Salt in non-SWG pool result observations

[medvampire]

After reading several post here about the merits of salt in a non SWG pool I decided to take the plunge and add salt to my pool this last week end. Here is my observations.
Saturday 1 pm
Had to go to the pool store to pick up a transformer for my pool light and seen they had SWG on sale so got to salesman talking to me about salt in the pool as ask if salt would void my warranty. He answered that would not.
Saturday 4 pm
Added 3 bags to the pool with a starting point of around 140 to 150 ppm. Kids had fun mixing the salt in the pool. Worth adding the salt just to see them have fun. Got out of the pool to do a few things around house.
Saturday 6 pm
Got back in pool and could notice a little change so dumped in bag number 4. I know I should have waited a longer but the kids were having fun and so was I. The water saline interface at the bottom of the pool looked wicked.
Sunday 11 am
Dawn (future wife) got in to pool first time post salt and said she could tell a difference. “Makes my legs feel like they have just been rubbed down with lotion” and sticks her leg out of the pool. I rub her leg and think nice very nice it does feel better.
Sunday noon
I get done setting up the smoker for chicken, changing the skimmer sock, adding de to the sand filter, and jump in. I can tell the water is a bit kinder and less harsh to the eyes. Now the ultimate test for me underwater back flip you know the kind you get water up the nose. Well I come up and the nose is not burning as bad. I get a taste of the water no salt taste as of yet. I look at Dawn and she gives me the eye and says for me to throw the last bag in. The oldest hauls the last 40 pound bag out and rip cut it is in.
Sunday 2 pm
Get out of the pool to start the chicken smoking (where do you light a chicken?)
Sunday 4 pm
Back in pool chicken smoldering away. Under water flip nose test again little burning and snorting. Eyes open under water with not little or no burning. Pool feels great but I can taste the salt now. Swim until the chicken clucks its done supper time.
Sunday 9 pm
Put the pool to bed with the chemistry check and temp check.
Monday 8 am
Woke and went to do the pool. Chemistry is good the temp is 85. Temp if 85? I put it to bed with a temp of 83 last night. I usually have a 4 to 5 drop in temp overnight.
Monday 10 pm
Swam all day and had fun. Checked the temp 88.
Tuesday 9 am
Temp of 85. Higher density may be helping with heat retention??

Would I do it again? Yes love the feel on the skin and hair as well a less burning of the nose and eyes. I think the pool may hold heat better but still have to prove that one.
Dawn is going to go by the pool store this morning and get the final salt level. Dawn is very happy with the result and for $25 worth of salt why not?
Salty Steve

[Mom2Czars]

So you ended up with 200# of salt? By the bleach calc, that would be a level of around 1777ppm.

Curious about the heat retention...that would be a negative for me at this point in the season. We've just been through a heat wave and my pool was at 87 yesterday. Not so refreshing.

[Jeffski]

I swam in my neighbors SWG pool for the first time and the water felt good. There is a slightly different taste to the water but if I wasn't looking for salt I don't think I would have tasted anything different. I'm sold.

[larry2338]

Cautionary note: Over a 20 year period, salt in the pool may show diminishing returns with regard to wife's (former fiancee's) skin softness and willingness to have it rubbed. :D

[medvampire]

Cautionary note: Over a 20 year period, salt in the pool may show diminishing returns with regard to wife's (former fiancee's) skin softness and willingness to have it rubbed.
I hope so. God has crule humor. Man hits his prime early 20s and a woman doesnt care.:( Woman hits her prime in mid 30s, mans so worn out from trying at that point and he doesnt care.:eek:

I can feel a mod slap for that one:D
Steve

[GraceByDesign]

Steve,
I'm interested in your observations as time goes by... any corrosion, salt residue, large increase in sodium due to adding bleach, etc.
Keep us posted on whether you continue to like your pseudo-saltwater pool!

