New pool owners. 30 ft AGP installed mid-July with Perma Salt System, sand filter and heater. Water never looked clear and advise sought from local pool supply stores -not where we purchased pool- proved to be a mistake. They have no knowledge of this system and we took advise that may have made water worse. Plus the Pentair pump is defective and being replaced soon. Suspect that pump issue has also damaged heater because now when set at 87 or higher, gas smell due to inefficient operation. We’ll deal with that next year. The water is very cloudy even though the copper, ph and alkalinity are balanced. Salt residue can be felt on the pool floor and seen on the solar cover. I think we need to remove Perma Salt System, drain pool, clean out salt, refill, balance and then winterize for next Spring. What are our steps in ensuring that we are on the right path for next year? Should we save up for a SWG to add next Spring? Seriously, if we didn’t have a deck built around pool I’d just consider this a really bad decision. Now I feel that whatever new costs we need to incur have to be done for next year. Can you give us step by step instructions or is it time to pay out more money and have someone do the work for us?
Perma Salt Big Issues
- Thread starter RandyPat
- Start date
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,942
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Hey @RandyPat 
Welcome to tfp!
Thanks for starting your own thread
I am sorry you’ve been duped by the permasalt system - you’re not the 1st.
Its premise is that it uses copper (which can turn hair, fingernails, & water green) to prevent algae but really has no sanitation properties although they claim it allows you to keep fc lower than Recommended Levels for a manually chlorinated pool even though it is not a real salt water chlorine generator. This is a recipe for disaster as you have experienced. Not to mention the other $$ potions they recommend you use with the system that cause more harm than good.
You should remove it posthaste.
You need to have a reliable accurate test kit to care for your pool properly & often.
Test Kits Compared You will also need a salt test.
Without results from one of these recommended test kits we can’t offer alot of chemistry advice.
You say your copper levels are balanced but there should be little to no copper in your water- if there is too much a water exchange is in your future before you attempt balancing other parameters or addressing the algae problem (cloudy water =algae).
Metals tests are the only ones we recommend relying on from the pool store.
Hopefully they test total copper & not just free copper.
Until your test kit comes in you can add 5ppm of liquid chlorine daily to keep it from getting out of hand.
PoolMath will help with calculating amounts.
You can post your results in this thread & many great folks are here to help you on your journey & get things sorted out.
While you’re waiting on your kit to arrive
Here’s some important reading
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
& a little video of how tfpc works
Also please fill out your signature as best u can so you get accurate timely advice.
www.troublefreepool.com
Welcome to tfp!
Thanks for starting your own thread
I am sorry you’ve been duped by the permasalt system - you’re not the 1st.
Its premise is that it uses copper (which can turn hair, fingernails, & water green) to prevent algae but really has no sanitation properties although they claim it allows you to keep fc lower than Recommended Levels for a manually chlorinated pool even though it is not a real salt water chlorine generator. This is a recipe for disaster as you have experienced. Not to mention the other $$ potions they recommend you use with the system that cause more harm than good.
You should remove it posthaste.
You need to have a reliable accurate test kit to care for your pool properly & often.
Test Kits Compared You will also need a salt test.
Without results from one of these recommended test kits we can’t offer alot of chemistry advice.
You say your copper levels are balanced but there should be little to no copper in your water- if there is too much a water exchange is in your future before you attempt balancing other parameters or addressing the algae problem (cloudy water =algae).
Metals tests are the only ones we recommend relying on from the pool store.
Hopefully they test total copper & not just free copper.
Until your test kit comes in you can add 5ppm of liquid chlorine daily to keep it from getting out of hand.
PoolMath will help with calculating amounts.
You can post your results in this thread & many great folks are here to help you on your journey & get things sorted out.
While you’re waiting on your kit to arrive
Here’s some important reading
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
& a little video of how tfpc works
Create Your Signature - Further Reading
www.troublefreepool.com
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