Is a Salt Water Pool a Chlorine Free Pool?
- mike
- May 20
- 2 min read
The answer to the question are Salter Water Pools a Chlorine Free Pools is 100% Unequivocally NO, A Salt Water Pool is Not a Chlorine Free Pool. This great Video below from Swimming Pool Steve outlines the misperceptions of salt water pools and why you may want to think twice about installing a salt water system on your pool.
IS A SALT WATER POOL A CHLORINE FREE POOL? FALSE. A salt water pool is 100% a chlorine pool. The only difference between a traditional chlorine pool and a salt water pools is how the chlorine is introduced into the pool. With a traditional chlorine pool, a pool owner would add chlorine to the pool by the use of chlorine tablets and or liquid chlorine. With a salt water pool the chlorine is made in your pools equipment pad with the aid of the salt in the water. So Salt Water Pool Myth #1 is debunked.
PROBLEMS WITH SALT WATER POOLS
CHRONICALLY HIGH PH: You will have chronically high pH in your pool water. The type of chlorine generated from salt chlorine generator systems is the type of chlorine that has a very high pH and as a result the pH of your pool water will constantly drift upwards.
INEFECTIVE CHLORINE: Chlorine is ineffective at high pH levels and salt water system suffer from chronically high pH above 8.0
TOO MUCH TDS: Total Dissolved Solids or the measure of how much stuff is in your pool water is another factor to consider. With a salt water pool you will be adding an additional 200 lbs of salt to your standard pool water. When your TDS is too high your pool water chemistry can become unmanageable like it used to be. The only way to fix this is to drain off water periodically and add fresh clean makeup water to bring the TDS level down. Due to high TDS combined with high pH levels you will find salt water pools in a chronic state of scaling. Scale can form on the heat exchangers of your pool heater causing corrosion and can cling to the surface of a fiberglass pool which can lead to expensive repairs.
MORAL OF THE STORY
We at Pool Pros are not fans of Salt Water Pools but cutting through all the misinformation on the internet and bad advice from pool builders that just dont know about water chemistry and the long term affects of owning a salt water pool system can have on a pool make this a great topic for discussion. The best bet is to do your research and dont by into all the hype until you have heard both sides and have enough information to make an educated assessment on if a Salt Water Pool is best for you.
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