Bromine ban in Canada: should I stock up or accept it and switch?

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D

Dan Morrill

Well-known member
Jun 8, 2020
75
London Ontario
Pool Size
23000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Canada has made the decision to ban sodium bromide use in Canada, and all related Bromine products for pools and spas will be pulled from shelves as of Nov. 2020.

So my question to everyone; is Bromine really that much better for use in spas that I should stock up on Bromine products to keep me going? Or is it not worth the trouble and I should just switch over the chlorine?
 
I used it and I never figured it out. I couldn’t keep any FC ever and was forever using enhanced shock or MPS. It never sat well in the back of mind with how many chemicals I dumped in my small 250 gallon tub. I was always wondering if this was the time my skin burned off.

So yeah, now that I have an idea of what to do with chlorine, I like chlorine. Or salt of you can afford an over the side unit. My pool is salt. If it’s half as good as the pool it would still be heavenly.
 
I haven't had an issue using chlorine myself, but I have no experience with bromine.

Note with chlorine that CYA reduces the effectiveness of FC if FC is not maintained appropriately for the CYA level. This usually is an issue for people that use dichlor exclusively for sanitation, the CYA builds up until the FC is no longer effective. OTOH some CYA is good, as it reduces the harshness of FC. Generally TFP recommends 30 ppm CYA for a chlorine hot tub, with a target FC of 4-6 ppm at that level. You can either use dichlor until you've added 30 ppm CYA, then switch to liquid chlorine, or add straight CYA when filling the tub and use liquid chlorine immediately.

I also have a Saltron Mini SWCG that maintains the FC level for me in between uses, though I still manually add chlorine after we use the tub, as it's often two or four of us soaking for hours when the tub is used.
 
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I just switched my tub this weekend from bromine to chlorine. Only because I do not want bromine getting into the pool. I had the tub predating the pool and used bromine as it just worked for me. It took a better part of the day to get the PH/TA in line and looks like I'm ready to rock. Now don't have to worry about keeping tub/pool use separate. But i"m curious, why is it banned?
 
From what I've been able to tell, they are mostly worried about salt water bromine generators, mostly on spas, and the possibly of producing harmful gases? I don't know enough about them to say whether they are just being ridiculous or not. But it is supposedly leading to the ban of all Bromine products for pools and spas, even though they are just worried about the electrolysis that occurs from a SWG.
 
I hadn't heard about this. I am now even more glad that I switched to a SWCG in my tub a couple of months ago. My pool has always had an SWCG and I really like the SWCG in the spa as well.
 
Dan Morrill said:
Canada has made the decision to ban sodium bromide use in Canada, and all related Bromine products for pools and spas will be pulled from shelves as of Nov. 2020.
Click to expand...
It turns out that this ban does not apply to bromine tablets, only to electric SWBG types of systems:
Nope, this only applies to Sodium Bromide - which uses electric discharge to convert the sodium bromide into bromine. This is different from using bromine tablets.
 
The proper way to use a bromine spa, as outlined in the sticky thread at the top of this forum, says you need to add a reserve of bromine to the spa upon each refill. The tabs can slowly build one up, but until then, you will basically have a chlorine spa. If we cannot purchase NaBr, I won't have a Bromine source for a reserve.
 
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Dan Morrill said:
The proper way to use a bromine spa, as outlined in the sticky thread at the top of this forum, says you need to add a reserve of bromine to the spa upon each refill. The tabs can slowly build one up, but until then, you will basically have a chlorine spa. If we cannot purchase NaBr, I won't have a Bromine source for a reserve.
Click to expand...
Wow - my dealer didn't tell me that when I bought my Jacuzzi spa back in around 2006. I ran it for 14 years with bromine tablets in the dispenser inside the filter - everything was ok in that I never had issues, other than if I neglected to put tablets in the dispenser. Three months ago I switched to a drape over salt cell so I no longer need bromine.
 
Linking this thread to...

Sodium bromide is NOT "banned" in Canada

It's commonly repeated that sodium bromide has been banned in Canada, that Health Canada considers bromine to be unsafe for hot tubs, and other such things. While it is true that certain sodium bromide products have been found to have health risks, and banned for sale by regulations from Health...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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