Sensitive to Chlorine, Deciding on BBB vs. SWG

[tnthudson]

Hello all,
I'm about to enter my 3rd season with a pool, and am planning on 'the change' from Baquacil to Chlorine. One problem: myself and my son are pretty sensitive to Chlorine; we tend to break out at almost any Chlorine pool we've been in.
I do have a spa with an Ozonator & Ion system (yes, it had Baquacil at one time); we use VERY little Chlorine with it (under 1 TSP/month of crystals), and it doesn't bother us...the latest reading was FC=.2 (pool store recommended .5-1.0); CC=.6 (pool store recommended 0.0-0.2); TC=.8. We had to shock it after that, of course, but our skin has been fine...

SO I guess my question is - can we expect to have a 'mild' enough system with BBB not to have skin problems all summer? OR should I consider SWG? or any other suggestions?
Please be honest, brutally straightforward, whatever...I'm definitely a newbie at Chlorine, and although Baquacil was great the first year, I can't deal with all the slime/mold/hundreds of dollars to treat it.
Thanks for any help!
P.S. I can make a new topic, but I'll also ask at some point how to open with Chlorine after closing in Oct. with Baquacil.

 

[JasonLion]

Almost everyone who is sensitive to chlorine is actually sensitive to combined chlorine (CC), a disinfection byproduct that doesn't usually occur in a properly managed outdoor pool. If you are very sensitive to CC you will want to pay a little extra attention to the levels to be sure you don't slip up and have problems, but it doesn't need to be all that much work once you get familiar with the process. If you are alright with the spa as you describe I think you will be just fine.

Getting a SWG is a nice convenience item but doesn't really make a difference for sensitivities. Adding salt can help some people, but you don't need to have a SWG to do that.

The Baquacil to chlorine conversion is not that hard, but it can be very dramatic. The water may turn all kinds of wild colors. You will also need to replace your filter media when you are done with the conversion (sand, grids/fingers, cartridge). It would be best to start a new topic in the Baquacil conversion area for that process.

 

[duraleigh]

Hi, Todd,

Welcome! the Baq to chlorine conversion, while simple, is a real test of your faith in your pool water knowledge. I think they're one of the most rewarding processes you can do.

As Jason said, be sure to start a new thread and you'll get lot's of good help all the way thru......hint: Stock up on chlorine....it's gonna take quite a bit at first.

You may well already know, but you'll need new sand ( i know) or a new cartridge (I think) for your filter.....good to have on hand.

 

[tnthudson]

thank ya'll

Thank ya'll so much! (OK, I'm from Virginia, it's obvious :-D )
I appreciate it, and I do plan on getting a TF100 test kit, probably today...it will be nice to have a place to ask questions about a product (and other aspects of owning a pool) that actually get answered by knowledgeable people.
And I had no idea that you could add salt without a SWG, I may try that later on if I can get this Chlorine testing thing down.
Thanks again!

 

[Guest]

One caution about your spa and ionizer. You water is very possibly NOT santized with less than 2 ppm FC in your spa and your ozone is actually working against your chlorine residual. Please read the sticky on alternative sanitizers and chemical free pools and what sanitizer should I use. There might be some useful info in there. If you are TRULY allergic to chlorine (which would also mean that bromine was out of the question) then you ar pretty much stuck with biguanide (Baqua, Revacil, SoftSwim, etc.)

 

[tnthudson]

Thanks for the info. on that, I need to check it out. I do appreciate it.