New Pool Owner - Salt Chlorinator

[SpaceBaron]

Ok, first post so that officially makes me the NG!

I am renting this house which has a pool about 5 x 3m, 2m deep. I received absolutely no instructions from the owner about pool maintenance. I have never owned a pool before, therefore I am a complete noob at this! It took me about two weeks to figure out that the pool as a salt chlorinator. By that time the unit showed some lights that indicated that salt must be added and that the chlorine output level is low. No guessing why!

I bought a 25kg bag of swimming pool salt and added half a bag to my pool yesterday. I allowed the salt to dissolve on it's own and did not turn the pump on at all. This morning when I turned the pump on, the unit still shows: ADD SALT. I have added the other half of the bag this morning.

I am now worried that I will add too much salt in my quest to get the indicator lights on the chlorinator to go out. I don't want to mess things up, so anyone who has any advice; I would really appreciate it!

Kind Regards,

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

What is the water temperature? When the water is cold the salt sensor in the SWG (salt water generator) will tend to give false low readings.

It would be a big help if you could fill out your location fully, so we have some idea of what part of the world you are in. Without that information it is very difficult to answer your questions.

 

[Divin Dave]

Hi SpaceBaron,
welcome to TFP.

Most all SWG's have a requirement for Parts per Million (PPM of salt), not all are equal. Some require more, some require less.

The range is usually in increments of roughly 1000.

I used Pool Math to estimate how many PPM of salt is in your pool. If you add the entire 25 kg bag, it will raise your salt level by about 500. Unless your salt level are on the high end of the operating range, then I dont believe you have over-salted the pool. Very likely that the water is too cold, as Jason mentions.

Here is a link to pool math and it is invaluable in determining how much of something you need to add to a pool.
http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

If you really want to learn how to take care of your pool easily, and save money to boot,
then please start reading Pool School. There is a ton of info in there that you need to know.
http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/

In the meantime, please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

 

[SpaceBaron]

Guys,

Thanks for your answers. I stay in Pretoria, South Africa. We have a heat wave out here and the temperature peaks at 30-35 daily! My pool water temperature is 25-26 degrees celsius.

What I will do is to add another 25kg bag of salt. I think that in my ignorance I never salted the pool properly. We moved into this house in December and I am only now attending to the salt content of the pool. It's been more than two months!

Thank you for all your help! I will definitely ask for help here again!

Kind Regards,

 

[JasonLion]

Just one more thing to check. You should visually inspect the cell for scaling (white chalky stuff on the cell plates). That is the other thing that can give false low salt readings. Other than that, you are probably correct and the salt level actually is too low.