How Important Is Chlorine In Pools?
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How important is chlorine in pools really? Do you actually need chlorine or is this one of those "optional" things you can choose to do to your pool? The answer is that not only is chlorine important, it is easily the single most important chemical that we add to and monitor in swimming pool water. It is a sanitizer, an oxidizer, an algicide and can also build and hold a residual value in the water. This is the spectrum of protection that chlorine offers in pool water - the definitive thing which makes your pool safe to swim in.
While there may be alternative options to chlorine the reason why these are not more popular is that each and every one will have one or more weaknesses. Above we identified how chlorine is a sanitizer, oxidizer, algicide and can hold a residual value in the water. Any alternative that you look at will be missing one (or more) of these abilities which leaves the door open for the potential of illness and death. Make no mistake there are few things as dangerous to human life as untreated / stagnant water. This is the importance of using chlorine in pools and why industry professionals such as myself push back against tricks and hacks like putting copper pipes into your skimmer basket as this could end up with someone becoming sick (or worse) as a result of not properly respecting the importance of why we use chlorine in pools.
Ways alternatives to chlorine come up short - There are many great products which you can add to your pool which will assist the function of your chlorine in a supplemental way. Whether borates as a chemical addition to help reduce chlorine demand or a physical addition such as a germicidal UV lamp to help the chlorine in ways that chlorine is weakest there are a host of options to supplement your chlorine. It is the pursuit to replace chlorine completely which makes me concerned as a pool industry pro. It might even be possible to do this and keep the water safe for swimming but this would be a scientific pursuit and not something you attempt to do in your own backyard pool. More than just swimmers ear or itchy skin can happen when you swim in water that is not chemically managed. With every alternative option to chlorine you will find a lack of residual protection in the water. This is a paramount concern and something that chlorine easily accomplishes. No mechanical device can provide this protection, like a UV lamp, because the lamp can not work until the water passes in front of it. Out in the open body of water there is no protection from one swimmer to the next, or from any manner of zoonoses which can be introduced in an open air envirnment like your backyard pool.
Note - Copper and silver have natural bacteriacide and algicide properties however both lack a suitable timescale with which to do this job. What chlorine can accomplish in under 60 seconds silver and copper could take hours, days or even weeks of time to replicate, thereby making copper and silver unsuitable for residual protection in the water. They do provide a meaningful boost to the removal of bacteria and algae, but not fast enough to replace chlorine in your pool.
For more information you can read this article on chlorine free pools
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