How To Switch Pool To Salt Water

Although common salt water pools have been around since the 1970s, their popularity has grown quickly in recent years. This is due in large role to their reduced cost in upkeep. They're besides easier on your pare, hair, and optics, and you've probably heard common salt water is healthier than chlorine, too.

Maybe y'all've been thinking about common salt water pool conversion to accept advantage of all those benefits. But what a hassle that change would exist, correct? Really, the conversion procedure is adequately unproblematic, so if you're thinking of doing information technology yourself, you're in luck.

Why Do a Salt H2o Pool Conversion?

Chlorinated puddle water tin be hard on you lot because of chemicals called chloramines. These compounds are created when the chlorine in your puddle water comes into contact with things similar urine and sweat, and they tin can be harmful in two means.

Starting time, they aren't effective at disinfecting the h2o like chlorine, so water cleaning is inhibited. Second, they cause irritation of the eyes, skin, and lungs. Stiff chloramines tin build upwardly in the air surrounding a puddle, peculiarly indoor pools. When the air is thick with these chemicals, information technology can even cause coughing or trigger an asthma attack.

Frequent exposure to chlorine can even cause some people to develop an allergy or sensitivity to the chemical. And for those who are already sensitive to it, swimming in a chlorine pool can cause rashes, hives, and itchy peel beyond the simple dryness you may experience from chlorine exposure.

If you accept respiratory problems, such as asthma or allergic rhinitis, you may find your symptoms exacerbated by frequently pond in a chlorine pool. If your pool is causing you discomfort, a salt water pool conversion could be just the solution you're searching for.

On the less serious side, if you're a blonde, yous've probably experienced your pilus turning green in a puddle sanitized with chlorine. Colored pilus can look bully, but this probably isn't exactly the look yous're going for. So why does it happen? Science!

Simply like a lost penny on the embankment turns green, copper in your pool water can turn your hair greenish, and loftier chlorine levels can simply make it worse. Chlorine and copper bond readily, coating your pilus in green film. A salt h2o pool conversion can lower the likelihood of dark-green-stained pilus.

If you accept this problem, be sure to test your water for heavy metals. One common crusade of copper in your pool water is using copper-based algaecide. Check your algaecide, and consider a non-copper alternative.

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What's So Bully About Common salt Water?

Then now that you sympathise why chlorinated water may not be the best option for you and your family, permit's talk about what might make salt h2o a better choice.

Salt Water Pools Are Gentler to Your Body

Switching away from harsh chlorine has to be a positive, right? Sure. But the most important thing to understand is that table salt water pools are non actually chlorine free. However, the presence of table salt in the water reduces the kind of eye and peel irritation you may experience past swimming in a chlorine puddle.

A salt chlorine generator creates the aforementioned kind of chlorine used in a chlorine pool. It's imperative to go on chlorine levels stable to inhibit the formation of chloramines.

In a salt water pool, when chlorine levels are stable, and chloramines are not present, the salinity of the h2o is much closer to the salinity of your natural tear ducts.

This is why it doesn't hurt to open your eyes in a salt water pool, and why your peel and hair won't feel as dry later on swimming.

Hayward Salt Chlorination Organisation (Salt H2o Generator)

This salt water generator (or table salt water chlorinator) has a high/depression salt and temperature indicators to assistance protect your equipment. And the self-cleaning salt cell makes regular maintenance easy. Cheque out their models for both inground and in a higher place ground pools.

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Salt Water Pools Price Less to Maintain

While yous may have been led to believe that all you need to do to maintain a salt water pool is throw in some salt every few weeks, information technology'southward actually a flake more involved than that.

The good news is, salt water pool maintenance can toll a lot less than caring for a chlorine puddle, which tin exist ane of the near of import deciding factors in making the switch. Exactly how much less expensive salt water is than chlorine over the lifetime of your pool depends on several factors such equally where you alive, the size of your puddle, the quality of the equipment you apply, and how well yous maintain it.

The up-front cost of a chlorinator ranges from a few hundred to a chiliad dollars or more. Long-term costs include replacing the chlorinator jail cell—the part that actually converts salt to chlorine—every 5 years or so, provided you maintain your chlorinator well.

You lot'll also still need to keep your water balanced, but some other positive aspect of a common salt h2o pool conversion is you'll probable crave fewer chemicals to proceed the water balanced.

Then while things like test strips or digital testers and a few chemicals will still accept to be function of your maintenance budget, your monthly chemical costs will still be lower with a salt h2o puddle, than with chlorine.

Table salt Water Pools Have Softer Water

You might exist surprised to learn that common salt water pools contain far less salt than seawater. The body of water'south salt level is 35,000 parts per 1000000 (ppm), roughly ten times more salt than that water in a salt h2o puddle.

