Normal salt concentration in non-SWCG pool?

[BowserB]

Hi guys. I've had a lot of help here with my decision to get a SWCG. While waiting for a quote, I got the Taylor K-1766 salt test kit, just to get an idea how much salt I'll be adding. For reference purposes, the pool was first filled 9/30/18. For a short time, I used trichlor tabs to chlorinate, then switched to liquid chlorine. When CYA was low last spring, I used the tabs again until the CYA was back to 40, and then I resumed liquid chlorine. So I did a test for my starting salt level, and it came back--twice with samples from different areas of the pool--with 1200 ppm. Fully a third of the way, I think, to the level I would be using with the SWCG.

Side story. I often take a water sample to my nearby Leslies, after doing my own tests with the TF100 kit, partly as a second opinion and partly to gauge how much confidence I could have in them if I ran out of TF100 reagents or wanted to suggest to my neighbor an alternative to his test strips (he'll never go to the trouble of a full TF100 or Taylor kit.) One result Leslie gives that I don't get from the TF100 is Total Dissolved Solids. When I've asked what that is, I'm told that since I use just liquid chlorine, the TDS is likely salt. Coincidentally, last week Leslies told me my TDS was 1200.

Does 1200ppm seem reasonable for a non-SWCG pool? Both Taylor and Leslies seem to think so.

 

[mknauss]

A salinity of 1200 ppm is possible. But the TDS would be higher, as it would also include CH and CYA.

 

[ajw22]

Liquid chlorine contains salt. For every 3 ppm of FC you add 5 ppm of salt which accumulates when you use liquid chlorine. A LC pool becomes a salt pool if there is not a reason to occasionally drain it.

 

[pjt]

Using liquid chlorine, my salt level built up to 5,000 over the course of a few years. Just did a partial drain & refill to lower the salt to 3,000. Probably going to install a SWG since I already have enough salt in my water to operate one.