gaveupontv
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swimming pool chlorine generator
Hi,
I went into a pool supply place today to get some chlorine and noticed that they have a chlorine generator for $2000 or $3000 that uses NaCl to
produce Cl to sanitize the pool water. It was a PVC cylinder about 5-6 inches in diameter and less than a foot long, and had an 12"X12"X6" box
attached by wires.
For this amount of money, how complicated could it be to make? I'm kinda intrigued but definitely lack the skills.The chlorine needed to keep up a
pool is probably $25/month so it would take a while for this to pay for itself
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blogfast25
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There's an excellent chemgenerator for good quality Cl2 somewhere on this board, using OTC materials and simple components. Search and you will find!
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gaveupontv
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What would it entail to make a chlorine generator that you could use in a pool?
It would be much cheaper than to buy chlorine, I just spent $200 buying the tri chloro and dichloro products to keep up a minimum of 1 PPM in the pool
(parts per million)
It must be something arcane and difficult, otherwise a chlorine generator would be much cheaper to buy than $2000.
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Oxydro
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It's just a simple electrolysis device. Same as the chlorate process but optimized for the hypochlorite. Typically the anode is a metal screen (Ti?
don't remember) coated with a Pt-group metal plating. The price should be much lower than that, I remember when they first came out they were crazy
but prices, I thought, had fallen.
Two causes of the price: 1) electrically they have to be very safe, don't want to fry the swimmers and 2) "pool" has joined 'aviation,' 'marine,' and
'bridal' as words to magically triple the price of anything.
"Our interest's on the dangerous side of things" -- Browning
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Xenoid
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Hi
You don't seem to be very aware of the pool chlorinator industry. Pool chlorinators have been around for several decades. They use inert electrodes to
generate chlorine from sodium chloride (common salt) dissolved in the pool, using electrolysis.
The electrodes in use at the present time are titanium or niobium mesh or plate coated with a special inert material called multi (mixed) - metal
oxide (MMO) this is basically comprised of titanium oxide mixed with ruthenium oxide.
These electrodes are housed in a long clear plastic cell, through which the pool water is pumped. The electronics box is mainly just a power supply
and timer/ sensor system. The electrode assemblies may comprise from 3 to 14 electrodes.
Many people on this forum use these electrodes (either new or used) for making chlorates by electrolysis. It is also possible to buy the MMO material
on ebay or from various companies and make your own electrodes.
If you have a look through the various "chlorate" and "anode" threads on this forum you will find many references to pool chlorinator electrodes and
MMO.
Here is a picture of a pool chlorinator electrode asssembly in the "Thoughts on Anodes" thread;
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=5050&a...
Here are a couple of swimming pool sites, if you search around you will find some pictures of the equipment.
http://www.kawanachlorinatorspares.com.au/products.php
http://www.directpoolsupplies.com.au/category9_1.htm
You could make your own chlorinator, but it's not as simple as it looks. There are severe corrosion problems with the electrode cells and they need to
be specially designed. MMO material is fairly expensive. An electrode assembly will cost several hundred dollars, though they have become cheaper over
the last few years. In Australia, complete chlorinator systems (controller and cell) can be had for less than about A$800 (~US$700). The $2000 - $3000
you mention, seems ridiculously overpriced!
EDIT: Here's some more electrode assemblies from sciencemadness, you may need to scroll down a little.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=5050&a...
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=5050&a...
https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=95...
If you "Google" "pool chlorinators" you should get plenty of information!
[Edited on 7-8-2010 by Xenoid]
[Edited on 7-8-2010 by Xenoid]
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