Thoughts on a salt water pool (2015, cost of, vs)

[chuckycheese]

Originally Posted by Austinpoolguy

FYI, I'm part owner of a pool store in the Orlando area. We are the anti-retailer. We offer online pricing in the store and don't have a sales quota. We offer real advice from years of experience.

When I hear things like "Salt shares a number of characteristics with other TDS (totally dissolved solids)." I have to realize who's out there talking. What does that mean? It's a component of the TDS of the water. It doesn't share anything.
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"Characteristic", in this instance, means an attribute that is simlilar to other TDS...... or a trait shared in common. You should know that!

Your store sounds great. I'll bet if I lived in Orlando, I'd be doing business with you!

[Austinpoolguy]

Once again, it's a component of TDS when it's in the water. Just like calcium.

[FL2HI]

I had a salt water pool in Palm Coast Florida...LOVED IT!! Best thing I ever did was to put it in.....Now I am in Port Charlotte and my pool is a regular chlorine pool...Hate it...we are converting it to salt water.....we only run the pool (salt Water) 6 hours a day....it DOES NOT cost us more money to have a salt water pool....We had our pool for 4 years in Palm Coast and regularly cleaned the cell when the control panel said it was time to clean the cell....never had aproblem....DEFINITELY LESS MAINTENANCE....In my Opinion......Cant wait to have it switched at the end of December....also putting in solar heat...as that's what I had before.....I miss swimming in my pool...its too cold right now!!!...

[Judy Samples]

I live in a condo, two buildings,forty-two units. The pool is saltwater, yet chlorine is added weekly. The summer months few people are in the pool. More in the fall and winter season. There is often so much Chlorine in the pool that the scent cannot be washed off your skin or out of your clothes. I have learned that I have developed a chlorine allergy. Itching and breakouts. I was told by the HOA president that chlorine is necessary because too many people use the pool. Can anyone tell me of the accuracy of that. This is a large pool and spa because it was built expecting that there would be eight buildings before the crash.

[MartyGras]

A saltwater pool has a chlorine generator that turns the saltwater into chlorine.
If they have to add Chlorine to the pool it means that either the chlorine generator is to small for the pool, it needs to be replaced or there is not enough salt in the pool to allow the chlorine generator to work.

Gary

[wpc691]

With heavy use, any pool needs to be shocked. A chlorine generator can't produce that level of chlorine, so they shock it with the regular hypochlorite solution.

[Messing About]

Or it means the titanium plates in the chlorine generator have become inhibited by calcium deposits and need to be cleaned in muratic acid, which didn't happen for us until the 14th month after install. Easy fix, generating free chlorine again.

[Macgregorsailor51]

I am using chlorine at present ..I have been interested in a salt system but never spent the time investigating it. I have in the past used Baquacil good product but not cheap.. I find generators capable of supplying my pool for in or around $800 and replacement cells for in or around $400.. How often do the cells need replacing? Where and how do you store the salt? How long does 40 lbs of salt last? I guess I was always turned off about the system because it.... "seemed like" I could hear always the cha-ching cha-ching song playing in the back ground as I talked to the pool store employee..

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Originally Posted by Messing About

Or it means the titanium plates in the chlorine generator have become inhibited by calcium deposits and need to be cleaned in muratic acid, which didn't happen for us until the 14th month after install. Easy fix, generating free chlorine again.

[03bluecoupe]

Originally Posted by Macgregorsailor51

I am using chlorine at present ..I have been interested in a salt system but never spent the time investigating it. I have in the past used Baquacil good product but not cheap.. I find generators capable of supplying my pool for in or around $800 and replacement cells for in or around $400.. How often do the cells need replacing? Where and how do you store the salt? How long does 40 lbs of salt last? I guess I was always turned off about the system because it.... "seemed like" I could hear always the cha-ching cha-ching song playing in the back ground as I talked to the pool store employee..

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I'm with ya here Mac - From what I see, the salt generators are generally good for 5ish years. Replacement is around 4-500. I think you only dump salt in once or maybe twice a year. (I'm just going on what I was told here... no experience with it yet but my friends swear by it)

I think a conversion to salt on a "normal" sized pool (16000 or so) can probably be done for 1200.00ish without a new pump or heater.

I'll probably jump when we stop bleeding money from moving.

[MartyGras]

The main reason people like the saltwater is because the water feels different. Some describe it as softer.

There is also a claim that your eyes won't burn because there is no chlorine in the pool......well a saltwater pool still has chlorine and if your chemistry is wrong your eyes will burn.
If your water burns your eyes then you are using too much chlorine and your PH is out of whack. Your PH should be 7.4 to 7.6,

As far as cost of chlorine vs salt I believe the cost of chlorine is cheaper than the cost of the conversion and a new chlorine generator every 3 to 7 Years at $400 to $700 a pop.

So you still want a saltwater pool because it feels nice........then put salt in your pool!

That's right put salt in your chlorine pool up to a level of 2000ppm and it will feel just like a saltwater pool.

Gary