New pool owner - advice re Ionisers ("Bioniser" product)?

[ing]

HI,
We have just bought a house with a pool. It is Manually Chlorinated pool and we are thinking of making it a salt chlorinated pool. I also stumbled apon a product called Bioniser (www.bioniser.com.au) and read the whole instruction manual. It sounds great and with 3 small children who seem to swallow a lot of water I really like the idea of it. I would like to find out other peoples thoughts and experiences with this system.
All information will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ingrid

 

[polyvue]

I also stumbled apon a product called Bioniser (http://www.bioniser.com.au) and read the whole instruction manual. It sounds great and with 3 small children who seem to swallow a lot of water I really like the idea of it. I would like to find out other peoples thoughts and experiences with this system.

Hi Ingrid, welcome to TFP :-D

I know there have been several discussions on the forum regarding this product (mostly skeptical in nature) but the only one I could readily find is this thread.

 

[ing]

Thanks, I just had a quick browse around the forum too, and there does seem to be a few "skeptical" opinions. Much to learn, lots to read, and not much time to do it!
I'll have a look at you suggested thread.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I recommend you read this article in Pool School too:

http://www.troublefreepool.com/alternative-sanitizers-and-chemical-free-pools-the-truth-t3025.html

As a former Ionizer user, avoid them...truly....

 

[chem geek]

It's a copper and silver system, but their claim of no other chemicals needed is just bunk. You need something to oxidize your bather waste. Otherwise, you end up swimming in your sweat and urine. Some sort of oxidizer is required, even if it's non-chlorine shock (MPS) or some powerful enzymes (where the oxidizer would be oxygen in the water -- assuming that's strong enough with the enzymes) or an ozone system, etc.. As noted on the threads linked to in the earlier posts, you have to be very careful about staining with metal ion systems so generally they are an absolute no-no in a plaster/gunite pool though any pool surface can stain (it's just that plaster is more likely to stain due to surface chemistry). Metal ions will not kill pathogens nearly as quickly as chlorine, by a factor or around 20 in the case of silver and 40 in the case of copper, but this is less of an issue in a residential pool as you are generally less concerned about transmission of disease from person-to-person (I assume).

If your kids are just swallowing pool water, then that's not so bad since the chlorine is not much different than drinking tap water, especially in low bather-load residential pools, though you still wouldn't want to encourage it. The riskier issue is if they get the water into their lungs such as swallowing down their windpipe which usually results in coughing or get water up their nose deep into nasal passages on a regular basis. I'm not saying the risk is high, just that it's potentially higher.

If you want to minimize the amount of chlorine in the pool, there are ways of doing that, but require extra products to be added at extra cost.

Richard

 

[teapot]

Ing,
In total agreement with Chemgeek (Richard)

The 28/28 is also making claims against other manufacturers which as they use the same technology cannot be true (so straight away you should question it) The extra money is in the control box, more you pay more control you get.

Exploring alternatives (within reason) is a hobby of mine and I have been experimenting for a number of years however not using any chlorine at all is just not worth it, it's a massive risk that you don't need to take.

Read the valuable information in the Pool School area.