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WHEN Pam Glazer, a 53-year-old architect and self-described “granola-head from way back,” began planning a pool for her home in Southampton, N.Y., she searched for a way to keep it sanitary without using chlorine.
Ms. Glazer has been a swimmer for 30 years and was tired of dipping into chemically treated water. “I’d get out and my sinuses would be inflamed,” she said. “If I swam on a lunch break, I’d walk into the office smelling like chlorine.”
Several pool experts she consulted told her that chlorine was the only option; others suggested a saline system, which uses sodium chloride, but because that produces chlorine in the pool, it did not address her concerns.
Ms. Glazer eventually learned of a system that eliminates the need for chlorine and other chemicals, using a combination of ozone and copper and silver ions. That system can be added on to existing pools, at a cost ranging from $10,000 to $20,000. Because Ms. Glazer was starting fresh, she spent $60,000 to build her pool, which has a panoramic view of the ocean, roughly $20,000 more than if she’d built a chlorinated model.
There are several ways to eliminate chlorine or significantly reduce the use of it, although the pool industry remains skeptical of their effectiveness and it is often difficult to find builders to install them.
TechnoPure, a company based in Uxbridge, Mass., makes a system that pumps pool water through a chamber containing coated titanium plates which oxidize and burn off organic waste. Copper and zinc ions sanitize the water, resulting in a pool that’s “virtually maintenance free in terms of chemicals,” said Chris Capozzoli, who founded the company seven years ago. He said the system costs around $5,500 for an average-size residential pool and can be installed during construction or added to an existing pool.
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