CuLator Metal Remover

[chem geek]

(NOTE: This thread is in The Deep End because the following product has not been tested yet to be proven to be effective by members of this forum -- the product is fairly new only being introduced in February of this year.)

I just found out about a new product called CuLator® Metal Remover. It's not cheap at around $30 for a one-month supply. Their FAQ document states the following:

Dosages are dependent upon the level of metal ions in the pool. One bag will bind 1/3 of its weight in metals. This large capacity, relative to other chelation and sequestering agents, is why such a small amount of polymer is able to bind so much metal. In terms of pool water, one bag will lower the metal level of a 10,000 gal pool by .2 ppm (or .2 mg/L).

So that can clearly get pretty expensive if one has a lot of metals in their pool. 0.5 ppm in 20,000 gallons would cost around $150 if there is only one bag in their 1-month supply box, but it would be a one-time cost unless metals were getting re-introduced into the water, though that could get handled by other "metal trap" products (ion exchange resins) on fill lines. [EDIT] As Jason notes below, there are two bags in the box, each for 2 weeks, so that would be $75 to handle 0.5 ppm in 20,000 gallons. [END-EDIT]

Instead of just sequestering metal ions in the water, it has a polymer that has the metal adhere to it so when you throw out the bag you are physically removing metals from the water. After I find out more, I may do another ascorbic acid treatment in my own pool and be aggressive about removing some iron metal stains, but will use this product to remove the metal from the pool. I may also use it periodically for maintenance though likely not at the frequency they recommend until I get the rusting iron source fixed from the stainless steel bar mounts in my pool that rusted years ago when I used Trichlor.

If anyone has a serious metal problem and doesn't want to keep adding sequestrant, then this might be a product to try. Of course, there's no guarantee it will work though the reports on Amazon are so far favorable (assuming those are real users of the product). It's available on Amazon, but not too many other places.

 

[JasonLion]

This page shows two packets, The 1&2 packet is used for weeks one and two, the 3&4 packet is used for weeks three and four. So, it appears that it is half as expensive as what you calculated (which is still fairly expensive).

 

[chem geek]

The patent application for this product is here. It's a very interesting and appropriate product. We'll see if it works out for those who use it. I especially like it for my situation since I don't have a filter that I backwash and cleaning the monster cart is a pain so even if Jack's did capture metals in the filter, that's not something that would be pleasant for me.

 

[chem geek]

The CEO and creator of CuLator wrote in response to my question about how many bags:

The product now has one bag. A single bag is recommended for one month depending on the amount of metal and size of the pool. We recommend replacing the bag so that the bag itself does not become weak after a month. Since we do not know the exact metal content of most pools, and it changes daily, we make the month recommendation to keep the product fresh. As you mentioned, the polymer is not damaged by cholorine.