I am in the process of building my pool. I am considering going with a bromine feeder but I hear alot about salt (SWG). Any advantages over one another? Also does anyone have the iphone/ipad interface for the Pentair easytouch. If so, how do you like it? Thanks.

From what I understand, once a bromine pool, always a bromine pool. If you start with bromine and later decide to switch to chlorine, you will need to drain the pool and flush the plumbing to get rid of all the bromine. A bromine feeder works off the same principal as a chlorine feeder. You load it with pucks and replenish them as they dissolve.

With a SWG you add salt to the pool and add additional salt as needed to keep it at the level required to produce chlorine.

Both systems are less "hands on" than dosing with liquid chlorine or putting pucks in a floater. Both systems require the pump run long enough to deliver the chlorine or bromine at the levels needed to maintain proper sanitation. Both systems require frequent testing to maintain water balance.

You can do a google search for bromine at the bottom left of this page for more information.

Welcome to TFP! My lead off question is why would you consider bromine? Bromine is pretty uncommon for use in a pool alone.

Personally, I would go with the SWCG. The simplicity, efficiency, and ease of use make it my personal choice.

ALL the PB we talked too in our area (Thousand Oaks, CA) were heavily on the side on NO SALT. Their reason was that the city had restricted dumping the water and the county seems to be close to enacting the same kind of restrictions. We live close to open sensitive areas, and apparently the salt in run off is more than the city officials want draining into them. Runoff drains directly into the that environmental area. sewer is a different matter. I like the idea of salt. When I have to refresh the water in my pool, and I've been told that's what's needed every 3-5 years, I wouldn't be able to drain it into the street. I'd have to hire a water truck to and pump out the water. How many people are affected by this kind of thing?

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Yes I am going with Salt. I actually was able to purchase my Easytouch 8 with IC60 swg for $1200 brand new. We are starting excavation next week. My family can't wait.

I ended up going with the SWG on my pool. The salt content is low and I should be able to do a water change by slowly dispersing the pool water over the back for my property, or instead I might go with a reverse osmosis treatment in 5 years. I think RO would be much cheaper than having water trucks come to the house and haul away the water.

amyallrobert - that'll be great. we're not quite there. still working on some plans. Is your builder objecting to having you buy the components somewhere else? I assuming you hired a PB.

tyton. one of the contractors did mention RO as an option., I just forgot about it. Is there any problem with draining into my sewer?

In Thousand Oaks it's against the law to drain into the street or into the sewer system. When you pull the pool permit at the city they go to great lengths to explain this. After an RO treatment it wouldn't be necessary to drain the water at all, but i'm not sure on the costs of this treatment.

Honestly, I'm using the SWG because I had already purchased the unit. They aren't cheap and since they are now under the scrutiny of the Arroyo police they probably not worth all the hassle.

Fyton, thanks for that info. Now I'm definitely undecided about SWG.

Oh... and it's worth mentioning that I have a cartridge filter so regular backwashing isn't necessary, as it is with DE filters. My last pool had a DE filter. In my years of homeownership cleaning the DE filter was the single worst chore I've ever come across. If you plan to do your own pool maintenance please think carefully if your pool builder is recommending DE. They have some advantages, but the cleaning part is miserable.

Does anyone know how to figure how much shotcrete a pool will take. Im trying to figure my cost. My bids have been from 45 yards to 65 yards of shotcrete. Im not sure of the math equation to figure this out.

always add 10-15% for unexpected shortage