Bromine In Swimming Pools?
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Every pool owner knows that you need chlorine as a chemical sanitizer to keep the water clean and safe to use. However many pool owners these days are interested in chlorine alternatives and traditionally speaking one of the main alternatives to chlorine is bromine. Now, if you are pursuing a "chemical free pool" or anything of the like you will not find bromine to be any better than chlorine as both are chemical sanitizers. However, as I have addressed in a few different articles on this subject, looking to eliminate the chemical sanitizer from your pool can have disastrous consequences. If this interests you then you might like to read this page about the dangers of chlorine free pools.
Coming at this question about chemical sanitizers in pool water from a different direction, most people are aware that hot tubs tend to use bromine as the chemical sanitizer of choice versus chlorine...but why is that exactly? What makes bromine good to use in hot tubs but hardly any swimming pool owners use bromine versus chlorine in their water. As it turns out there are a number of very specific reasons that you (probably) do not want to use bromine as your sanitizer in your pool. Especially if your swimming pool is located outdoors and receives direct overhead sunlight. Let's look at the reasons why you might (or might not) use bromine for your pool.
Bromine is more expensive than chlorine - Pound for pound bromine is considerably more expensive than chlorine products. In a 285 gallon hot tub this is a fairly inconsequential amount of bromine needed. In a 35,000 gallon swimming pool choosing a more expensive product like bromine is going to add up to be a lot of money by the end of the year.
Bromine breaks down in sunlight - Both chlorine and bromine chemical sanitizers are unable to withstand the degrading power of UV from the sun however chlorine can be stabilized against this problem using cyanuric acid. We maintain chlorine pools at 30 to 50ppm of cyanuric acid and this helps to prevent the sun from burning off your residual chlorine in the water every day. Bromine however is unable to be stabilized and as a result no matter how much bromine you have in your pool you would lose approximately half of it every hour that the sun is shining. This would require either the addition of more bromine (basically daily) or the addition of an oxidizer product (also daily) to reactivate spent bromine salts into active bromine again.
So the answer to if you can use bromine as a chemical sanitizer in your pool is yes, with the only problem being that you will not be able to stabilize the bromine against UV. This is why bromine is popular in hot tubs...because they have a cover on the 95% of the time and rarely are they exposed to long hours of sunlight. It is worth noting that another primary difference between chlorine and bromine is the pH levels at which the product is effective. Chlorine for example operated ideally in an acidic environment, far more acidic than you would swim in. Think of something the acidity of black coffee. Chlorine can work at the pH we keep pools at (7.2 - 7.8) but only just. Anything over 8.2 - 8.4 and the chlorine becomes largely ineffective.
The ideal pH range for bromine is closer to the pH levels we keep pools and spas at which is definitely an advantage for bromine in hot water environments which can often be high pH due to the nature of aeration and how hot tubs work. This makes bromine more suitable for water which is commonly high in pH where chlorine would be less effective. The lack of sunlight reaching the spa water eliminates the main problem with bromine being used in pools. With any sort of direct sunlight the bromine will be difficult and costly to maintain a residual level in the water. This is how we have ended up with swimming pools being primarily sanitized with chlorine while hot tubs more commonly utilize bromine.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool specialist from Ontario Canada and one of the most trusted voices in the swimming pool industry. With over 20,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the Pleatco Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print. Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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