Salt instead of chlorine in pools & solar heating

I had a pool at our last house. Not too big, about 25x50........I believe in chlorine. It's not difficult, its tried and true, and keeps the water crystal clear. I don't see all the "eco friendly" thing, because it's not like I'm dumping out the pool anyway, once it's filled, it's filled.

 

My friend had the solar heater thing and he had many leaks and other problems. One day he had an great idea, he drained the pool and painted in gloss black. He claims the paint job did the trick and he is heaterless and happy. I think your overnight temps have to be considered with any heating system. Many people roll out solar covers to trap heat in overnight even if they do not use them during the day.

 

I have a salt system in my outdoor pool. I've had two other pools in the past with chlorine systems. I will never go back to chlorine. The salt systems are the standard now in Australia, as they will be here in the future, and for good reasons:
They are cheaper to maintain
You don't have that horrible chlorine smell
You don't have chlorine messing up your skin and hair
The salt water also feels softer.

Chlorine systems are dinosaurs.

 

Personally I don't mind chlorine. The biggest coupe I've had for pool care is getting a Barracuda G3 automatic cleaner. The thing is amazing and I use very little chlorine plus don't need a pool guy. Pays for itself in no time and the pool is crystal clear all the time.

 

Just went to salt. Love it.

Have solar too. Most know this but I have seen some that didn't, make sure the panels get pointed the right way.

Also our neighborhood is all the same age, almost all have pools with solar.
Ours is located on a slope the same elevation as the pool and equipment that cannot be seen from the house as opposed to on the roof like everyone elses. Our electric bill to run the system is considerably lower that theirs because we dont have to pump all that water up to the roof.

I never would have thought of that if we all didn't hang out a lot together and talk about that kind of thing.

Also our panels are about 25 years old and just now are starting to spring leaks. I would not be surprised if new panels were even better.

 

I've run a salt system here in Phoenix for 5 years with great results. Buy a quality, name brand system like Hayward and plan on replacing the cell once or twice every 10 years. The good systems have adjustable chlorination (not just pump time) and salt concentration meters so you don't have to mess with test kits. Some of the cheaper systems give owners fits, but I'm really happy with my system. Plastic (skimmers, etc.) don't turn brown and no itchy skin.

 

My pool was installed about a year ago. It has the salt system & has been hassle free. here is the link from my pool co website



http://www.jandy.com/html/products/chlorinegenerators/howitworks.php

 

We have a Bioguard Mineral Springs system and it is great.....can swim with eyes open and no stinging.....is a salt/mineral system....

 

What is the water like in these systems? I mean, does it actually smell/taste salty like sea water?

 

My sense of smell isn't the greatest but I don't smell anything. The clorine I did any time I was around the pool. Same with taste, not like sea water at all, if anything just neutral.

 

No smell,barely a salt taste. If you get some in your mouth or lick skin it isn't any saltier than tears or sweat.

 

Chlorine generators are the way to go. Resort, hotel and public pools use them to computer control the demand. Pools is my father's specialy. Yours truly has helped on many things.

Top names for these type of systems are Hayward, Pentair, Jandy and now Polaris is cracked into the market. These last the longest and provide more operational hours by far. Per brand name, their systems can be computer controlled centrally or independant. So if you network your pool equipment, you can control EVERYTHING with a central control panel or wireless remote.

Solar panels come in either black or red. Red you say? Yeah, for red tiled roofs with an extremely anal HOA. You can have the solar system networked with the pool computer as well. With your wireless remote or on the control box, you can set the pool temp and the computer does the rest.

Pool stuff is getting very high tech now. Jandy offers a system that lets you operate your pool controls from your cell phone.

 

I was just buying some chlorine today-- it's getting pretty darn expensive.

The guy at the pool store also mentioned ozonators-- anyone have any thoughts on those?

I used to have one on a hot tub a while back, seemed to work fine.

The salt thing is intriguing, though!

 

$10,000 ?? It is high. Get two more estimates.

Hahaha, can't blame him(entirely). He's going to sell you what brings in the best commission. But a good salesman wouldn't bash your equipment and other brands, then state you need to buy everything new from him.

Now, I'm not sure why he called Hayward junk, ten years ago i'd say ok to that. Maybe Hayward was his former company that burned him, or is repeating something he heard...who knows. The guys on the front lines of pool repair know that it's one of the quality names in the industry.

The Pentair Whisperflo is a nice unit, but they really need to come down on their price. No homeowner should pay what that thing costs. What is nice about that particular one is that it has variable speed control which is good for cutting down the electric bill. When it's on slow mode, it's still filtering water, yet using less power. It barely makes noise.. hence.."whisper flow" Pretty clever, eh?

There is some truth in that. 1) you have corrosive salt in the water 2)chlorine is corrosive. If the pool was built prior to the 1970's, you may have copper pipes. Gas pool heater? that will have to be changed as well with a anti-corrosion type. (titanium metal parts installed)
Excellent filter types are DE(that white powder) and sand. There's also a new sand technology called Zeobrite which filters particles finer than sand. New filters are made of fiberglass.



Saltwater facts:
Sea Water is 35,000 ppm salt content
Human threshold of salt taste is 3,500 ppm
Average saltwater pool with chlorine generator: 2000-4000ppm
6000ppm salt content in water is still considered 'fresh water'

 

Talk to Hutch in the NY section.

 

He lives in NC now.

 

A few points on salt and solar:

A salt system is actually a chlorine system with a twist. It uses the salt to make chlorine by “shocking’ the water. This is the same way Bleach is made and the benefit is that your chlorine level is always perfect. Much better than the scoop method

I love my salt system and salt is pretty cheap. I buy it by the pallet at Lowes.

Of all the people that have solar heating only the ones in sunny states like Fl and Ca still have them. People in NC hated them and when to gas long ago.

 

It sounds like maybe an ozonator setup would be a better arrangement for you.

 

The chlorine itself doesn't really do anything, I think (trying to remember Sophomore Honors Chem). What happens is it turns into Hydrochloric acid in the water. I'd imagine that salt (NaCl) can do the same thing, hence its ability to be used as a substitute.