Pool water salty after just 2 years - is this normal?

[tjhm4]

I have a regular back yard pool that I maintain with liquid chlorine as per the TFP method, keeping CYA at about 50. It is not a salt water pool. I know that liquid chlorine has some salt in it, and we live in Arizona, so chlorine consumption gets high in the Summer, however just 2 years after fully draining and refilling the pool the water is already very clearly salty to taste, unpleasantly so in my opinion. Is this expected? Is it a problem?

Thanks for your help!

p.s. I did try searching for existing posts, but given the popularity of SWG pools all the info is about that!

 

[PoolStored]

After a year of running a chlorine pool, where I had replace 65% of the water, my salt was 2000ppm when I converted to Salt Water Generator.

In your pool, each gallon of 12.5% lc raises salt by 10ppm.

100 gallons you would be at 1000ppm
200 gallons you would be at 2000ppm


Most people cannot taste salt below 2000, most people can taste salt above 3500ppm

 

[tjhm4]

Thanks for the incredibly quick reply. So I reckon I average 2.2 gallon of lc per week, which is 1144ppm salt per year. After 2 years that puts me in to the "probably tastable" region, even if we assume the water has no salt in it in the first place.

Is there any value at which salt levels in a chlorine pool become a problem? I normally refresh the water when calcium gets high, but salt is growing much faster.

 

[PoolStored]

Is there any value at which salt levels in a chlorine pool become a problem?

Nope, only if you don't like the taste, or you have a SWCG and salt gets too high. With evaporation where you are located, the salt never leaves the pool (until you get the monsoons and it overflows).

Wouldn't worry about it unless you don't like the taste. Manage the CH and it will clear with the water replacement...

With the salt in the pool already, you might consider getting a SWCG and get out of the jug lugging business. The business case in AZ for SWCG is very good. See the economic analysis here:

SWG How It Works - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[tjhm4]

Thanks once more, and thanks for the link - I'll give it a look.

 

[mknauss]

I suspect you are adding muriatic acid to control pH and TA. That adds salt too.

Your fill water has about 200 ppm salt (chloride). So that adds up too ---

 

[tjhm4]

Thanks mknauss. Yes, I use muriatic acid too. TA is high here, so its a constant battle! Sounds like the saltiness is expected then.

 

[mknauss]

It is. I would be sure to check your CH. Once it gets above 800 ppm, you are going to get scale.

 

[tjhm4]

Thanks. Just ordered new reagents for CH and salt (old CH blue one had... congealed). Will test both and proceed accordingly.

 

[borjis]

Are you on a water softener? I thought some of those used salt and when they need a new charge the water is VERY salty. I could be wrong. I remember someone I knew had that exact issue. Their tap water got super salty if they didn't keep up on that.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Are you on a water softener? I thought some of those used salt and when they need a new charge the water is VERY salty. I could be wrong. I remember someone I knew had that exact issue. Their tap water got super salty if they didn't keep up on that.

The brine used to regenerate a water softener should never make it into the plumbing. If anyone has salty water after regeneration then there is a problem with the water softener not backwashing and rinsing properly which is typically a problem with the control valve. Softened water will have a higher sodium content which is what the tongue perceives as “salty” (it’s the sodium, not the chloride) but even then, the sodium value should be well below 500ppm. That is far below the taste threshold.

 

[tjhm4]

Thanks both. We do have a softener, but the pool water is unsoftened. Also, JoyfulNoise has it right - softeners do use salt but not on the drinking side of things so salty tap water means something has gone wrong.

 

[mknauss]

If you can work it, you want to use softened water for pool make up water.

 

[tjhm4]

Ah ok, thanks. This is because the softened water starts with less CH? Not sure how happy my softener would be about 20,000 gallons, but I'll look into it.

 

[JamesW]

You should get a K-1766 salt test kit to see exactly what the salinity is.

Taylor K-1766 Salt Test Kit

tftestkits.net

 

[JamesW]

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[mknauss]

Ah ok, thanks. This is because the softened water starts with less CH? Not sure how happy my softener would be about 20,000 gallons, but I'll look into it.

You would not use it for an initial fill. Just for make up water due to evaporation, etc.

 

[tjhm4]

Ah ok, thanks mknauss, that makes more sense. I'm not actually sure if the refill pulls softened water or not. I'll give it a look.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I had to have the plumber add a separate outdoor line from my garage main plumbing loop to attach the output of the softener to my autofill line. Most homes aren’t constructed with outdoor spigots that get softener water because it’s not healthy for plants. It cost me extra to run the extra line but it was not prohibitive. Using softened water for makeup in the pool is awesome. My CH effectively stopped rising when I did that. In AZ it ought to be criminal to not have ALL homes outfitted with softened water lines. The amount of damage done by hard water here to vital household appliances is huge. Water heaters that don’t use softened water won’t last more than 5-10 years due to build up inside the boiler. Kitchen and bathroom fixtures get trashed from calcium build up.

 

[tjhm4]

Thanks Joyful - a fellow desert dweller I see! Hope you're managing with the heat. I'm going to check the CH and salt levels in the pool. If CH rises faster than salt then that's a strong argument to get a softened water line to the refill, but if salt gets too high before CH is a problem I suppose it doesn't matter too much.