TO Chlorinate or not to..... that is the question

[mcsincnj]

I am in the process of shopping for a pool contractor that will do a turn key installation in the Greer SC area.

I have been to many dealers and discussed chlorine or salt and the latest vendor wants to use the pool frog.
My biggest fear with the frog is that it uses cartridges. In my last pool I had an automatic chlorination feeder that I put hockey pucks in every couple of weeks. I liked it.

I would like to hear your opinions.

I have one neighbor with a chlorine system and one with a salt system. Both say they wouldn't change, and as I said I have had chlorine.

Thanks in advance,

m

BTW, If anyone knows someone in the upstate, that can work on a 20K budget, please have them PM me.

 

[svenpup]

First off, a salt pool IS a chlorine pool. The only difference is that with a salt pool there is a cell that uses electricity to generate free chlorine in the water from chlorine ions from the salt. These systems are called Salt Water Chlorine Generators or SWG's.

We do not recommend the pool frog since it adds minerals to the water which eventually build up to cause staining of the pool and green hair. Search the forum for pool frog and you will find tons of people reporting issues.

We also do not typically recommend using dry forms of chlorine for long term use (neither pucks nor granular). Trichlor and dichlor both build up CYA in the water which eventually renders chlorine ineffective. Cal-Hypo adds calcium which builds up calcium which causes scaling.

For long term use we only recommend liquid chlorine (aka sodium hypochlorite, aka bleach) or salt water chlorine generators.

You should check out pool school (tab at the top of the page) and do some reading. TFP is an amazing resource and if you learn and abide by the tenants taught here you will have a much better experience as a pool owner than if you get sucked into the pool store machine (which is designed to separate your money from your wallet, rather than help you maintain a clear pool).

Also, when you are ready to buy a test kit, don't waste your time with pool store junk and go right to tftestkits.net and get the TF100.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

+1 What he said. Liquid chlorine or SWG (chlorine) but you don't want a frog in your pool.

Here is a link to the test kit :lookhere: http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html

 

[woodyp]

Scratch the frog idea.................and welcome to the forum.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I suggest you start reading Pool School starting with these. The last one may help you understand why we do not recommend the use of tablets:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool

 

[Divin Dave]

You will have plenty of frogs in the pool anyways,:jocolor:
Go with SWG or liquid chlorine.

 

[mcsincnj]

Thanks to all, I will read the pool school info.
And..... fix my profile so I receive notices when I reply is posted.
Something seems wrong that I hadn't seen any notices. I will now!
Again, more homework to do before I pull the trigger. Looks like I will do that in the fall. No rush at this of the year.

Thanks again,
m

 

[RobbieH]

There are ways to inject liquid chlorine into the pool if you don't want to go to salt. Personally, if I didn't have my salt system, I would fill in my pool.

 

[bobodaclown]

Yes you want to chlorinate your pool. There are several choices on how to chlorinate your pool:
SWCG
Manually add Chlorine
Dosing pump

Personally I went with a SWCG, after about a month of manually adding bleach I bit the bullet and added a unit, wouldn't go back.