Non-intex SWG for intex pool? (ie SimpleSalt)

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WagonQueen

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Jun 29, 2014
35
Pittsburgh pa
We had an Intex ultrafram 18' X 48" for 5 seasons. No problems the first 4. Things were dicey the 5th. Never got the water clear. I don't think we ever got the chemistry right. I suspect the SWG was the problem. Frame rusted through and we threw the pool out this spring planning to either get a "real" above ground pool or another intex.

We were all set up to get the real pool installed but now I am thinking the spot we were going to put it doesn't get enough sun and this is going to in the end be a terrible idea and a huge waste of money on a pool no one wants to go in. Part of what steered me towards a real pool was it seems people are reporting rust after just one season with the new Intex Ultraframes. We bought ours in 2014 and I suspect quality has dropped?

ANYWAY. Now they have this XTR model out which is supposed to be more rust resistant. Considering taking a chance.

What I wonder is, are there any other brands of SWG I can hook up to an Intex pool? The salt water generator that would have come with our real pool is called "simple salt." It looks like it runs around $500. It's more money than the Intex, but also uses a lot less salt - which could be better for the frame. But I've searched and I'm not really seeing people reporting using other brands of SWG with the Intex pools.

In addition to the amount of salt, I worry about current reviews of Intex SWG being all over the place. And there are no replacement parts for the one I own. Thinking if we do Intex again, we should go with a non-intex SWG if possible.

(If you're wondering why we don't just put the real pool where the intex pool was, the intex pool was in our driveway! It wasn't my intent to place it for sun, but it does seem to be the spot in the yard that gets ther most sun. And I think the concrete underneath might possibly have a brick oven effect and help to warm up the pool. So a real pool there is not an option)
 
Simple Salt System is a copper based ionizer system. Copper causes staining and hair to turn green. Mineral ionizer systems do not sanitize the water. This is not a system we recommend.

Do you drain the water from your pool when you close it?
 
It would be difficult to install another SWG on Intex plumbing because it's all non-standard sizes (Intex's way to try to keep their stuff proprietary). Also, as said, Simple Salt is not an SWG, it's an ionizer system. You don't want it anywhere near your pool.

An SWG does not cause water to go cloudy, or rather regular testing will root out a failed SWG before the water has a chance to get cloudy. Since SLAM Process is independent of the SWG (you turn it off during the process) I don't think the generator can be blamed here. Since rust is caused by improper chemistry (and not salt, despite what the sellers of non-salt systems will claim) the best thing to solve all these in a future pool is to monitor and control the water chemistry. Luckily, that's primarily what we teach here. A good place to start: ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
 
The first year we had the pool, we drained it and put it away for the winter. We had to patch a lot of holes when we put it back up for the summer. So many that I was considering buying a new liner. So we decided the next year to drain it and leave it up. Well that turned out to be a bad idea because when the fall winds blew in, the pool collapsed. So the following year we drained it below the intake line and then topped it off in the summer. That worked well so we did that until its demise.

Why do you ask? Do you think leaving it up in the winter contributes to frame rusting? I don't feel like the frame ever looked any worse for the wear over the winter. We're in Pittsburgh PA so we do have freezing cold winters. Never intended to leave the pool up all winter because of that but after the first winter, I didn't want to have to set it up and patch all the leaks each summer. It was nice to have all the wrinkles out of the liner and then be set for the next 4 years. Having to do that every year is not something I enjoy - in addition to having to store the liner. I am amazed at how well the liner held up other than that first year - that thing was TOUGH!

My husband was in charge of all the pool testing, we got the big blue taylor kit and our water was perfect until last summer, which would have been the 5th year for the SWG and I'm reading they tend to last about that long? The metal part in the intex is covered in a grey/green residue if that means anything. He reads this site and has all the chemicals you're supposed to add, the acids and bases, and he just couldn't get it right last year, even though he could before that.

Can you link me to anything about the simple sale system? I have a friend using it, bought from the same pool place we'd be buying from, and she has reported no issues. But I really can't seem to find much about this system, positive or negative, that isn't a sales pitch, even searching this site, which I think is one of the things giving me pause about going the real pool route.

Are there SWGs that ARE reccommended for a real, installed, above ground pool? I have just been going with what the pool store guy says they reccomend - I didn't even ask if they sold any other systems. I thought he said they didn't.

