Ozone and chlorine vs saltwater pools in Texas... Help!

[Capp35]

About to buy a new in ground pool.
I was going to go with salt, because I can not stand the smell/feel of a normal chlorine pool and enjoy several neighbor's salt water pools.
Pool builder is pushing for Ozone, because he says it will cut down the amount of chlorine I need to use.

From what I have read, Ozone in not residual and pumps would probably need to go 24/7 for it to activley clean the pool. So more chlorine or higher pump/elec bill?
I know with this Texas heat you really need to keep on top of things.

Let me here some feed back from pool owners please.

[justindiehl7]

We converted to chlorine from ozone. The ozone is not made for hot texas weather and I does not work anywhere near what it is supposed to.

[Mike]

Chlorine all the way. If you are smelling chlorine in a personal pool, they're over-chlorinating, unless they have a large swim load.

[CBHunter]

There was another thread about this a couple days ago. Seems the most popular answer is chlorine by far.

[BrianG]

We just had a pool built for us. We went through the same thing. After talking to several people we went with chlorine. I don't smell it all and I'm happy with our decision.

[Jethro]

We tried converting to saltwater this year (haven't tried the ozone), and the salt doesn't work worth a crap here. Our water is so hard I have to soak the cell in vinegar once a week. I have gone back to chlorine and like it much better.

[Capp35]

So many pros and cons of each.....

[tex_n]

We have an ozone/chlorine system. The ozone doesn't take the place of chlorine, it just cuts back on the amount. In a straight chlorine pool, the chlorine is killing all of the bad critters. Put ozone with it and the ozone does a good portion of the killing. So, instead of keeping a 2.0 - 3.0 chloring residual in the pool, you can drop it down to 1.0 or less because (in theory) you only need the low chlorine level to keep stuff from building up before your water has a chance to run through the pumps to get zapped by ozone again. The only problem that I've found over the years is when we get a 2 inch rain shower, the chlorine level gets wiped out easily and then you have to fight it to get a residual back. Also with running a lower chlorine, it makes it easier to get everything out of whack and have green water show up overnight.

As for smelling the chlorine, if you can smell it, you need to add more chlorine (the same thing your drinking water system does). You start to smell it when trihalomethanes and other organic matter gets built up. That's why you test free and total chlorine and shock when the two start differing. By adding more chlorine (shocking, or a just running a higher chlorine residual in the first place), it burns off the organics and gets the free and total reading closer together. If you were to run a higher chlorine residual (the opposite of the selling point of an ozone generator), you won't get the smells, or have to shock as often.

All that being said, I recently made a switch to a company to keep my pool crystal clear. For years I was trying to have a very low residual and any changes in swimmer load or rain made it easy for the water to get cloudy, green, smelly, etc. They don't care that I have an ozone generator, they supply the chlorine and keep the residual at a 2.0 - 3.0 level and I can't smell it and I've never had a cloudy flare up. When the ozone generator stops working, I won't fix it.

[zero-in]

We have an ozone/chlorine system. The ozone doesn't take the place of chlorine, it just cuts back on the amount. In a straight chlorine pool, the chlorine is killing all of the bad critters. Put ozone with it and the ozone does a good portion of the killing. So, instead of keeping a 2.0 - 3.0 chloring residual in the pool, you can drop it down to 1.0 or less because (in theory) you only need the low chlorine level to keep stuff from building up before your water has a chance to run through the pumps to get zapped by ozone again. The only problem that I've found over the years is when we get a 2 inch rain shower, the chlorine level gets wiped out easily and then you have to fight it to get a residual back. Also with running a lower chlorine, it makes it easier to get everything out of whack and have green water show up overnight.

As for smelling the chlorine, if you can smell it, you need to add more chlorine (the same thing your drinking water system does). You start to smell it when trihalomethanes and other organic matter gets built up. That's why you test free and total chlorine and shock when the two start differing. By adding more chlorine (shocking, or a just running a higher chlorine residual in the first place), it burns off the organics and gets the free and total reading closer together. If you were to run a higher chlorine residual (the opposite of the selling point of an ozone generator), you won't get the smells, or have to shock as often.

All that being said, I recently made a switch to a company to keep my pool crystal clear. For years I was trying to have a very low residual and any changes in swimmer load or rain made it easy for the water to get cloudy, green, smelly, etc. They don't care that I have an ozone generator, they supply the chlorine and keep the residual at a 2.0 - 3.0 level and I can't smell it and I've never had a cloudy flare up. When the ozone generator stops working, I won't fix it.

^^^^this. I have the same system. Don't not use dichlor or trichlor tabs as eventually you build up enough cyanuric acid to negate the cleaning ability of chlorine unless you add more and more quantities of chlorine to off set your CYA levels..been there done that. I use calcium hypochlorite and broadcast into the pool. No stabilizer in it but lasts longer with out as much chlorine evaporating out of the water on sunny days. Liquid chlorine works well also, but requires more dosage throughout the week to maintain the same level that you obtain with less frequent additions to your water with with Cal-hypo. Liqiud shock elevates your PH and makes it difficult to steady your readings. Your water hardness may come up over time using cal-hypo but it's now easier to control PH and cleansing qualities of your chlorine.

[junkmanhunter]

Don't know what part of state your in. I love in DFW and salt is the only way to go. Maintenance free and great to swim in.

[Cajun Blake]

I converted from salt to chlorine and my monthly/yearly costs are cheaper and less headaches

[bbuck8]

Following

[rehmeyer1977]

I have a chlorine pool and started using phos free + pool perfect. The phos free has helped cut down on the chlorine usage and make the water feel silky

[125Dad]

Salt by far is the way I went this time and love it.

[mjhaverkamp]

I have a salt system with an Ozenator, I will post why when I talk to my friend who is a builder, he has forgot more about pools than most know. I do know that it makes the water basically the same as bottled drinking water.