Equally a result, the water feels quite soft, and you lot won't notice the salt in a common salt water puddle the same way you practice at the beach. It doesn't even gustation salty—simply you nevertheless shouldn't beverage it.

Preparing Your Pool for Conversion

Before you install the chlorinator and brainstorm the salt water puddle conversion procedure, you'll need to decide how to all-time introduce the salt to pool water.

To Bleed or Not To Bleed

The good news is, you don't have to drain your pool. However (You knew there would be a however, right?), if you currently use an antibacterial agent in your puddle, draining the pool may exist a good idea.

The active ingredient in this type of pool sanitizer is polyhexamethylene biguanide, a chemical that is non compatible with chlorine. Considering your salt water pool will contain chlorine, if this agent is not commencement removed from the h2o, your pool h2o will non be properly balanced, and the chlorine will exist less constructive at keeping your water clean.

Y'all take 2 options in this instance—drain your pool and start from scratch with new h2o, or "burn" the antibacterial amanuensis out of the water with a high dose of chlorine.

This choice will plough your pool water white, and it volition accept several days to dissipate. Once it does, you can begin the table salt water conversion process.

salt-water-pool

Test Your Pool H2o

Earlier you brainstorm altering your puddle water chemistry, you first need to test for free chlorine, pH, cyanuric acid (stabilizer), alkalinity, calcium hardness, heavy metals, and salt. If y'all need to make pool chemical science adjustments, do then in this order: chlorine, alkalinity, pH, stabilizer, calcium hardness, then metals.

The order matters considering each adjustment can affect the other measurements. It's besides important to make the adjustments over time, so accept that into account while choosing when to install your chlorinator. After your water is balanced, you lot'll exist prepare to add salt to your pool.

Accept Precautions for Your Pool Liner

If yous have a vinyl liner, you'll be happy to know you tin can use a salt chlorinator organization in your pool without taking any extra precautions. The liner volition be exposed to lower levels of chlorine, so it may fifty-fifty extend your liner'southward lifespan.

However, many inground pools have galvanized walls behind the liner. If your liner springs a leak—even a small leak—allowing salinized h2o to seep out against the steel wall, the wall will eventually corrode.

Similarly, above footing pools with a lot of metallic parts can rust over time due to exposure to salt water. If you have a resin above ground pool, you tin can make the switch without this concern.

Choosing a Chlorinator

A common salt h2o chlorination system works by passing an electric current through salinized water, causing a chemical reaction via electrolysis that creates chlorine from salt molecules.

The two master parts of a salt chlorinator are the prison cell and the control lath: the cell is where electrolysis takes place to create chlorine; the control board allows yous to arrange how much chlorine is generated.

When choosing a chlorinator, keep a few things in listen:

Size – Choose the size y'all need based on your puddle capacity in gallons. If you're not sure how many gallons your pool holds, use puddle computer to figure it out.
Cost – Buy a chlorinator that is both priced within your budget, but of the best quality y'all can afford. Chlorinator costs span a range from a few hundred to a thousand dollars. Cheaper doesn't necessarily mean worse, but don't forget to consider lifespan and replacement costs in your search.
Features – Select a organization that offers all the bells and whistles y'all demand co-ordinate to where y'all live, and how much automation you want. Basic chlorinators allow you to conform the amount of chlorine they'll create and non much else.
Fancier systems offering digital readouts, salt levels, automatic prison cell cleaning, menses control, and freeze protections, amid other things.

Pool Volume Computer Click on your pool shape to calculate the volume of water.

rectangle pool Rectangle

rectangle pool Circular

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The Common salt Water Pool Conversion Process

The procedure of converting an existing chlorine pool to a table salt water pool is much simpler than you might imagine. Once you've invested in a quality chlorinator, you're ready to install it, and begin the conversion procedure.

Installing a Chlorinator

After your h2o is properly balanced, installing the cell and control board will take virtually 1 twenty-four hours. Be sure to shut off the power with the excursion breaker before you begin. Keep information technology off until you lot're set to examination the unit of measurement, and so shut information technology off again while y'all complete the installation.

You'll be working with h2o and electricity, and so proceed with caution. If you lot're non confident working with electrical wires, bones paw tools, and cutting and gluing PVC pipes, we recommend letting a pro handle the installation.

If you feel you accept the skills to tackle it, you can do the installation yourself.

To get an thought whether practise-it-yourself installation is something yous can tackle, review the basic installation steps.

