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Some Fresh Alternatives to Chlorine for Your Pool.
Copyright © Lee Coleman CEO of Property Services France
http://www.propertyservicesinfrance.com
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I expect everyone will have experienced the strong smell, dry
skin, red and stinging eyes you get after visiting public baths,
so it's no surprise that many people who own or are considering
a swimming pool for the first time will look for an alternative
sanitiser to chlorine. It's the most widely used sanitiser in
pools all over the world, mainly because it's the cheapest and
easiest to use. Chlorine Kills bacteria and eliminates algae
growth, just two of the things needed to keep a swimming pool or
spa clean and healthy to use.
Public baths usually have far too much chlorine in them in the
first place, to effectively disinfect the warm yellow patches of
water left behind by less considerate bathers! Stinging eyes is
normally an indication of too much chloramine in the water, a
byproduct of the reaction between chlorine and organic material
(oils, lotions, skin etc) so a healthy, well balanced chlorine
pool shouldn't make your eyes sting at all.
The most common alternative I'm asked for is salt, but salt
pools are fitted with a chlorination device which produces
chlorine from the salt, so although there may be a difference in
the composition of salt pools, there can be just as much
chlorine present, if not more.
So what alternatives are there?
1. Bromine (0% Chlorine) 2. Persulphates (Active Oxygen)
(Potassium Monopersulphates) (0% Chlorine) 3. Copper and Silver
(Low Chlorine) 4. Ozone (Low Chlorine) 5. Polymeric Biguanides
(Revacil and Baquacil) (0% Chlorine) 6. PristineBlue (0%
Chlorine)
Bromine, is very similar to chlorine, it's used in much the same
way. It has it's own version of chloramines - Bromamines ! These
don't smell as bad as strong chlorine and actually have
disinfecting properties which kill bacteria so are better to
have than chloramines. Bromine is also more tolerant of high pH
and works better than chlorine in higher temperatures, that's
why bromine is often a preferred treatment in spa's.
Persulphates, work in a similar way to chlorine, breaking down
fat or oils and killing bacteria, but it doesn't work very well
against our old enemy algae, so an additional algae treatment
will also be necessary. It's not cheap, about 40% more expensive
than chlorine, it's generally another preferred treatment for
spas. The main benefit of using persulphates is that they break
down and remove particles to the size of an atom so it's sort of
like a chemical filter, you can swim in the water after only 1
hour of using it.
Copper and Silver, has been used for centuries as an effective
water sanitiser although it works much slower than chlorine,
normally copper and silver is produced by a device called an
ionizer, it works in a similar way to a salt chlorinator with
electrodes which wear away (and are expensive) after a while but
deposit the elements into the water to kill bacteria. You still
need to have some trace levels of chlorine 0.5 - 1ppm (Parts Per
Million) for the system to be completely effective.
Ozone (O3), usually fitted as a standard option on some spa's,
the equipment uses a toxic and quite unstable form of oxygen to
kill bacteria but only treats the water as it goes through it. A
separate algaecide will need to be used and a trace element of
chlorine (0.5 - 1ppm) to make sure nothing enters the water.
Polymeric Biguanides (PHMB polyhexamethylene biguanide), I think
the name will make you understand why we will just refer to this
system as Baquacil. It's a three part treatment, Baquacil kills
the bacteria, Baquacheck is an algaecide and Baquashock is
basically a solution of hydrogen peroxide which breaks down the
fats and oil etc. PHMB is totally incompatible with chlorine so
all traces must be removed when changing a pool over to this
system
PristineBlue, more recently there has been a breakthrough in
chlorine free water treatment for swimming pools and spas. This
system uses copper as a sanitiser, against both bacteria and
algae, a chlorine or salt pool can be changed over to
PristineBlue or changed back to chlorine within 24 hrs.
Although copper has been used extensively for algae control for
centuries it's been difficult to effectively treat bacteria
without leaving an undesirable level of copper in the water. Not
any more, the PristineBlue molecule, a secret ingredient which
combines with copper salts to become biologically active ensures
that once algae and bacteria absorb the copper ions on contact,
they are killed and copper levels are no longer measurable and
inactive.
Copper Sulphate has just been approved in Europe as a recognized
disinfectant under the biocide directive, technically there are
no harmful chemicals in the product what so ever making it the
closest thing to a fresh water pool as possible.
Some products may not be as cheap or as straight forward to use
as chlorine in a pool but alternatives are available. Your pool,
your choice.
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