refurbished Del ozone generator

[brownsburg]

Hi,

I'm looking at a Del Ozone generator for my new pool and have a question. The unit that I'm looking for is $1200 on sale for $999 in one of the local pool stores. Meanwhile I've found the same unit, Refurbished by the company for sale at $400 with the same original one year warranty.

My question is, what's within these machines to worry about on a refurbished model? Is it one of the things that either works or doesn't, or am I looking at progressive problems?
I believe that at this price I don't have much to loose, but I would like a more educated opinion.

Thanks

 

[Bama Rambler]

Unless this is an indoor pool, I'd pass on the ozone generator and take a good hard look at a SWCG.

Now that I've got that out of the way. As long as the warranty is sound then 1/3rd of the price sounds like a good deal.

 

[Poolsean]

Bama, Thanks for the SWCG plug!

Ozone generators are either going to be corona discharge or UV. The corona discharge has a two charged surfaces (electrical field) that does the splitting of the O2 (oxygen). Whereas, the UV system is a basic UV Lamp, designed to emit a certain UV spectrum, inside the housing. The split oxygen atom, O1, then combines with another O2 to form O3 (Ozone). Ozone then gets sucked into a venturi in the return line.

What you should verify in the "remanufacturing" process, is if the bulb is new, or how old the Corona Discharge (CD) unit is. A UV bulb wears out after a few years, while CD units can last up to 10 years. Are these factory remanufactured units, warranteed by Del Ozone?

There really is some value to Ozone generators, but it's just more difficult in determining WHEN the UV or CD stops working. MOST people will slowly increase their chlorine dosing to mask the depletion of ozone generation. Before you know it, you're basically maintaining a chlorine pool, and not realizing the ozone system has stopped generating ozone.

 

[brownsburg]

Thanks for the reassurance.

The unit is remanufactured by Del and has a Del warranty of one year. It's a CD unit and not a U.V.

I would love to put a salt water system in my pool but I've had three pool installers tell me not to do it because my pool is cement. (poured cement without plaster) Appearently the salt eats at the cement.

I'm glad to hear that salt people recognize the Ozone system as being good. I thought about the lamps and figured that I could gauge it with the need for more chlorine.

 

[racket]

I'm glad to hear that salt people recognize the Ozone system as being good. I thought about the lamps and figured that I could gauge it with the need for more chlorine.

Keep in mind that they sell them too.
:lol:

 

[JamesW]

Ozone will deplete chlorine and it will oxidize iron and manganese. The iron will precipitate out as iron (III) hydroxide and the manganese will precipitate out as manganese hydroxide.

Why do you want an ozonator?
Does the water contain any metals, such as iron, manganese or copper?

 

[brownsburg]

we want to reduce the amount of clorine needed and I was told that salt is not good for a cement pool.

 

[JamesW]

Unless the pool will be very heavily used, ozone will increase the amount of chlorine needed, because ozone reacts with chlorine to form chloride (77 %) and chlorate (23 %). Ozone also causes all of the iron to precipitate out and cause iron stains if you have any iron in the water.

Salt would probably fine as long as the CSI is properly maintained. Have you considered having the pool plastered?

If you don't want to use a SWG, then liquid chlorine or bleach would be a good choice.

 

[learthur]

I have both.
The bottom line is while it is true the ozone may reduce chlorine demand by aiding oxidation of the organic load, it doesn't matter in practical use because you still have to maintain the same amount of chlorine to prevent algae growth.

Sure you can sanitize pool with 0.5 ppm chlorine, but algae will grow with or without ozone. To prevent the algae you need a higher chlorine level determined by your CYA level. This will be much more than you need to sanitize. It will be a higher level which is good as it will help with oxidation maintenance.

Yes, my pool data showed a 20-50% decrease in FC demand with the ozone in a NON-saltwater pool. Since then I converted to a SWG and will never go back. A SWG is the best thing since sliced bread!

Where ozone is more useful is in a SPA or indoor pool, or outdoor pool that is covered extensively with a solar cover, or a pool with heavy use or lots of kids urine.

Never let your dog swim in your pool....

 

[DWSPool]

We had a DelOzone Trio-Pure for three years (pool seasons). The Trio-Pure is a combined ozonator/swcg, and while the concept was good and the unit did the job when it was operating correctly, there were several problems we encountered related to quality control of the product: cracked plastic housing for the titanium plates (the swcg) caused leaks (on two units), internal pump gave out on one unit, poor electrical contacts on swcg caused intermittent chlorine "outages", one of four CD units on the ozonator always seemed to be out. The company was good about sending us new parts or units right away on three different occasions, but then the warranty gave out and they were going to charge us $400 for a new plastic housing/titanium plates and we decided the unit was too much trouble. Essentially, the unit cost about $400 a year ($1200/3 years) and lots of frustration.

We switched to liquid chlorine, which has been more effective, less expensive, and lower maintenance. Our new Liquidator just arrived, so I expect there to be even less "pool babysitting" this summer. See this location for more information on the Liquidator: chemical-automation-and-the-liquidator-f81.html

As others have noted, you will still need to add chlorine to control algae and as a residual sanitizer (ozone essentially only works while the pump is running). Even DelOzone does not recommend an ozonator as a stand-alone sanitizer for residential pools. If you can't use a swcg (due to cement surface), then I would go with liquid chlorine and the Liquidator - the Liquidator is half the cost of even your refurbished ozonator and I suspect will be much more maintenance-free.