New Pool Owner...Kind of Clueless!

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stacia96

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Sep 15, 2015
3
Kensington, NH
Hi Everyone:

My husband and I are super excited because we just purchased our first home, which comes with a nice pool. While I had an inground, Baquacil pool as a kid, I never paid attention to any of the pumps or anything. My job was cleaning the pool furniture and vacuuming the pool. The pool at our current house uses bromine. We have no idea what we're doing, and while my dad has said he'll come for a visit to help us figure it out, we were looking for some advice now. I've taken some photos of our pool (sorry, not sure of the size yet) and the pump system. I was hoping someone could explain everything that is going on. Specifically, could someone explain the different options on the Pac-Fab valve. I think this manual has helped a little, but it looks a bit different from the model we have (http://www.pentairpool.com/pdfs/MultiportRotaryValveOM.pdf). We're trying to figure out how everything should be set so we can vacuum.

Also, what are some recommended closing procedures? Besides bromine, what other materials will we need to treat the pool (in general, and for closing and opening)? Any advice is appreciated!

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I will caution you that there are VERY few pools sanitized with bromine. Pool stores have little experience with them so the advice is sketchy.

Even on this forum, there are scant few of us that have dealt with a bromine pool.

Your pool is very good looking and has been well maintained but I would suggest you consider switching your pool over to chlorine when the opportunity presents itself.
 
I had a bromine pool for 10 years. I switched to chlorine after a complete water change.

Unlike chlorine, bromine really doesn't disappear from your water. Once you have a strong bromine residual in your pool (several years), chlorine will actually reactivate your bromine so it is effective again. You have to do this at night, though, as the chlorine will burn off rapidly in the sun.
 
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It's a long story.....

The basic gist is that there is a chemical called DMH, (dimethyl hydantoin), used in "binding" bromine into a solid or granular form . It collects in the pool water and over the years can reach very high levels as there is no way to remove it. There is also no way to home-test the concentration. Eventually swimmers in my pool started to develop painful, itchy rashes although my water was crystal clear and my water chemistry was "balanced". Concerned, I began to research brominated pools and learned that it was in fact the build-up of DMH that was the root cause of these reactions. I learned that many countries monitor DMH concentrations in public pools and consider elevated levels to be "toxic". I also read articles about high bromine levels being more carcinogenic than other forms of pool sanitation.

You cannot easily "convert" a bromine pool into a chlorine pool. You cannot totally rid existing pool water of DMH. We knew that within a few years, our pool would need renovation requiring a complete drain. Rather than wait, we proceeded with the work earlier than scheduled so as to rid ourselves of the dangers of our long-term bromine use.

After much deliberation, we decided to switch to chlorine in our newly-filled pool. We wanted our water to be safe and we wanted the water to be safer longer.

We are VERY happy with our decision. Maintaining a chlorine pool is much less expensive and also easier. We know it's safer, especially in the long term.
 
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