Salt Water pool vs other options

[dedebach]

We are putting a pool in our house in Texas soon. Several of the pool contractors are adamant that we shouldn't use salt and prefer Nature 2 or originators or stick with chlorine. There seems to be a lot of controversy about the various choices. I'm not sure about the actual advantages and disadvantages of each? Is there a chart somewhere that compares them? studies?

[CarlD]

I suggest you find some other contractors who understand that "salt" means salt water chlorine generation (SWCG)--it's a chlorine pool, and ALL forms of chlorine are compatible with SWCG. It's not that hard to retrofit an SWCG system later, too. Picking the right and appropriate SWCG system does take some effort. I retrofitted an SWCG after 10 years and it works beautifully, and I still use other forms of chlorine as needed.

Nature 2 is, in the opinion of most of us, a waste of money that promises a lot and delivers very little. Nature 2 is quite secretive about its system and, for all of us, any company that's secretive about its chemistry has a reason to be, and not such a good reason. What it is is an erosion system that dumps traces of copper and silver into the water to kill algae. IT DOES NOT SANITIZE YOUR WATER! Its claim to reducing chlorine usage is based on the idea that if the Nature 2 kills the algae, you won't need chlorine to do it, therefore saving the chlorine to sanitize the water, using less chlorine. However, the replacement cartridges cost about $100/season and you can buy an awful lot of chlorine every year for that.

To REALLY confuse things, there are SWCG systems that incorporate a Nature 2 system into it! I personally don't recommend it.

[dedebach]

Thank you for responding so quickly.

[PoolDoc]

Texas is a state where problems with salt water chlorinators seem to occur, and thus there's more controversy. The issues in Texas seem to involve dry areas (where salt water splashout dries, but is not periodically washed off by rain) *plus* locally available stone that does not tolerate salt buildup well. Your registration included your address, so I checked: given the trees shown in the Google map of your area, you are probably NOT in one of the trouble areas.

Still, salt does increase corrosion, so:

1. Use brass, not aluminum, ladder and rail anchors. (Should do so, anyhow!)
2. Make sure any light installed is fitted listed as salt resistant -- or use a stainless steel fitted lamp.
3. Make sure any heater installed is listed for salt -- this is critical; check it for yourself and do NOT take your builder's word that it 'will be OK'.
4. Make sure all valves installed are PVC, not brass or bronze.

Other than that, you should be fine.

Carl's right about Nature2 -- it's a waste of your money.