jdr

Are you sure ?

IONman

Perhaps I should have said "test salt and stabiliser" annually and add if required.
Hope that has made that clear.

Regards, Dave

jdr

I think the test should be a little more than annually. ;-))

IONman

Why, you only loose salt and stabilizer through backwash and splash out, so long as the levels are reasonable during the hot months you will have no problems, depending on the capacity of the Chlorination system of course.

We have been supplying Saltwater systems for several years and this works OK for us, during the cooler months you really don't need a lot of chlorine manufactured so if the salt is a little low if will make no difference.

The main thing is to ensure you have Chlorine in the pool .6~2ppm is adequate - Spanish public pools are limited to a maximum of 1.6ppm (depending on regieon)

Regards, Dave

fionamw

There may be more than one alternative - we have a copper ionisation system, so no chlorine or salt. Can't claim it's been niggle-free, but when it works it works brilliantly, water crystal, no-one ever complains of eye irritations etc., automatic ph tester so my only real hassle is b****** vacuuming, which is just a personal hate!!!

IONman

That is interesting, Does your system also oxidise, does it have addditional electrodes to the coper ones?

Regards, Dave

Dxf

Hi
There are may different systems in the world - the most popular is chlorine tablets in the skimmers.

However you can have ultraviolet systems wich I believe have the same cost problems of running the pump for extra hours. The sme can be said for magnets which ionise the water. There are books on pools and of course you can always search the internet

Whichever pool you have, it will cost you money, the "trick" is to pick a pool that suits you, not the pool the salesman wants to sell you. e may have a hidden agenda.

Davexf

IONman

That is very true Davedxf,
However placing chlorine tablets in the skimmer basket is actually the least regular thing you want to do.

For the sake of 10 Euro's or less buy a 'floater' tablets in the skimmer still disolve when the system is not running and when it is they disolve faster, additionally when they sit there disolving you are getting high concentrations of chlorine in the pipework, pump and filter which you really don't need.

Additionally using tablets in most cases leads to extremely high levels of Chlorine stabiliser - Cyanuric Acid - This needs to be checked and regulated the only way to dilute is remove a quantity of water anbd replace with fresh,

Stabiliser should be between 30~50ppm over 100 and problems will start.

Hope this helps, Dave

jdr

Funny how all your info points to the only way to cure peoples problems is to install a salt water pool, or am I reading the links wrong.
Tell us how to stop over stablisation without the need to buy your system. ;-)

Beachcomber

You can prevent a build up of cyanuric acid (stabiliser) by dosing the pool with calcium hypochlorite (unstabilised chlorine) something which people trying to sell salt water systems will not tell you. They just try to use scare tactics with horror stories of the build up of cyanuric acid.

http://www.calcium-hypochlorite.co.uk/

Salt water pools are expensive, unnecessary and generally pretty useless.

See also this thread from a swimming pool forum:

http://www.poolspaforum.com/forum/in...?showtopic=996

IONman

Hi Beachcomber,

I feel sure I have advised people that they could follow your example and manually dose their pools, I actually commend you for making that effort.

The problem is when they cannot be bothered or are away or just enjoying life away from the villa or have a pool guy to do the maintenance, they then revert to tablets in the skimmer - OK idea but not in the skimmer use a floater it'll save you money, buy a Cyanuric Acid tester and when it gets up to 50ppm use unstabilised granuals or liquid.

Some people want a powered lawnmower some want the fun of a push mower some want simple automatic pool systems that just 'do-it' without daily checking, measuring, calculating and weighing chemicals.

As you say there are lots of systems bought that don't do the job for various reasons not only swimming pool related - mainly lack of knowlege by the purchaser, they will work but is it the right one for your pool?

I went to a villa a couple of days ago, noticed they had a pool heater installed - probably a free gift from the builder.... it was 6kw electric element type - Not a chance of heating that pool even if it's on for months.

