Why aren't salt water generators more popular vs liquid chlorine?

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fwb

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Jun 8, 2017
32
Las Vegas
I'm reaching the end of my first year of pool ownership. My first instance of "oh crud the pool went from blue to green in 24 hours" brought me here. And my pool's been perfect ever since I've educated myself. However, I feel ridiculous buying tons of bleach every trip to the grocery store, transporting it all to the house, walking out to my pool and dumping half a bottle or more every day, and then throwing it into my trash bin full of empty bottles. As I'm starting my second summer of pool ownership I have no idea what I'm going to do if I want to take a vacation or even a weekend trip.

That lead me in to look into SWGs and I'm almost at the point of not looking back. I have my eye on this $729 one https://www.amazon.com/Circupool-SJ-40-Water-Chlorine-Generator/dp/B01CPVKW6S/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 . Self-cleaning. <10 cents of electricity per day. Nothing but good reviews around here. It will more than pay for itself after a few years.

Seems like a no-brainer to me? With all the intelligent well-read types around here I don't know why SWGs aren't dominant. Cost savings aside it will be worth it only to stop the weekly dance herding liquid chlorine, and be able to leave my pool completely alone for a week or more. Time is money!
 
Welcome to TFP! Good to have you here :)

They're dominant here in Australia (80% or more). I think it's just because pool-size dedicated salt water chlorinators started in the '70s in New Zealand and it's all just a bit newer Stateside.

The other side of the coin is to optimize consumption and buy 12.5% liquid in re-usable containers.

cowboycasey here at TFP swears by his SJ circupool SWG, one of the 4 or 5 brands I would own. Just make sure it's sized for a pool twice the size of yours; SWC economics improve with larger cell size.
 
If I built a new pool I'd probably go with SWG but I'm quite happy with my 12,000 gallon pool and the simplicity of using liquid chlorine. I'm too much of a DIY'er to buy a Steiner peristaltic pump so I built my own from eBay parts and have automated chlorine injection the last few months.

Before I had my injection system, I simply added chlorine daily and used pucks when on vacation. The minimal CYA increase from using pucks a couple of weeks a year while on vacation is not a problem as you lose some CYA from splashout and backwashing anyway.
 
I would guess the upfront costs of switching deter quite a few people. I have a 36,000 gallon pool and a saltwater generator for it is $900+ installation. This doesn't include the initial salt that cost me about $250. So, all-in, you're probably looking at $1200-1500 to add a salt system to an existing pool?

There is also the negative impression that salt destroys everything. I've seen comparisons to living at the beach. In reality, it is such a smaller percentage of salt vs the ocean, that the impacts are negligible, from what I understand.

Overall, I like the ease-of-use and the feel of the water. It seems to be softer and less harsh than pools chlorinated with liquid chlorine or tablets. Not having to dump chlorine everyday or transport bottles is also a huge plus for me.
 
Welcome to TFP!

That circupool is a good swg unit. I agree, SWG is on my mandatory pool equipment list for ease of daily operation and taking vacations.
 
fwb,

Welcome to TFP... A Great resource for all your Salty Questions... :snorkle:

A SWCG pool and a non-SWCG pool cost about the same to operate over the life of a SWCG. With the SWCG pool you pay for your chlorine up front and with the non-SWCG pool you pay as you go.

Convenience is the major difference. I have a salt water pool and can't envision having anything else in the future.

That said, there are some minor downsides.. Cells are consumable and get used up as time goes on. If you buy a cell that is too small for your pool, you will use it up quickly. Most cells last 4 to 5 years. Some die earlier and some much later. Cells can go bad, but then so can almost any other electronic item.. Cells can cause your pH to continually increase, but this can be managed. Cells need time to produce chlorine and this means running your pump longer. Not an issue with VS pumps, but costly for single speed pump owners.

Since you live in Lost Wages, one way to decrease your FC demand is to increase your CYA level. What CYA level are you currently running? What FC level are you trying to maintain and how big is your pool?

Completing your signature will help us, help you...

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
Love my SWG, couldn't imagine not having it. Plus side is that it was installed when I bought the house, so that helps. I've got an AquaLogic system with the T-15 cell for a 25k gallon pool, works great. Controller means that everything on the pool runs to that board, so one little computer for lights, pump timer, SWG control, etc. Down side is that the screen/controls were dead when I bought the house (working, but screen itself failed), so it cost a couple hundred to get it replaced.

