you go ahead and get that now. I suggest the Taylor K-2006 kit which you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 test kit from tftestkits.com here where the latter has 36% more volume of reagents so is comparably priced "per test".

Richard

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Thank you very much for your help!

Sorry. I meant to say "sensitive", not "allergic". Anyway, if you don't want metals in the water, then EcoSmarte, Nature2, and other mineral ion systems are not for you. If you want to have the minimum amount of chlorine possible, then I agree that a saltwater chlorine generator system (SWG) will let you use a somewhat lower chlorine level. The addition of an ozone system with the SWG, which is what the DEL Ozone Trio system does, is probably overkill and really won't let you lower the chlorine level to 0.5 ppm. This is because any system that performs its action via filtration is only acting on the water that passes through that system -- it is not acting on the bulk pool water (only chlorine is doing that).

It takes a very low level of chlorine to keep the water sanitary so that isn't the issue in this case -- the problem is preventing algae growth. With an SWG system you will typically have a high Cynauric Acid (CYA) level (usually 60-80 ppm) and you could probably get away with around 1 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) level if you were able to prevent algae growth through other means. The combo of FC and CYA is a VERY low level of chlorine technically equivalent to only 0.01 ppm FC if no CYA were present (this is because CYA significantly reduces chlorine's effectiveness and that includes it's ability to irritate). However, to keep away algae, you will have to use some sort of supplemental algaecide and since metal ions (e.g. copper) is out of the question, that leaves two choices: PolyQuat 60 or a phosphate remover. Either one will work to prevent algae growth. The PolyQuat is a polymer that is similar to a clarifier so attaches to algae interfering with their ability to get nutrients while simultaneously clumping them so they get caught in the filter. A phosphate remover combines with phosphates in the water and phosphates are a critical nutrient of algae so you effectively starve the algae which prevents it from growing.

By the way, I found this thread on tics from chlorine that you may find of some interest. Just FYI, the chlorine level in tap water is far higher than that in the kind of swimming pool I'm describing above. Before investing in a swimming pool system, I think it would be a good idea to simulate that water first and see how your son reacts to it. If that's of interest to you, I can tell you what you need to add to the water to make such a simulation, perhaps in a bathtub which is typically 50 gallons. I'd hate to see you buy an expensive pool system and then find out that it doesn't help your son (or you). For this test and for your pool maintenance, you are going to need a good test kit so I suggest you go ahead and get that now. I suggest the Taylor K-2006 kit which you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 test kit from tftestkits.com here where the latter has 36% more volume of reagents so is comparably priced "per test".

Richard

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I'm going to respectfully disagree with Strannik. Stabilizer is not a required component for a sanitizing system. It's true that you may end up using a little more sanitizer, but for my money, it's better to not have to deal with the problems that stabilizer can cause. We have a customer who uses unstabilized bromine in his pool, and it always looks pretty good. It is a bit more expensive than chlorine though.

I'm not suggesting that it is "required" for outdoor pools, however without it pool sanitation becomes a quite expensive exercise.

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  • 2 months later...

We have just trialed an Aligator silver/copper oxide system that requires less than 1ppm chlorine to act as an oxidizer and the customer is extremely pleased. Pool steps are reported as feeling less slippery and tiled areas prone to some algae formation are now completely clear. As far as alergies are concerned the lady of the house reports that she needs very little skin care product after a swim, far less than she did when the pool was a standard chlorine pool at 3ppm.

www.aligatorswimmingpools.co.uk

Is this the way to go with "fresh water" pools?

Vaughan Williams

Octopus Pools

Kyrenia

Cyprus

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We have just trialed an Aligator silver/copper oxide system that requires less than 1ppm chlorine to act as an oxidizer and the customer is extremely pleased. Pool steps are reported as feeling less slippery and tiled areas prone to some algae formation are now completely clear. As far as alergies are concerned the lady of the house reports that she needs very little skin care product after a swim, far less than she did when the pool was a standard chlorine pool at 3ppm.

www.aligatorswimmingpools.co.uk

Is this the way to go with "fresh water" pools?

Vaughan Williams

Octopus Pools

Kyrenia

Cyprus

Look into Bioguard's Soft swim program. Non chl sanitizer and it works very well if the directions are followed

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BioGuard SoftSwim "B" is Baqua/Biguanide/PHMB that I already referred to and that many people have problems with after 2-3 years. Note that the chemical name for PHMB is Poly(hexamethylenebiguanide) hydrochloride but also has a synonym that BioGuard uses which is Poly(iminocarbonimidoyliminocarbonimidoylimino-1,6-hexanediyl) hydrochloride (as shown here) but it is the same chemical. BioGuard SoftSwim "A" is a standard linear quat algaecide (Alkyl dimethylbenzylammonium chloride as shown here) while BioGuard SoftSwim "C" is hydrogen peroxide (as shown here) used as an oxidizer. The SoftSwim system is the same as any other Baqua/Biguanide/PHMB system.

Richard

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