"Mineral sanitizers" will have no effect on the "feel" of the water.

"Mineral sanitizers" will NOT reduce the amount of chlorine or other sanitizer you need to keep in your water.

Manufacturers of "Mineral sanitizers" will not be able to provide you any meaningful science to back up their claims.

"Mineral sanitizers" are extremely effectice at transferring your hard-earned dollars to the coffers of the manufacturer of the "Mineral sanitizer" while providing no benefit to you.

Facetiousness aside, You will probably get responses from people here that will tout the benefits of these systems (Nature2, Frog, etc.). They'll tell you how they only have to keep 0.5 or 1 ppm of chlorine in the pool because they have these systems. There are at least 2 problems with these claims. First, the amount of chlorine residual you need to keep in your pool is mainly a function of how much CYA (cyanuric acid, aka stabiliser) you have in your water and of chlorine demand (which is a function of bather load and other organics in your water such as leaves). Second, no one can maintain a consistent level of chlorine at or below 1 ppm in their outdoor pool. It just can't be done unless you use relatively high levels of CYA, in which case you need more than 1 ppm of chlorine, or unless you test and adjust the water several times a day, which no one is going to do.

Do yourself a favor, maintain a level of chlorine appropriate for the level of CYA in your water. The below linked table gives you that information.

Here's another thread with a ton of information on Nature2 and similar systems: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=405

Here is a link that might be useful: Ben's Best Guess Table

Before you decide on one of these, check on the prices for replacement cartridges, boy was I surprised!

The auto chlorinator is relatively cheap, and it's an easy way to add chlorine to your pool. If you want to use the 3" pucks, I'd go for it.

The floating frog and the Nature2 system and all the other gadgets and gizmos are about 95% worthless. Don't fall for them. I agree with Kurt's message, check out www.poolforum.com - you will find pretty much everything you need to know there. Adding copper will definitely kill algae, but there's no difference between adding it chemically (as a liquid) and adding it electrically (via the floating froggie) - except that adding it chemically is MUCH cheaper.

And before you decide on copper as an algaecide - remember, it's copper that stains hair and pools, not chlorine. If you have enough copper in the pool to be an effective algaecide, you have enough to stain blonde hair. A much better algaecide is Polyquat (look at the bottles of algaecide, it's a long chemical name, but it starts with the word "poly"). Polyquat 60% is a very effective algaecide and practically no side effects, other than being a bit expensive.

I'd go a step further than Brad and say that if you need any algeacide, other than chlorine, you're doing something wrong. A properly sanitized pool won't get algae.

thanks-I think now I'll just stay w/the Hayward auto chlorinator that comes w/our pool.

Keep in mind that the 3inch trichlor pucks increase your CYA levels and the only way to lower them is to partial drain your water. They are good for new pools because you need to add CYA any way. And according to the chart kurtv sent you to, the more CYA the more chlorine you need in the pool.

Why did you decide SWG are not for you? just curious.

jcjr-(have ? for you at bottom of post)
People haven't really started using SWGs in our area. A PB we talked w/and the one we signed w/said they would worry about corrosion problems years from now-both have done pools (gunite, vinyl, and fiberglass) for 20-30 years. They said they just didn't have much experience w/them and just wondered about the effects of long term use. The PB we signed w/does a lot of the "high end" and "country club" pools around here (...although he was very reasonably priced on our humble backyard pool :-) and he has a very good reputation. I was interested enough in SWGs to search everything said about them on here, and inquired about them to all 3 PBs we talked with (-actually all said the same thing). SWGs sound OK (and on here it seems that no one is complaining about corrosion w/the right equipment), but I've seen on here that they tend to cause high PH. I think I'm going to be safe w/the "tried and true" much-less-expensive auto-chlorinator (-since almost everyone thinks the mineral sanitizers are over rated.) -too "spooky" to be one of the first in the area to try something new when what everyone else has been using forever works safely.

jcjr-what would you recommend for chlorine in the auto-chlorinator? thanks

I would say just get a regular inline chlorinator like the rainbow or hayward. I have a frog system and ditched the "minerals" and chlorine packs. The chlorine packs for the frog are expensive and hard to find. I now just use my frog as an inline chlorinator and put the 3" pucks in it. You have to watch your CYA when using stabalized chlorine like (pucks, frog) so I use a combination of bleach and the pucks. I like to have the inline chlorinator going incase I don't check the pool for a couple days and forget to add the bleach. It's nice to have some residual chlorination going on all the time.

And even if you later decide to go salt or just use bleach it won't hurt to have the chlorinator there for use when say the salt generator is broken or refuses to generate due to salt level, etc., or you go on vacation.

The inline chlorinator is not that expense nor is it hard to install so it's not really that big of a deal either way you go.

-- john