Salt vs chlorine not a rank just advice needed

[jimim]

I have a question. Every builder I have talked with and sooooo many people here are salt. I was set on salt. Yesterday the builder I met with who was great I feel said he is still chlorine all the way.

he explained to me that he uses a 100 unit that gets filled with bars at the pad. I manually control the output with my weekly testing till I balance it and get the feel of the water where I like it. He said at that point it is carding for the pool 1 xweek with testing. Said he also weekly uses enzymes in the water. Said even though it's a weekly thing the money spend will keep me more balanced throughout the summer and less work for me. He also adds something else pool something. I totally forgot now.

he said the bad chlorine smell and power of it comes from bad chlorine bonding to good chlorine and is because of suntan lotion and sweet. Said my adding the enzymes and that other thing it will bind to those vs the bad chlorine produced and I won't have that chlorine smell and feel thT seems as to why people like salt so much.

i was just looking for some more onsite from owners of chlorine and salt.

i totally said he would do salt for me but really wNts me to try chlorine first casie it's a 100 investment and we can switch to salt if I didn't like it. It sound logical to me.

Opinions?

 

[bobodaclown]

No enzymes! Chlorine is chlorine, just depends on the source. Some use liquid form such as bleach, some use a gas, that is generated in a SWCG. Personally I got tired of lugging chlorine containers. I installed a chlorine generator, it's had it hiccups, and I still use liquid chlorine if I need to bump up the level quick due to a high bather load.
Pools have a daily chlorine load, add more swimmers and the load goes up. Manual dosing, or other wise you'll need to figure your pool daily chlorine load usage then adjust up when you have increased loads.

 

[pooldv]

The problem with non-liquid chlorine is that they all add something to your pool that you don't want too much of. More here, Pool School - How to Chlorinate Your Pool.

He is correct that CC is what everyone associates with bad pool smell but incorrect that the enzymes are the solution. The solution is maintaining sufficient chlorine to burn off the CC. The reason CCs build up and stink is because there is not enough chlorine in the pool to oxidize it. This can happen in any pool whether chlorinated with saltwater chlorine generator or other source of chlorine.

I also use bleach to supplement my SWG when we swim all weekend or have people over.

 

[duraleigh]

Enzymes? Where did you get the idea that, "sooooo many people here are salt." ????

That is incorrect. Many people here have salt pools......many don't......TFP supports both

Please read "The "ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School. That will help you understand our philosophy of pool management

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jim,

I say "Run as fast as you can..." Sounds to me like your PB is confused.. I assume he is trying to sell you on a tab feeder that uses chlorine pucks. These pucks will quickly increase your CYA level to a point where you can't add enough chlorine to keep your pool from turning green.

A SWCG pool is a chlorine pool. You just get the chlorine, without any added CYA, from the saltwater rather than from the pucks.

I have a saltwater pool and NEVER have the smell of chlorine like you smell at a public pool.

You don't need enzymes or any other "magic" chemicals to make your pool clean, clear and safe.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[jimim]

Enzymes? Where did you get the idea that, "sooooo many people here are salt." ????

That is incorrect. Many people here have salt pools......many don't......TFP supports both

Please read "The "ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School. That will help you understand our philosophy of pool management

90 percent of the new pools I see going in are salt in the construction thread.

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Jim,

I say "Run as fast as you can..." Sounds to me like your PB is confused.. I assume he is trying to sell you on a tab feeder that uses chlorine pucks. These pucks will quickly increase your CYA level to a point where you can't add enough chlorine to keep your pool from turning green.

A SWCG pool is a chlorine pool. You just get the chlorine, without any added CYA, from the saltwater rather than from the pucks.

I have a saltwater pool and NEVER have the smell of chlorine like you smell at a public pool.

You don't need enzymes or any other "magic" chemicals to make your pool clean, clear and safe.

Thanks,

Jim R.

right I new salt was still chlorine, but I just thought salt is a bit easier at maintaining levels. I know I still have to add and control.

He he isn't against salt he just likes chlorine better.

I am assuming it's pucks. he said the unit was at the pad and there are chlorine bars put in it.

- - - Updated - - -

No enzymes! Chlorine is chlorine, just depends on the source. Some use liquid form such as bleach, some use a gas, that is generated in a SWCG. Personally I got tired of lugging chlorine containers. I installed a chlorine generator, it's had it hiccups, and I still use liquid chlorine if I need to bump up the level quick due to a high bather load.
Pools have a daily chlorine load, add more swimmers and the load goes up. Manual dosing, or other wise you'll need to figure your pool daily chlorine load usage then adjust up when you have increased loads.

why are the enzymes bad. I'm just asking. I know a lot of people hear stay away from mineral units cause it can really mess up the water.

- - - Updated - - -

With a salt generator will I have to add MOurtic acid daily? Or only if my pool load goes up or weather shift greatly?

I understand and I might have to add liquid chlorine still. Is that common to be still adding more chlorine with the even the salt units?

 

[JamesW]

He also adds something else pool something.

EZ-pool?

 

[robl45]

I would use salt, chlorine gets expensive and even when its relatively cheap like it south florida, lugging liquid chlorine sucks. Ask my brand new pair of jeans about that, let alone if you manage to spill any in your car.

 

[Jimrahbe]

With a salt generator will I have to add MOurtic acid daily? Or only if my pool load goes up or weather shift greatly?

I understand and I might have to add liquid chlorine still. Is that common to be still adding more chlorine with the even the salt units?

Jim,

Muriatic Acid (MA) is used mainly to control your pH level between 7.2 and 7.8... SWCG pools use a little more MA than non-SWG pools but is not normally needed everyday. I add MA to reduce my pH about once every couple of weeks in the summer, when the SWCG is working the hardest and about once every 6 weeks in the winter when the SWCG is off.

