Wanting to improve water feel.

[DLO]

Being that our pool water comes straight from the well, there has always been a less than perfect feel to it. Soft and or silky have never been adjectives used to describe the water. Although the majority of the pool's chemistry is always great, CH of 310 can't help the feel at all (right?). I've been reading about people adding water softener salt, targeting 1500-1800ppm with good results. Just to comfirm before I add the salt.

1) It's fine to add the salt directly into the skimmer basket, let dissolve and repeat.
2) To achieve 1500ppm, I need 475lbs of salt, for a 38K pool.
3) Would you worry about buying a salt test or just go by the calculated numbers/water feel?

Thanks all.

 

[dmanb2b]

We have a very similar scenario...my CH is 300+. I run a swg so my salt is around 3000ppm...I hear you want to target 2000ppm on salt to start acheiving the "feel". The other thing I would strongly suggest is adding Borates to 50ppm. Our water feels amazingly soft with the combination, almost to the extent that I hate taking a shower after we have been in the pool :grrrr:

 

[JasonLion]

I would not add salt to the skimmer basket, that would be extremely tedious when dealing with 400+ lbs of salt. You can just dump the salt into the pool and then spread it out a little, wait half an hour with the pump running, and then brush anything that is left around to help it dissolve.

You can add salt till it feels right, or measure, it doesn't really matter, whatever works for you.

You won't start at zero. Most pools have salt around 300 to 700 to start, but some start higher or lower than that. 475 lbs will raise the salt level by about 1500.

 

[DLO]

Thanks guys!

 

[DLO]

I've added enough salt to achieve around 1600ppm, I have enough to put the level just over 2000ppm. I can already feel the difference. I went out this morning to open the auto cover, get a water sample and remove the Dolphin. When I grasped the powercord to haul the Dolphin to the edge of the pool, it actually felt slippery for the first time ever. I followed JasonLion's advise yesterday and simply added the salt to the deep end and brushed the piles around the area surrounding the main drain until dissolved. The whole process took 5min.

I'm going to go swim a few laps and get a better idea, but hand feel definately improved 100%. It's only 10:13am, but it may be time for a few . Thanks again all!

 

[AnnaK]

On a good day, when you don't have to go to work and can just stay home it's never too early for a few

Adding salt to hard water makes a huge difference! We put about 160 pounds into our 12 K gallons each year. It feels lovely. Soft, smooth, sensuous, and it's great for the dogs' coats and our skin.

 

[DLO]