Are any of those real concerns when converting our pool?

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cflannagan

cflannagan

Gold Supporter
Apr 2, 2011
149
Palm Harbor, Florida
The link in question: http://household-tips.thefuntimesguide. ... _pools.php

I'm taking this article with a grain of salt, not only because of comments that makes me question this article, but I also wanted to run it by this forum and see if any of those are valid concerns.

We are converting from chlorine to salt water, and during this process, we will be completely resurfacing our pool including tiles, and the new pool surface comes with lifetime warranty. Our current pool surface is chipped in places, and looks ugly when looked at - it's the original surface when the pool was built in 1990, so it's now about 23 years old

We are weeks away from having a company come in and begin the resurfacing process on our pool, and I want to make sure we're not going to have any regrets converting our chlorine pool to salt :)

Thanks in advance
 
It mainly is an issue with stone coping, some of which seems to just disintegrate once it gets salt water on it. What are your coping and deck made of? I have poorly-applied kool deck (much too thin) and the salt has been hard on it, but I think that's more an issue with installation quality than the salt.

Having salt will not affect any of your equipment. It's true that cells wear out, and replacing them when they do wear out comes out to be close in cost to just using bleach, and is much cheaper than buying tablets or "shock".

There are similar sites around that bash salt...some with catastrophic pictures that can no way be related to the salt system. It prevents a pool store or service company from selling you chemicals...so there is a motive to play fast and loose with the facts. I have a salt system and will never be without one as long as I own a pool :)
 
Article seems to over-exaggerate things.

A SWG pool (~3500 ppm of salt) is 10% as much salt as you would find in the ocean. A non-SWG can easily get up to 1000-2000 ppm just from using liquid chlorine (actually all forms of chlorine add salt). So, the "extra" corrosion is not nearly as bad as they make it sound. Now there are some soft stones (flagstone) that to seem to be quite affected by the salt if they are not properly sealed, but if you just have concrete or pavers or harder stone-work, this is a non-issue.

Also, a SWG is not about saving money, it is about convenience. The cell will need replaced in 3-5 years and over the long term the cost of the salt, extra acid, and replacement cells is actually pretty similar to just using liquid chlorine. BUT ... with the SWG you are not lugging jugs of bleach and having to pour some in every 1-2 days and can actually go on vacation without worrying about the pool turning green while you are gone. Some of this convenience could also be achieved use a pump on a liquid chlorine tank, but you still have to keep filling the tank up with bleach.

A SWG does tend to make the pH rise faster and thus may require the use of more acid. But, if you maintain your TA lower as we suggest, the pH may not rise as fast and could even stabilize.
 
Why are you converting? To save money? Not the answer. To save maintenance time. On the right track. I only had my pool for a month before I added a SWCG. No regrets.

Are you doing your own testing? It's important in taking control of your pool.

A SWCG is great for maintaining but you'll still need liquid chlorine for the shock process and to bump it up in advance of a heavy bather load.

I'm frugal and went with a Compupool CPSC48 $750 delivered. I'm happy with the purchase and recommend it to others.
 
bobodaclown:

Yes I do my own tests. I'm not new around the forums here (my post count should be a good indication) ;)

And no, ofc, I'm not converting to save money. I just want a bit lesser maintenance after taking care of pool on my own for a few years now.
 
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