Salt Water Pools, Why??? (moved from Dallas, TX forum) (heater, tanks, drain)

[socketz]

It seems that the salt would cause havoc to your equipment. I never owned one, but back when I had a jet ski (similar pump style motor) it was a real exercise to keep the thing maintained after rides in the salt water. The thing would go forever if you only ran it in fresh water....

[LOK222]

Originally Posted by socketz

It seems that the salt would cause havoc to your equipment. I never owned one, but back when I had a jet ski (similar pump style motor) it was a real exercise to keep the thing maintained after rides in the salt water. The thing would go forever if you only ran it in fresh water....

no jet skis in the pool buddy

my understanding is the salt level is very low in the pool. I'm sure it would effect motors and things but I'm sure the filtration and all is made for salt pools

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by LOK222

no jet skis in the pool buddy

my understanding is the salt level is very low in the pool. I'm sure it would effect motors and things but I'm sure the filtration and all is made for salt pools

Salt eats away at metal even at low levels. There are also problems w/ the flagstone being corroded w/ the salt water systems.

No matter what kind of system you have you need to do some protective things to floors inside the house. If you come into your house from the back onto ceramic tile you will need to seal the grout. If you have slate you seal the entire floor tile & grout. This needs to be done every couple of years.

[LOK222]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Salt eats away at metal even at low levels. There are also problems w/ the flagstone being corroded w/ the salt water systems.

No matter what kind of system you have you need to do some protective things to floors inside the house. If you come into your house from the back onto ceramic tile you will need to seal the grout. If you have slate you seal the entire floor tile & grout. This needs to be done every couple of years.

Hmm.. intresting.

so are you for Saltwater pools or againest Mom?

[aussie_rachel]

I grew up in Australia with a salt water pool. They are great!

[LOK222]

IMO it is silly to get anything BUt a saltwater pool, they are pretty much better in every way if they are setup right

[qfrisco]

I'm coming into this thread somewhat late, but there's been quite a bit of talk lately on the pitfalls of salt pools, including a story on WFAA last month on the topic, so I figured I'd post my 2 cents. :-)

- firstly, just to clarify something, both "salt pools" and "chlorine pools" use chlorine to sanitize pool water. The only difference is that salt pools have the chlorine generated via electrolysis by a device called a saltwater generator (SWG), thus providing a constant supply of chlorine instead of having to add chlorine to the pool as in a chlorine pool.

- secondly, many people quickly point out that salt is a corrosive, but many people don't realize that chlorine is also a corrosive. If we remember from our High School Chemistry class :-) - salt is Sodium Chloride or NaCl. What makes salt corrosive is the "Cl" part of the molecule, which means that chlorine is also corrosive.

- thirdly, and to me, this is the important point - all chlorine pools (including salt pools) need a stabilizer in the water called Cyanuric Acid (CYA) to help prevent the sun from breaking down and using up the chlorine in the pool. However, it's a bit of a Catch-22 as the more stabilizer you have in the pool water, the more it inhibits chlorine's ability to disinfect, and the less stabilizer you have in the pool water, the more gets burned off by the sun leaving you no disinfectant in the water. Basically, the key relationship here is - the higher your stabilizer level, you need a higher chlorine level as well and, vice versa.

My third point above is where the corrosion problems come up, in my opinion. At low or zero stabilizer levels, the corrosive effects of chlorine are magnified very significantly. For example, in a pool with a normal amount of chlorine (4 ppm) but with no stabilizer, the chlorine is over 30x more powerful as a disinfectant AND as an oxider, making it SO much more corrosive. In many of the situations I have read where people have complained of corrosion caused by their salt pool, the pool owners had not checked their water regularly and when they finally checked their water have found their stabilizer level to be very low or non-existent.

I'm still unconvinced that the salt is the cause of the corrosion issues, but I keep watching for evidence of such in my own salt pool. I also test my water every couple days and stay on top of my pool chemistry. I think the problem, if any, that salt pools have introduced is giving people a false sense of security that they don't need to watch and maintain their pool anymore. They think that since they have a salt-chlorine generator that everything is fine, not realizing that yes, a healthy amount of chlorine is being generated but once the pool chemistry gets out of whack, specifically the stabilizer level, that chlorine can actually turn against them!

I'm sorry for the long post, but hope that was helpful!

[KantLockeMeIn]

But as you said, with no CYA, 4 ppm is much more effective... so you can actually run a pool < 4 ppm with no CYA. You just have to be able to constantly replenish the Cl during daylight hours or when people are swimming... and that's where the SWG comes into play.

Good post!

[galore]

From my very unscientific experience, salt water pools are not as stable as chlorine-disinfected pools. The ones that I have seen look more cloudy and are never as sparkly as a well tuned chlorine-treated pool.

[Synopsis]

I'd double check on the saltwater pool before you put it in LOK. Momof2 brought up a great point. Back about a month ago WFAA (Channel 8) did an expose' on how saltwater pool owners were beset with all kinds of damage to their pools. And, a pool cleaning and maintenance expert said on television that he would never, ever recommend anyone have a saltwater pool installed until they work these issues out. The damage was horrible on these pools, in the tens of thousands of dollars, and they were only a few years old. Please check it out before you take the leap..