Water Sanitizers

Chemicals are always a concern when discussing an inground pool both environmentally and the affect it has on the swimmers.  There are many ways to make your pool less chemical dependent with all the new technology available. 

Having an automatic water sanitizer is a beneficial way to keep your pool water sparkling.  There are many options available to sanitize swimming pools.  Here are the two most common sanitizers used:

Automatic erosion chemical feeder:  This is the most basic sanitizer.  It is a vessel that is plumbed directly into your filtration system and has a dial that is adjusted to allow the correct dose of sanitizer into the water.  These vessels are usually filled with chlorine tablets but can often be used with bromine as well. 

Important facts regarding an erosion chemical feeder:

• Refill the feeder on weekly basis!  It does not sanitizer the water when its empty. 
• Be sure to check the label on your feeder on which sanitizers it is designed for.

Salt Chlorine Generator – Becoming increasingly more popular over the last five years.  It generates chlorine by breaking down salt molecules into its basic elements.  With this controller, you no longer have to add chlorine to the pool on a weekly basis and since the salt is recycled daily, you won’t have to worry about replenishing the salt weekly either. 

Benefits:

• Gentle on the skin Water
• No red, irritated eyes
• No itchy skin
• No faded swimsuits

Want to lower chlorine usage? 

Though we cannot eliminate the use of chlorine in pools completely, we can lower the levels quite a bit with the help of the following.*

Ozonators – Ozone is such a powerful disinfectant, not only does it eliminate bacteria and algae, but it also can eliminate chlorine.  Ozone can be created either by a Corona Discharge Ozonator or an Ultraviolet Ozonators.  Typically because of its cost, the CD ozonator is used in commercial facilities.  The UV ozonators for residential pools are a great way to decrease the demand of chlorine in the water and they do it with very little maintenance.  An ozonator can decrease the chlorine demand up to 70%!

Mineral Purifiers – A mineral purifier uses natural minerals to eliminate bacteria and algae.  The minerals come in a cartridge and our placed in a vessel at the equipment pad.  The cartridge usually needs to be replaced every six months to a year.  The purifier can decrease the chlorine usage much like an ozonator.

*In the state of Illinois chlorine is the only acceptable disinfectant for swimming pools because a chlorine residual level can be maintained in the water.  An ozonator and mineral purifier do not leave a residual in the water and therefore cannot disinfect water that it does not come in to direct contact with.  Therefore an ozonator or mineral purifier must be used in conjunction with some type of chlorine source.