Treating Your Pool Without Chlorine

Monday, March 26th 2007, 9:21 pm

By: News On 6

The warm weather might already have you thinking about pool season. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports some companies have thought of a new way to treat your pool, without that noxious chlorine.

"It's total electronic purification,â€ said David Estes of Intecnology. â€œNo more harmful chemicals like chlorine. No more coming out here everyday and spreading chemicals and checking for pH to chlorine balance and all that."

Estes says the secret is a device manufactured by a Florida company called Clearwater.

"It uses electrodes to actually purify the water,â€ he said. â€œWe put a small DC charge through the electrodes, and it releases copper and silver ions into the water."

The purifying properties of copper and silver were known as far back as ancient Greece and Egypt. The copper ions kill algae, and the silver ions kill bacteria and viruses. Itâ€™s literally space-age technology created by NASA to sterilize water on space missions, but it took a few years for the cost of the technology to come down to earth.

"It's like anything when it first came out, the cost was so high that only the elite could have it," said Estes.

Estes says the copper-silver electrode is easy to remove and takes a lot less maintenance than chlorine.

"If you keep it open year round, it'll do it for about two years,â€ said Estes. â€If you close your pool down in the winter, you're looking at two to three years on a set of electrodes.

And no more red eyes or green hair from chlorine.

"The water actually passes EPA standards for drinking water once the system is installed, so you've got 20,000+ gallons of fresh drinking water in your backyard," Estes said.

This particular company's system costs about $1,400 and Estes says if the average pool owner spends about $400 a year on chlorine, it only takes a few years to make up the difference.

If you have any questions, you can call David Estes at Intecnology at 251-8020 or 313-1427.