I am in the final stages before they begin the dig process next week. I had asked in a previous post about some questions and it seems the general consensus is that in a salt water residential pool that the ozonator the PB is wanting to add is a waste of money. I wanted to just get a few other ideas before my last meeting on Thursday to see if I need to have them remove it from my bid. Any info is appreciated
Ozonator or NO Ozonator
- Thread starter Huskers16
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+1 to what zea3 said.
They have their place in high bather load public pools or hot tubs, but generally are not needed in private residential pools that are used less.
If fact, on top of the cost to buy the system, and the cost to run the system, it will actually break down some of your chlorine and require you to add more than you would need to without the system.
BTW, the ozone or UV systems do NOT allow you to maintain lower FC level than we recommend ... which I am sure was one of their "selling points".
They have their place in high bather load public pools or hot tubs, but generally are not needed in private residential pools that are used less.
If fact, on top of the cost to buy the system, and the cost to run the system, it will actually break down some of your chlorine and require you to add more than you would need to without the system.
BTW, the ozone or UV systems do NOT allow you to maintain lower FC level than we recommend ... which I am sure was one of their "selling points".
Thank you, they actually told me this would cause me to not have to shock the pool sfter having a large party. I figure I could buy alot of chemicals to do that for the $1,000 they are charging me
If you follow out recommendations, you will never have to "shock" the pool {we try not to use that term as it means to many different things}.
With my SWG system, I just use a little bleach before and/or after a big party to bump up the FC a few ppm. As long as you maintain adequate FC which is a function of CYA level (... this the pool guys certainly do not understand) you will never have to do what they call "shocking" the pool.
IF algae or something does develop, you just follow the SLAM Process to clear it up.
With my SWG system, I just use a little bleach before and/or after a big party to bump up the FC a few ppm. As long as you maintain adequate FC which is a function of CYA level (... this the pool guys certainly do not understand) you will never have to do what they call "shocking" the pool.
IF algae or something does develop, you just follow the SLAM Process to clear it up.
Although an ozonator provides a little help, they are best utilized for indoor pools where you don't have the benefit of sunlight to break down your CC.
Ozone oxidizes bather waste; chlorine oxidizes bather waste.
When ozone breaks down (it has a short 15-30 minute half-life), it breaks down into hydroxyl radicals that are very short-lived powerful oxidizers; when chlorine breaks down by the UV in sunlight, it breaks down into hydroxyl radicals that are very short-lived powerful oxidizers. However, since chlorine is everywhere in the pool, these hydroxyl radicals are formed wherever there is sunlight in the pool. With the ozonator, only water passing through it gets exposed unless the ozone reaches the pool.
Ozone reacts with chlorine to form chloride and chlorate. One sees this very clearly in residential spas with ozonators, but in residential pools with ozonators most are so woefully undersized that one doesn't even notice the increased chlorine demand, but then what's the point of having such a weak ozonator anyway? If it's strong enough to show an increase in chlorine demand, again what's the point?
If one wants to use ozone in a residential pool, then one can have an ozone-only pool, BUT this requires a very powerful ozone unit (6% or higher ozone concentration in the injected air/ozone mixture) very fast turnovers (so large pumps and large diameter plumbing) and is not EPA-approved as a primary swimming pool disinfectant, mostly because it has not been shown to be safe (the EPA has tight rules for ozone in air so outgassing of ozone from an ozone-only pool is what they are worried about). Nevertheless, there are some very expensive high-end outdoor residential pools using ozone at 0.05 ppm in the bulk pool water, but you'd pretty much have to design your system to do this from the get-go.
When ozone breaks down (it has a short 15-30 minute half-life), it breaks down into hydroxyl radicals that are very short-lived powerful oxidizers; when chlorine breaks down by the UV in sunlight, it breaks down into hydroxyl radicals that are very short-lived powerful oxidizers. However, since chlorine is everywhere in the pool, these hydroxyl radicals are formed wherever there is sunlight in the pool. With the ozonator, only water passing through it gets exposed unless the ozone reaches the pool.
Ozone reacts with chlorine to form chloride and chlorate. One sees this very clearly in residential spas with ozonators, but in residential pools with ozonators most are so woefully undersized that one doesn't even notice the increased chlorine demand, but then what's the point of having such a weak ozonator anyway? If it's strong enough to show an increase in chlorine demand, again what's the point?
If one wants to use ozone in a residential pool, then one can have an ozone-only pool, BUT this requires a very powerful ozone unit (6% or higher ozone concentration in the injected air/ozone mixture) very fast turnovers (so large pumps and large diameter plumbing) and is not EPA-approved as a primary swimming pool disinfectant, mostly because it has not been shown to be safe (the EPA has tight rules for ozone in air so outgassing of ozone from an ozone-only pool is what they are worried about). Nevertheless, there are some very expensive high-end outdoor residential pools using ozone at 0.05 ppm in the bulk pool water, but you'd pretty much have to design your system to do this from the get-go.