Converting from bromine to chlorine pucks - any advice?

[renohuskerdu]

Hi american friends and other worldly too,

Well here I did get some very usefull advise about those nosty expensive bromine pucks as you call them. You guys told me that I can use chlorine pucks instead, so I bought some the other day. They cost only 30% as much as the turdly bromine pucks! And you did also tell me that our pool will still be a bromine pool because the chlorine will renouvel the bromine in there.

So now I am on my last of the bromine pucks in the automatic chlorinator device, which is only about half full now of bromine. We are have very hot days here now in France and for that reason more pucks are being consumed, so soon I will have only some sad little antacid tablets left in there.

So now, should I just start putting in chlorine pucks to refill the chlorinator? Is that really all there is to this conversion? I sure do like this forum and am so proud to speak English, because my french friends allways complain there is not so much good informations in french language websites. :blah: :blah:

But here in english language web, information abounds!


Ceferino

 

[Patrick_B]

STOP DO NOT ADD THE CHLORINE PUCKS TO THAT FEEDER.

Now, Welcome the the forum, glad you made it. I am not the expert you need, but it can be very bad to mix different Oxidizers to feeders when they have had different products. Even after they are empty. Please wait for one of our experts to weigh in on this conversion for you.

Again welcome, and great to have you here!

 

[Beamup]

What Brushpup describes as "very bad", just so you know, can mean "explosive." I've specifically heard that about cal-hypo + trichlor, not bromine + trichlor, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was similar. Definitely don't do that until/unless one of the experts comes by to say whether it's OK.

 

[Patrick_B]

Yep, that's why I said STOP in upper case. Normally I don’t yell in the forums :lol:

 

[BBBliever]

The only way to convert from bromine to chlorine is to drain and refill. Bromine does not break down like Chlorine. The bromine you have added will remain in the water for years to come. Chlorine will renew the bromine but you will have a bromine pool.

Sunlight will breakdown bromine if it is an outdoor pool. Let us know more about the pool you are posting about.

 

[renohuskerdu]

STOP DO NOT ADD THE CHLORINE PUCKS TO THAT FEEDER.
...

OK you got my attention, yelling works. I yell at my kids, my papa yelled at me, are we not all really just big kids sometimes? I am waiting now for further instructions.

But look here and see the Jason Lion guy did not warn me of explosion.
http://www.troublefreepool.com/can-i-change-from-bromine-to-chlorine-next-year-t35077.html

So I will wait now for some of those experience guys to way in with more expert advise!

 

[Patrick_B]

Sorry to yell at you. Really am, but I would rather do that than see someone hurt. Sursprised no one has answered. They will today Im sure.

 

[BBBliever]

Please don't misunderstand our intentions. We are not yelling at you. Just trying to help. It helps us if you leave all questions in one post rather than linking posts. Chlorine/bromine in a large volume of water will not explode. I am not sure about the puck feeder situation as I have never encountered it. PM Jason lion or chem geek, these guys will know.

As stated on your other post my vote is still for a water change with SWCG. This will make your life easier. I assume since you are useing a brominator you would not be a candidate for our method of daily additions of bleach.

 

[renohuskerdu]

It's OK we French yell a lot, all the time, when I go to American Im amazed how polite they are.

 

[duraleigh]

Adding chlorine pucks to a bromine feeder may or may not be dangerous. I don't know for a fact either way.

In the 8 years or so that I have been on these forums, I'm not sure this has ever come up. Let's please get some documented (like from a bromine producer) statement that indeed that will cause an explosion.

I'm not saying it isn't true. I am saying I don't know. As the premier source on the net for FACTUAL information about swimming pools, it is important that what we post up is accurate and not speculation. Especially if the logic is that you "read it somewhere" or it was "posted on another thread". We can do better than that with a little homework.

 

[renohuskerdu]

Dave I want a "like button" for you post!

 

[renohuskerdu]

Help some expert please! I am allmost out of bromine pucks!

My brominator is allmost empty now. We are going round and round here with us who are not experts but are trying with all our hearts to help me with a honest question.

Are them experts all on vacation? Please is their some expert who will tell us can I put in a few or some those chlorine pucks to my brominator today? The childrens want to swim and my chlorine reading is going low and low and low... And again today the sun and hot and air polution just keep coming every day :-D :?

