When clients come to our facility and ask if we have a salt water pool, we are not quite sure what to answer. It’s not an easy question to respond to. We get what our clients are asking but the answer is a bit more complicated than you would imagine. Let me start by detailing what a “salt water” pool is.
A salt water pool uses a salt chlorine generator to make the chlorine for your pool, eliminating the need to buy chlorine. The generator converts salt to chlorine, which is made by passing electricity through water. This system will increase salinity and reduce the chemical smell while giving pool water a silky texture. So in reality, a salt water pool is a chlorine pool that uses a different system. That’s why it’s a hard question to answer. I think what our customers are requesting to know is if the chemicals that we use in our pool are safe on their baby/toddler’s skin. The answer is a resounding YES.
At Evolution Swim Academy, like many other indoor swim schools, we are experts at water chemistry monitoring. Our bather loads are very high in comparison to most commercial pools and even more important, our bathers are very young, with sensitive skin. For this reason, we monitor our pool chemistry every day and adjust daily.
Clear, safe and well-balanced water assures a more enjoyable experience
Per the OC Health Department, chlorine must always be the first line of sanitation at any commercial pool and for this reason, chlorine is good. Chlorine is a broad-spectrum destroyer of pathogens that could otherwise make swimmers sick. Chlorine and its magic sanitation power has been helping keep our tap water clean since the early 1900’s and for this reason, was introduced to commercial swimming pools in the early 1920’s. Chlorine is also what helps maintain clear, transparent water like the pool water you see at our Mission Viejo facility.
One pathogen that has a high tolerance to chlorine is cryptosporidium. So, as the second line of sanitation defense, we purchased a Clear Comfort System, which is known for its ability to break down and destroy crypto. Clear Comfort produces trace amounts of safe hydrogen peroxide for an added layer of protection. Using the Clear Comfort System separates us from our competition because it makes us one of the only schools in the nation to employ multiple levels of water sanitation, providing a healthier and more enjoyable experience for our customers. Using the Clear Comfort System also allows us to reduce our dependency on chlorine.
The trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide provide an added layer of sanitation for our young swimmers. If the bubbles are present, the system is working.
On a final note, when there are high levels of contaminants in the water, chloramines (combined chlorine) are formed causing the bad smell that we all associate with chlorine. When that smell is present, it causes eye and skin irritation and gets in the way of the good chlorine trying to do its sanitation job. The next time you attend lessons at Evolution Swim Academy, notice how that bad smell is hardly noticeable, if at all. The reason that you will not smell chloramines is because when combined chlorine levels get to a certain point, we “shock-treat” the pool and eliminate the chloramines so that our students are never affected by it. That’s just another way that we are committed to you, our customers.
Not all of our swimmers wear goggles which is a great reason to keep chloramines at very low levels. No eye or skin irritation here!
After reading this blog post, I hope that you proceed with confidence, knowing that we monitor our chemical levels daily, employ two levels of sanitation and leave nothing to chance when it comes to our students and their safety during swim lessons.
Till next time.
-Felipe