Adding Salt to a Salt Water Pool

[Salsiccia]

Hi guys,

I've just read the following interesting statement on this site when talking about adding salt to a salt water pool:

If you have a SWG, it should be turned off while you are adding salt

I wasn't aware of this recommendation and I've never done this. I've always had my pump on while adding salt and because my pump is powered from my SWG unit this means that by default the SWG is generating chlorine whenever the pump is on.

My interpretation of the above recommendation is that when adding salt, I will need to connect my pump directly to power and not go via the SWG unit.
That's fine, I have no problem doing that if that's the recommendation, but I wanted to clarify - are pumps always connected to the SWG like mine or is mine set up differently?

I guess an alternative approach would be to leave it connected as it is and set the Chlorine output to 0% while I'm adding the salt (and for the next 24 hours)

Am I reading this correctly?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

My SWG is powered independently of the pump. They're both on the same timer, but I can turn the SWG off when my FC is high and just continue to run the pump and filter without it.

 

[Jezza]

I think the main thing is that when the salt is added it is dissolved and evenly dispersed and circulated throughout the pool. Best way is using the pool brush to move it around until you can't see the piles of salt. At this particular time -yes best to turn off the SWG.
Mind you it's not a bad idea just to add a bit of liquid chlorine and just turn it off for the 24 hour period.

 

[Salsiccia]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I am always careful to brush the salt to dissolve it when I add it until I can't see anything anymore, but now that I think about it I actually like the idea of turning off the SWG for 24 hours after salting as I imagine it could get a bit confused with the temporarily high salt concentration running through.

Might have to revisit the whole pump / power connectivity setup too as mine is a complete mess. Previous owner must have done it himself as there's no way any professional PB would have built what I have !