New, to us, pool. I have been under the impression Bromine is the way to go but I am reading that most of you use clorine. Opinions?
Bromine VS Clorine
- Thread starter Bill HInes
- Start date
borjis
LifeTime Supporter
if you search the site for bromine you'll find a bunch of related content on that discussed recently.
what I got out of the discussions from a week or so back was that the stabilizer component of bromine has no test method and when
it get's too high you have to replace water....but it's almost impossible to find out when that will happen since there is no test method for it so
you end up having to do a lot more work when it gets out of control. then if you want to convert to chlorine its a whole other can of worms
to get all of the bromine out.
with chlorine the stabilizer (CYA) can also get too high and require water replacement but the recommended test kits both can test for CYA. (taylor k2006c or TF100) so in effect you can be aware of it before it becomes a problem.
cliff notes: works great for a spa, not so great on a much larger body of water over time (like Baquacil)
in my opinion you'll be much better off with chlorine/bleach as a sanitizer.
what I got out of the discussions from a week or so back was that the stabilizer component of bromine has no test method and when
it get's too high you have to replace water....but it's almost impossible to find out when that will happen since there is no test method for it so
you end up having to do a lot more work when it gets out of control. then if you want to convert to chlorine its a whole other can of worms
to get all of the bromine out.
with chlorine the stabilizer (CYA) can also get too high and require water replacement but the recommended test kits both can test for CYA. (taylor k2006c or TF100) so in effect you can be aware of it before it becomes a problem.
cliff notes: works great for a spa, not so great on a much larger body of water over time (like Baquacil)
in my opinion you'll be much better off with chlorine/bleach as a sanitizer.
Welcome to TFP!
Chlorine can be stabilized and protected against sunlight, bromine can't. This alone makes bromine a poor choice for an outdoor pool.
There are a lot of reasons we consider chlorine a better choice overall, what were your reasons for choosing bromine over chlorine? We could perhaps help you better if we know why you went that route and whether it would make sense for you to change your methodology.
Chlorine can be stabilized and protected against sunlight, bromine can't. This alone makes bromine a poor choice for an outdoor pool.
There are a lot of reasons we consider chlorine a better choice overall, what were your reasons for choosing bromine over chlorine? We could perhaps help you better if we know why you went that route and whether it would make sense for you to change your methodology.
borjis
LifeTime Supporter
I though Joyfullnoise (Matt) had mentioned that bromine stabilizer cannot be measured.
didn't know it had no uv protection.
in any case bromine doesn't seem like a good idea.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,381
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Yes, thee is no commercially available test for dimethylhydantoin (DMH). DMH does somewhat stabilize bromine but not at all to the same degree that CYA stabilizes chlorine. See this paper for details -
http://jspsi.poolhelp.com/ARTICLES/JSPSI_V4N1_pp09-29.pdf
Essentially with a bromine pool you are constantly fighting bromine loss to UV. So the BCDMH tablet feeders must have much higher feed rates as compared to chlorine feeders. The problem is, with such high feed rates, you will build up excess DMH very quickly and create an over-stabilized bromine pool. A better way (but still far more expensive than chlorine) to run a bromine pool would be to establish the bromide bank using sodium bromide, add 50-100ppm of DMH using BCDMH and then use an SWG to produce chlorine to act as a constant oxidizer source for regenerating the bromide back to bromine. One could also use bleach additions to do the same thing.
However, if you're going to go through all that expense and trouble, just use chlorine. People think bromine is a better sanitizer, and it may be better at treating algae, but it comes at really steep cost.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I came to the same conclusion after reading through some posts. Thanks for the opinion/advice. My though patern came from owning a hot tub a few years back. It was small and when my "suspended solids", can't remember the exact term, went too high I would just drain it. Now with 6000 gal. of water it's not that easy. I will be opening the pool this weekend with chlorine. And it looks like I need a good test kit. Will be checking them out and picking one up soon.
This site/forum looks like a super friendly and helpfull bunch of people with a TON of real world knowledge. Already glad I stopped by.
This site/forum looks like a super friendly and helpfull bunch of people with a TON of real world knowledge. Already glad I stopped by.
I am guessing "suspended solids" refers to Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). We don't really put much thought in to TDS, I like to paraphrase an old Ron White quote, "It isn’t that the wind is blowing, it’s what the wind is blowing." For us, it isn't that there are solids in the water, it is what the solids are. Most of TDS is made up of salt which is relatively harmless. TDS is a holdover from the days when we couldn't test for calcium or CYA by themselves and you could only say that water got old. Sadly, most pool knowledge around is a holdover from the past.
Glad you found the forum, we hope it helps you keep a great pool going year round. For a test kit, the k-2006 and TF-100 are the best choices largely due to the inclusion of the FAS-DPD chlorine test. That test gives you accurate and precise chlorine measurements that other kits can't come close to. While the k-2006 is a great kit, the TF-100 was tailor made for the pool care techniques taught here. Heck, the guy who designed it ended up buying this site several years ago. So get one of those put on order and read up some in the Pool School if you haven't already (tab at the top of this page). As always we are here to answer questions and help you along as you learn. We all started this TFP thing with either no ideas or bad ideas, so don't be afraid to ask questions!
Glad you found the forum, we hope it helps you keep a great pool going year round. For a test kit, the k-2006 and TF-100 are the best choices largely due to the inclusion of the FAS-DPD chlorine test. That test gives you accurate and precise chlorine measurements that other kits can't come close to. While the k-2006 is a great kit, the TF-100 was tailor made for the pool care techniques taught here. Heck, the guy who designed it ended up buying this site several years ago. So get one of those put on order and read up some in the Pool School if you haven't already (tab at the top of this page). As always we are here to answer questions and help you along as you learn. We all started this TFP thing with either no ideas or bad ideas, so don't be afraid to ask questions!
Yes. Total Dissolved Solids was the name for it and yes my thinking is/was old school. I like the wind reference. LOL
I too am super happy I found this forum. So much great information. I will be getting the TF-100 very soon. My "pool money" is a bit depleted right now but from what I am learning here it won't be too difficult to get things back in order. I have been reading through the "Pool School" and it is great. I am a less is more guy and the TFP thought pattern seems to be right in line with that thought pattern.
