Help - salt added to a chlorine pool

[poolny33]

Hi - I have a brand new semi inground pool (15k gallons) - that uses chlorine and has an ionizer (came with the pool).

I returned from work today to learn the pool maintenance crew added two 40 lb bags of salt to the pool!

I’m waiting to hear back from them as to why, but I’m assuming they mistakened the ionizer for a SWG so I’m very nervous due to the corrosive effects of salt.

Any advice here? I’m thinking about having my pool drained and refilling it… is that crazy?

 

[PoolStored]

When you add chlorine and acid, you also add salt. It is not a concern…

 

[TinFoilHat]

The salt will be fine and it won't be corrosive. If it was then none of us could have salt water generators in our pools. The salt water won't be more salty than your tears are. Now that you are here please read up on the Pool School you will see in the left pane, heed our advice to get a recommended water testing kit and then do your own pool management. That will keep you out of pool stores which exist to sell you panaceaic products and away from pool services that only touch your pool once time per week which is not enough to actually manage it.

 

[Newdude]

I'd be worried about the copper ionizer that will stain the pool and swimmers eventually. Copper can only be removed by draining and refilling with copper free water.

And the manufacturers claims they require less chlorine are bold faced lies. They all but guarantee unsanitary water when their recommendations are followed.

Your pool guys added about 650 ppm of salt. If they tested the water first, they were likely shooting for 3500 for a SWG. (The ocean is 35,000..... 10X that). *if* they tested, *and* added appropriately assuming you had a salt pool, then you were darn near at salt levels in the first place. But those are 2 big ifs.

 

[poolny33]

Thank you all for the responses. Sounds like this is nothing to worry about.

For context, a few years years ago we purchased out home that had a similar pool with a SWG and quickly learned the walls were corroded, which led to us replacing it with a chlorine pool. So needless to say, salt gives me nightmares.

 

[reggiehammond]

A “chlorine” pool is often as salty as a saltwater pool, but with none of the benefits.

Saltwater pools, like any pool, can be mismanaged and have dangerous or damaging water conditions. Neither are related to how a salt water chlorine generator actually work.

I wouldn’t have a pool without a swcg.

 

[Griswald]

Chlorine is much more corrosive than salt.

 

[Newdude]

learned the walls were corroded

The liner stops the water from touching the wall. If there is a leak, the moisture will be the downfall for either pool.

Again, adding only 2 bags of salt makes no sense unless you were around 3000 of the 3500 ppm for a salt pool. It would take 10+ bags to raise you from 0, so only adding 2 really points to it being up there already.

Again again, it's a far cry from the 35K of the ocean.

 

[poolny33]

Appreciate all the replies.

The pool has a lifetime warranty on the walls. The warranty is void if a with the use of a salt water generator because it causes premature rusting and corrosion of the metal parts.

Sounds like this is a nothingburger and just an overreaction on my part. Thank you

 

[PoolStored]

The pool has a lifetime warranty on the walls. The warranty is void if a with the use of a salt water generator because it causes premature rusting and corrosion of the metal parts.

I agree with you, that if you have a warranty, then abide by it if that is important. Some manufacturers have the restriction, others do not.

When I converted to SWCG, my salt level was over 2000 due to chlorine, pucks, and muriatic acid use.

A salt pool is a chlorine pool is a salt pool.

Every gallon of liquid chlorine you add to your pool will raise salt by 14ppm.
Every puck you use will raise salt by 3ppm.
Muratic acid will also add salt.

 

[Newdude]

The pool has a lifetime warranty on the walls

Read the fine print, It's often not worth the paper it's printed on. It's likely prorated and either way only pertains to the wall.

Draining, install labor, a new liner, refill and rebalancing are the bulk of the cost to replace it. You can easily still pay someone $2k to $3k to replace the $500 wall you got for 50% off.

I hope you never need the warranty. I hope they give you $50k if you do. I'm just sayin.

 

[Griswald]

Appreciate all the replies.

The pool has a lifetime warranty on the walls. The warranty is void if a with the use of a salt water generator because it causes premature rusting and corrosion of the metal parts.

Sounds like this is a nothingburger and just an overreaction on my part. Thank you

That's a giant load of Crud. Water causes rust, so is the warranty void of you put water on your pool?

 

[dfwnoob]

Read the fine print, It's often not worth the paper it's printed on. It's likely prorated and either way only pertains to the wall.

Draining, install labor, a new liner, refill and rebalancing are the bulk of the cost to replace it. You can easily still pay someone $2k to $3k to replace the $500 wall you got for 50% off.

I hope you never need the warranty. I hope they give you $50k if you do. I'm just sayin.

I'd almost guarantee this is the case. There's zero chance they're going to pay for a lifetime of corrosion protection on a metal wall including all labor. IMO, I'd re-read the warranty and look for their inevitable "get out of any actual responsibility" clause and then swap back to SWCG.