If you are an owner of a pool or if you swim in a pool on a regular basis, then perhaps you have heard about chlorine or bromine.
Though chlorine is one of the most common sanitizing agents used in a pool, bromine can be an alternative to chlorine.
So it’s a common question among people,
What does bromine do in a pool?
Or, what does bromine mean for a pool?
Perhaps you have got a bit of an idea about bromine as we have compared it with chlorine. Don’t worry if you are confused about this because we are here to clarify all of your confusions.
Bromine is a sanitizing agent which kills bacteria and germs by decontaminating the pool and spa water. So, it is used by the pool owners to decontaminate the pool to make it clean and safe.
If there is bacteria in the pool water it results in different kinds of complexities in the human body as bacteria is harmful for health.
What is bromine in a pool?
Bromine is a disinfecting agent that kills bacteria and germs and in a pool bromine ensures a clean pool.
No one wants to swim in a dirty and contaminated pool, so maintaining cleanliness of the pool is very important.
So sanitizing the pool on a regular basis is a very important job and in this regard bromine plays an indispensable role by protecting your pool water from bacteria and other germs.
Though chlorine is most commonly used for pool cleaning, bromine works better in hot temperatures as it reacts differently and disinfects the pool by ensuring intensive cleaning.
That’s why most of the owners of swimming pools go with bromine in spite of chlorine or other sanitizing agents as it ensures better cleaning in hot temperatures.
What does bromine do in a swimming pool?
As bromine is a sanitizing agent, it sanitizes the pool by killing bacteria and other harmful germs and makes the pool safe for everyone to use.
The pure bromine is never used in a swimming pool, rather in tablet form or liquid form that is used in the swimming pool for disinfecting.
When we use the bromine tablet or liquid form of bromine in a pool then it works in the process of ionization.
What should be the bromine level in a pool?
Bromine burns out in the presence of UV light as it is not stabilized. So maintaining a proper level is very important for sanitizing the pool.
Therefore it is very normal to have this question in mind that what should the bromine level be in a pool?
As it is expensive compared to other sanitizing agents, wasting it unnecessarily isn’t worth the money.
The ideal level for bromine in a pool is 3-5 ppm.
Though bromine can be used on a wide PH range, the recommended PH range is from 7.2 to 7.8.
Is bromine in a pool safe?
As bromine is a chemical compound, you may wonder whether it will be safe for our skin or not if we use it in the pool for sanitizing purposes.
If we use it in a pool then it will have direct contact with our skin so it is important to make sure whether it is safe or not.
But you will be happy to hear that bromine is famous for being gentle towards skin, eyes and hair. Even those who have sensitive skin for them even bromine is a safe option.
You must keep in mind that to maintain an accurate level of bromine in the pool is very important. Even if the bromine level is too low then it will not work properly.
That’s why you should know how to raise the bromine level in the pool and how to lower the bromine in the pool.
Still it varies from person to person because everyone’s skin doesn’t react in the same way. How the pool is maintained and monitored also has a role in this regard.
But the possibility of bromine to create any problem is very less unless anyone has a chemical allergy or the bromine is not used in a proper way.
Advantages of bromine:
- Bromine works well in indoor pools and it is easily available and also ensures intensive cleaning.
- Bromine cleans the pool gently by making sure of thorough cleaning and it is safe for the skin and doesn’t cause any sort of itchiness or irritation to skin and it is a safe option for sensitive skin.
- It has a soft odor, nothing very strong and retains the power of sanitizing.
- Even in high temperatures, warm water and higher pH level, bromine remains stable and sanitizes the pool gently.
- It can be reused again by attaching an oxidation shock.
Disadvantages of bromine:
- Its oxidation power is less compared to other sanitizing agents.
- In the presence of sunlight it doesn’t work properly as it is sensitive to UV rays. So, it doesn’t work properly in outdoor pools.
- It is not suitable for those who have an allergy with halogen.
What does bromine do in a salt water pool
Salt water pool owners usually use a chlorine generator that produces chlorine by breaking down the chemical components of the salt. This chlorine is used to disinfect and sanitize the pool.
It is not necessary to add chlorine externally even to sanitize the pool because the amount of chlorine produced in a saltwater pool is enough to sanitize the pool.
So it’s a big no if you want to add bromine in a salt water pool because chlorine pools have to use chlorine and bromine pools have to use bromine.
If you add bromine here where there is no need to add chlorine externally even because chlorine is already present in the salt then it will create a perilous situation in the pool for the swimmers.
Conclusion:
Bromine is a chemical compound which is commonly used to disinfect pools and ensure a clean pool.
Perhaps you have got an idea about your question: what does bromine do in a pool?
As we know everything in this world has both good effects and bad effects, bromine has both advantages and disadvantages.
So it depends on the owner of the pool whether he or she will go with bromine or other sanitizing agents for sanitizing his pool.
If the requirements he or she has exactly matches with the requirements of bromine he or she can go with bromine as it is one of the best sanitizing agents in this regard.
In the nutshell, we can say in spite of having few disadvantages bromine works very well for sanitizing the pool compared to many other sanitizing agents.