Let’s compare CL Free Digital Water Systems to the most common Chemicals on the market today.
Chlorine or Bromine Chemicals
Chlorine, for now, is the most popular means of sanitizing your Leisure fiberglass swimming pool water. It does an excellent job sanitizing swimming pool water, but it does so at a huge price.
Chlorine is a very caustic, corrosive chemical. It is effective because it attacks anything organic. Unfortunately, it also attacks the skin, hair, and eyes of the humans swimming in the fiberglass pool. Chlorine is toxic and hazardous to handle, ingest or breathe. It is also dangerous to store. Chlorine can be extremely flammable.
Chloramines, a by-product of chlorine and organic waste, are known carcinogens. Unfortunately there is no practical way of preventing chloramines from forming in chlorinated Leisure pools.
Maintaining chlorine, at minimal acceptable levels, can be very difficult to do at times. Residual chlorine is highly affected by the water temperature, rain, pH, and number of swimmers. Chlorine is absorbed through the skin of swimmers. The more people that swim in the Viking pool, the more chlorine is absorbed by their skin and the more chlorine that needs to be added to the fiberglass
pool water to properly sanitize the swimming pool water. This is the reason most inground Leisure pools need to be super chlorinated (shocked)
after a days use.
Mineral or Catalytic Cartridge System
Mineral cartridge systems are sold under the following trademarked names: Nature2, Vision, and FROG. These products kill contaminants, primarily bacteria, in the fiberglass pool water as it passes through a cartridge.
This means the pool pump and filter must run for long periods of time to treat the tens of thousands of gallons of water in a Leisure swimming pool.
Pool suppliers, who sell these swimming pool systems, often recommend that you run your pump and filter 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
While, these fiberglass pool systems may reduce the need for chlorine or other chemical oxidizing treatment, they do not eliminate the need for these chemicals.
These fiberglass pool systems also require a trip to the pool store to purchase expensive cartridges. In some cases more than one cartridge may be needed in one season.
There is no obvious way to determine when these cartridges fail to be effective. Their effectiveness may expire prior to the cartridge contents being totally depleted.
Biaguanide Chemical Products
Vinyl Liner Pool water purification additives containing biaguanide chemicals are sold under the trademarked names of Baquacil and Soft Swim. The active ingredient in these products is known as biaguanide. Unlike chlorine, biaguanide is not an oxidizer, so it does not irritate your body by reacting or "burning up" organic contaminants the way chlorine does.
Biaguanide does provide a higher quality of swimming pool water than chlorine treatment but it is very expensive. Sometimes costing several times more than chlorine. Biaguanide needs to be purchased in bulky containers and needs to be manually added to the Vinyl liner swimming pool water regularly. After prolonged use of biaguanide, most fiberglass pool owners complain that it takes more and more of the product to achieve the desired water quality. Leisure swimming pool owners also mention that the product causes a unique odor in the water after extended use which most people find offensive.