Switching to a SWCG - regular salt or mag salt?

[GreenLeaf]

I'm nearing the final bend on my journey to a SWCG pool and have a balanced pool being maintained daily with liquid chlorine.

With CYA 45 I'm bringing FC to around 5 and topping it back up to 5 when it gets down to 3 or so. When I switch to SWG I'm planning to run CYA 70 and FC with a hard minimum of 3 (SWG will be a PL45+ 45g/gr, double capacity).

My pool gets little use from people other than myself and CC has been 0.0 at at most 0.1.

The water has been great, no "chlorine smell". Woohoo!

Not particularly "silky feeling", but to be honest if I don't shower afterwards I do find my skin feeling slightly dry and slightly dry eyes. You might say "Well, you should shower afterwards". If that's a part of chlorinated life™ I guess so be it. But I think part of the TFP pitch is that there is going to be less chlorine in the water than drinking water and you wouldn't shower after a shower, right? Maybe once I switch to SWG and can wind the FC down a bit this will get better. And install an outdoor shower. I'm pragmatic.

Pool Math tells me I will need 263kg of salt to get from 500 to 3000, so I'm about to order 11 bags of no-additive pool salt (in particular no yellow prussiate of soda!). Before I push the button on that purchase.... should I consider mag salt instead (ie: the usual Magnapool mix - regular salt, mag salt, potassium)?

Other threads asking the question "Should I use mag salt" have had the question returned "What are you hoping to achieve"? It would be:

1. "Nicer" feeling water (the terms "silkier" and "softer" get thrown around, and MagnaPool is sending me a "bath-sized sample" so I guess I will be able to make a subjective assessment of this)
2. Better feeling skin out of the water if you don't shower (I don't know if that's a thing)
3. Less salty taste than equivalent 3000ppm salt water (I don't know if that's a thing, and I have also heard mag-salt water tastes bitter which would be arguably worse than "almost-salty" tasting 3000ppm water)

My question is really - what causes this much advertised and hyped "soft water feel"? Is it just the potassium in which case can you just add potassium and use regular salt?

The downsides seem to be you have to do a bit more fiddling on your CH test or need an alternative CH test, and more expensive bags of salt but for a super nice feel that would seem a worthwhile value proposition to me.

I am leaning towards sticking to the tried and true TFP path of regular salt especially after all my dramas, but happy to spend a little more for this magical "silky" and "soft" experience I'm hearing about (and apparently going to experience myself with their "bath-sized sample" sachet....).

 

[Texas Splash]

My question is really - what causes this much advertised and hyped "soft water feel"?

Not sure what the deal is about the magsalt. Maybe @JoyfulNoise can enlighten us. Me personally, I keep it simple with regular water softener or solar salt. One thing though, be sure to test your salt level before adding-amount. Your salt level may have already increased a bit from liquid chlorine.

 

[ajw22]

My question is really - what causes this much advertised and hyped "soft water feel"?

Primarily marketing.

Once you spend the money you believe it is so.

 

[Jimrahbe]

GL,

You don't need any "magic" salt, just regular will work just fine.

When you get out of a saltwater pool you will feel like you just took a shower.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[GreenLeaf]

Primarily marketing.

Once you spend the money you believe it is so.

I will run an experience for interested TFP-arians.

I will take 3 baths on subsequent days and document the subjective experiences for posterity. No photos I promise.

1. Tap water bath
2. Pool balanced water bath (oh that will be fun, using teaspoons I guess)
3. The magic salt bath

 

[Newdude]

Magnesium is no good long term for pools. There were a few aussie threads in oct/Nov if you search for them that also added iron. Many also add sulfates which are never reccomended as they cause premature wear to equipment, ladders, etc. A one time dose won't change much of course, but still. It brings you that much closer to an issue with zero benefits over plain old salt. So why even bother ?

In your bathtub you drain it each use so there is no long term effects.

 

[cadw2005]

Magnesium is no good long term for pools. There were a few aussie threads in oct/Nov if you search for them that also added iron. Many also add sulfates which are never reccomended as they cause premature wear to equipment, ladders, etc. A one time dose won't change much of course, but still. It brings you that much closer to an issue with zero benefits over plain old salt. So why even bother ?

In your bathtub you drain it each use so there is no long term effects.

I think it's possible to buy Magnesium Chloride so that wouldn't have any sulfates in it. Buying the purest form of Magnesium Chloride should be ok for pool then, right?

 

[Newdude]

Buying the purest form of Magnesium Chloride should be ok for pool then, right?

I've read enough posts where a previously pure addition is changed and/or changes are hidden in the ingredient list as 'proprietary trade secrets' to not tempt fate with an unnecessary add. As a general rule we steer clear of magic potions that are hyped up by the manufacturers of said potions.

Best of luck as you seem set to want to experiment and we will take ZERO joy if it doesn't end well. Just putting the risks out there so you can decide if it's still worth trying.

 

[GreenLeaf]

Thanks everyone for their feedback.

Having just drained, acid washed, refilled, and rebalanced my pool in order to solve one problem, I have little desire to create another one. However, I really wanted to get to the bottom of the what, why and why-not when it comes to what seems to be a reasonably popular choice among the pool normies in Australia. You do occasionally see houses advertised where the "MangaPool" is a listed feature item of the house.

I take on board the early comment in this thread that "once you pay for it you will believe too". I'll go down my rabbit-hole (without touching my actual pool) then just for fun, report back my findings and let y'all know what I find in a few weeks / months if anything.

In the meantime, I'll put regular salt in my pool, do everything the TFP way, and create my baseline trouble-free pool experience exactly as you very experienced lot recommend.

Thanks all.

The link I posted earlier to no-additive pool salt is in NSW with no delivery to VIC, I'll post in this thread to work out my best option for clean salt.

 

[Newdude]

However, I really wanted to get to the bottom of the what, why and why-not when it comes to what seems to be a reasonably popular choice among the pool normies in Australia. You do occasionally see houses advertised where the "MangaPool" is a listed feature item of the house.

In the states we have :

Ozone, which only sanitizes water in the unit and leaves 99.9999999% of the pool stagnant with no residual sanitizer

UV systems, which the residential units aren't much more than rinky dink light bulbs, also only sanitizing the water in the unit leaving the rest of the water untouched. The commercial unit needed to serve some benefit costs many many times more

A slew of mineral systems which add silver and/ or copper to the pool. Both can be effective algae presenters but have long kill times.

The 3 above all claim to need little or no chlorine as the algae is kept at bay. Meanwhile all the bacteria, viruses, pathogens, etc are free to fester as they wish. But no algae so it looks pretty as you get sick or a rash.

Then we have enough mystery potions to fill a warehouse with one bottle of each. Many of them claim to do 12 things at once and few actually do even 1. RX this or Pool 911 that. Take your pick which unfriendly pool chemicals are added here. Metals, ammonia, sulfates, bromine, etc.

So, yeah. Just because it's trendy and people buy it doesn't mean it's any good for your pool or even effective in the first place.