What is ORP/Reduction Potential?
Your pool uses chlorine or bromine to eliminate microorganisms, bacteria and algae present in the water through an oxidation process. This is where O (Oxidation) in ORP comes from.
OP (Potential) refers to the value of the amount of work that chlorine or bromine can do. In other words, it is the "potential to be effective".
OR (Reduction) deals with the exchange of electrons. If this sounds complicated to you, don\'t worry, as it is irrelevant to the current application of ORP technology in swimming pools.
ORP has become popular in water purification because it can produce a single value that demonstrates how effective a disinfectant can be regardless of pool conditions, rather than simply measuring the dose or concentration of disinfectant in the water.
So the Reduction Potential measures how efficiently the disinfectant in your pool is working rather than just measuring the amount or concentration of product.
Oxidation in your pool.
The water in your pool must be clean, transparent and pleasant to the touch on your skin. The best way to achieve this state is to eliminate bacteria with a disinfectant, filter waste and dirt and remove organic matter through oxidation.
Chlorine and bromine are the two chemicals most commonly used to accomplish this as they function simultaneously as an oxidant and disinfectant.
In your pool, your job is to remove any organic contaminants through oxidation. This is a complicated process, regardless of whether it is carried out with chlorine or bromine. Ideally, the oxidation will be complete and produce little residue other than carbon dioxide, but there may be conditions where the process is incomplete and this is where that "chlorine smell" and poor water quality can arise.
ORP is measured in water using a very sensitive voltmeter and a platinum electrode. The reading is given in thousandths of a volt (millivolts) and this reading is directly related to the effectiveness of the disinfectant in use.
The effective disinfection range is between 650 mV and 850 mV.
Other values such as pH level, chloramines or free chlorine may vary but if the ORP level is above 650 mV there will be no pathogens in the water.
ORP in practice.
Almost all equipment for maintaining the quality of swimming pool water works on the basis of reading and controlling the ORP level. In your pool, the equipment doesn\'t know how much chlorine or bromine it has in the water, what it does know is the ORP value.
Since the only thing that will change this value is chlorine or bromine, you will know how to control the dosage to maintain the desired ORP level.
We hope this article has been helpful to you. For any queries or requests, do not hesitate to contact us!