Where to buy the salt

[rak70]

Hello all,

I've just purchased an Aquarite SWG and am awaiting delivery. I want to go ahead and get the pool ready so need to buy some salt. Used Bleachcalc for my size pool (about 18000) and it says 450lbs for 3000 ppm. Wow thats a lot of salt. Any suggestions on where to purchase and what brand salt for a good price?

Thanks...

[Lenny]

I bought the Diamond brand at Lowe's.

I'd highly recommend that you buy a salt kit and test your water ahead of time. I ended up over salting my pool by almost 1/3, even though I put in 80 pounds less than recommended. It's not my tap water, so the only thing I can come up with is that bleach caused my salt level to get up to 1000 ppm or more.

[waterbear]

You can get salt at most hardware stores and chains and some grocery stores! (The Publix grocery chain in my area carries Morton Pool salt and it's the cheapest I've found for pool salt @ about $6/40 lb bag.)
You can also use water softener pellets that have NO additves for keeping the water softener clean or for iron. these are ususally the purest salt at 99.9% pure but are the slowest to dissolve. (about $5 for a 40 lb bag)
Solar salt is fine also, large crystals of 99.5% purity (I've found it for about $4.50/ 40 lb bag)...dissolves faster than pellets but not as fast as pool salt (smallest sized crystals and usually also 99.5% purity)

[Sardian]

Would this salt from Lowe's be ok?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=25656-113-25656&lpage=none

It's much cheaper than Leslies.

Russell

[waterbear]

Yes, that or the Sun Gems which are larger crystals...both are fine and about the same price!

[rak70]

Thanks for the advice.. I'll be heading to Lowes or Home Depot to pick up the salt and the local pool store to get the Taylor test kit Wednesday afternoon. Just got my Aquarite in the mail today.

[rak70]

Well been running since Thursday morning and everything went great. Got the Aquarite installed in about an hour and started adding salt Wednesday. Lenny took your advice and bought a Taylor test kit before adding salt and you were correct. I already had 600 ppm so that subtracted 3 bags. I used the Solar water conditioner salt from Lowes for 4.00 a bag. It was 99.5% pure with no iron additives or anything like that. Worked fine no staining or anything but I did add a metal sequesterant before the salt just in case.

I think I'm really gonna like this system.. My salt is at 3300ppm and the Aquarite set at 30%. I'm running the pump 11 hours a day. My CL is holding at 4-5 ppm so I'll probably dial it down a little further...

[Sardian]

I'm glad to hear it went well for you. Construction on my pool will be completed in about a week and I can't wait to get out there and get my AutoPilot hooked up. I guess I need to drop by Lowes and get my salt so I'll be ready to go.

Russell


Well been running since Thursday morning and everything went great. Got the Aquarite installed in about an hour and started adding salt Wednesday. Lenny took your advice and bought a Taylor test kit before adding salt and you were correct. I already had 600 ppm so that subtracted 3 bags. I used the Solar water conditioner salt from Lowes for 4.00 a bag. It was 99.5% pure with no iron additives or anything like that. Worked fine no staining or anything but I did add a metal sequesterant before the salt just in case.

I think I'm really gonna like this system.. My salt is at 3300ppm and the Aquarite set at 30%. I'm running the pump 11 hours a day. My CL is holding at 4-5 ppm so I'll probably dial it down a little further...

[CHParker]

The Home Depot by me sells 80lb bags of 99.5% solar water conditioner salt granules for $7.99 per bag.

[gwrace1]

The Home Depot by me sells 80lb bags of 99.5% solar water conditioner salt granules for $7.99 per bag.

That's what I used and they worked great. They did not take but a few hours to dissolve. We are running our Aquarite at 40% for 12 hours a night with pump on low speed. With a 26000 gallon pool that maintains about 2.5 PPM FC with a stabilizer level of 35PPM. It's been working great since early March.
Salt level is at 3300PPM.