Periodic Products CuLator Ultra 4.0

Every year we refill the pool after winterizing. Our well water has a perfect ph, but oh the mineral content is high (pretty sure iron). I always bought the C U Lator cloth bags, but somewhere along the line, it seems they went to a 1, 2 or 4.0. Is this new or did I just never notice? Anyway, the 1 and 2 didn't work anymore, so I purchased the 4.0 in the plastic cage. Worked like a charm, but more expensive to the single cloth packet we always used with great results previously.

I did a chemical cleaning of my well pump, and the water turned iron-heavy for several days. I also have an old 1940s pool that leaks, and because my well water is so plentiful—it produces 100 gpm, not a typo, 100gallons every minute, we are on volcanic springs—I’ve been adding about 1,000 gallons per day to the pool to keep it topped off.I am telling you all this because overnight, my 5 foot deep 1940s leaky pool went a dense dark brown. I knew it was the iron. You couldn’t see through the water, not six inches. The pool has a 10,000 gallons capacity. At first, I bought a new filter and ran it. Over two weeks. No improvement whatsoever. The well water had gone clear again by that time, but the pool was still a dense dark brown, staining the walls and ladder and anything that came in contact with the water.I was going to drain the pool and start over. Then I researched and read and asked around, and found this product. I got the small one, $30 at the pool supply store, $20 here on Amazon. The guy said it might take a month to clear. Put it into the spin drain. Two days later the water was improved.So I got on Amazon and spent $50 for the jumbo. If the small one works in a month the large one should work quicker, no? That’s what I figured. It arrived the next day, early, and I tossed it onto the main strainer basket on the pump. Within 24 hours, the water was so improved, we swam in it. Now, five days later, it’s crystal clear.This predicts works, IF your problem is indeed iron in the water. If the one stars folks say it isn’t working, I question if their problem is iron.I will always use these from now on. I went into so much detail in this review, because I’m convinced that for the one star crowd, they either aren’t using it correctly, like not a large enough one. Or maybe their problem really isn’t iron. I knew my problem was iron.I will always use this product from now on. And when I feel like spending $10k, I’ll re plaster the pool and stop adding 1,000 gallons of well water. Till that time, I know that this will remove the iron color and I’ll be good to go swimming.

We tend to have metals in our City Water. This causes staining on my pool surfaces. I drop this baby in my skimmer, and it handles all the metal for me and leaves my pool clear and my surfaces white. Nothing else to do.

UPDATE: 29 MARCH 2016. My original review is below. I'm going to go ahead and up this to 4 stars. The reason is that after about 90 days, I saw no more metal stains in my pool. So, my verdict is that this thing works, but very very slowly. I left it in my pump basket all year. I don't know if it was "full" of metals or not as there is no visual cue, but like I said, metal stains eventually stayed away, despite plenty rains, leaves and other things getting in my pool. So, a few weeks ago, I went ahead and bought another one for this next year. I again, dumped ascorbic acid (vitamin C powder), but only about 3 lbs, and it almost instantly cleared all stains. I didn't even use a sequestering agent as the stains weren't that bad in the first place (compared to last year). Anyway, this works, but it takes a LONG time to notice it working. Plan on it being a yearly maintenance things.ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW.I guess I'll write one of the dissenting opinions, as I cannot recommend this product. It is simply way too expensive for its ability (or lack thereof) to remove metals from water. I can't confirm or not that this thing does in fact remove metals, as I have not tested the device in any scientific way, but I can say that I had a lot of brown metal stains on my pool liner in my 30,000gallon 20x40 pool. I dumped 10lbs of ascorbic acid (vitamin c powder) and overnight, the stains were gone. I dumped a bottle of a sequestering agent (amount recommended by the pool store) and kept my chlorine levels at near 0 for two weeks--even though my pool started turning green. During the two weeks, this culinator power pak was in my pool pump basket as instructed—and my pool pump ran 24/7. The alkalinity was low and the PH was about 6.0-6.5 (low). Anyway, after the two weeks, I slowly brought up my chlorine levels to a "low normal" level. At the one month mark, I shocked the pool. I saw no stains in my pool, till last week (2months later). I see brown streaking starting to form around the water-line at my steps. It has rained a lot recently, but I have been careful to remove leaves the same day, and I bought a pool robot cleaner to keep my pool clean. Despite that, metal stains are reforming--and well, at $60bucks a pop, I just refuse to buy another one of these things and "hope" it finally pulls out enough metal to prevent the stains. It says it pulls out up to 4ppm total, and I don't know if that is a lot of metal or not, but I can tell you that if you have a lot of stains in your vinyl lined 20x40 pool, this product is not "powerful" enough to bond enough metals to keep the stains out (once your remove them with acid). I probably will just have to dump 10lbs of ascorbic acid at the start of each season and dump about $30-$40 bucks worth of a sequestering agent throughout the season to keep the pool stain free. Too bad, I love new products, and at $30 for the powerpack, I'd buy one or two more to try out, but not at their current price. My verdict--snake oil for pools.

I had a lot of metal in my pool that took me a long time to figure out the source. This product help me keep down the content and lessen the staining that was occurring, although it didn't fully prevent it. Now that I have that problem resolved I don't need these anymore.

I bought this to absorb the extra copper that is in our pool from a copper algacide we had to put in at the beginning of the season. Every time I swim the copper is turning my hair green so Iwas really hoping this would help us get the copper out of the pool. After using it for about 6 weeks the device has turned the color that shows it is absorbing nickel, but not copper. I didn't realize we had a bunch of nickel in the water, but I wish it would absorb the copper that I need out of the pool.

Metals reduce chlorine/sanitizer efficiency and cause pool stains.Reducing metals is a necessary part of improving water quality.I typically replace once a year during the early Spring.

My pool water has always been high in copper. After a few weeks, the bag was very blue, indicating copper bonding. Balance is back in range.

It’s one week working in pool skimmer, picks up debris. Works good, pool is clearer

Good