!7: Good Bargain Heaters For Intex Pools: November 2011

!±8± Healthy Swimming Pool Water is Your Choice

CHOICES: It is probably safe to say that not one of every one hundred pool owners understand their pool equipment, their pool water, how and what to test for, and about the different disinfectants that are available to use with their pool. It takes on a short study period to learn about pH, acid demand, total alkalinity, calcium hardness and clarity.

Remember everything in nature is going against the pool owner and must be considered when maintaining the pool water. Heat accelerates loss of chlorine and promotes algae growth. Wind carries new algae spores and debris into the pool. Sun increases evaporation and reduces the effectiveness of chlorination. Evaporation causes t build-up of scale on pool tile and deposits a residue of solids below the waterline. Rain introduces additional algae and other pollutants. Bather Use increases the demand for disinfection.

This article will briefly cover the choices you have for your pool water disinfectant.

SKIN ADSORPTION: The swimmer should consider skin adsorption when choosing the pool disinfectant. I've often heard comments that excessive swimming or bathing will dry out the skin. Actually, it's quite the opposite.

Your skin, in contact with the water, absorbs water rather then drying out. It's the chemical contaminants, chiefly chlorine, which because of their oxidizing or bleaching ability cause loss of body oils and dry, irritated skin.

The skin is probably the primary route of human exposure to water pollutants. The American Journal of Public Health states that a minimum of 83 percent and possibly 91 percent of the chemicals entering the body came through the skin

Without an adequate disinfectant, algae, viruses, fungi, and other micro-organisms can originate, grow exponentially, and infest the average pool in less than one hour. Believe- it-or-not algae can double itself, in a poorly managed pool, every four to five hours and bacteria can double itself ever four to five minutes. It's a scientific fact that one e-coli micro-organism can multiply into twenty trillion e-coli micro-organisms in twenty four hours. Believe-it-or-not! Diseases too numerous to mention affecting the ears, eyes, nose, throat, skin and internal organs are often spread from one person to another in swimming pools.

CHLORINE: A greenish-yellow, poisonous, gaseous element with a suffocating odor, widely used as a disinfectant. Chlorine is toxic and will burn your eyes, irritate your skin and damage hair. When chlorine combines with an organic spore such as skin, sweat or even a leaf spore it forms trihalomethanes that are twenty one times more carcinogic than is the chlorine itself.

BROMINE: A dark reddish-brown fuming element with a suffocating odor. A chemical which reacts like chlorine but is not as abrasive to humans. The Provincial Board of Health of Alberta banned the use of Bromine as a disinfectant in public spas because 95 percent of the spa related skin irritations came from spas using Bromine.

OZONE: An unstable form of oxygen with a pungent odor. Commonly found as a gas which dissipates into the air very quickly. Ozone is fast acting but leaves no sanitation residual in the water to combat bacteria and algae growth. It must be used with another disinfectant therefore it only reduces the amount of disinfectant used. It will dissolve rubber washers in pumps, filters and pool fixtures resulting in leaks and costly repairs.

SALT WATER DEVICES; Salt is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride. Devices that utilize salt create a chemical reaction which actually manufactures chlorine in your pool. The chlorine then produces the same reactions that chlorine bought in stores does. Sodium hypochlorite chlorine is more abrasive to humans and pool equipment than the calcium hypochlorite that is bought in stores. As you already know sodium is hypertensive.

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE: The products are non-toxic and not unhealthy but neither are they healthy. Hydrogen peroxide is by far the most expensive way to disinfect your pool especially when you have to shock. It is also harder to manage.

ULTRA VIOLET LIGHT: Is effective killing bacteria in clear water but like ozone it only reduces the need for a disinfectant. It leaves no residual in the water by itself.

COPPER IONIZATION: The only disinfectant that makes your water healthy. Copper has 19 health benefits among them is heart health, blood pressure, bone development, nerve development, cancer prevention, and the propagation of oxygen through out the blood system. No other disinfectant has even one health benefit. There is no need for chlorine, shock, algaecides or cyanuric acid stabilizer. Copper ionization is the least expensive and requires less time to maintain and monitor than other disinfectants.

Now hopefully you have been able to compare and make an intelligent decision on what
disinfectant you want to use. But by all means use one or the other as the consequences of a pool without disinfection is much more dangerous. The expense of your disinfectant is small compared to those consequences.