What is the best water treatment for a pool?

Treatment using chlorine, or bromine, or by salt chlorination... there are many solutions for disinfecting your pool water. Which one should you choose?

Should you opt for chlorine or bromine treatment?

Chlorine or bromine treatments are some of the most popular techniques. They are highly effective and are able to eliminate bacteria, viruses, fungi and all other organic materials in suspension in the pool water.

These powerful oxidants come in the form of pellets to be placed in skimmers, or tablets to be placed in a dedicated device (brominator) installed within the water filtration system. Easy to use and affordable: chlorine is the cheapest treatment on the market, whereas bromine is 20% to 30% more expensive.

However, in addition to its strong smell, the downsides of chlorine are its tendency to cause skin problems, and the fact it only works when the pool pH is neutral. Contrary to this, bromine still performs effectively in a pool with a high pH and has no irritating effects or recognisable odour.

Have you heard of salt chlorination?

Considered to be better for health and more natural, this treatment method uses salt, which is injected into the pool before being transformed into natural chlorine by salt chlorination. This process will give it the same disinfecting and cleaning powers as chemical chlorine.

The major difference is that this natural chlorine does not smell, and does not trigger allergies. In addition, under the effect of UV rays, this chlorine spontaneously transforms back into salt, thereby allowing the treatment cycle to restart multiple times.

Even though the initial investment is high due to the purchase of the salt chlorinator, the annual cost of operation of this solution is negligible given that salt is a highly affordable raw material. Especially since it is recycled, as we have already mentioned!