Looking for opinions on using salt to chlorinate a swimming pool. (In-ground)?

Answer 1

I'm a former pool tech with about 15 years of experience and 8 years with the generators, mostly the Gold Line Aquarite . In all the installations I've come across or installed, I've never seen an issue with them. They've saved the homeowner considerably in operating costs. Of the two issues I'd ever had with them, both were the fault of the homeowner not following recommended guidelines for cleaning the cell. Fixed as soon as I cleaned them.
I've seen them installed in pools that saw little use, to pools that all the neighborhood kids were in on a daily basis. They managed to keep up with the bather load easily.
The only real drawbacks are that they are expensive initially and there's one more thing you have to monitor and that's the salinity of the water. The salinity isn't really a big deal. Most of the units out there now will automatically monitor the salt for you and let you know if you're in a hi or lo salt situation. You'll also need to watch your stabilizer levels, but you should be doing that anyway at least twice a year and twice a year is all you need with a salt gen, but you have to make SURE you actually do it and not put it off.
The benefits? Reduced chemical costs. You've eliminated buying chlorine pucks and shock. You'll still need to keep your pH and total alkalinity adjusted, but because you're not adding high pH chlorine pucks and shock any more, the pH swing is less and the same for your TA. That boils down to needing less soda ash and acid to maintain proper levels. You're saving money again.
The water chemistry being constant, makes for water that's easier on everyone. I've never come across a person that had skin or eye issues with a salt gen pool. Lots of people can't do regular Chlorine or Bromine though.
The previous poster has said " dumping 50 pound bags of salt in daily". Totally false. You do NOT dump in a 50 pound bag a day. Your pool water is initially "charged" with the required amount of salt, to bring the water into the 2500-3200 ppm range. That's it. You only add salt when the level drops below 2500ppm. On average, for a sand filtered pool that is backwashed once a week, you'll add one bag of salt every 3 months or so. That's it. If you have a DE filtered pool or on a cartridge filter, you'll be looking at less than half of that. Additionally, the previous poster has stated that " if it was that great, everybody would be doing it". They ARE doing it. A full 60% of new pool construction in North America has been installing salt gens on pool builds. That doesn't include the number of retrofits. Additionally, there is no greater risk of "corrosion", using salt at the recommended concentration of 2500-3200 ppm ( one three hundredth the salinity of a human tear) . Sorry, but the salt concentration is so low that even Julia Child would have a hard time tasting it with her taste buds.
Ask around, find people in your area that have them installed. I bet you won't find one person that regrets going salt that bought a respected make and model and had it installed properly. You WILL find a few chemical dealers that are plenty ticked off that they aren't making the money they used to though. Which is odd, because they could sell the salt bags and recoup at least some profits.

Answer 2

I am a professional pool operator in Georgia. I have had several companies approach me to switch from traditional chlorine to a chlorine generation system with saline. Personally, I consider them snake oil on a large basis. In theory the systems work, but I think that in the long run, you are better off sticking to buying a cal-hypo system and learning to regulate your usage. Dumping 50 pound bags of salt into your pool everyday to increase the chlorine production is not my idea of efficiency. I have spoken to several agencies that use saline chlorination and they are not happy with them stating anything from not being able to maintain a strong residual, to patrons complaining about the feel of the water, to severe corrosion problems. My advice is to stick with the traditional methods. If it was that great, everybody would be doing it.

Answer 3

Although salt chlorine is cheaper you will spend more money in the long run to replaster your pool after it gets damaged from the salt chlorine, you will also be spending alot on your swimwear as the salt chlorine will eat your suits up.

Answer 4

The salinity of a salt water generated pool is interior the 2500- 3500 ppm variety. once you're Julia newborn and a superb prepare dinner, you will flavor it. The salinity isn't corrosive to pool warmers or ladders and such, so could be in basic terms high-quality for that RC boat, even no remember if that's water cooled like mine is.

Answer 5

It's a very destructive substance.

You're looking for a salt-water swimming pool?

Answer 6

I used Bleach to chlorinate my hot tub. it worked great. I just put in a cup after each use, and never had any problems.