Hot dog, Hi, and Howdy y'all ... from France !

[renohuskerdu]

Hello fellow homo sapiens pool owners, and welcome to me!

I live in France and have a pool. Pools used to be subject to a luxury tax here, but that was relaxed in the last 10 years, so a lot of regular middle class folks are getting pools these days. We are not allowed to have big pools like you Americans, only little ones. We have to pay a big luxury tax for bigger pools. Well, we got that "hope & change" here 50 years ago.

I have been a "good boy" and did real all the stuff I am supposed to read before posting. But I still haven't found what I am looking for. We use Bromine a lot in France instead of Chlorine. But all I can find on your nice site is "Bromine: An alternative to chlorine, most commonly used in hot tubs. Bromine can not be effectively stabilized against sunlight, so is not normally used outdoors. Bromine is more stable than chlorine at high temperatures, so it is often used in hot tubs."

Well if that is all that TFP will be able to help me with Bromine then I am sad and sorry to find such a good site but have to look more for another one.

Au revoir,

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

Nice of you to state what the problem was/is. It's too bad you feel you have to express such an attitude. There is more about bromine here than you would expect and certainly more knowledge and knowledgeable people than you will ever know. Just because you didn't know where to look or what to ask is not our deficiency. The only one to blame is yourself. By stating your displeasure as you did, if anyone answers any questions you might have would be a testament to our good will. I, for one, was insulted and would be hesitant to assist you. I doubt I am alone in that. Perhaps, when you learn humility, you might understand.

Scott

 

[Richard320]

I personally know nothing about Bromine in pools; 40 years ago we had a dinky pool in the backyard and mom used bleach. Every pool I've ever been around since has also used chlorine.

That said, you might want to try using the search box for "Bromide" which I have gathered from reading here is one of the components of bromine treatment. You might find what you need that way, as it will likely lead you to a more technical post.

 

[chem geek]

Welcome to TFP!

My father's ancestors came from Alsace, specifically from Diemeringen, and I've visited Strasbourg and surrounding areas several times. It's a beautiful area of France. I'm going to assume that the tone of your post is from native language differences.

There are no additional regulations or direct taxes on pool sizes here in the U.S. either now or planned. If there were such a change, it would be to conserve resources as part of going more green generally, but that's usually handled by tax incentives/credits and not luxury taxes of which there are very few though there was a significant set of federal luxury/excise taxes passed in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 during the George H.W. Bush administration, but this was repealed for most items in 1993 and completely eliminated in 2002 mostly during the Clinton administration. Some states have personal property taxes which are in effect luxury taxes on specific items. There is an indirect effect from an increase in property taxes if the assessed value is increased (sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, depending on the area you live) so would be the property tax rate which is typically on the order of 1-2% of the home value, though this varies by state, county and even city.

As for bromine in pools, it can be more expensive than chlorine which is the main reason it isn't used much in the U.S. except for spas. Nevertheless, it isn't very complicated to use. It isn't exactly true that bromine can't be protected from sunlight. Though it does not bind to Cyanuric Acid (CYA) directly, the CYA (aka conditioner or stabilizer) in the water can still shield lower depths to help block UV degradation of bromine. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of experience with what CYA level would be best, but I would guess that the 80 ppm CYA we recommend for saltwater chlorine generator pools would probably work reasonably well. Nevertheless, the daily bromine loss could still be higher than that of chlorine -- we've had mixed reports on this from the few bromine users here.

The rest of the water chemistry is fairly similar so would still be applicable to your needs. Do you have any specific questions?

 

[teapot]

The post says "we" use a lot of bromine, not where I am, we and I mean lots of people use chlorine and salt water chlorine generators.
It's just another post, you can educate and save or carry on as you are, you're choice, no pressure.

bonsoireé

 

[renohuskerdu]

The post says "we" use a lot of bromine, not where I am, we and I mean lots of people use chlorine and salt water chlorine generators.
It's just another post, you can educate and save or carry on as you are, you're choice, no pressure.

bonsoireé

OK this is good to know! But here in Alsace they say use Bromine because it will stay more and lose less. And they say not use CYA with bromine. This is the pool stores most closest to me. Now this is the best site I have come to yet and all I saw on Bromine is what I quote. Oh but that was not to offend, it is your pages I quote.

But that guy chem geek seems to be soaking with more knowledge of Bromine! But who is to be offended? Oh no what a waste of time. The chemicals pages here on your site all talk of only chlorine and here I am with already an expensive "brominator" plugged to my pump. Well what can I do? I hope you can understand.

 

[chem geek]

Under the Further Reading section in the Pool School is Using Bromine in a Spa which would be similar to using bromine in a pool with the same sort of 2-step vs. 3-step methods -- floating feeders, bromide banks started with sodium bromide, shocking to reactivate using chlorine or MPS, etc.

It is not true that you would be using less bromine than chlorine -- at least not if your pool were properly balanced and certainly not when accounting for the much higher bromine cost. Bromine isn't as strong an oxidizer as chlorine and its disinfection by-products are more mutagenic (i.e. more likely to cause cancer; EPA limits for organic bromamines are generally lower than for organic chloramines).

Again, what is your specific question about bromine? You are going to have to decide whether you trust others ("they say") or trust us here on this forum. Bromine principles are not that different in a pool than in a spa except for having to deal with sun exposure in a pool. However, you will probably be much better off using chlorine rather than bromine but it's probably too late for you if you've already got a lot of bromine/bromide in your pool since only a drain/refill will remove bromide from your pool.