Benefits of Salt without SWG?

[GigaMike]

I read here that you can get the benefits of salt without a SWG. Trichlor tabs are so cheap on Doheny's (25lbs for $63) that its hard to bring myself to buying the $1000 SWCG after reading so many posts of people with problems with them. Im just curious to what those "benefits" are besides water feel if I added say 400lbs of salt to my 25000 gallon IG Vinyl pool? Am I asking for more problems with my pump and 15 year old DE filter? or the concrete around the pool?

I dont mind the pucks and find that I have to add 1 about every 5-7 days and my FC seems to be around 6 all the time. Granted ive only owned my pool for 4 weeks when we moved in

Thanks for the valuable feedback. I love this site.

 

[chem geek]

The problem with the Trichlor pucks is that the CYA level increases over time. Don't forget that you need to add the cost of the pH Up adjustment chemical and when you do that you should find that your Trichlor pucks are not much different in price than chlorinating liquid or bleach. Since you may have a short swim season and have a lot of drain/refill/overflow over the winter, you may be able to keep your CYA in check and just raise the FC as the CYA level rises and then "reset" each winter. Just keep an eye on your CYA level. For every 10 ppm FC added by Trichlor, it also increases CYA by 6 ppm.

 

[BuckeyeChris]

Salt can mitigate some risk of calcium scaling, if you have high CH and or high pH

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Mike, you live in an area with a very limited swim season compared to many here.

When people use pucks and granular chlorine they're also adding sometimes unwanted extra chemicals in to their pools (either Cyanuric Acid stabilizer or calcium) which build up to nuisance levels after using for a while. After months and months of use all that extra stabilizer can make the chlorine needs so high (because there is a balancing act relationship between those two) or the calcium levels get too high and cause scaling.

To avoid this folks use either a SWG (which don't have near the problems you suggest, in proportion to their use!) or liquid chlorine. I don't want to lug jugs of bleach home so I use a SWG. Makes my pool almost self maintaining...almost and of course the salt makes the water feel so nice.

 

[GigaMike]

Thanks for the feedback all. I think I should weigh the options. Maybe i'll give it another season of pucks and see what my levels are at. When we looked to buy the house I remember they had tons of yellow jugs of chlorine and didnt use pucks (but there were empty puck buckts in the shed?) and when I took the water to the pool store they showed the CYA level at 24ppm which was low I guess and hardness was 12ppm. I will definitely keep an eye on them next year. Also fwiw, ph was 6.6!!! Ill also be buying a tf-100

 

[tim5055]

Puck use will push the pH down, so if they are being used I understand the 6.6

When you go to the pool store for their "testing" do not confuse the specificity of their "results" with accuracy. You need that TF100