Everyone loves swimming in crystal clear water. Unfortunately, keeping pool water clean, clear and safe is an ongoing challenge for most pool owners. That’s because traditional methods (chlorine sanitation, salt systems, mineral systems and enzyme-based systems) usually do well under IDEAL conditions, but they don’t respond well to all-too-common day-to-day fluctuations in conditions, such as:
- Bather load (how many people are in the pool?)
- Hotter temperatures.
- Windy or dusty conditions
- Sunshine instead of clouds
- Rainfall
- Leaves, grass and other debris
- Pets and other animals
- Pumps, filters and other equipment problems
- And most dangerous of all, people having accidents in the pool.
Dangerous pathogens such as cryptosporidium are especially problematic, because most traditional sanitation systems take days or even weeks to effectively eradicate and neutralize their effects. That’s why the advanced pool sanitation system known as AOP (Advanced Oxidation Process) has become immensely popular in recent years.
An AOP system utilizes high-power technology that makes chlorine and ozone pale by comparison. An AOP system produces hydroxyl radicals that will instantly attack any organic matter within their reach, and destroy it in a matter of seconds. And it’s using pure human-friendly oxygen to do it.
Chlorine will more or less “oxidize” and destroy organic matter, but it’s (1) much slower than oxygen, and (2) it produces untold numbers of dangerous and potentially carcinogenic byproducts in the process. So it might make the water safe to swim in, but it might make you sick in the process. (Or at least make your eyes turn red and your hair turn green.)
Ozone is a little bit safer, because it’s using oxygen instead of chlorine. Unfortunately, ozone, like chlorine, is toxic to humans. And it has a half-life of at least 15 minutes, which means it has plenty of time to go from the ozonator into the pool water, float to the surface, and get inhaled by unsuspecting swimmers.
Additionally, chlorine and ozone will both get quickly overwhelmed when anyone of the above “changing conditions” kicks in. Bring in a combination of those factors, and it may be days or weeks before your pool is clear and safe to swim in again. If you get any one of the common but dangerous chlorine-resistant pathogens such as cryptosporidium, Giardia, or Legionnaires disease, you could have some serious illnesses on your hands, or worse.
By contrast, a properly designed and well-built AOP system will neutralize and obliterate all pathogens and nasty organics in a matter of minutes, no matter what the bather load. The disinfection of the water is instantaneous as it passes through the AOP chamber, which means as soon as you can run all the water through the filter, it will all be purified.