Chlorination

Manual chlorination

The most common way of keeping your small size pool sanitized is to manually add chlorine. This involves testing your pool’s water to figure out how much chlorine to use, and will need to be done every second day for the average backyard pool. This might be the best option for short-term solution.

Salt based chlorinators

Saltwater pools are popular but they don’t do away with the need for chlorine. Saltwater pools use salt chlorinators to convert common salt crystals into chlorine gas which is soluble in water.

• You can install a salt chlorinator in the existing pipe work of any pool. The only exception is above-ground pools with metal structures as they’ll rust.
• Some salt chlorinators are self-cleaning. If you don’t buy a self-cleaning system, you will need to manually clean the salt from the cell as often as every fortnight. Self-cleaning models don’t need detailed service, but are expensive.
• When a salt chlorinator is initially installed, you will need to manually add salt to your pool. The recommended initial dose is 4kg of salt per 1000 litres – about 20–30% will be lost every year due to backwashing, splashing and overflow, so regular salt top-ups will be needed. (this is subject to type of water and usage of pools too.)
• Salt chlorinators operate automatically, so you can go on holiday knowing your pool water will remain clean. They are also cost-effective to run and will generally last about five years.
• The capacity of a chlorinator is usually expressed in grams per hour. Some pool suppliers will express a unit’s capacity in terms of its liquid, granular or tablet chlorine equivalent. As a guide, liquid chlorine is about 12–15% chlorine, granular chlorine is about 65% chlorine and tablets can be up to 100% chlorine.

Liquid chemical feeders

These feeders are fitted to your pool’s filtration system and automatically add liquid chlorine, and in some cases acid, to the water.

• The simplest models only inject chlorine into your pool – the amount and frequency is set in advance.
• More sophisticated models have a sensor probe that automatically tests the chlorine and pH levels of your pool every few minutes, and injects chlorine or acid to keep the water clean and balanced. This means that if 100 people jump in your swimming pool, your pool will automatically up its chlorine level. These models too have the ongoing costs of liquid chlorine and acid as consumable.

Even though the more sophisticated models monitor and adjust pH levels, it’s still recommended that regular test should be performed