Adding Salt

[radome]

Hello everyone. I need some advice.
I have an intex 12x24 above ground pool with a sand filter pump and a chlorine generator. I just recently put the cover on the pool as it is too cold to use here in northwest florida. Yesterday my chlorine generator displayed a low salt code (91) which I understand how to fix it.

My question is, since I have installed the cover, can I add the salt to my skimmer since it is a sand filtered system.

Thank you in advance.


Radome

 

[linen]

Welcome to tfp, radome

Are you certain you have low salt? That seems unlikely. Often low salt indicator on the intex is either a low flow issue or the plates have buildup on them and need to be cleaned.

 

[jblizzle]

That should work is you pour it in VERY slowly so that it dissolves and not clog the pipe. Before adding salt I would independently check the salt level to make sure it is indeed too low.

What is your water temp? Most SWG stop working when the pool water gets < 50 or 60 degrees regardless of the salt content. Although given your location likely the water is not that cold.

 

[linen]

Although I am not a fan of it, if you do pour it into your skimmer slowly as jbliz said, make sure the swg is off for many hours with the pump running to make sure the salt is fully disolved...a bolus of salt water in the cell can damage the swg.

 

[Bama Rambler]

If the water temp is low it could be falsely reporting the salt level. I would have it tested before adding any.

It's usually not a good idea to add chemicals to the skimmer, but since it's covered you could very slowly pour a little in it at the time. WARNING: be absolutely sure that the swg is powered down if you do this. It's a good idea to turn the swg off for 24 hours any time you add salt.

 

[Safetybob]

I am with Jason here, I got the Taylor salt testing kit.......how else can you verify that your Intex equipment is working correctly. That's one of the reasons why I dumped the salt water system from Intex and did it the old fashioned way......bleach.

If you go way back a year, maybe two ago, you will find a good number of people having problems with their Intex salt water units. I had two go bad on me, both just out of the warantee period. If I get a real AGP and want salt I will get a real SWG from one of the big companies. Until then, bleach.

In all seriousness, you really need to get the salt test kit from Taylor. I believe it's around 20 bucks from Amazon when I got mine. I could easily see exactly what my salt level was. Both my Intex generators seemed to work better around the upper recommended level.....and I had the documentation to prove it too!!

With the test kit you will be able to prove that the equipment is not working or will give you that code when the temp gets lower. Your guessing without the test kit.

Bob E.

 

[radome]

Thank you all for the feedback. I have already had to add salt once this year. We have had an abundance of rain this year and I have had some overflow. However, the temperature has dropped recently. When I put the cover on last Monday, the water temp was 72 degrees. Didn't know about colder water giving a false indicator. I turned the swg off when it thru the code. My circulation pump is still on as I plan on leaving the pool up this winter. We normally stay well above freezing here.

Once again thanks ever so much for the advice. It was a tremendous help.

Radome

 

[linen]

If you go way back a year, maybe two ago, you will find a good number of people having problems with their Intex salt water units. I had two go bad on me, both just out of the warantee period. If I get a real AGP and want salt I will get a real SWG from one of the big companies.

Not to argue, but just to give another perspective...I have gotten 3 years of life from my intex swg (~2009 model with the copper bars(unplugged)) on my 11K gallon perm agp.

 

[radome]

Bob E., this is my second intex swg. my 1st one went bad but still under warranty. This last season has been my 3rd season on this swg but the 1st season on this larger agp. Thank you for the advice on the taylor test kit. I will get one.

 

[linen]

Thank you for the advice on the taylor test kit. I will get one.

The Taylor test kit is good, but I find that I use the Aquacheck salt test strips more and have only used my Taylor salt test on a few of occasions for comparison and the two methods resulted in comparable values.

 

[Safetybob]

Linen, that's good news to know that the simple to use test strips are comparable to using the Taylor salt kit. It was a pain to use back in the day as I did not have a speed stir yet.

I aslo didn't know (at the time) about unplugging the copper bars. I think they might have had a quality control problem a few years back then gotten it together as you will note there are less folks complaining about them now. The main reason I HAD to go to BBB was that the salt was eating my heater that at the time the manufacturer's literature said could be used with salt water but since has said no salt. Got a little bit of corrosion and so far so good.

Linen, may I aslo assume that you take your SWG appart every year and soak the cell in vinegar? Didn't know about that either until a couple of years ago either....

Bob E.

 

[linen]

Linen, may I aslo assume that you take your SWG appart every year and soak the cell in vinegar? Didn't know about that either until a couple of years ago either....

Fortunately for me, over the last year, I haven't had to clean my cell. Keeping my water chemistry in line with tfp swg recommendations, along with maintaining 50 ppm borates is the reason. I do have fairly high fill water CH (private well... ~300 ppm CH).

 

[RobbieH]

I would not add salt to the skimmer. I'm not a fan of adding ANYTHING at the skimmer. There's no reason you can't just dump it into the pool. It dissolves pretty quickly.