3 Bad Things About Salt Water Swimming Pools SHORT

This is a short created from a longer discussion about salt water swimming pools and the potential concerns about these kinds of pools. Subscribe to the @Swimmingpoolsteve youtube channel for more helpful content about swimming pools and hot tubs.

[Peter-Alexander]

Hi Steve, while I agree what you are saying I would like to comment.
The fact that a salt pool is still a chlorine pool is i.m.o. not a bad fact. Chlorine is just made by the swg and that is fine I think.
High PH tendency is true because of the byproduct sodium hydroxide but by lowering alkalinity to say 60 to 65 it will drift less quickly. My PH is still stable with this alkalinity level as long it stays above 50.
Scaling occurs to some degree inside the swg but if the cell changes polarity and you switch off the cell 5 minutes before switching off the pump this is reduced. If there is scaling elsewhere this means at that place a LSI violation takes place. Could be calcium level is too high or alkalinity is too high.
I am lucky because my tap water is only 90mg/l alkalinity and calcium is also 90. Pool values are alkalinity 70 and calcium is 220. My water is even more aggresive than scaling having a LSI of -0.3.
Best regards.

[nakulupadhyay]

According to me its very difficult to maintain the proper salt levels during to backwash, splash and evaporation losses

[someolddude]

I’m not so sure about any of these state, pimentos/issues, and generally disagree.

I’ve have had 2 separate salt water pools, in 2 separate houses. 1 was 40, 000 gallon liner, and the other is a 25, 000 gallon pebble tec.
Been using salt system over 25 years. I am by no means an expert, but I’m pretty well read, and do a lot of my own research, etc. also one system used DE as a filter medium, and the current pool uses a cartridge system.

So salt is chlorine, yes and guess what, it’s also Sodium. So what. The generator simply uses electrolysis to break the salt up into is elements. The salt that is Not broken down is just salt and does make the water feel better, to my family, at least. So this a plus for me.

I never had a high PH, and very rarely had I ever had a slightly low PH issue.

Also I never had scaling issues.

I don’t know your pool and don’t really claim to understand the chemistry behind the issues you’re complaining about. My only advice is to perhaps change sources of your chemicals, or investigate other possible causes.

Also, my general take is that a salt system is cheaper to operate, but has a much higher initial cost. I haven’t done the math, because I don’t really care, but you will probably break about even in cost over ten years or less. Depends on many variables, including, what you pay for the chloronator, who does the install, and your chemical sources, etc.