Mineral pool additives another scam? (King Technologies pool frog)

[waterbear]

Ben, in the Poolsolutions article above you make a reference to "dihydrogen chloride" in the third paragraph. I think you mean dihydrogen monoxide. (Bet you were working on it late at night I've done the same type of thing myself!)

(You are right -- hadn't finished the footnote, either. Don't recall if it was late at night, but I've been writing, or rewriting, more than I've been proof reading! Ben / PoolDoc)

[CarlD]

I take a different approach: A few years ago I calculated what the Nature2 system cost per season and, if I remember correctly, it was at least $200. Now at even $20 for a 5 gallons carboy of 12.5% Liquid chlorine, $200 buys 10 carboys, which is 50 gallons or the equivalent of 100 gallons of 6% bleach. Now, if you have a clean pool, and you add half a gallon of 6% every day (or a gallon every 2 days), during the average 3-month swimming season, you'll use approximately 45 gallons of 6% bleach, or a little less than 5 carboys of Liquid chlorine. In other words, your chlorine cost for the season may be HALF of what the Nature2 cost you. But here's the kicker: The system cuts your chlorine usage in half by killing algae, so you only need half as much chlorine, or, in this example, about $50 worth of LC. Soooooo.... If you just use LC, it costs you $100 for the season. If you use the $200 Nature2 + chlorine it costs you $250...where's the savings in that?

Now suppose I'm wrong (happens all the time ) and it only costs you $100 for the Nature2 or the frogger, for the season. It STILL costs you $50 more than just chlorine alone! In fact, unless the system costs less than $50, you lose money.

What PoolDoc and ChemGeek are saying is that mineral systems kill what is, essentially benign growth in your pool: Algae. We swim in ponds and lakes with algae all the time with little problem BUT, when you have algae, all your chlorine gets used up killing it, leaving nothing to protect you from the really dangerous bacteria that copper and silver can't kill, especially from fecal matter, that everybody has traces of.

My wife always says the ONLY pool she never gets sick from, and isn't afraid to get into, is mine (but that's only because we've never visited our fellow Moderators, PoolDoc, ChemGeek, or the other deeply experienced B-B-B users).