Can I change from bromine to chlorine next year?

Aug 23, 2010
44
Alsace, France
Hi friends, :)

Like you can see in this old post
http://www.troublefreepool.com/ok-i-guess-i-am-offensive-french-but-i-need-bromine-info-t26548.html
I am using bromine because, well, because some people told me it is better then chlorine.
:hammer: Now on this list, I am not so sure I was correctly informed! :oops:

So my question is the follower: With good planning and forethinking, is it possible to stop using bromine pucks and start using chlorine pucks instead? Can I use the off season of winter here to do it? Here in northeast France we only can use the pool from the summer. Does somebody else already BeenThereDoneThat? :blah:

Thank you :wave:
 
You can switch to using chlorine to reactivate your bromine any time. But to truly switch to a chlorine pool you need to do a complete water replacement. With a fairly small above ground pool that is practical to do, especially if you take down the pool anyway over the winter.
 
I guess I don't understand that answer, I am sorry. Throwing away the water will cost me $100 to refill it. So I would like to avoid that. You say I can switch to chlorine anytime, but to truly switch is not the same thing? Colour me confused please!
 
To really switch you have to replace 100% of your water. There is no way around that.

However, there is a curious aspect to bromine. Bromine takes two forms: bromine and bromide. When bromine gets used up it turns into bromide. Bromide can be turned back into bromine with chlorine, or any of several other oxidizers of which chlorine is usually the least expensive. So you can continue having a bromine pool, but reactivate the bromine with chlorine.
 
Hah! I like that! One more question please: :hammer:

If I do go that path, will I still need to multiply the chlorine test result displayed on our tester by 2.25 to get the true bromine equivalency? I suppose that the answer will be YES because we will still have bromine in there, not chlorine.
 
Read more of pool school. If you use chlorine pucks with your chlorinator your CYA will go off the charts quickly with a 5000 gal pool. You need you use plain bleach, what is the cost of that for you?

Do you close the pool for the winter? I believe our shock process might take longer if you stop using bromine and switch to bleach/chlorine.

$100 for the water change sounds like a lot but it will garantee a much more pleasurable experience in the future. My vote is for a salt water chlorine generator if you can find one reasonably priced.

In theory chlorine/bromine will work. I can foresee problems though and getting help with be more difficult as not many of us have personal experience with that. I have used bromine for a hot tub, switched to chlorine and couldn't be happier.
 
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