Questions about my 16"X48" Intex pool?

Question

I am putting this pool up for the first time and was wondering what kind of stuff I need to buy to put in it. Is there anything out there that is safer than chlorine. Anything that won't burn your eyes. Thanks for your advice.

Answer 1

you can use bromine instead of chlorine you wont have the odor like chlorine does or in our pool store we sell the brand "baquacil" that is chlorine and bromine free.

Answer 2

Intex offers a salt water generator for their pools now. It's a pricey, but wise investment. They generally pay back their initial cost in 3 seasons or so and from then on, save you quite a bit of money keeping your pool healthy.

In a nut shell:

A salt generated pool is still a chlorine pool, but lower dosage, injected all the time. It's essentially recycling your sanitizer.  Slightly salinated water flows through an electrolytic cell and is converted to chlorine ( chlorine is a type of salt) it oxidizes ( gets rid of) a nasty and turns back to normal salt again. The process then repeats itself.  Here's a link to their site on the subject, that will help explain it to you. http://www.intexcorp.com/saltwater.html

Check out the details in the tabs there. It ought to explain most of what you might have questions for.

This type of sanitizing system is going into most new pools these days. They're cheap to run, effective and are very skin friendly.

Bromine is an option, but VERY expensive and not all people get along with it well, skin wise. It also plays havoc with your water chemistry, which you need to be constantly on top of. Popular for hot tubs though, since it doesn't gas off like chlorine.

Bacquicil? Don't go there. It was a popular chlorine alternative a few years ago, but there are more drawbacks to it in the long run, than there are positive reasons to use it, it's since been found. Once you go this route, you're stuck with it until you dump the entire pool.

Answer 3

Chlorine is safe enough, I would get powered shock, liquid bleach (chlorine), and some muriatic acid to bring the pH down if needed.