Bromine or Chlorine?
We had this same question... It seems that most people use Chlorine on this board (dichlor). We've only had out tub for about 6 weeks and we are using Bromine. This is what was recommended by our dealer and so far we are very happy with it.
I have heard the following about Bromine from different sources.
- it was designed for hot water and desolves much slower in hot water. This allows you to always have some sanitizer present. It's my understanding that chlorine desolves pretty quickly and that's why you have to put some in after every use.
- pretty much odourless (definitely not that chlorine smell and because we have an ozonator and keep it at around 1ppm there's really no bromine smell either) I think without an ozonator when you keep it around 3-5ppm you would get a stronger bromine smell but I don't know for sure
- also heard that it is less corrosive over time and better for your plumbing (This is a claim from the Spa Frog web page from King Technology). Not sure how much truth there is to this
- personally, I also find it easier. We have a built-in brominator (basket) that I put a couple of bromine tablets in a couple times a week. We try to keep around 3 in there at all times.
I know that there are likely as many advantages to chlorine but I don't know what they are. We chose to give Bromine a try as that's what our dealer recommended and we've been happy with it so far. There are many people on this board that are VERY happy with dichlor too. I'd say you can't really go wrong with either as long as you've done the appropriate research and understand how to maintain your water with whatever sanitizer you have picked.
Good luck.