My kids and I loved having a pool in the summer. I'm just trying to make the best choice here for how to achieve that this summer. We have passes to the community pool in the mean time but nothing beats being able to mow your grass in your bathing suit and then jump right into your own personal pool when you're done :-D That was seriously my favorite part of pool ownership, which I realize may be somewhat bizarre.
 
There is a wide range of pumps, filters, and SWG available once you get away from the proprietary Intex stuff. There are folks here who use standard pumps, filters, and SWGs for their AGP. You just have to pick the correct size for your water gallons. Browse the Above Ground Pool section, read members signatures, and see what they are discussing.

You can get an idea of the SWGs available at Compare and Review Saltwater Chlorine Generator Prices and Features

The reason I asked if you emptied your pool every year is you can get away with having stuff in your water that accumulates if you start fresh every year. Even a non-SWG pool accumulates salt in the water if yu use liquid chlorine. So there is no good way to not have salt in your pool water. And it seems that Intex pools rust if you have a SWG or not. So I would not blame the salt for the rust.

I put a link to the Simply Salt System in post #2.
 
Pretty much any SWG is fine for an above ground system. We recommend sizing them to be at least 2x what they are rated for (so if you have a 15,000 gallon pool, get one rated for at least 30,000 gallons) to give wiggle room and also allow shorter run times, thus extending the life of the cell.

Simple Salt is -not- a saltwater chlorine generator. It introduces metals in to the water which is something we always discourage due to the potential for staining. Following their system also requires the purchase of proprietary blends of chemicals, some of which is easily found elsewhere for much less and some that they do not disclose the ingredients, a major red flag. The problem with such a system is that those who use it are not well versed in water chemistry. If you don't know much about water chemistry and buy in to the sales pitch and your water seems to stay clear, then it works. If you do know much about water chemistry, then you recognize it for what it is and don't buy it in the first place. That's why you won't find personal experiences on it here for the most part. If you did it would be about how they got ripped off and pulled it out after finding TFP, similar to the stories of those of us who had Baquacil pools or gimmicks like Pool Frog or Nature2 before TFP.

Personal reviews aren't exactly much good either, if you buy something you have a vested financial and egocentric interest in it working. Nobody wants to admit they wasted money. We know the science behind these things, and we know about pool chemistry. We don't have to spend the money to understand what it does and how it work and why it's a bad idea. Ionizers are not a mystery here, nor is the paper thin scare-mongering sales tactics used to sell them. I love debunking those, been doing it for nearly a decade now.
 
Interesting. I have to admit the extra things you had to add with the simple salt system were giving me pause but I thought maybe that was just part of moving from an intex to a more serious pool. My friend has said the shimmer is just shock and she uses that because it's cheaper, but it sill seems like the whole thing doesn't sound quite like what I expect a salt water system should be.

I'm kind of thinking we will just go intex again... and by the time it rusts out, maybe I'll have researched enough to know whether or not to move up to a real pool. ?

I appreciate the input I am getting.
 
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Just to ask one more thing to be sure I'm understanding this - compared to other SWG, intex doesn't seem to use any more salt. So if I went with a non-intex one, I wouldn't be exposing the metal to any less salt - so there is probably no benefit from that standpoint. Correct?
 
All SWGs use the same salt chemistry and require about the same salt range.
 

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And you're saying keeping ph at the right level is what matters most when it comes to preventing corrosion? So assuming the current Intex SWG works as well as our old one did - for the 1st 4 years at least - there is probably no point in going more expensive for something like a Hayward etc?

Definitely learned something, I think. :) Even if I still haven't quite made up my mind.
 
I think you will read here that Intex pools get corrosion whether it has a SWG or not. Folks here have posted some of the ways they have tried to protect the metal from corrosion.
 
The biggest culprit in Intex and intex like pools rusting is just really bad water chemistry, salt or no salt. Too many people want a "set it and forget it" type pool maintenance situation and they're just not going to get that, no matter what kind of pool and fancy equipment they get. But with the "pop up pools" people don't take the maintenance that serious. It's not a serious pool, so the maintenance must not be serious either, they think. Stay on top of your chemistry. Get into the practice of freshwater rinsing off the frame of the pool after some splashing around in it, like you would the undercarriage of your car in winter to wash the salt off, and you can prevent rust all together, at least for many years. Other people also "decorated" around their pools with mulch and then wondered why the legs rusted out at the feet. Mulch holds moisture. That's why. It's typically not the salt in the water that causes the rusting problem.
 
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