Is it necessary to keep the salt up in the winter?

[colrhino]

We live in Georgia and don’t “close” our pool. We do have a heater but don’t routinely swim in the winter. We have a salt water pool via SWG. Once the water gets below 50*, the SWG quits production (or conversion) of the salt. So is it necessary to keep the salt level up incrementally (a bag or two a month) when no one is using (swimming) in the winter? Or just wait until the Spring and put 8-10 bags in at once?

 

[Jimrahbe]

c,

There are zero reasons to keep the salt up in the winter... On the other hand, unless you have a leak, you should not be going through a bag or two of salt a month..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[colrhino]

Hi Jim,
No leaks, just low salinity. My salt runs at around 3500 in the summer, it’s about 1200 now. My neighbor has a pool and he mentioned that he kept his salt up via a bag a month in the winter so he wouldn’t have to put 6 or 8 or 10 in, in the Spring. That was the source of my question.

 

[ajw22]

I don’t see what the problem is adding whatever number of bags of salt in the spring when water tenp gets ariund 60.

 

[Donldson]

Salt does not fluctuate like that without water exchange. It doesn't evaporate, it doesn't break down, it only goes down if you are losing water and replacing it with fresh water. To go from 3500 to 1200 you would have had to replace over 12,000 gallons of water between summer and now. Since salt doesn't get lost to evaporation that means you would have had to lose all that water and replaced it, something like 2000 gallons a month. It's either a leak or testing error.

 

[Killer95Stang]

I have probably only added 5 or 6 bags since my pool was built in 2013. Either you have some insane splash out (600 pound life therapy pool), tons of rain or a leak.

 

[aussieta]

i normally need one bag per year
something is not right
are you having to add stabilizer, borates as well
how are you measuring your salt, if you are using your swg display, as the cell dies it reports lower salt levels

 

[colrhino]

Thanks for all the replies, now I realize the error of my presumed logic. I take it that my four year old Pentair IC40 is starting to give erroneous readings. I have done a search and see numerous comments about that issue on several threads. I will take the SWG off and clean it to start with, as that has never been done, to my knowledge. You guys, and this forum, are awesome sources of information!!!

 

[Jimrahbe]

col,

You also might want to check the actual salt level in your pool... It could be ok, but then again it may be way higher than you think..

I never rely on just the SWCG salt level to decide if I am going to add salt or not.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[ajw22]

I will take the SWG off and clean it to start with, as that has never been done, to my knowledge.

Take your SWG off and visually inspect the plates for scale. If they are reasonably clean then do not clean them. Each acid cleaning of the plates reduces the cells life.

Is your cell indicating low salt? Do you have the K-1766 Taylor Salt Test ?

Erroneous salt level in the cell is caused by a bad temperature sensor which cleaning fo the plates does not fix. The temperature sensor is combined with the flow switch at the base of the cell.

 

[Divin Dave]

Also OP, You can loose salt if you get a lot of rain and have an overflow on the pool.

If you are actually loosing salt to overflow, splashout, leak or whatever other than to evaporation, you will also see a commensurate drop in the CYA and Calcium levels, as those also do not evaporate.

If you have only seen a drop in the salt and not the CYA, then the testing accuracy is highly suspect.

 

[colrhino]

Dave,
You are right on the money with your supposition. We have had a surplus of rain to the tune of 15+ inches in the Atlanta area this year. I do have an overflow drain and I suspect that this has contributed to my salt deficit. Thank you for pointing this out !

 

[Divin Dave]

Hopefully the overflow is the cause, but for what it's worth, I concur with others, not to rely solely on the SWG readout for determining the salt level. The K1766 salt test kit is the Bomb and worth well more than the price paid for one.

:santa:

Dave,
You are right on the money with your supposition. We have had a surplus of rain to the tune of 15+ inches in the Atlanta area this year. I do have an overflow drain and I suspect that this has contributed to my salt deficit. Thank you for pointing this out !

 

[kwlis]

My experience with the IC40, after two years, is that it’s PPM readings are highly sensitive to water temperature. Above 80F the IC40 correlates well with the K1766...as water temp comes down the IC40 reading separates from K1766, only registering 60% of my K1766. My daily FC loss is less than 0.5ppm - so I’ve shutoff the IC40 and will dose with Bleach until Spring. No more salt until then.

 

[Philo]

You could bring a cup of pool water inside to get it to 70 degrees and test it with a K1766.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

In the 7 years of our pool I've only had to add salt twice.

Do you have an auto-filler on your pool which may be causing you to be unaware of high water losses in the pool? Could you possibly have a leak??

Maddie

 

[will]

Here in Georgia we are about 15” OVER normal rainfall which would decrease salt levels noticeably. Also, in the Fall in the South when outside air is cold and pool water warm a lot of evaporation occurs especially if you run a spa like we do you can see the steam over the whole pool in the morning

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Yes, but salt doeasn't leave with evaporation. It actually concentrates (think raisins).

Maddie

 

[Silver_2000]

I have an auto flll in the pool and an overflow. Ive been "losing " water since I bought the house. I've done bucket tests before the recent replaster and I was losing water. MY salt and CYA were still going down. a few weeks ago I heard the fill running all the time for no reason and now realize the fill has an adjustment on the arm that may have been out of whack for some time ...

IVE now moved the arm down and the fill is running less.

I never looked close enough in the dark hole that is the autfill to see/ realize the arm was adjustable ... previous owners had bent it so I assumed that was the only adjustment ...

Ill redo bucket test in January to confirm water loss. I bet ( hope ) its gone down.

 

[ctrav]

I don't worry about salt in the winter at all. Wait till spring when the pool water temps remain in the 60's or higher then address the need for salt. I will be surprised if I need more than a bag or two of salt after backwashing and cleaning filter in the spring.