A floatable sanitizer employs a plurality of electrodes to contact a body of water in order to achieve a near maintenance-free sanitizing chemical generator. In one embodiment, the sanitizing chemical is chlorine and the chlorine is generated by an electrolytic process. The electrolytic reaction may be powered by photovoltaic cells, making the apparatus self-contained and able to float freely within a body of water. In one embodiment, the energy source is channeled through a polarity-reversing module. The polarity-reversing module alternates the direction of the current generated by the photovoltaic cells at a predetermined time interval. The reversing of the polarity reduces scale build-up and prevents corrosion of the metal electrodes.