salt water pool (San Antonio, Anton: house, maintenance, live)

[shannon94]

Ok ...who here has a salt water pool?? We are thinking of converting our pool this summer and was just wondering how people have liked theirs. Would love to get rid of the chlorine etc!!

[KantLockeMeIn]

You'll still have chlorine in your water, you'll just use a swg to convert the salt into chlorine. It allows constant low level of chlorine to be constantly added to the water.

If you are having issues with chlorine, it's probably because you followed a pool store's recommendations You can achieve a similar experience as a swg if you use 6% bleach and monitor your levels a few times a week.
I found the poolforum invaluable for really understanding pool chemistry.

[new2tx]

Originally Posted by shannon94

Ok ...who here has a salt water pool?? We are thinking of converting our pool this summer and was just wondering how people have liked theirs. Would love to get rid of the chlorine etc!!

Our family had a salt pool in ca, it was great, always clean, eyes never burned or turned red. growing up I had a chlorinated pool, turned my hair green burnt eyes, salt pools dont do that.

[kt2le]

Our neighbors have a salt water pool and my sister-in-law does, too. Both love them for the reasons new2tx mentions. Their swimsuits don't fade like ones do after being in too much chlorine, either, and the water feels soft to the touch.

[NavyVet08]

I have been in one and read up on them a little bit.

It was A LOT less salty than I was expecting. It is only about 0.6% salt. They are even referred to as Saline Pools (yes it was about as salty as contact solution). That may help you in your research.

The benefits are awesome, even converting an old pool does not require anything extensive per se. The long term savings can be a lot as well. My buddy says he spends a lot less time doing maintenance on it as well. He said he spent about a grand on the converter, but he installed it himself which saved him the few hundred dollars to have it done.

Maintenance is Salt and Pool Acid. Nothing else, no algae stuff, clarifying stuff, etc etc.

I think a conversion should be a no-brainer.

[loves2read]

you should do a search on all city threads for salt water pool and see what people have posted before---I don't have a pool but know that salt-water ones are really what most new pools are now--but some people have problems with them over time--so think you might want to get some other input...

[momof2dfw]

They are not as great as some make them out to be. Sure the effects on the skin and eyes is better than a heavily chlorinated pool. BUT, an efficient chlorine pool is VERY easy to maintain and not as bad on skin and eyes as many believe - I've NEVER had my hair or anyone elses turn green from swimming in our pool. Our pool is a chlorine pool and even salt water pools use it. The best thing you can do is spend the money up front to get THE BEST equipment possible as this will make a world of difference no matter what. We have a good friend that does pool repairs and several years ago I asked him about converting ours to a salt water pool and he said no. He told us to wait on newer technology that is being developed that is MUCH better. Recently one of the news stations did a story on how people w/ salt water pools were having problems after a few years w/ it eating away the grout on their coping and rusting equipment One neighbor has a salt water pool and when the water gets splashed up on their windows it leaves a nasty film on them. Just think how car windows at the beach would look if you never cleaned them - yuck.

[HORSEGIRL]

Originally Posted by shannon94

Ok ...who here has a salt water pool?? We are thinking of converting our pool this summer and was just wondering how people have liked theirs. Would love to get rid of the chlorine etc!!

I have one in California. It is so nice. we converted ours and cost less to keep up. alot easier too. We dont have a smell and it doesn't burn our eyes.

[SAtoDallas]

When we upgraded our equipment this past spring we were considering a salt water system, but decided to go with a conventional system. We heard that the salt water will enventually erode components in the pump/filter system and it also erodes the coping/decking around the pool area and parts are expensive to change.

[mignonster]

My husband and I recently bought a house that had a chlorine pool we decided to switch it to salt water because the pool was in an area that got sun all day and alot of leaves and what not would get in it and the ppl that owned the house before us told us that they were having to shock it alot and keep alot of chlorine in it to keep it clean. We started looking into various salt water systems online and eventually found a great system at Leslie's pools it cost just over $1,000 with install and initial salt plus an extra couple of bags. We love it so far, its been about 3 months, I love it becuase I color my hair and chlorine pools would always wash the color out almost instantly and the salt water has never done that. Also, and I know this is going to sound odd, but you know how when you get out of a chlorine pool you smell of chlorine and have to go take a shower and everything well that can sometimes be a beating, and with a salt water pool you dont have an odd smell so if for some reason you had to go somewhere after swimming and didn't have time for a shower it would be ok because noone would know lol.


I know i'm writing alot but i'm trying to be thorough. My husbands parents also bought a salt water system (the same as our and on the same weekend, they live is San Antonio though) and they are having issues with their system not reading things properly and they have noticed that the pool has had some algea in it. Leslie's assures them that it is porbably just a matter of fine tuning the system and having another tech. come out and recalibrate it and then it should be fixed so I guess we shall see about that. But I know our is great and we love it love it love it. Oh and it is really good for your skin, one of our friends had some pimples and came over to swim for a couple of hours and the next day the redness of her pimples was virtually non existant. Now i'm not saying its a magic acne medicine but I have noticed that it has great effects on the skins softness and appearance.

good luck with your decision sorry about how long this was