About a grand to get it all, and then whatever it costs for an electrician to install, but once you're set up, easiest thing in the world. People do chlorine daily; I usually remember to check once a week just to make sure my settings are good and the salt cell didn't die or something, but pretty much just vacuum weekly and that's it. It's a great system to have; you're just paying upfront rather than a little bit daily. That part is about break-even probably, but the effort and daily test reagents saved makes it a no-brainer from my perspective.
 
Thanks for the responses all, I think I'm sold :)

Jimrahbe said:
Since you live in Lost Wages, one way to decrease your FC demand is to increase your CYA level. What CYA level are you currently running? What FC level are you trying to maintain and how big is your pool?
Click to expand...

CYA was 30 coming out of winter, I have some pucks in now to start raising it slightly for summer. I understand something more like 70-80 is good for SWGs. Pool is 28k gal, FC is usually around 1.0 when I measure it at sunset, before adding in half a bottle of 10% which raises it back up to 3+ ish. I tried adding half as much for awhile but I started barely getting algae growth on some of my rock features so I think this is my sweet spot, water stays pristine.
 
I live in Laughlin and have a small pool with SWCG. I keep my CYA between 70 and 80 with a minimum FC of 8. We leave for 4 - 6 weeks at a time primarily during the summer and do have a pool service that cleans the pool and adds acid once a week. Otherwise, very minimal maintenance.

You do need to manage CSI as the SWCG will get calcium build up with our high TA/CH water. I would recommend getting a good test kit if you do not have one.
Pool School - Test Kits Compared
Also -- to help all of us adding a signature with your pool specifics would be great -- Pool School - Read This BEFORE You Post

Take care.
 
fwb said:
Thanks for the responses all, I think I'm sold :)

CYA was 30 coming out of winter, I have some pucks in now to start raising it slightly for summer. I understand something more like 70-80 is good for SWGs. Pool is 28k gal, FC is usually around 1.0 when I measure it at sunset, before adding in half a bottle of 10% which raises it back up to 3+ ish. I tried adding half as much for awhile but I started barely getting algae growth on some of my rock features so I think this is my sweet spot, water stays pristine.
Click to expand...

fwb,

See this chart... Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

An FC of 1 is way too low... With a CYA of 30 your FC should be around 5 ppm.

I would recommend that you bump your CYA to 50 or so.. While you will need to keep the FC at 6 or 7 my guess is that you will decrease your chlorine usage by 40 to 50%...

If / when you go with saltwater, then I'd run the CYA at 80...

Thanks,

Jim R.
 

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Happy new owner of a Circupool SJ-40 SWG now, and I gotta say I am even more baffled now why anyone deals with liquid chlorine anymore. The system cost $729 on amazon, install was less than $200, salt was just over $100 from home depot. It has already come in handy after leaving for a weekend trip and not having to worry about the 110 deg sun evaporating all my chlorine. It will pay for itself in two years, even sooner if you put a price on lugging bottles from the grocery store every week and pouring them in daily, which is huge for me, I'd still be happy paying 2-3x as much for this convenience!
 
This is a great thread. I am on the fence of switching over to SWG after more than 5 years of doing the BBB. I have no issues with using bleach but the frequent trips to Walmart for bleach and trying to find the best prices are starting to take their toll. Add to the fact that I constantly have to reach out to my neighbor for help in adding bleach on the long weekends at the beach. My neighbor put in a pool last year and went with salt and has nothing but great things to say about it.

I see a conversion in my future :)
 
pats300zx said:
This is a great thread. I am on the fence of switching over to SWG after more than 5 years of doing the BBB. I have no issues with using bleach but the frequent trips to Walmart for bleach and trying to find the best prices are starting to take their toll. Add to the fact that I constantly have to reach out to my neighbor for help in adding bleach on the long weekends at the beach. My neighbor put in a pool last year and went with salt and has nothing but great things to say about it.

I see a conversion in my future :)
Click to expand...

Do it, do it, do it, do it. Do it yesterday. I'm kicking myself for not doing it or knowing about it before. Even after less than a week I feel like it's paid off in convenience :)
 
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