If you have an Aquatics section in your club, then you know about rising chlorine costs. Fueled by growing energy costs, shrinking supply and high tariffs, chlorine-based chemicals for the pool and spa industry have risen in price 20% to 50% since late 2004. In addition, high preliminary “anti-dumping tariffs” levied by the U.S. government in December 2004 on Trichlor and Dichlor imported from China will eventually raise prices on those products even further.
Rick Smith, executive vice president of Chemical Market Associates Inc., a Houston chemical consulting firm that tracks chlorine prices, confirms, “The price today versus the price 10 years ago… is 200% higher.”
At the same time, supply is shrinking. “Due to spiraling natural gas costs, a source of energy for the chlorine sector, the U.S. chlorine industry recently has shut down 1.5 million tons of chlorine capacity. Estimates indicate that there will be no increase in its capacity for at least five years,” stated C. T. “Kip” Howlett, Jr., Executive Director of the Chlorine Chemistry Council on November 8, 2005.
Since the use of chlorine (or bromine) is mandated by all health departments in the country, what are the options for health clubs to counter these spiraling costs?
The answer is: Manufacture your own chlorine by switching to chlorine generation equipment, and thereby fix your chlorine costs at today’s prices. Until recently, financially justifying the investment in chlorine generators required a good look at indirect savings, such as membership retention, growing your membership and labor savings. Today, there is no need to look beyond the cost of chlorine to justify such a purchase for your facility.
Run the numbers.
Let’s look at an 80,000 gallon pool, with around 300 bathers per day. Such a pool would probably use between eight and 10 pounds of chlorine per day to run. The average price for chlorine is somewhere between $3 and $4 per pound. I have done the following calculations using the buy price of $3.25 per pound. The average price of chlorine generation equipment that is specifically designed for commercial application is around $1.41 per pound of chlorine produced per day, amortized over a minimum of 36 months. (We suggest you apply your buy price and run your own calculations. See Figure 1).
So, to net it out, by switching to chlorine generation equipment, the 80,000-gallon pool owner would save about $17,000 over 36 months, or $46,000 over 72 months. Bear in mind this is simply direct savings. This does not take into account the additional revenues generated by increased membership through increases in pool usage, labor savings, and other chemical savings.
If you run your own numbers with this kind of result, you will probably be looking into chlorine generation for your club in the near future. Be sure to choose a company that specializes in commercial salt. You may find many pool dealers out there who will sell you the equipment. Generally, they either do not understand it well enough to support it, or just do not care to support it, and they will refer you to the factory for support. This is not where you want to end up.
Factory support is designed for dealer support, and it will only provide solutions that are directly related to their own equipment. This kind of problem is easy to avoid and simply requires a little research. Be sure to ask your provider for a list of facilities to whom they have provided equipment, and ask how long they have worked with commercial salt. Talk to their customers. Call around and find out what kind of support is provided with the equipment. Be sure to find a provider who specializes in commercial salt-based aquatics, and who has a support infra-structure to train and support your staff on an ongoing basis. Your staff will need this resource. If your provider can provide you with a long list of satisfied customers, and you can verify this by talking to them, you are definitely on the right track. If not, keep looking.
Timothy Petsch is the President and Co-Owner of TMI Salt Pure Corp. He is a CPO® instructor/trainer and a National Aquatic Consultant with over 20 years commercial aquatic experience. He can be contacted at 800.818.8266, or by email attimothy@tmisaltpure.com.
