salt water pool

[sailing]

I have a salt water pool.
My doctor has suggested that I stay away from chlorine because of some skin problems that it may be causing.
I know the salt water chlorine pools are less toxic, but how much.

 

[JohnT]

There is no difference, and chlorine in pool water isn't particularly toxic. The SWCG just makes the chlorine in the water. Once it's there it's the same, and the levels are about the same as drinking water chlorine levels. The salt is often much easier on the skin than a non-salt pool.

 

[dmanb2b]

As JohnT said...a saltwater pool is a chlorine pool. The saltwater cell uses electricity to convert salt to sanitizing chlorine. There is no difference other than it automates chlorine dosing.

Take a read through pool school...link is in my signature or the top right of this page

 

[jblizzle]

There are lots of discussions about this type of thing in older posts. Odds are that it is not the FC (free chlorine) causing the problem, but some other irritant like CC or pH being off. Here is one thread that is kind of interesting, there are many others:

chlorine-free-pool-systems-t40660.html

A SWG, can let you get away with a little lower FC level than a non-SWG pool for a given CYA level, but again, I have my doubts that is actually causing the problem.

 

[y_not]

I couldn't agree more, jblizzle.

I'll add that public pools are notorious for over chlorination and high CCs, Combined Chloramines.
It seems they like to let the CCs climb and oxidize them, thus eliminating them, by hitting the pool with insanely high doses of chlorine. Not really the way to run a pool.

Those CCs are responsible for that nasty chlorine smell that everyone complains about, it's basically an ammonia derived chlorine. Hence the smell and irritant. It's very bothersome on your skin, hair, eyes and swimsuits. It's not nice stuff at all.

Members on here with eczema have actually found that chlorine is actually beneficial to their skin troubles, even eliminating the problem so long as they use the pool. Some of these members have also tried out borates and found this to be equally helpful as well.
There is some talk about it here: Turned off my SWG, went BBB, wife said OMG

I can say that my skin is very "chlorine sensitive", getting all itchy, dry, breaking out in rashes that look like chemical burns and so on.
I always thought it was the chlorine as well, that is until I found this forum and learned better. My pool even bothered me, but once I started doing what is taught here, no more issues.
It's simply wonderful!! I have eczema too and have no problems with it when I use the pool. But I don't have borates in mine, so I can't comment on that.

Also, it should be noted that with CYA in your pool, it sequesters CL, thus making your free available chlorine levels EXTREMELY LOW!!! In relation to it's equivalent level in just plain water /w no CYA.
A CYA of 20ppm /w an FC level of 4ppm is equal to about 0.2ppm FC in water without CYA. That is less than what you shower or bathe in!!