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I bought an 18' round above ground pool from my neighbor and I am getting ready to move it. I would like to get away from using a lot of chemicals so I have looked into SWCG's and UV systems. It appears the salt may damage the metal pool liner rails so I am leaning towards the UV system. Has anyone had any good / bad experiences with these?
Hi Pibster;
I think you are operating under some misconceptions, driven by cynical marketing types who are use environmental buzz words as just another way to scam people.
1. Having a chemical free pools is impossible, by definition. All pools are crammed full of the toxic dihydrogen oxide (1 - notes below), which is the most dangerous chemical most people encounter regularly. Over-exposure to dihydrogen oxide kills more people each year(2), than over exposure to any other 10 chemicals combined; it is so dangerous that it is the only chemical for which there is a specialized class of rescue workers who deal exclusively with over-exposure to this compound (3)
2. There is now a class of swimming pools that are genuinely free of added chemicals, except of course dihydrogen oxide. Some of them are quite beautiful. We don't support that sort of pool here -- it's too specialized -- but there's a lot of information and some great photos in this thread: Natural-Swimming-Pool-Photo-Gallery Such pools don't do well in warm climates like the South, or West Coast, but I believe that they'd work as well in Nova Scotia as they do anywhere.
3. All other types of pools which claim to be chemical free are not, but actually include heavy metal toxins (copper, silver), chlorine generation systems (that's what 'salt water systems do -- turn YOU in to a manufacturer of toxic chlorine gas!) and the like. Ozone, sometimes promoted, is a MUCH more toxic gas than chlorine gas. UV systems are almost always just supplements to chlorination, though the companies selling those products bury that information deeply in the 'fine print'.
4. The PoolForum is ALL about minimizing chemical use, to just what you need and NOTHING else: we constantly 'fuss' at people for using things they don't need, and constantly warn them to stay away from pool store salesmen, lest they end up with some other useless (or worse) chemical in their pool.
5. I'm not going to try to scam you and tell you that we can help you run a chemical free pool. But, what I am going to tell you is that anyone who tells you that THEY can do so, except for the type of "natural pools" I pointed out earlier, IS scamming you, and taking advantage of you. The natural pools in the thread are the exception; the rule is that small stagnant bodies of water are named, in English, either a "pond" or a "swamp". And, even those natural pools use quite a bit of energy, preventing the water in them from being stagnant.
Note #1: dihydrogen oxide = H2O = water.
Note #2: usually, drowning, though a lady did kill herself when she drank 2 gallons of water to dilute 1/4 cup of sodium hypochlorite bleach. The bleach would have given her a sore throat; the water killed her, by upsetting the electrolyte balance in her body!
Note #3: lifeguards.