Salt without SWG?

[kodi]

Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere. It is a hard topic to search for.

It seems the most discussed benefit of salt is the 'feel'. I have perfectly functioning tri-chlor system, but have been considering salt. My primary question is to find out if its possible to combine a traditional chlorine feeder with a salt pool?

If so, why isn't this discussed(or practiced) more often? I assume by doing this it would be possible to cut the use of tablets by 50% since chlorine levels are typically half in a salt water pool?

Any opinions would be helpful. I just want to know if I should even pursue this.

 

[jblizzle]

You can add salt to any pool, however I do not think that means you will use less chlorine. The SWG recommendations are lower because fc is constantly added to the pool when the SWG is on so there is less risk of the fc getting too low. At least that is what I think the reason is.

Although by that logic I am not sure why using a chlorinator would not also allow you to use the lower limits as fc is constantly added as well.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone

 

[chem geek]

Welcome to TFP!

The saltwater chlorine generator generates chlorine gas which when dissolved in the water produces active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) at low pH so super-chlorinates a portion of the water flowing through the cell, at least until such water mixes with the alkaline water produced from the other plate (where hydrogen gas is generated) and gets diluted by other water flowing through the system. When dosing using a hypochlorite source of chlorine, the active chlorine level is much lower because the pH is much higher, at least until it is diluted.

The chlorine from Trichlor tabs is acidic, but is released with CYA so that the active chlorine is lower than the dissolving chlorine gas in a saltwater chlorine generator. Once the chlorine from any of these sources is diluted in the pool water, then their result is all the same active chlorine level so long as the pH is maintained over time as needed.

Note that if you add salt to your pool then you need to be careful about the issues from higher salt levels such as splash-out and evaporation onto soft stone.