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With the new regs for pools etc what are the regs for an indoor pool?

Also , does anyone have an indoor salt pool? can you give me some info please ie:what salt do you use, how much, how often that sort of thing - a complete  beginner here.

Thanks.

wisteria

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Wistera

Might I enquire why it is that you prefer a salt/chlorine sanitisation system rather than direct chlorination?

As far as the regs are concerned, If your inground pool is housed within a structure which can be locked on all access points, then you will be complaint, as far as I understand it.

However, I would advise you to install an alarm as a second layer of security, just to be sure.

Andrew

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Thanks for your reply. I dont prefer salt as i dont know enough about all the different types (maybe you can enlighten me). As i swim several times a week, the chlorine plays havoc with my hair (dont want to wear a hat)and was looking for an alternative. As i said , we are complete novices and would like as much info/ideas/peoples experiences as poss. The pool would probley be 'added' onto the house at the end, and as we have a gite and B&B dont just want to rely on what we are told by any company.

Thanks

wisteria

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi wisteria,

an alternative to a salt pool is to make the pool freshwater. I have a Bio-UV ultraviolet water treatment unit, with a Zeostar filtration system. We do not use any chlorine or other foul chemicals and the water is crystal clear. The BIO-UV system has a ph meter that automatically checks the ph twice daily and doses automatically with ph+ or ph- (you set it up with one or the other solution depending on the characteristics of your pool) There is a second automatic pump that doses with a nominal amount of Remanent (anti-algicide) daily.

Should you get an algae build up a dose of Oxygene Actif (Hydrogen Peroxide by any other name) clears it in no time. The final touch is to use a specialist floculant, Jolly Gel for instance that can be used with Zeostar. Zeostar filters to a finer diameter, I forget what it is in Microns, than ordinary sand so ovarall you get wonderful clear fresh water in your pool.

After the installation cost, you replace the sand in your filter with Zeostar and adjust your piping a little for the Bio-UV cyclinder, the cost of ph adjuster and Remanent comes to a few hundred Euro a year and well worth it in my opinion. No dry skin, no smelly hair - bliss!

See www.bio-uv.com

Happy swimming

Richard
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Richard,

you say : "We do not use any chlorine or other foul chemicals...", but then say : "The BIO-UV system has a ph meter that automatically checks the ph twice daily and doses automatically with ph+ or ph-" and "There is a second automatic pump that doses with a nominal amount of Remanent (anti-algicide) daily." and "Should you get an algae build up a dose of Oxygene Actif (Hydrogen Peroxide by any other name) clears it in no time".

Are these not chemicals?

I'm not criticizing, but wondering what's the advantage of this system?

Steve
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Hi Wisteria and all

If you care greatly about your health when swimming, longevity of your pool, minimise the impact on the environment, and save the most cost in maintaining your pool, I can suggest solutions. If you take care choosing your system of Sanitisation, you can be sure that the water you swim in will be safe, not react with your skin,eyes or hair, and easy to maintain.

Firstly it depends on the size of pool you are interested in and the number of people using it. Next it depends on whether the pool is associated with a Gite or is totally private, then I would be interested to know how many children you expect to bath.

If you can give me a reading on these issues than I can combine systems for you to achieve this aim.

Real reason for this information is that not all systems are suitable for all purposes. There are drawback and pluses which need to be balanced if you want the optimum solution.

For my part, I believe that this discussion has merit because I have seen pools where the systems have failed to meet the demand or the standards. The consequence was sickness and irritability from swimmers, a very bad scenario. The inevitable result is that the owner is up for more 000's euro to get the pool running again after being poorly advised in the first place. So lets take some time and get it right for you.

I'm happy to help

 

Andrew

 

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Hi Steve,

you're right, these are chemicals. The great difference is that the automatic dosers adjust the levels twice daily with just a few CC's of acid or alkali and a few cc's of anti algicide, rather than the larger quantities of irritant chemicals that tend to be used with a chlorine based pool.

The net result is that you swim in clear clean water, never have itchy skin, don't need to shower after you get out of the pool to wash the chlorine off and ladies don't have their hair become stringy or, if coloured, adopt a new unnnatural hue.

