Salt Water Chlorine Generator Verses Ozone/Chlorine System

[dbakerappr]

Hello TFP peeps, I am a new resident to the Gulf Shores area of southern Alabama and I am thinking about installing a gunite pool. I have always heard and read that the salt water generator pools were the easiest to maintain and most desirable for swimming comfort. I have talked with several builders and one (Blue Haven Pools) is claiming that a SWG system is old technology and is recommending an Ozone/Chlorine system "Smart Pure Ozonator". Supposedly, once the system is up and running; it is cleaner, easier to maintain and just as swimmer friendly as a SWG system. I would appreciate comments or recommendations from anyone who has experience with these two systems. I would also appreciate feedback from Blue Haven pool owners. Pros and cons?
Thanks!

 

[PoolGate]

Ozone is not recommended on this site.

Non-Recommended Pool Chemicals

These pool chemicals should not be added to your pool. Save your money and frustration and avoid these chemicals!

www.troublefreepool.com

Ozone​

In an outdoor residential pool ozone doesn’t really help much at all, to the point where it is fairly common for people to post here that they have just realized that their ozone system had not been working for months, yet they never noticed any difference in the pool at all. It makes little sense to spend money installing and maintaining a device which has no perceptible effect.

Ozone
Ozone is sometimes used as a supplement to chlorine to help oxidize organic debris in the pool. Ozone does not provide any residual sanitizer in the bulk pool water, so it is not suitable for use without a sanitizer. typical serves as a secondary oxidizer, with chlorine as the primary oxidizer and sanitizer. In principal, the ozone can oxidize things, so that the chlorine doesn’t have to, saving on chlorine. However, in practice, there is so little need for oxidization in a residential pool that the maximum amount of chlorine you can save is very small. The situation is very different in a commercial pool, where the bather load is much higher and there is way more stuff needing oxidation.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

In short, go with a SWG. Steer clear of UV/ozone/mineral systems.

Good luck with the new pool. Hope you stick around and share the build.

 

[Bvacchiano]

Did he tell you the VCR is back in and is much better than a Firestick?

 

[kellyfair]

Hi, Dbaker! Welcome to TFP, we’re so glad you checked in before agreeing to something that you can’t change!

 

[Matt F 1]

We looked into this system last year when we were starting our build, we decided against it in the end.
Google "Ozone pool system" you'll find a lot of info, good and bad. It seems like a good system but just not for us at the time.

.

 

[Newdude]

The biggest issue with ozone and UV is they only sanitize the water passing through the unit that second. They leave 99.999999999999999% of your water with zero residual sanitizer. So you have to fully treat with chlorine/bleach anyway like you don’t have the expensive systems in the first place. The manufacturers spew some nonesense about needing to use a lower amount of chlorine because of the system but that is a bold faced lie. If you have to test and treat your pool like a chlorine pool, Have a cheap and easy chlorine pool and skip the add ons that do nothing for you.

big issue # 2 is that there is no way to test if those systems are even working. Could be a used up cartridge, fried circuit board or a broken bulb and 100% of your water goes untreated.

 

[magiteck]

The biggest issue with ozone and UV is they only sanitize the water passing through the unit that second. They leave 99.999999999999999% of your water with zero residual sanitizer. So you have to fully treat with chlorine/bleach anyway like you don’t have the expensive systems in the first place. The manufacturers spew some nonesense about needing to use a lower amount of chlorine because of the system but that is a bold faced lie. If you have to test and treat your pool like a chlorine pool, Have a cheap and easy chlorine pool and skip the add ons that do nothing for you.

big issue # 2 is that there is no way to test if those systems are even working. Could be a used up cartridge, fried circuit board or a broken bulb and 100% of your water goes untreated.

This is spot on.

To think about it in real-world terms: Imagine person gets into your pool, with bacteria on their body. Which... is going to happen.

You want that bacteria to die right away. You don't want it to float around in the water, getting splashed in faces, potentially still growing/spreading, until that particular bacteria floats into your skimmer and sucked through the filtration/ozone system.

If you want the bacteria to die right away, you need chlorine in the water to immediately attack it. And if you need to chlorinate your pool no matter what, then... why again are you buying this expensive add-on? And if you're using this "instead" of a SWCG, then you are needing to add chlorine to the water some other way -- making it even more work than just having the SWCG to begin with.