Do I need to remove the SWG equipment - Converting a Salt Pool back to Traditional Chlorine

[Amandag112]

Hello - I'm brand new here, so any assistance and information is appreciated! I recently inherited a 15,000 gal salt water pool that was a complete disaster. We had a pool company come out and so far we have completely drained the pool, refilled and chlorine was added after it was refilled -- no salt has been added since refilling.

My main question is - If we are going to just stick with adding Chlorine, do we need to remove SWG equipment? What happens if we leave the equipment and just continue adding the chlorine?

I've been told that all I had to do was turn off the "salt cell", keep chlorine tabs floating & shock it 1x/wk..... I just want to make sure that is O-K? Or is there any like standard set of guidelines I should follow when making the official switch to traditional chlorine? If at all possible, I prefer to not have to mess with any equipment at all and hope to just leave it all and get by with just adding a floating Chlorinator

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
You can just leave the SWCG off.
Your method of chlorination however, will lead to issues.

How to Chlorinate Your Pool

Before chlorinating your pool, you should know these simple tips. Learn the best way to add chlorine to your pool.

www.troublefreepool.com

I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[Jimrahbe]

A,

Sorry to be blunt, but anyone changing from a saltwater pool back to a tab chlorine pool, is making a huge mistake!!!

Saltwater pools are the easiest type of pools to care for.. There is just no need to dump in Pool $tore shock at all, ever.. much less once a week.

A saltwater pools makes its own chlorine, so you don't have to go to the Pool $tore and buy tablets.

Tab pools smell like public pools... Saltwater pools don't smell at all.

When you get out of a tab pool, you feel like you need to take a shower.. When you get out of a saltwater pool you feel like you just took a shower.

Please tell us why you are making this mistake..

In the end, it is your pool and you can do what you want... Just turn the chlorinator off if you are not planning on using it.

I suggest that you take a good long read through our forums and see what most people here say about saltwater pools.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Amandag112]

@Jimrahbe Hey I appreciate the honesty, lol ... I am a pool newb and as of this far it seemed like it would be easy just to keep it how the pool company already set it up...on the chlorine tabs. I definitely will keep reading up on it. The process of "keep chlorine tabs floating & shock it 1x/wk." was just what was recommended to me, not something that I necessarily plan on doing. I suppose I have some research to do on what the best chlorine method is.......

 

[reggiehammond]

Hey I appreciate the honesty, lol ... I am a pool newb and as of this far it seemed like it would be easy just to keep it how the pool company already set it up...on the chlorine tabs. I definitely will keep reading up on it. The process of "keep chlorine tabs floating & shock it 1x/wk." was just what was recommended to me, not something that I necessarily plan on doing. I suppose I have some research to do on what the best chlorine method is.......

In the past 14 days, I have not added a single thing to my pool. Simply emptied the skimmer and the robot basket. That's how easy a SWCG can make your life!

If you're willing to take the time and get the water balanced - download the pool math app! - then you can likely restart the SWCG and have the easiest means of keeping the water clean and clear that's available on the market.

 

[Newdude]

The process of "keep chlorine tabs floating & shock it 1x/wk." was just what was recommended to me

Hey Amanda !!! Said recommendation is to start you on a roller coaster of chemistry that only gets more of a swing as time goes on. It will put you at the pool store many times where they will have many expensive fixes when it was the ride which was the problem the whole time. When the ride spirals beyond control they will tell you to drain the pool and start over, on the same ride. And of course they will have expensive chemicals to start you off again.
Read up on pool school and take control of your pool. Nobody will care for it, or your wallet like yourself. We will happily guide you until you are your own pro.

 

[mguzzy]

Hi Amanda... welcome to the forum

You found us! There is a lot of experience on the forum and we can walk you through however you decide you want to operate your pool. You also have the advantage of reading years worth of experience from the Mods, experts, guides and posters here... Overwhelmingly the consensus is that SWG pools are the best way to go. People are spending thousands of dollars to install one and you already have one set up. I really really really really suggest that you give it a chance. We can guide you. Did I say I really think you should? Oh yeah...

Here's what I mean:
If you use a tab floater, likely you are using stabilized tabs. that will continually add CYA to the water. At some point you will have too much CYA and the chlorine will be "over stabilized" and won't be as effective. You will end up with a green pool because there is too much CYA in the water for the Cl to work... This leads to a drain and refill like you just experienced. But if you use Liquid chlorine then you will not add CYA and you can run like that forever.. BUT you have the expense and effort of getting chlorine.

If you use your SWG... you don't have to buy chlorine.. the SWG makes it for you. You manually add the amount of CYA to your pool to match this chart: FC/CYA Levels... the right amount of salt to make the SWG happy and turn it on! Done. There will be some other tweaks to your chemistry along the way, but we can teach you that as we go. That's about it...

Also you will win a set of steak knives for following our advice.... well not really, but with the money you will save on chlorine you can buy some.

 

[superuser]

I became a first time pool owner last fall, and honestly converting the pool to salt was the best thing I've done. It was kind of a mess when I took over, lots of stains and such from the previous owner using puck floaters and "throwing in a bag or two of shock when it feels like it needs it." Right now we're doing a full first-floor remodel (the house was kept about as well as the pool), so I don't have the ability to check on the pool as much as I'd like. But when I do? Empty the baskets, spray out the robot filters, quick water test and since I have a spillway from the spa to the pool measure and pour a little acid in to balance the pH. 5 minutes a week, and it's always crystal clear and swim ready.

 

[DeanP66]

Like others have said, using tablets in a floater as your daily means of chlorination is a recipe for disaster. Those tablets contain half chlorine and half stabilizer (CYA). The chlorine gets used up but the stabilizer remains in the pool and builds and builds as you add more tablets until the CYA level is too high making the chlorine ineffective. The pool will then start to turn cloudy and eventually green and your only remedy will be to partially or fully drain the water and refill to dilute the CYA level down to a manageable amount. I bet that's why you just drained the pool recently. I almost guarantee it.

Liquid chlorine contains NO stabilizer in it. You set your stabilizer level to where you want it separately and then you dose your pool daily to a target free chlorine (FC) level and that's about it. You'll also add some muriatic acid do lower the pH some when it climbs. This makes it very easy because you're not shooting at a moving target (the CYA climbing and climbing with pucks). You just follow the FC/CYA chart.

A salt water generator is like using liquid chlorine without having to do any of the work. It generates the chlorine for you (stabilizer free like liquid chlorine) and it frees up your time. No need to go to the store to buy jugs of liquid chlorine and no need to add daily to replenish FC loss. The SWG does it all for you. You just need to test the water at least twice a week to verify that the SWG is producing what you think it is and if it's not, you make the adjustment by either bumping up the output % or lowering it at the SWG control panel.

Definitely the way to go.