Balance the h2o in your puddle per installation manual specifications. Note: Y'all do not need to drain your pool.
Add the required amount of salt to attain the desired concentration. Annotation: The installation manual should provide a table detailing the amount of table salt needed based on the volume of h2o in your pool.
The salt should be circulate beyond the puddle surface. It may take up to 24 hours to fully deliquesce.
Mountain the chlorinator controller on a wall near your pool equipment pad.
Wire the chlorinator controller for ability according to the manual specifications. Note: Some systems come up with a ability cord that plugs straight into a ground error excursion interrupter (GFCI) protected excursion.
Others tin be wired to an existing time clock, or can be wired directly to the puddle pump to become their power. Too, the controller volition come with grounding wire and bonding wire for safe electric connections.
Install the chlorinator cell into the pool plumbing after the filter. Note: The chlorinator cell should be the last piece of equipment on the pool pipe before the water returns to the puddle.
Connect the chlorinator cell to the chlorinator controller.
Turn on the pool pump, and check for leaks. Operate the pump for several hours to assist circulate water and dissolve the salt.
Plow on the salt chlorinator and start enjoying your salt h2o pool.

Life with a Salt H2o Pool

At present that you've completed your salt h2o pool conversion, what will maintenance exist like? Your salt h2o chlorination system only creates chlorine from common salt—it does not balance your water. You'll nevertheless need to test your water regularly, sometimes adding chemicals to balance it.

These chemicals are the aforementioned ones y'all'd use in a chlorine pool. Just remember, your water will no longer require the big amounts of maintenance chlorine for sanitizing.

Testing and Cleaning

Follow some simple steps to maintain clean, articulate water and extend the life of your chlorinator prison cell:

Skim to remove debris daily, or as often equally possible.
Test for costless chlorine and pH weekly.
Bank check and clean your filter, skimmer, and pump weekly.
Test alkalinity, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, metals, and total dissolved solids, and common salt levels monthly.
Scrub the sides of your puddle and vacuum at least once a month.
Check your cell for buildup every three months, and clean it with hydrochloric acrid equally needed.

Choosing a Salt Blazon

This is one of the most important decisions you'll make when information technology comes to maintaining your new common salt water puddle. Merely as you lot wouldn't utilise stone table salt at the dinner table, you don't want to employ table salt in your pool. Only pool-grade salt volition exercise.

The almost important aspect of choosing pool common salt is impurity levels—that is, minerals and metals contained in the salt. If you dump table salt full of impurities into your puddle water, you'll spend time and money fighting imbalances, metals, or calcium carbonate buildup.

The salt's purity is ordinarily displayed on production packages as a percentage. Choose a high-quality pool-grade salt to avert problems. Also brand sure you're using enough salt for your pool's book to maintain a level between 2,700 ppm and three,400 ppm, with the platonic level being 3,200 ppm.

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A Few Potential Concerns

Table salt water pool conversion may exist a simple process, but it'due south still a big decision, so yous may however accept some concerns. Nosotros'll attempt to put those to residual for yous.

Galvanic Corrosion

You may have heard nearly one potential issue with salt water systems called galvanic corrosion. If you've ever lived near the ocean, yous've seen what happens when salty air and water vanquish up on metal over time.

Is this really a problem with salt h2o pools? It can be. Information technology doesn't just occur on metal objects exterior your pool, but can also happen when metals are present in your pool h2o. You tin can assist preclude this is by installing a zinc anode.

Pet Rubber

Is information technology OK for your pets to drinkable from a common salt water pool? The salinity of your pool h2o is very depression, unlike the body of water. Also, the chlorine levels are no college than what you'll notice in your own tap h2o. However, this doesn't mean yous should permit your pet to drink from the puddle.

If you lot accidentally swallow some salt water while you're pond, it's not going to injure you lot. Merely drinking from your pool every day would soon brainstorm to take negative effects on your body, particularly your kidneys.

The same is true for your pets. If they sneak an occasional drink or two, they'll be fine. Just you must take steps to ensure it doesn't become a addiction, or that they come to think of the pool as a proficient source of drinking water.

If your pet has whatsoever health problems, such as heart disease, kidney disease, or salt restrictions, it's even more important to ensure they never drink from the puddle at all.

dog-drink-from-pool

Puddle Area Damage

A mutual concern is whether the area around your pool will be damaged by a salt h2o pool conversion. Probably no more than it would be afflicted by chlorine. Metallic pool article of furniture and fixtures may endure corrosion over time, so it's best to avoid those materials, if possible.

If salinized water is regularly splashed onto plants around your pool, their health may suffer. Concrete coping and stonework may also be afflicted if non properly sealed, or at to the lowest degree hosed down after utilise.

Be a Puddle Possessor Worth Your Salt!

While a table salt water pool volition save you money on chlorine, remember that your pool will still need upkeep to maintain make clean, crystal articulate water. But if you're concerned nearly the pitfalls of chlorine—and you're tired of dark-green hair—table salt h2o conversion may be the perfect solution for you.

Happy Swimming!

Matt Giovanisci is the founder of Swim University® and has been in the pool and spa industry since 1995. Since then, his mission is to make puddle and hot tub intendance easy for everyone. And each twelvemonth, he continues to help more than people with water chemical science, cleaning, and troubleshooting.

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