Dirty Morton Pool Salt

[hwy17]

My Morton's pool salt bag said it's from Mexico. I'm not sure if Mexico has any mineral salt mines and it doesn't seem like it would be worth shipping US salt there for processing, nor does this salt product seem like it's highly processed at all.

I would have to guess then that this is actually a Pacific Ocean water salt product from the evaporation ponds in Guerrero Negro.

Ojo de Liebre Lagoon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Guerrero Negro - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That makes me slightly happier to have it in my pool, just pure sea salt with trace amounts of fukushima radionuclides added for taste.

 

[woodyp]

I dumped in 8 bags of Morton...vacuumed up some sand and dirt 3 days later....hasn't been back.

 

[Mdragger88]

As magiteck was saying, last year when I added salt for the first time someone on this board recommended the same diamond crystal solar naturals for water softeners and it has worked perfectly. Seems clean, dissolves easy, and pretty cheap. It's usually between $5-6 per bag and at least in my area it's easy to get at home depot. Specifically for me, I only needed about 4-5 bags but they have a bulk deal where if you buy 6 or more its $5.28 per bag vs $5.87. You'll end up using it eventually so you may buy at least 6 to get that discount if its in your area as well. I used it this season when I opened a few days ago and it's worked great.

Here's a home depot link so you can check prices/stock in your area: ( Diamond Crystal Solar Naturals Water Softener Salt Crystals 100012454 - The Home Depot ). Note they have one from the same brand that say "splash ready" for pools and it's $2 more. I don't see how its worth another 40% or so in cost.

Glad you’re able to get some!
Went through your link & it’s unavailable here, even if it were its the same price as the splash ready
Funny story-
the first time I went salt shopping about 10yrs ago I asked an employee for softener salt, as everyone here recommended & they looked at me like I had 2 heads I still look on occasion but haven’t found it to be cheaper here if they do actually have it.

 

[bbillingsley1985]

Glad you’re able to get some!
Went through your link & it’s unavailable here, even if it were its the same price as the splash ready
Funny story-
the first time I went salt shopping about 10yrs ago I asked an employee for softener salt, as everyone here recommended & they looked at me like I had 2 heads I still look on occasion but haven’t found it to be cheaper here if they do actually have it.

Dang! That is crazy how regionally places have them and others don't. In all the home depot stores around me its showing 250+ in each store. Ace hardware's do sell them as well but I noticed they are $2-3 more per bag. Maybe I should pick up another 6 pack to make sure I'm good for another 1-2 years lol.

Yep in your location as you said both ace hardware and home depot show sold out. A home depot 80 miles away has some but that would obviously be dumb to travel that far for salt.

I have a funny story as well on salt shopping. So last year was when I switched over to salt, can't remember who but I found a post of someone highly recommending that same salt I linked. I see Home depot has a million of them so I go there. I use the Taylor 1766 kit and figured up how may bags I needed to start. It came to around 12 bags. I go to Home Depot and found the location and sure enough there's the "Splash Ready" Diamond on a pallet and the "Water Softener" kind of Diamond right next to it that I want. There's 11 bags of the "Water Softener" vs like 50+ bags of the "Splash Ready" for another 2 bucks or so. I see above me they have another pallet with a huge stash of the "Water Softener" kind wrapped in plastic but I obviously couldn't reach it. I go ahead and load up all 11 of what's left then find an employee to see if they could set that pallet down so I could grab another one. So I ask the employee and he goes oh man I'm just about to be off the clock in 5 minutes. I tell him well I don't want you to have to work later, why don't you radio someone else over here to get it down or honestly I'll wait another 5 minutes until you're out to ask. He goes no its ok I'll just do it for you. I tell him I'm sorry for being a pain but I appreciated it and felt good that I'd have all the exact same brand and exact type of salt. In my mind I'm like ok there's the machine, it'll take 2 seconds to just grab it and set it down. Well as it turns out, they have to do all the safety things and rope the whole aisle down, get the machine over there have a dude standing guard, etc. It was heavily wrapped with plastic so there was no way to just grab 1 bag down safely without them setting them all down. He finally gets done about 15 minutes later, gets the plastic off it and grabs me the last bag I need. I thank him again and he goes what do you need those type of bags for....do you have really hard water or something? I go no I just switched over to salt and I'm adding salt to the pool. He turns his head over looking at the million bags of "Splash Ready" salt that was all setup and ready to grab, turns back around and looks at me with a "are you $!@#$ serious right now" look and all I can do is say well I know that one says pool salt but it is a few bucks more expensive and more importantly some experts over at trouble free pool recommended this kind over that. He just shook his head and walked away.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Dang! That is crazy how regionally places have them and others don't. In all the home depot stores around me its showing 250+ in each store. Ace hardware's do sell them as well but I noticed they are $2-3 more per bag. Maybe I should pick up another 6 pack to make sure I'm good for another 1-2 years lol.

Yep in your location as you said both ace hardware and home depot show sold out. A home depot 80 miles away has some but that would obviously be dumb to travel that far for salt.