The oxygene actif I use as a shock treatment, 10 litres to about 130 cubic metres of water if I've been away and the pool is completely green. Give it a day with the filtration running constantly and run the pool robot a lot and the water is crystal clear again, the oxygene actif having been completely absorbed.

I can't recommend it enough. Swimming without goggles and no hurting eyes. When I get in a chlorine pool I immediately notice the difference.

I agree with Hendo, again, that you need to consider carefully how many people will be using the pool and tailor your system to suit. It might cost a bit more to set up initially, and you should err on the side of caution as you may finish up with a higher proportion of people using your pool than you first calculated. In my opinion the results justify the cost as you enjoy the pool more.

Richard

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  • 2 weeks later...

Generally, Richard’s post are accurate and based on good information as he is no doubt a pool professional like myself.

However, If I may just add a few comments about the last post.

Automatic 'Dosers' or Pool Controllers as I prefer to call them, are all not alike. For example some as Richard has said 'dose' the pool a couple of times per day. Whereas other brands with which I am more familiar test the water every 3 minutes and introduce either Chlorine and/or acid depending on the requirements of the water balance in that 3 minute period. The net effect of this system is that there is only so much chlorine introduced to meet the 'Load' or requirements in the pool during those 3 minutes and again in the next 3 and so on. This will produce an ideal situation where there is an ideal pH (7.2) maintained at all times and the amount of chlorine introduced into the water is always JUST ENOUGH to do the immediate work. Hence your water is ALWAYS perfectly balanced and sanitised without over dosing or being too low. This will also mean that introduction of any other treatments are unnecessary as your pool will never grow algae so long as the controller is functioning. So Choc is a thing of the past, algaecide as is ‘hivernage’ and ‘Green pool rescue’ all of which are particularly nasty. Another incidental benefit of this method is that liquid chlorine is many times Cheaper than the tablets or any other sanitising treatment.

As the Automatic Pool controller uses straight Choline, it is possible to avoid the use of stabiliser, which is a particular problem with 'dosing' by hand. That is: when you put a tablet of cholore long or 5 in 1 into your pool (Manual Dosing) you are introducing a portion of Cyanuric acid (Stabilizer) the purpose of which is the hold the chlorine in the pool long enough to do its job over a number of days, otherwise the chlorine would motor up to the heavens during the first day. The consequences of this are that the cyanuric acid stays and builds up with every additional dose even thought the chlorine is ‘burnt off’. This will contribute to the Total Dissolved Solids in your pool but worst of all, as it gets higher it will effectively stop new chlorine from doing it job by cloaking the chlorine and prevent it from attacking pollutants. So even though you think that there is ample chlorine in your pool you notice that its green or has algae or is not clear. Hhhmmm ..what to do?

The remedy to this difficulty is that you must jettison a substantial portion of your water and fill fresh to dilute the stabiliser. This is difficult if not impossible to achieve in these days of water restrictions over 1/3 of France, not mention expensive even when you’re allowed to do it.

If you have swimmers complaining that their eyes hurt or skin is itchy – this is a pH problem and NOTHING to do with Chlorine. Your pH should be at 7.2, which is the same pH as the tears in your eyes. If it substantially higher or lower than that, you will feel the effects in your eyes first and then your skin. Another problem is if you can smell an odour that some call “chlorine smell”, it is NOT chlorine but chloramines that is producing the odour. It is a sure sign that you have NOT ENOUGH chlorine in your pool. Because as Chlorine attacks organic pollutants such as bodily fluids a compound is formed known as Chloramines, which is the degraded form of chlorine. If your levels are good then there is no smell at all and no effects to the skin or eyes what so ever.

In all of this, if you treat your pool manually I recommend that nothing is as good as constant testing of your water with DPD1 tablets for chlorine and PHENOL RED tablets for pH. Several times a day is good if you are using the pool a lot, once a day if not. In addition, you need to check for cyanuric acid every couple of weeks. If it’s too high then you’ll need to refresh water. If this programme gets too much for you, then its time to consider an Automatic Controller to do this work for you.

Andrew

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