Bestway pool to Saltwater ?

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This is their smaller SWG, but it appears to use the 1.5” hoses. So you’d need an adaptor from pump to SWG, and then an adapter from SWG to pool.

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LOL, we posted the same thing at same time! But I didn’t see that it came with adapters, so that’s good.
 
Intex SWGs are known to have shorter lives than most other ones, so paying the extra $20 or so will let your run at a lower % and extend its life a good bit more.

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One of the customer questions on the Amazon page says that it does come with adapters.
 
Good job reading all those comments... I was just wading through them as well.
 
Seriously you guys are the best!!! Thanks to both you for all the help. But what did you mean paying the extra $20 for? Like should i get a different brand of SWG? Also what is the test kit for? Any other chemicals i need upon start up? Or just the salt?
 
Not sure! Both of our links are same price.

The test kit is so you can keep track of your water chemistry and know what you need to add and when. Read the ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry... very valuable info! The test kit is the most important thing to get! I recommend the TF-100.

You will certainly need salt - you can use the Taylor K-1766 kit to test your salt, and figure out how much to add, based on what the SWG manual says. And you will need liquid chlorine (plain bleach, no additives) to bump your FC up initially, then the SWG will take over. You’ll need CYA, dry is much cheaper than liquid.

You’ll need Muriatic Acid to lower PH when it starts to creep up. That’s pretty much it - you may need borax or baking soda once in a while, but you may not need it. I never have!
 
There's a 7000 gallon version and a 15000 gallon version of the Intex SWG. Price difference is about $20, but the size difference it 2x. So you get a SWG that produces a lot more Chlorine for a very small increase in price. The higher the rating on the SWG (7,000 vs 15,000 gallons), the lower % you can run the SWG on and produce the same amount of Chlorine. This allows you to use your SWG less, but still santize your pool, and extends the life of your SWG. Random numbers here, but if the 7k one has to be run at 70% for 10 hours, the 15k one might be able to run at 40% for 10 hours.
 
LOL, that’s what you meant!

I’m kind of jealous of the new panels. Mine is old style.
 
I agree with Kelly on the TF-100. It is put together by some of the members of this forum and the quantities of reagents in it our meant specifically for a typical home pool. I'd also suggest getting the SpeedStir since it will stir the samples for you and saves a ton of time and effort on the test. Also, if you get 3 extra Taylor calibrated tubes and 3 extra magnetic bars, you can do all your tests at once instead of doing one, rinsing out tube, do test 2, rinse out tube ,etc etc.
 

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I cant just use the test strips that came with the pool? What is the difference with these ones? Can i get all those chemicals at like Walmart? Just curious cos i was gonna order the generator from amazon so if i cant get it at a local store i would try to order it all at once!
 
Bleach (initially bump fc), CYA (protects FC), and Baking Soda (called TA, buffers pH rise and fall) come from Walmart. Muriatic Acid comes from a local farm supply store ( that's where I buy mine for cheap). If you're on well water and have a low pH in your house water like me, you'll need 20-mule Borax from Walmart to raise your pH up when you first fill it up.

With a SWG, never never never put dry acid in your pool. Honestly don't remember what it does, but it can mess up your SWG quickly.

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Test strips are very very inaccurate. When I tested them, they said my pH was lower than 6.8 when it was really almost 8, and every other number was way off. Plus, I did 3 tests back to back from the same sample of pool water and got 3 drastically different results. Compare that to the drop based tests in the TF-100, and I do the same test multiple times and get the exact same result each time.
 
No on the test strips, they just aren’t accurate!

I get my MA at Home Depot. CYA came from Walmart, and since I don’t use much bleach due to SWG, when I need it I just get the generic at the grocery store!
 
No, no shock. If you read the link I gave you, you’ll understand why you just aren’t going to need anything more than what we listed for you. If you follow TFP principles, your water will always be clean and safe to swim in, without having to spend a lot of money at the pool store.

Take a look at this schedule for testing and maintaining pool, and then see the comparison of test kits. You’ll see why many of us choose to invest in a good test kit, so we aren’t always running out of test chems and having to buy more!

Pool Care Schedule

Test Kits Compared

ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
 
The kit you posted doesn’t have the FAS-DPD test, which is important for testing chlorine. It also doesn’t have a CYA test. Both of those are pretty critical in having balanced water.

Chlorine/CYA Chart

I know this seems like a lot to take in, but what takes forever to read takes moments to do, trust me!
 
Some of the many problems with 5-way tests are that they only test total chlorine, not free chlorine. In a clean pool, you'd have FC=6 CC=0 TC=6 where FC is chlorine free to fight off organics, CC is chlorine that's already combined with organics and indicates there may be algae present, and TC is the total chlorine. A 5-way test would just show TC=6 and you wouldn't know that your FC was down to 4 and CC was up to 2, indicating an algae bloom has already started.

The Bromine part of the test is useless as you don't use Bromine.

There's a possibly decent pH and semi decent TA test.

You're missing the 2 most important tests, a CYA test because CYA protects your chlorine from being burned up by the sun, and a FAS/DPD chlorine test that accurately measures chlorine way above 20 if necessary, and is accurate to .5ppm, and tests FC and CC separately so you know how much free chlorine you have, and if you need to worry about algae because of high CCs.

Also, pH and Acid demand kinda go hand in hand, so really your only getting a 2 way test since the only useful tests are pH and TA.

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Many many people have been where you are, wondering why they need a decent test kit, and a majority of those that didn't get a decent test kit, end up with FC far too low and an algae bloom starts, or CYA skyrocketed and an algae bloom starts. Plus that kit has no way of measuring salt, which is a vital test for a salt pool.
 
Honestly, SWG and bleach typical cost the same for some people in the long run, and some people do save money by going with an SWG. What you're really saving is a lot of time and effort. Dosing with bleach is an every day thing and you must add bleach literally every day during the hot summer. With an SWG you add salt and it converts salt into chlorine for several hours a day so you don't have to pour bleach each day.

And the TF-100 is only available at the site in my signature. Retail stores don't make enough money off then to sell them, and pool stores make too much off their horribly incorrect testing to want to help you. If you're wondering, the site tftestkit's is run by someone on this forum and they do not make any profit off the test kits.
 

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