I have a funny story as well on salt shopping. So last year was when I switched over to salt, can't remember who but I found a post of someone highly recommending that same salt I linked. I see Home depot has a million of them so I go there. I use the Taylor 1766 kit and figured up how may bags I needed to start. It came to around 12 bags. I go to Home Depot and found the location and sure enough there's the "Splash Ready" Diamond on a pallet and the "Water Softener" kind of Diamond right next to it that I want. There's 11 bags of the "Water Softener" vs like 50+ bags of the "Splash Ready" for another 2 bucks or so. I see above me they have another pallet with a huge stash of the "Water Softener" kind wrapped in plastic but I obviously couldn't reach it. I go ahead and load up all 11 of what's left then find an employee to see if they could set that pallet down so I could grab another one. So I ask the employee and he goes oh man I'm just about to be off the clock in 5 minutes. I tell him well I don't want you to have to work later, why don't you radio someone else over here to get it down or honestly I'll wait another 5 minutes until you're out to ask. He goes no its ok I'll just do it for you. I tell him I'm sorry for being a pain but I appreciated it and felt good that I'd have all the exact same brand and exact type of salt. In my mind I'm like ok there's the machine, it'll take 2 seconds to just grab it and set it down. Well as it turns out, they have to do all the safety things and rope the whole aisle down, get the machine over there have a dude standing guard, etc. It was heavily wrapped with plastic so there was no way to just grab 1 bag down safely without them setting them all down. He finally gets done about 15 minutes later, gets the plastic off it and grabs me the last bag I need. I thank him again and he goes what do you need those type of bags for....do you have really hard water or something? I go no I just switched over to salt and I'm adding salt to the pool. He turns his head over looking at the million bags of "Splash Ready" salt that was all setup and ready to grab, turns back around and looks at me with a "are you $!@#$ serious right now" look and all I can do is say well I know that one says pool salt but it is a few bucks more expensive and more importantly some experts over at trouble free pool recommended this kind over that. He just shook his head and walked away.

You should have just told him that you really, really, really love soft-baked pretzels and only the rock salt will do …

 

[an1vrsy]

Last year, the HD Diamond Crystal pool salt was like $2 more a bag than the Diamond Crystal water conditioner salt. I paid the extra cost, because to my eye, I thought I could see light staining on my quartz finish when I used the water conditioner salt. My wife, daughter and son-in-law all said they could not see it.

This year the price difference at my Las Vegas HD store is now just 50¢. I just bought 6 bags of the splash ready to get ready for the season. I also needed 2 bags of the water conditioner salt for my whole house water conditioner. I buy a lot of the water conditioner salt because I use softened water for my pool’s makeup water.

 

[Davegnh]

Looks like it is a bad year for salt I just dumped in my first bag of Morton softener crystals and found three or four of these rocks. They're nothing like rocks in my area so it must have came from the bag.

 

[Mdragger88]

I have gotten many bags of regular Morton’s pool salt in the past with no issues. The past year or so it has been M.I.A. & all I could find was the “professional” at Walmart (which is the most convenient place for me) The only other choice there is the clorox salt & it has had tons of rocks in it. Not sure if it’s a problem with the “regular” stuff now since I haven’t been able to find any. This isn’t looking good for an old standby brand

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I have gotten many bags of regular Morton’s pool salt in the past with no issues. The past year or so it has been M.I.A. & all I could find was the “professional” at Walmart (which is the most convenient place for me) The only other choice there is the clorox salt & it has had tons of rocks in it. Not sure if it’s a problem with the “regular” stuff now since I haven’t been able to find any. This isn’t looking good for an old standby brand

Margarita salt works too … but you have to drink a margarita every time you add some …

 

[Mdragger88]

Margarita salt works too … but you have to drink a margarita every time you add some …

Fwiw - my Morton’s lite salt seems to be unaffected by the rock scourge so far

 

[Newdude]

Looks like it is a bad year for salt I just dumped in my first bag of Morton softener crystals and found three or four of these rocks

I'd be happy they were easy to fish out and not something harmful in powdered or dust form.

 

[Davegnh]

Glad easy to remove. I ended up getting dozens of rocks thinking they are limestone. Very easy to remove from the pool and not a big deal but still wonder why they're there. Biggest one was about the size of a half dollar.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Glad easy to remove. I ended up getting dozens of rocks thinking they are limestone. Very easy to remove from the pool and not a big deal but still wonder why they're there. Biggest one was about the size of a half dollar.

Drop it in some white vinegar. If it fizzes then it’s a carbonate mineral.

 

[hjc4604]

I had used Morton Salt a few years back and had a ton of debris in the pool after it dissolved. I called Morton and complained. They told me that the salt comes from various sources and asked me for the lot number on the bag. They then sent me vouchers for 8 free bags.

Apparently their quality control is a bit lacking.

 

[Davegnh]

Definitely limestone in my Morton salt rocks dissolved to nothing in a little bit of muriatic acid.

 

[wireform]

Added some Mortons water softener crystals like 10 bags worth to a pool that lost half its water to a hole in the liner. The pool was pristine which had the robot come up empty after several cycles but 48 hours later when the salt was long mixed and the residual was there for the evidence. This is what the robot b picked up.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Yup. Pretty standard for softener salt. That’s why I clean out my brine tank every 3 or 4 months. It’s gets pretty dirty.

Softener salt comes from evaporation ponds and salt flats. It’s a fairly dirty process.

 

[johnnydot]

I just dumped 7 bags ofMorton's Professional Pool Salt from Home Depot into my pool and was surprised to see black dirt (or something) on the floor of my pool. Is this normal?

Is there better salt I should have used?

That happened to me a number of years ago and I complained to Morton. They apologized and explained that they use different sources for the salt and asked me what the lot number was. They then sent me 8 vouchers for free bags. Probably the best way around this problem is to run the pool vac when you add salt so the vinyl liner does not get damaged if you have one.