Now it is 8h30 the morning only I am awake, the childrens will get up soon and ask me about when can they swim and I will have to say no :grrrr: they will think I am monster. :grrrr:

 

[chrisjbaileyuk]

I went from Bromine to Chlorine and was told not to mix the pucks in the feeder. What I did was manually dose with bleach (which will re-energise the bromine anyway for now) until the feeder was completely empty. I then flushed it through several times before filling with chlorine. You could also put a couple of pucks in the skimmer baskets for now.

ps you are aware of the CYA issues of using Chlorine Pucks over a long period?

 

[renohuskerdu]

...ps you are aware of the CYA issues of using Chlorine Pucks over a long period?

No I canot say with sureness that I know that issue. Is an "issue" like explosion?

 

[Patrick_B]

Dave, I apologize for jumping the gun here. My sincere apologies to the OP and the forum as well. The last thing I wanted to do was compromise the integrity of information on this site. I only know it is dangerous to feed different Chlorines in feeders having contained diifernt types and thought there might be a problem here as well. I was way too over zealous making presumptions on this. Again, my apologies to all.

 

[BBBliever]

...ps you are aware of the CYA issues of using Chlorine Pucks over a long period?

No I canot say with sureness that I know that issue. Is an "issue" like explosion?

I'm sorry we as non experts have been trying to advise you with our inferior knowledge. Truely I have no knowledge or comment on your Bromine/Chlorine puck "explosive" issue.

Based on your previous concerns posted much of this post as been a mute point. You have stated you dont like the idea of frequent water changes. If you decide to go with Chlorine pucks you will build a high level of CYA "chlorine stabilizer" and the cholrine will become ineffective. You will have to use more and more chlorine untill you end up with a swamp for a pool one day.

If you go with chlorine pucks be prepared to change the water yearly. This is why many on this site use daily manual additions of bleach or a salt water chlorine generator which I have previously recomended to you.

If you want to use an automatic puck feeder and not have to worry about water changes Bromine may be a better option for you although chlorine will give you better quality water without a doubt. When you decide which method to use we will be here to help you. All we ask is that you do not condesend us.

 

[duraleigh]

Well, I still didn't get a chance to look into it but there was never a need for an apology.....no one on the forum really seems to know the answer. I checked with Jason and he cannot remember the issue ever coming up either so it is very very obscure to say the least. I'll see if I can't make some contacts tomorrow.

 

[JamesW]

This reference has this to say:

...there are no specific directions for storing bromine products additional to that for any other Class 5.1 item. Nevertheless, it is advisable to keep them apart from trichlor products since the two can react and liberate heat if moist.
:
The above information is supplied by Bio-Lab and represents its best interpretation of available technical information at the time of preparation. The sole purpose is to supply factual information to Bio-Lab customers.

 

[renohuskerdu]

Hi friends,

I will try to synthesyse what I am hearing here. I have put numbers on these ideas so we can say for example "oh, number n is wrong/right" and thusly disabigueate these things clearly in our postings.

1. The chlorine pucks might be dangereus and make heat in with my bromine pucks in the brominateur machine, so I SHOULD NOT PUT THEM IN WITH BROMINE PUCKS.

2. The chlorine pucks will cause buildup of CYA and that is bad for the long terme. I think you guys know much more then me so if you say CYA is bad then I believe you. (wiki says CYA is work politics)

3. I maybe have been condesending people - I do not know what this is and wiki does not have it. So if it is a bad thing I am sorry to have do it.

4. If I go with chlorine pucks I must be prepared to change the water yearly. In my mind that is mean that the chlorine pucks are not pure chlorine! Is there CYA in them?

5. But if I use bleach from the supermarché the CYA will not get buildup. In my mind I see this to say that bleach from the market is pure chlorine.

So maybe I can do this plan that incluses all your good advise:

6. Use bleach supermarket until my bromine pucks are gone

7. Then put the chloreine pucks I allready bought for this year in the empty brominateur (I guess I will stop calling it brominator and call it chlorinator instead! )

8. Then throw away the water this winter.

9. Then next year I will use the bleach from the supermarket.

IS this a plan that is sensable to you?

I sure do like you guys and I dont want to offense anybody.

Ceferino et Griselle

 

[chrisjbaileyuk]

No offense taken. There are always slight language iterpretation issues on any web forum like this.

The plan in your last post is exactly what I did, just be careful to get the unscented bleach from the supermarche. In fact you may not need to throw away all of your water if you just use the chlorine pucks you have bought and then switch to bleach alone. Just match the level of Chlorine in the water to the level of CYA (see Pool School)