Chlorine, for now, is the most popular means of sanitizing swimming pool water. It does an excellent job sanitizing water, but it does so at a huge price.

Mineral cartridge systems are sold under the following trademarked names: Nature2, Vision, and FROG. These products kill contaminants, primarily bacteria, in the water as it passes through a cartridge. This means the pump and filter must run for long periods of time to treat the tens of thousands of gallons of water in a swimming pool. Pool suppliers, who sell these systems, often recommend that you run your pump and filter 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

While, these systems do reduce the need for chlorine or other chemical oxidizing treatment, they do not eliminate the need for these chemicals.

 These systems also require a trip to the pool store to purchase expensive cartridges. In some cases more than one cartridge may be needed in one season. There is no obvious way to determine when these cartridges fail to be effective. Their effectiveness may expire prior to the cartridge contents being totally depleted.

Ozone generators use a special ultra-violet light to kill bacteria. Like the cartridge systems mentioned above, ozone generators only kill contaminants in the ozone chamber and provide no residual protection to the water in the pool. To be effective, the pool pump must run almost all of the time.

Ozone units designed for swimming pools are very expensive and draw a lot of electric current. These units are better suited for spas but are not practical for the volume of water in most swimming pools.

Even the best ozone units do not totally eliminate the need for chlorine or other chemical oxidizing agents in the pool water.

Salt generators basically produce chlorine from salt. While salt generators require that you purchase salt instead of chlorine, you are still swimming in chlorine and you will experience all of the problems you will experience swimming in a chlorine pool.

Salt generators are expensive devices and consume a lot of electrical current. Salt generators are also very corrosive and the generator chamber has a limited life and is expensive to replace.

• Swimmers prefer the feel and taste of water treated with the CL Free Water System over water treated with salt-to-chlorine generators by an overwhelming margin.

• CL free systems work within a calcium hardness range of 150-2,000 ppm. Because it converts calcium to bicarbonate, we eliminate and prevent calcium scaling on pool walls and rock features. Salt-to-chlorine generators do not control calcium scaling and will only work within a calcium range of 200-400 ppm.

• Since salt-to-chlorine systems produce chlorine, the sanitizing effectiveness of the system is impacted by changes in temperature, bather load, sunlight and rainfall. Changes in any of these factors may require additional “shocking” of the water to prevent an algae outbreak. CL Free’s effectiveness is not significantly affected by these factors. A CL Free owner does not have to be concerned about doing anything different to treat their pool if they have 20 kids in the pool all day. The pool water will still provide bacterial and algae protection for a full week or more.

• Vinyl liners, automated pool covers and solar covers may become damaged from the use of chlorine or salt-to-chlorine generators. Since the CL Free system does not require the use of harmful oxidizing chemicals, these expensive pool components can be expected to last their normal life expectancy.

• Salt-to-chlorine generators will use an average of 500 watts of AC power for a 20,000 gallon pool. CL Free systems will use an average of only 35-40 watts of DC power to treat the same amount of water.

• Salt-to-chlorine generators and the CL Free system both use a chamber in their process. The difference is that a salt-to-chlorine generator cell may need to be replaced in 2-5 years at a cost of over $400-$800. The copper bars in the CL Free chamber cost around $65 to replace and they should last 3-5 years. The CL Free chamber is warranted for 5 years and should last indefinitely.

• The backwash discharge from a CL Free treated pool is safe for use on lawns and in gardens since it does not contain any salt or sodium. Backwash from pools treated with salt-to-chlorine generators can kill plant life, sterilize soil preventing plant growth and is prohibited in many municipalities in the United States and Australia (where salt-to-chlorine systems were invented).

Water purification additives containing biaguanide chemicals are sold under the trademarked names of Baquacil and Soft Swim. The active ingredient in these products is known as biaguanide. Unlike chlorine, biaguanide is not an oxidizer, so it does not irritate your body by reacting or "burning up" organic contaminants the way chlorine does.

Biaguanide does provide a higher quality of water than chlorine treatment but it is very, very expensive. Sometimes costing several times more than chlorine. Biaguanide needs to be purchased in bulky containers and needs to be manually added to the pool water regularly. After prolonged use of biaguanide, most pool owners complain that it takes more and more of the product to achieve the desired water quality. Pool owners also mention that the product causes a unique odor in the water after extended use.