Hi Forum members. Wakers 3 checking in. Found your board while researching my potential conversion to salt this Spring and really like all of the information I have absorbed so far.

Wanted to provide a little history about my pool experience and perhaps get some direction. Prior house (and our first) happened to have a wonderful backyard oasis with an older gunnite pool that was built prior to regulations because is was pretty short but had a diving board. That thing was a gem. Low maintenance as I just added a couple of pounds of shock every week for about 5 years. Nice epoxy stone covering over top of the concrete pads surrounding the pool. Privacy fence to keep my hiney obscure from the neighbors. Miss that. Hurricane reached inland and brought debris, gunnite started breaking down, drought year, cold year, pump failed, epoxy stone started deteriorating, etc. Bottom line is that I had to start working on keeping the pool nice which started sucking. We were in that house for 9 years.

Family started and we decided it was time to move. We had enjoyed the pool so much for so long that we found a nice house with an existing pool that we figured we could make work. This pool is a little bigger with a vinyl liner and not as nice of a surrounding oasis as the last one and so far, I wouldn't say that it has been crazy work but there are more trees around and it seems like everytime I took water into Leslie's, there is some other chemical that I need to purchase and add. Especially Soda Ash. I can't stand buying Soda Ash.

Heard that Salt systems are basically the cure-all for any of the pool problems in life. Both from owners and of course Leslie's. So here I am. Trying to decide that if I just study and do some research and actual hard-core water testing on my own and actually learn about the chemistry of the thing - that my life with chlorine will become easier by default, and/or would I just take the plunge as they say this Spring and hit up installing a salt water system on my own and cross my fingers that my life improves. This past year was the worst as we had another one of those hurricane things that took me three vacuums to get all of the junk out and then my chemicals were way off for about three weeks.

Other things that I need to address:
-small hole in the liner about the size of a pencil eraser and above the water level
-concrete pad surrounding the pool has cracked and is shifting in a couple of spots
-liner has been damaged at some point because the nice pattern has bleached/faded here and there

Other things I would like to learn about:
-I have just always left the pool pump on all the time. Didn't realize there was an alternative until I started reading on this forum.
-automatic cleaners. Last pool was so much easier as there were hardly any trees around. This one is different.
-Salt of course. Is that the windex of the pool world, or am I reading it wrong?

Thanks for taking the time to read through my ramblings. Any direction on any of the topics above is appreciated.

-Bill

Welcome to TFP!

SWCG's only make one thing easier, hauling chlorine. They are a nice addition but you still have to maintain your pool.

You'll do yourself a big favor by reading pool school and learning to maintain your pool properly.

I think you will need to take a look at all the pool equipment to see that it is salt-safe.

If you read through Pool School, not just once but twice, you will catch onto the finer points of pool water management. Probably best to get control of the pool first, then see if salt will work for you.

Best advice is to get your own test kit and learn to trust your own testing. You may find that you spend far less on chemicals. Too often we hear of pool stores selling jug after jug of conflicting chemicals, or down-right snake oil. As you are reading Pool School, take notes in the Test Kits Compared section. I am fond of my TF-100 kit.... not that is not right..... I adore my TF-100 and recommend it to friends and even recent acquaintances all the time. Add a Speed-Stir if you can manage it. You will save so much money by managing you own tests that the kit will pay for itself in no time.

Hi wakers3 and welcome to TFP!

As was mentioned, reading through pool school and hanging out here and reading other posts, you'll learn real fast that this is a DIY forum.
I also was just running to the pool store and having my water tested and their printout said I needed this now, then that 2-3 weeks later, now you need to do this for 2 days and etc, etc.
I finally just decided I needed to know more about pool water chemistry, I'm a engine builder and machinist, so I'm thinking how hard can it be? It's water...
Google got me here, as I was reading posts it became clear to me that I needed to have my own tool box to work on my water.
TF-100 test kit was that tool, the first day was excited to get my kit but was scared to death what to do next?
I keep reading and followed these instructions on this page:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/what-we-need-to-know-to-answer-your-questions-t10341.html

I posted my pool water results and was surprised at how much everyone helped me!
Now my pool is great and has been perfect, mostly a TFP, just needed to learn my pools personality, my TA was too high and my ph keep going up too much. I lowered my TA (pool school has directions for this) and bingo, now my ph is very stable. I also can say my pool now is very cheap to maintain now as I not putting in all the junk the pool store had me doing.
My pool is always screaming at us to come swimming every minute!
I followed the advice given here and now I'm so excited how easy this is and the family had a blast all summer, I just bought a bigger 21' and getting ready to do a expandable deep center!

Post here with full set of test #'s and we all can chime in and help out!

Chuck

Once I get my new pool up and running, I'm going to use a peristaltic pump like this one here:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=off&q=peristaltic+pumps&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1024&bih=607&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=14977043604483681870&sa=X&ei=1JwoT9L2DsnAtgfMvJXfBA&ved=0CI8BEPMCMAE