Now a heatpump consuming half that would provide up to 15kw heat energy into the pool - that would do it..!!
So unless the consumer does some research he is getting a wacking electric bill for nothing.

By now I hope you realise I provide information without too much bias, I may well promote an easy system to chlorinate a pool because it makes life easy for those that want that way of managing things and can afford it.

If anyone really wants to play poolboy they should be testing at least every day and in summer when the kids are in and out at least twice a day - hotels are on the hour every hour or they use an automatic system.

There are many good books available and if you have the time get one, buy the chemicals - you will save on spending but it takes time.
Don't get caught up in the pool shop with the multitude of potions available which will - unless you are precise - turn your pool into a chemical soup.

Any advice is always free.

Regards, Dave
Kind regards, Dave

Beachcomber

I feel I should explain my inherent resistance to and my prejudice against these magic pool sanitising systems.

Back in the early 1990s some Jack the Lad conman pitched up in the urbanisation where I used to live with a system that he claimed to have brought from South Africa. It consisted of a method of passing an electrical current through hydrochloric acid which resulted in the manufacture of chlorine. This involved the installation of expensive equipment and considerable reorganisation of the pipework.

Having convinced many pool owners (luckily I wasn't one of them, I had contacted SPATA in the UK and was advised not to touch it with a barge pole)) with scare tactics of the horrors of too much stabiliser and the imminent prohibition of the use of chlorine as a pool sanitiser he installed a number of these systems and all was fine for about a year then, one day, it suddenly became impossible to contact him and he disappeared from the face of the earth. Shortly afterwards the hydrochloric acid systems started to go wrong mostly due to the failure of a component known as a venturi which proved impossible to obtain and would have cost a fortune even if it could have been.

The only people who were impressed with his activities were a couple of local pool companies who had to be contracted by the duped pool owners to rectify the pipework and put right the damage caused by this modern day pirate's handywork.

So, I shall be staying with chlorine as the sanitising agent for my pool for the foreseeable future.

IONman

How else can you put forward an alternative point of view on a specific point without being specific?

Beachcomber is partially correct but the same cannot be said for all manufacturers, service providers and the like.

I look forward to an explanation where facts can be given and names of Companies / People who are not guilty of poor performance can also be proved.

I note that a previous message contained links to message boards giving completely incorrect advice regarding levels of Chlorine Stabiliser - levels over 100ppm in the USA and a public pool would be closed, this link instructed people to increase their Free Chlorine level to combat high levels of Stabiliser, where would this end - people swimming in Chlorine, Spanish public pools are regulated to a free chlorine level of between .6~1.6ppm the maximum recommended is 3ppm but this should not be the norm.

If we are to be a useful source of information we must try to be correct in the information we provide and not rely on hearsay or personal feelings everything must be available to be proven correct - I hope you agree with these statements?

Kind regards, Dave

Beachcomber

The information you say is incorrect was in a forum the contributors to which obviously have diverse views as they do in this one. Many web sites state that levels of cyanuric acid up to 100ppm, whilst not optimum, are acceptable.

I can't remember the name of the company involved in the situation I described. I think it was an individual but I will check with my old contacts in Almería to see if any of them can remember. If he is still around he would certainly be someone to avoid.

Some more interesting links:

http://www.pwtag.org/home.html

http://www.aqua-shine.com/Index/CyanuricAcid.htm

IONman

The point is in the USA where health is a concern 100ppm is too much.

The outcome was to raise the level of chlorine - are we to accept raising chlorine levels beyond what we are told are safe levels?
For me NO I don't want chlorine raised beyond recommended safe levels to compensate for another chemical I have introduced into the pool - better control ALL chemical in the pool and know what they are and what they are there for - everything has a reason!

I ask the pool user to research this before making their decision - but some bacteria that can kill vulnerable groups, children and elderly can take almost a week to kill in a perfect pool why would you want to make it a longer period?

If everyone took your example Beachcomber then the world would be a bit safer.
I could just play with LED lights etc.

Regards, Dave