I'm not sure that enzymes are "bad" but they are not needed and are just a way for someone to make money.

SWCGs do not work when the temperature of the water gets below about 55 degrees or so. So down here where we do not close our pools in the winter, we manually add liquid chlorine/bleach to keep the FC levels up. Since you are in PA, I assume that you will close in the winter so that will not be a problem. The only time you would need to add liquid chlorine during the summer is if you had a very heavy bather load (think large party...) then just to make sure your FC did not dip too low you could add some extra chlorine manually.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[bobodaclown]

Never add any unnecessary chemicals to your pool. Chlorine is usually all you'll need to keep water sanitary, and it's cost effective.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Does this pool builder who is pushing for chlorine pucks by chance also have a pool store? He may be promoting pucks so he can continue to make sales off you.

There is very little that you really ever need to get from a pool store. Everything we use is cheaper in price and available at either the grocery store or hardware store.

Yippee

 

[jimim]

Hello again. Thanks for all the help!

salt just seems to make sense. From all this.

the weekly plan is to use the inline unit with triclor. And also metal free along with that pool perfect+ pros free.

The phos helps to keep the chlorine demand down so the picks don't get used as quickly and therefore not raisIng the cya level quick enough.

that is how it was taught to me.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Hello again. Thanks for all the help!

salt just seems to make sense. From all this.

the weekly plan is to use the inline unit with triclor. And also metal free along with that pool perfect+ pros free.

The phos helps to keep the chlorine demand down so the picks don't get used as quickly and therefore not raisIng the cya level quick enough.

that is how it was taught to me.

Jim,

Sorry, but all that is just flat out Baloney Sandwich.

You need to decide if you want to follow our advice and or your pool builder's advice. You can't do both.

Magic potions like Pool Perfect, Phos Free, Metal Free, and Pucks are only good for one thing.. and that is taking money out of your pocket and putting into theirs.

Sorry, but you were "taught" wrong!

Jim R.

 

[Lykly]

When I bought my house I used chlorine for the first few months because that's what it was, I went to the SW generator it's way easier to take care of and I'll never go back. Keeps my water perfect with little maintenance. Way easier than adding chlorine on a daily basis. There's a reason almost all new installs use them, adding chlorine works fine, but it definitely takes more maintenance. Only people I know that promote chlorine are people selling it. As far as adding all those other additives, that's a huge mistake. Listen to the people on this site, I did, it'll save you a lot of headaches and money.


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[JoyfulNoise]

he said the bad chlorine smell and power of it comes from bad chlorine bonding to good chlorine and is because of suntan lotion and sweet. Said my adding the enzymes and that other thing it will bind to those vs the bad chlorine produced and I won't have that chlorine smell and feel thT seems as to why people like salt so much.

That, right there, is nothing more than nonsensical, science-y sounding gobbled-gook.

Clearly the PB (like most of them) doesn't know the first thing about chemistry. Enzymes will not work, or they will work very poorly, in a pool that has any level of chlorine in it as the chlorine will destroy the enzymes. Enzymes are organic compounds (polypeptide or long-chained protein structures) that have both a specific chemical makeup (the types of proteins in them) as well as a specific 3-dimensional structure that dictates how other compounds will conform to it. Chlorine typically destroys the structure of these enzymes by both interfering with the 3D structure as well as oxidizing individual proteins that make it up. Enzymes are also catalysts - that is to say, they speed up a reaction but do not become part of the reaction itself. In order to oxidize organics, enzymes need lots of dissolved oxygen (DO) to be present in the water - pool water, at best, is going to be low in DO and so it is the concentration of DO in the water that will limit the reaction rates, not the presence of the enzymes.

You are basically being sold a bag of magic beans. Its your pool and you are laying out tons of money to build it. If you want a salt water chlorine generator for your pool, then demand it. If the PB doesn't want to do that, then move on to another PB that will respect your choices and wishes. It's as simple as that.

 

[GaryT58]

With a salt generator will I have to add MOurtic acid daily? Or only if my pool load goes up or weather shift greatly?

I understand and I might have to add liquid chlorine still. Is that common to be still adding more chlorine with the even the salt units?

Had new pool last year - its fiberglass, so not sure if that is a contributing factor or not, but I added acid 3 times from May-Oct, which 2 was getting it initially to the correct level. So this will depend upon multiple things. Once my salt water chlorine generator (SWG) was correctly dialed in, I never needed to add chlorine.

*** If going with salt, make sure to get a generator that is sized for at least double your pool size. If sized at or near the actual size, you will find it may not keep up with demand, especially if you have a lot of sun. My original unit was undersized, and did require me to add liquid chlorine to keep up. However, once replaced with large one, never needed to add any liquid chlorine. My unit is rated for 52,000 gallon pool and mine is 19,000 gallons.

 

[jimim]

thanks again guys. i really appreciate it. i'm going the route of getting the salt generator if i go with him. i really liked his layout and building specs on how the pool was built. i loved that it had floor returns along with regular returns. 2 skimmers. the typical stuff alot of builds have here.

the salt/chlorine things was all that sent me for a loop, but that won't be a problem i don't think from talking with him. i'm just going in a diff direction, but i know he has done salt pools too.

 

[xyz]

There is a middle of the road alternative, and that is a chlorine dosing pump. Most here use Stenner pump-based system [I think a liquidator is an alternative]. This is where you can buy a large amount of liquid chlorine [as large as the tank you want to install], and then the pump run time is adjusted to add more or less liquid chlorine.