nature 2 system vs. SWG system

[doubleg4lsu]

greetings:

new member here, i am building a new pool, rather large by most 18x73 (key hole shaped) approx 1250 sq ft of surface area. i am totally torn by the decision to go with SWG or N 2 system...i hav friends who have both and i must admit they all have nice water feel, clarity, so on and so on. but i guess my question is long term, these friends have not had their pools for 5 plus yrs or longer. what are the long term affects and what is the annual cost of products to maintain these systems?

i guess need a nice pros & cons chart to help me decide.

gg

 

[Bama Rambler]

The best advice I can give you is to search for alternative sanitizers and read all you ever wanted to know.

Suffice it to say, An SWCG is the only choice between those two!

 

[dmanb2b]

Welcome to TFP

As Bama said, if you search for Nature 2 or n2 on this forum, you'll find a ton of info. A SWG is all you need along with a good test kit. Saltwater pools are chlorine pools and is one of the only 3 EPA approved swimming pool sanitizers...Bromine and Baquacil being the other two. Avoid the N2 as it just adds metals to your water and leads you into a false sense that you can somehow keep you water sanitized with lower levels of chlorine. This works for a few, but you'll notice with 17,000+ members we have quite a few ex N2 or Pool Frog members

Here is a good article from our further reading area in pool school (button on upper right of this page )

alternative-sanitizers-and-chemical-free-pools-the-truth-t3025.html

 

[Johnl]

I just installed a SWG this year and took out my Nature2. No need for the added expense of the Nature2 cartridge when the SWG is creating the chlorine. As long as your chlorine levels are in line, you don't have to worry about algae. Keep in mind that with a Nature 2, you still need some form of chlorine.

 

[doubleg4lsu]

very nice,,,thanks for the advise i guess i will go with a SWG/SWCG system.


gg

 

[PanamEric]

Hello,

A bit of additional information about Nature 2 or rather Zodiac Pool Systems.

I can't tell if Nature 2 is a good system or not but can tell you on that topic that I did take out another brand mineral system that I replaced by a SWG system and that was the best move I made. This when I really started enjoying my pool instead of pulling my hair out on chemistry and staining issues.

As to Zodiac I recently moved for work and have a pool here as well.
I installed a SWG (Duoclear) made by Zodiac that I bought in Canada (for $1000) and I am now regretting my choice. It worked well for almost one month and then got fried. The technical support people were nice but not very efficient.
In short they told me that it got fried by a power surge but none of the other electronics in the house got hit...?
They would normally send a technician but I am overseas so they had me test various things and concluded I needed to change the two boards (main board and touchpad).
Then they only sent one of the two boards (to my Canadian address) as the other one is backordered . I replaced the main board and got the other one (touchpad) fixed locally and still awaiting the shipment of the replacement but the system is still not working. Then after a month of fussing around and making me adjust salt levels and such they had the bright idea of emailing me the trouble shooting manual(!?). After running the diagnostic tests it was concluded that the transformer is fried as well. So in other words I am into my 7th week without the system and it only worked for 3-1/2 weeks. It is possible that I am just unlucky but it would appear that their electronics is very sensitive to power fluctuations and they don't really have their act together for handling problems, that is for Canada . Perhaps they do better in the US? Perhaps Nature 2 has better electronics (?) but I would definitely opt for SWG over anything else, and based on my personal experience, not a Zodiac one.
So draw your own conclusions.
I would suggest you look at salt levels required and cost of replacement cell and of course chlorine output and bells and whistles. Most of them have a superchlorination mode. Some have a built in salt meter (which is a nice option) others just have low salt indicator. Oh! Don't fall for swimming pool salt. Just buy non-iodized pure salt without additives (like for water softener) at a fraction of the price.
The human treshold for tasting salt is around 4000ppm...anything above most people taste.
Good luck

 

[learthur]

Pool came with a n2 when I bought the house. Used for 6 months till I had time to teplacemit with a Goldline swg.

Swg has more upfront cost, but my swg is worth every penny in reduced headache.
Much better than n2. My pool is on autopilot now and runs great.

By the way, you should know that metals in your water kill bacteria very very slowly. And they do nothing to eliminate organize. So with n2 frequent ( and expensive) shocking with chlorine is mandatory or you will grow algae.

Just get the swg and go enjoy your life