Hey guys. Thanks for helping me get my first above ground pool set up. Its almost done filling. I was originally going to go the SWG route, but Im now seeing stores of people that have went with a SWG and their equipment prematurely rusts/corrodes. Are others here having this issue? Ive heard saltwater systems are a bit easier to maintain, but if its going to destroy my pool after 2-3 seasons, whats the use?
Worried about saltwater
- Thread starter ObWan
- Start date
Saltwater is very much easier to maintain. Once you get the initial chemical balance right and the SWG timing, the SWG does the rest. I check my chemicals maybe every week or two. If it rains heavily though, I'll check the next day.
As for the rust, your pool will rust regardless especially if left up year around. The saltwater will speed that up surely however it is an Intex and not made to last forever. I hope to get 3-5 years out of mine and will consider myself lucky. I set it up last year and took it down for the winter. There was some very minor rust. I lined up the poles and spray painted all the ends so this year I started off good as new. I hope to get some extra life out of the poles this way.
As for the rust, your pool will rust regardless especially if left up year around. The saltwater will speed that up surely however it is an Intex and not made to last forever. I hope to get 3-5 years out of mine and will consider myself lucky. I set it up last year and took it down for the winter. There was some very minor rust. I lined up the poles and spray painted all the ends so this year I started off good as new. I hope to get some extra life out of the poles this way.
I do think that the people with rust problems may not be balancing their saltwater properly or maybe have too much salt in the water and not leaving the SWG on long enough so that the salt turns to chlorine. The frames are not totally rust free so I would spray them or paint them with an anti-corrosion product or resin paint before using the pool to protect it from all the elements.
Intex sell these pools to be used with saltwater systems, therefore they should precoat the metal frame with some kind of resin coating to make them totally rust free!
Intex sell these pools to be used with saltwater systems, therefore they should precoat the metal frame with some kind of resin coating to make them totally rust free!
There is no way to know if salt was the culprit without having an identical pool set up next to it with the same balance sans salt. I have plenty of rusty metal around here without any salt touching it.
We are on our second intex pool. The first one went up June 2012 and was replaced due to rust. The way I look at it is my kids have gotten their money out of it during this time. Also its probably cheaper in the long run to just replace the pool than to spend $$ and especially my time on balancing chemicals to avoid salt.
Seems like some people think that with SWG, the pool water is salty, like sea water. That is not the case. The salt concentration is very low, you can hardly taste it. I doubt it is a factor at all when it comes to corrosion. The corrosive agent in the pool is the chlorine, which is typically higher in concentration in a non-SWG pool.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,403
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Corrosion, in almost all circumstances regarding a pool, is dominated by pH. Salt has almost nothing to do with it and people that report corrosion are often not keeping their pool water correctly balanced. And guess what - any pool using chlorinating liquids OR stabilized solid chlorine products is a SALT pool. Muriatic acid also adds salt (chloride) to your pool water. It is not uncommon for pools that run all year to have their chloride levels go up by a 1000ppm/year. Chloride only enhances certain forms of corrosion (like crevice corrosion and pitting), it does not cause corrosion.
Intex pools, relatively speaking, are cheap. They are not manufactured from high quality materials and the metal frames probably do not use high grade steels. That's the point, they are affordable so they must be built with lower quality components. I very much doubt the frames are powder-coated but likely simply spray painted. That would have significant impact on corrosion resistance. The presence of salt water (at levels 10X lower than seawater), will not change that fact.
In a metal frame pool, the biggest driver of corrosion, aside form pH, will be galvanic corrosion. If that is a concern, then one can simple purchase a $10 zinc sacrificial anode and bury it in moist soil near the pool frame. Connect the anode to a bare spot on the pool frame using #8 solid copper wire and it will protect the frame from galvanic corrosion.
If you want to use a slat-water generator, I suggest you go for it. Most of the information out on the internet regarding SWGs, salt, stone damage & corrosion is just simply wrong. With over a 100,000 TFP members, many of which running salt pools, if corrosion were such a huge issue, we'd know about it. Right now, saltwater scare tactics are being heavily used by the pool building industry to push people towards "alternative sanitizer" (UV, ozone, minerals, etc); don't be fooled by the hype.
Intex pools, relatively speaking, are cheap. They are not manufactured from high quality materials and the metal frames probably do not use high grade steels. That's the point, they are affordable so they must be built with lower quality components. I very much doubt the frames are powder-coated but likely simply spray painted. That would have significant impact on corrosion resistance. The presence of salt water (at levels 10X lower than seawater), will not change that fact.
In a metal frame pool, the biggest driver of corrosion, aside form pH, will be galvanic corrosion. If that is a concern, then one can simple purchase a $10 zinc sacrificial anode and bury it in moist soil near the pool frame. Connect the anode to a bare spot on the pool frame using #8 solid copper wire and it will protect the frame from galvanic corrosion.
If you want to use a slat-water generator, I suggest you go for it. Most of the information out on the internet regarding SWGs, salt, stone damage & corrosion is just simply wrong. With over a 100,000 TFP members, many of which running salt pools, if corrosion were such a huge issue, we'd know about it. Right now, saltwater scare tactics are being heavily used by the pool building industry to push people towards "alternative sanitizer" (UV, ozone, minerals, etc); don't be fooled by the hype.
Agreed. Like I said, unless someone follows the scientific approach and sets up two identical pools next to each other with the only difference being salt in one, I'm not giving any credit to any comments stating salt is the cause of corrosion.
shoot I/we had had our for over 7 years, original white poles,salt water GK's playing and splashing, check for rust every year, all good, did have to replace liner
The saltwater destroys everything is a myth. We had an Intex Ultra frame up for several years with SWG open year round. We took it down and sold it and it was fine. Also, 4+ seasons with inground saltwater pool and flagstone coping has shown no signs of deterioration. Any pool I ever own again will be saltwater. It is just too easy and convenient. And there is no downside from my experience or from my experience reading many thousands of posts on TFP.
Thanks everyone. Yeah, it didn't make much sense to me as the final product between the two types of pools is basically the same. I went ahead and ordered the SWG and cant wait to get it hooked up.