Salt water vs regular for community pool

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ralphf

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Jul 22, 2010
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I am on a board for a HOA and have used salt water pools a few times and liked them and have heard nothing bad about them.

I have a few questions that I hope you can help me with. I have read things on the internet and on this forum, but I find 99.9% of the information I find is geared more toward the individual home pool and not a community pool.

Initial cost for conversion to saltwater pool for us has been estimated at $8k.
Pool is a 50k gallon pool and gets light usage during the day and moderate-heavy useage in the evenings (but nothing like a public pool gets)
Community is aprox. 600 homes.
Pool was built in 2003 and we have had multiple problems with cracks and leaks in pump room where the chemicals are stored. We also periodically get green color to pool even though we have pool company that visits twice a week during use season.
Pool area is all concrete

What I am looking for is if anyone has some good pros and cons for installation of Salt water pool for the community pool.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...7493,-97.61148&spn=0.000967,0.001742&t=h&z=20
 
I think the first step would be to check with your local public health authority and see if you are allowed to use a SWG to sanitize the pool. Even though use is limited to residents, it would still fall under public pool regulations.

As long as you get a SWG large enough to handle the swimmer load for the pool I do not anticipate any problems with switching over. Just be sure to use liquid chlorine to keep the FC at the recommended level until the SWG is able to catch up.
 
"Certain" cities in Los Angeles County prohibit salt, as in salt chlorine generators and water softener systems. That's about the only place in the US that does not allow salt.

Fortunately, Texas allows salt. In fact, I was just in San Antonio this week meeting with the new JW Marriott Hill Country, to have all their pools and spas treated with our Pool Pilot systems.

As my post may be viewed as biased, heck just look at my signature, I'm only here to tell you that salt systems are perfectly acceptable for commercial pools, provided you are sized properly to handle your maximum chlorine demand of your pool, and comply with state guidelines, which state that for outdoor pools, you have to have the capacity to maintain 8 ppm FC.

You should make sure that your leaks are fixed first, or you'll go through alot of salt, and may cause damage from excessive salt build up where it's leaking and collecting in puddles.

AutoPilot uses the following fields to calculate the chlorine demand:
Pool Volume
Maximum Bather Load (throughout the entire day -worst case conditions)
Circulation pump run hrs per day
Indoor or Outdoor Location
Flat water or are there any water features
Maximum Water Temperature

I can suggest the system size (chlorine amount in lbs/day) needed, based on these parameters.

I can give you names of properties in the Austin area, with our systems as well. Let me know how I can help with your decision.
 
Will it work? Absolutely, but it must be sized correctly. For peak demand, not average daily usage. Make sure you have no water leaks in the pool and you must use stabilizer.

Just like any other system, it is not a panacea for all your problems. The green water won't automatically be solved by the salt system. That can happen with any system and is more of a maintenance issue.

As far as economics it will probably not pay for itself in your area. The whole Austin area has very cheap bulk bleach available delivered in bulk to commercial pools.
 
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