Enhance Summer: An Ecological Alternative to Cyanuric Acid for Pool Chlorine Stabilization

Introduction

Dr. Dryden's, a leading company in pool water treatment, has introduced Enhance Summer as an ecological alternative to traditional chlorine stabilizers like cyanuric acid. Enhance Summer is positioned as a unique product on the market, offering a new approach to pool maintenance and water quality management.

The Role of Chlorine Stabilizers

Chlorine stabilizers are essential for protecting chlorine in pool water from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays, which cause photoreduction and rapid chlorine loss. Cyanuric acid has long been the standard for this purpose due to its effectiveness. For example, without any stabilizer, pools can lose up to 35% of free chlorine in just one hour. Adding cyanuric acid at 10 ppm reduces this loss to 12%, and at 20 ppm, the loss drops to just 5% per hour.

However, increasing cyanuric acid concentrations beyond 20 ppm brings only marginal additional protection. More importantly, as cyanuric acid binds to chlorine, it reduces the amount of active, free chlorine available for disinfection. At 30 ppm cyanuric acid, only 43% of chlorine remains active; at 50 ppm, this drops to 36%, and at higher concentrations, disinfection becomes ineffective. To compensate, higher chlorine dosages are required, leading to unnecessary chemical use and potential water quality issues.

Drawbacks of Cyanuric Acid

The main disadvantages of cyanuric acid include:

• Accumulation in the pool water, as it is not consumed.
• Progressive inhibition of chlorine’s effectiveness, leading to poor disinfection even when chlorine levels appear adequate.
• The only remedy for over-accumulation is water dilution, which results in the waste of water and energy.
• Increased need for chlorine overdosing to maintain disinfection, which is both costly and environmentally unfriendly.

Enhance Summer: How It Works

Enhance Summer offers a novel solution by protecting chlorine from UV rays without inhibiting its activity. Unlike cyanuric acid, Enhance Summer does not bind to chlorine molecules. Instead, it acts like a sunscreen, filtering out the most aggressive short-wave UV rays and converting them into less harmful long waves. This approach extends the lifespan of chlorine in the water while maintaining its full disinfectant potential and a stable redox level.

Advantages of Enhance Summer

• No Accumulation: Enhance Summer does not build up in the water, eliminating the risk of saturation and the need for water replacement.
• Maintains Chlorine Activity: Chlorine remains fully active, ensuring optimal disinfection without the need for overdosing.
• Reduces Chemical and Water Waste: Less chlorine is needed, and there is no unnecessary water or energy waste from frequent water changes.
• Improved Water Quality: Users report reduced combined chlorine and lower water turbidity, resulting in clearer, healthier pool water.
• Eco-Friendly and Certified: Enhance SUmmer is a natural, NSF 50-certified product suitable for all types of pools—private or public—and all treatment systems, including saltwater, bromine, and peroxide pools. It is compatible with all filter types.

Dosage and Application

Enhance Summer is easy to use, with a preferred manual dosing method. The recommended dosage is 1/2 gallon per 15,000 gallons or 1 gallon per 30,000 gallons of pool water per week. If manual dosing is inconvenient, Enhance Summer can be administered automatically via a standard peristaltic pump, set to the same weekly dosage.

Laboratory Testing and Performance

Dr. Dryden's conducted comparative tests in Scotland to assess Enhance Summer's performance against cyanuric acid and unstabilized pools. Using controlled UV exposure (UV index 6–8, similar to real-world conditions), the tests showed:

• Without any stabilizer, pools lost nearly 50% of free chlorine in 3 hours and 80% in 6 hours.
• With 15 ppm cyanuric acid, chlorine loss dropped to 30% after 3 hours and 50% after 6 hours.
• Enhance Summer at the same concentration produced nearly identical results, slightly outperforming cyanuric acid in some cases.
• At 25 ppm, both Enhance SUmmer and cyanuric acid reduced chlorine loss to 40% after 6 hours.
• Higher concentrations of cyanuric acid further reduced chlorine loss, but at the cost of drastically lowering redox potential and chlorine activity.

Conclusion

Enhance Summer provides a sustainable, effective, and eco-friendly alternative to cyanuric acid for stabilizing chlorine in pool water. It offers comparable protection against UV-induced chlorine loss without the drawbacks of accumulation and reduced disinfection efficacy. Its ease of use, compatibility with various treatment systems, and environmental benefits make it a compelling choice for modern pool maintenance.