Long story short, we bought our home 5 years ago and at the time our saltwater pool was 2 years old. We had endless problems with the pool since we were learning and the staff at the pool store is not very helpful to put it nicely. In those 5 years, we went through 3 pump motors due to salt corroding the seal which was $250 each time and this year our cell went out. Many people told us they thought saltwater was overrated, and we should consider just going with chlorine because it isn't THAT much more expensive. Everyone told us that in general you will spend more each summer on pool chemicals with chlorine than you will with saltwater, but that your repairs related to saltwater equipment will set you back more, but that it seems to even out in the long run. Made sense to us, so we decided to make the switch.
So far we haven't had any real issues keeping everything at the optimum levels, and swimming in chlorine vs saltwater hasn't been a bad experience for us.
However, I'm not so sure we get this chlorine thing and our pool store wouldn't really offer us any advice once they found out they weren't getting $700 from us to replace our salt cell.
Someone told us to get 3 inch chlorine tablets and put a couple in the skimmer basket and just leave them there, but take them out when we turn the pump off. I've also read never to put in the skimmer basket and use a floater instead. The issue is I bought a big bucket of tablets a week ago and only have 2 left. Every night when my husband goes to turn the pump off and checks the basket, the tablets have dissolved. This can't be right, can it? If it costs us $25 per week in chlorine that will be VERY expensive in my opinion as compared to salt. If we used a floater would it dissolve less quickly? Do you always need chlorine in your pool or just keep an eye on the levels?
Per the test strips, our total chlorine and free chlorine are right on par. Our ph and stabilizer is a little off though, but the pool looks great.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated...I'm afraid we are either over chlorinating it or just didn't understand how truly expensive chlorine is. One "pool guy" told me he put 2 of the 3 inch tablets in his skimmer a month ago and they are still there. How in the world is that true???
So far we haven't had any real issues keeping everything at the optimum levels, and swimming in chlorine vs saltwater hasn't been a bad experience for us.
However, I'm not so sure we get this chlorine thing and our pool store wouldn't really offer us any advice once they found out they weren't getting $700 from us to replace our salt cell.
Someone told us to get 3 inch chlorine tablets and put a couple in the skimmer basket and just leave them there, but take them out when we turn the pump off. I've also read never to put in the skimmer basket and use a floater instead. The issue is I bought a big bucket of tablets a week ago and only have 2 left. Every night when my husband goes to turn the pump off and checks the basket, the tablets have dissolved. This can't be right, can it? If it costs us $25 per week in chlorine that will be VERY expensive in my opinion as compared to salt. If we used a floater would it dissolve less quickly? Do you always need chlorine in your pool or just keep an eye on the levels?
Per the test strips, our total chlorine and free chlorine are right on par. Our ph and stabilizer is a little off though, but the pool looks great.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated...I'm afraid we are either over chlorinating it or just didn't understand how truly expensive chlorine is. One "pool guy" told me he put 2 of the 3 inch tablets in his skimmer a month ago and they are still there. How in the world is that true???
