Salt water system? Or Chlorine with a UV light Fikter

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Adamklassy

New member
May 9, 2019
1
Kelowna canada
Hi, new to the farm and just building a pool. The builder has asked me if I would like a saltwater pool; or if I would like a chlorine pool with an added UV light filter? The cost would be the same for either choice. Pool I am building is 32‘ x 16‘ and an average Where it can’t be used. Any thoughts or recommendations would be extremely useful! Thanks very much, Adam of 4 1/2 feet. I live in Kelona Canada and get seven months of pool time then winter Where it can’t be used.
I’m just looking for the overall best system and is not worried about the initial cost as both are the same.
Any thoughts or recommendations would be extremely useful! Thanks very much, Adam
 
Welcome to the forum!
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and consider reviewing the entire Pool School eBook
Also, take a look at the following articles.
www.troublefreepool.com

How to Chlorinate Your Pool

Before chlorinating your pool, you should know these simple tips. Learn the best way to add chlorine to your pool.
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Alternative sanitizers and "chemical free" pools--The Truth!

Pool owners frequently seek out "Chemical Free" alternatives to pool water sanitization. Many claims in favor of these systems and methods have been made (usually by the manufacturers of such systems) often without adequate scientific proof of their efficacy. Let's take a look at them and see...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Most members here would encourage you to get the SWCG. It does reduce but not eliminate testing your pool water chemistry and overall daily maintenance.
 
Get a SWG and forget the UV the sun gives you plenty for free. Make sure to specify the size of the cell and you want a 40k cell for that size pool or larger. A VS pump would be nice too to save electric costs of running pump
 
It's a personal preference to me. I've had 2 new pools built and done them each way. 1st pool built with SWG, it was great as far as maintaining the pool. However after 3 years of service you start to realize the effects that salt has on equipment and any stone work you have. I had to replace the cell once, twice the heater element went out because of salt corrosion and the circuit board on the generator went out once. Not to mention the white calcium build up around my stone.

2nd pool went with chlorine pool with an added UV light filter. The light filter is pretty much useless, but for me adding chlorine by hand is the way to go. Yes you have to think about adding chlorine every couple days, but without any equipment to quit working (and you not realize it) It forces you to pay more attention to your pool which in turn makes your pool very stable. Its takes less than 2 minutes water test, add chlorine and acid every couple days and i never have bad water!:)
 
scruben said:
However after 3 years of service you start to realize the effects that salt has on equipment and any stone work you have. I had to replace the cell once, twice the heater element went out because of salt corrosion and the circuit board on the generator went out once. Not to mention the white calcium build up around my stone.
Click to expand...

S,

I really doubt that the "salt" had anything to do with it... The fact that you had calcium scale tells me that your basic problem was pool chemistry mismanagement and/or pH problems.

Unfortunately, a lot of pool builder sold saltwater as a "You never have to do anything" pool care system. It is just not true.. You still have to do all the same tests and adjustments that you need to do with a standard chlorine pool.

Were you using the TFP process with your first pool?

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Hey Jim,
At first I was not using the TFP method. It wasn't until my SWG went out the 1st time and I developed algee, went on the net to find out how to cure it that I found this awesome site. I'm not saying that SWG's are not great, they are, but just wanted to let the OP know there are maintenance factors to be had with the SWG. The repair man who fixed my heater blamed the heating element going bad twice on the salt. I'm no expert just going by his explanation. Also the board going out had nothing to do with salt but again it's something else that could potentially give you problems(mine did).
 
I have seen low pH eat through a heat exchanger within days. I have never seen salt do that. Nor have I ever tested any pool without a significant amount of salt in it unless the water was brand new, meaning if salt were the culprit we would be seeing these problems across the board.

Heater repair guys rarely know the first thing about pool chemistry. They are experts on fixing those things, I give them all credit towards that, but I have met very few who know more about water chemistry than your average Leslie's employee. It's also a good way to upsell people on the cupronickel heat exchangers, so there's that too.
 
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SWG fan here. Bought a cupronickel heat exchanger prior to SWG conversion BECAUSE I got upsold that was my problem with my chlorine based system. Tri-chlor, chemicals, etc...etc.. SWG works - at least for meand following the simple plans this site provides.
 
Heaters are much more likely to be damaged in a pool being fed with Trichlor tablets or weekly bags of Dichlor powder as they are both very acidic and will greatly lower the pH.
SWG pools tend to have the opposite problem where the pH tends to rise to the higher side, this would not corrode the exchanger.
 
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