Swimming pool information (Houston: maintenance, live in, costs)

[Guingirl]

I was curious if any of ya'll had some recommendations of companies of who we should talk to. I am curious about the costs and maintenance involved in a salt water pool and some reputable companies that we should contact.

Thank you!

[subslug]

Are you looking to install a salt system on an existing pool or are you talking a complete pool here?
I maintain several pools for the organization I work for and since we converted them all to salt pools we really haven't looked back. Ours are a bit of trouble simply because of our bather load but as for a residential pool, I can see absolutely no reason why you wouldn't want salt.? I feel sorry for people who still use chlorine.

[Guingirl]

We are looking at a brand new pool. I have heard great things about them.

[loves2read]

check out the dallas site for salt water pools or just pools--thread over there not too long ago had some negatives about a salt-water pool that you might want to know--even if you decide to still go with one--some problems might be avoidable with good planning/information...

[Synopsis]

The salt pools still use chlorine. Somehow they use salt to generate the chlorine, however. And I too have heard nightmare stories about salt pools. Channel 8 recently did an investigative segment on "salt pools gone bad." I'm sure they are okay if you maintain them appropriately though.

[Guingirl]

Thank you. I will check that out!

[subslug]

The truth is, anything having to do with pools is a lot of maintenance. The mis-conception is, if you install a salt system on your pool then your worrying days are over and that's not true. A lot of people assume the salt system should save them money and I doubt that either, what it will do is take salts that are naturally in your pool and convert them back into useful chlorine, reducing your chlorine costs.

Many might not realize it but bleach comes from sea water and is converted into chlorine using a machine just like the salt system on your pool......only a lot bigger. The DC current in the salt cell realigns certain molecules and converts salt into chlorine. The salt in your pool comes from sweat or whatever from the bathers in the water so the salt system has two benefits, removing the bad and creating the good basically.

Just don't think you'll never need to add chlorine again and more than likely you'll need to add salt time and time again, but that's cheaper than chlorine. The salt systems cost about $1000-$1500 initially so that alone is it's largest drawback. There are several brands of systems as well, I personally recommend those made by Zodiac
They've been making salt systems for awhile, I think they're based in Australia. Maybe someone else has more experience with other brands..

[SCP INSTRUCTOR]

The technology for salt pools has been around for over twenty years. It comes and goes. The process in the salt pools is the same as used to make commercial bleach.

Salt pools are still chlorinated. They just manufacture it. The chemistry and maintenance is something that the homeowner must be brought up to speed before he chooses to treat his/her pool in this manner.

That being said, understanding what is going on and what to do about it is critical to the operation of the pool. The comfort of the bathers, the safety of the chemistry and correct maintenance of the equipment is what the user needs to know.

At this time a salt pool will generally not save the user money in it's operation. The cost of the salt, acid and the replacement of the cell after approximately 5000 hours of operation, plus the maintenance, it is not cost effective.

Salt is sometimes sold as a panacea, how it should be sold is as a convenience. The pool feels different and generally has better clarity. The actual operation and the chemistry does not change that much, it's just that the parameters you are used to keeping tabs on change to different parameters. Ph, alkalinty and CYA levels become much more volatile in terms of movement, while chlorine becomes more stabile.

I feel that I have made too much of this subject, however if anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.

[Soccersupporter]

Originally Posted by Guingirl

I was curious if any of ya'll had some recommendations of companies of who we should talk to. I am curious about the costs and maintenance involved in a salt water pool and some reputable companies that we should contact.

Thank you!

Probably too late but...

When I was in CA I worked for Balboa Instruments. It is now called Balboa Water Group. Check out this link it gives you a brief rundown on salt systems for pools and spas.

Balboa Instruments - ECOmatic

[arbucle]

I have had my pool for 4 years and replaced the cell twice.It was under warranty the first time but has just been replced again for 850 dollars,Next time i think i will go back to chlorine tabs and not spend the money .I live in Houston and everytime it rains i have to add salt and its a pain in the butt when it rains every other day,