[medvampire]

Grace I will try to do a weekly or so update with chemistry and impressions.
Dawn brought back the results from the pool store I won’t post the regular chemistry from there because I know it is a load of manure. I am surprised they only tried to sell her muratic acid.
Salt 2200
Chemistry from me.
FC 4
TC 4
pH 7.7
ALK 160
CH 320
CYA 30
I overshot my goal of 2000 by a little bit but that is ok.
Steve

[KirstenHW]

MedVampire - I am really tempted to go salty with my non-SWG 24K gall IG vinyl. I don't have a salt test with my kit. What kind of salt did you buy? And from where? Thx -

[gonefishin]

Hi Steve,

Your at 2,200 now...how much difference did you find going over the 1,000 area?


thanks,
dan

[medvampire]

Kristen
I picked up my salt at Lowes. Diamond Crystal Solar salt was around $4.50 a bag. I took a water sample to the pool store before and after due to I dont have a salt testing kit as well. See pool stores are good for some thing. ** No offence water bear you are an exception to that statement. **

http://www.cargillsalt.com/food/dc_salt_water_cond_solarexcoar-1.jpg

Dan
I noticed little difference in feel but I didn’t really give it long enough between bag 3 and bag 4. I did notice a difference from Saturday to Sunday when I dumped in bag no 5. The feel of Dawn’s hair and skin did feel a little softer and slick. I did notice a difference in taste as well.
If you don’t like the taste of salt I wouldn’t go over 1000 too far. It doesn’t bother me but I try not to drink too much pool water.:rolleyes:

Steve

[waterbear]

** No offence water bear you are an exception to that statement. **

Steve

No offense taken. I tend to share your views of pool stores. To give an example of the type of incompetence that I find I went to a local one yesterday (NOT where I work but closer to my house) for a few things I needed. I told the kid ringing me up that I also needed 2 gal muriatic acid. He asked me if I got it already. I know they keep it in the back and I said no, not yet. (Gee, that's why I was telling him that I needed it!). A girl working there said she would get it and he rung up my sale. She carried it out to my car and I loaded it in along with my other purchases. (At least they offer good service) I was stopped at a red light while driving home so I looked at my reciept. He never charged me for the 2 gal of acid! I guess he was too busy trying to impress me with his knowledge commenting on the reagents I purchased for my Taylor kit! (He didn't have a clue about them either!) I guess the right thing to do is tell them the next time I go back there. It will be a while since I only use them for Taylor reagents and acid.

Sorry for going off topic!

[NWMNMom]

We too added the solar salt to our pool and posted the results under Rangeball's thread on this. It was solar salt at $3.27 for #40 - 3 bags. This was probably 2 weeks ago. We are almost thinking of one more bag.

The water DOES feel great, hair/skin/eyes all benefit. The heat retention theory is interesting and makes me wonder....our pool sits around 84-88 these days, but then its been 80s one week, 90s another, now 80s......nights in high 50s, low 60s (one or two exceptions that were higher)

[Sherra]

I'm going to add salt to my pool next season. I told hubby that a few days ago and he's fine with it...but I do all the pool stuff, so he really doesn't care as long as he gets to swim in it. As for the heat thing...man, I hope it's not true! Our pool temp hasn't been below 90 in a couple of months! July 3rd it was 101 when we took the solar cover off...can you say hot tub?! We've pretty much had it off since then with the exception of a few days. But, we all (my hubby and daughter and myself) all feel "refreshed" if the water temp is below about 95. But, our pool is in full sun from about 8:30 in the morning until sunset, so maybe we've just gotten used to the warmer water.

[NWMNMom]

I wonder if circulating your water at night or leaving the cover off at night might cool it down some? Do you have a solar panel heater? Running that at night will definitely cool the pool down (kind of a reverse heating system) Ours was sitting at 89 today, but we forgot to open the diverter so it had been going through the panels during the day. Lucky for us, 8 teenagers had a swim this afternoon and splashed out a LOT so we got to top it off with some nice cool water - the salt REALLY does make such a nice difference in the way the water feels. I am picking up another 40# tomorrow along with my bleach supplies.

[KirstenHW]

Well, I took the plunge yesterday. Got four 40# bags of the stuff MedVampire recommended from Lowes ($4.43/bag) and dumped in in both the skimmers and into a leaf net over the side. I noticed a difference immediately! Verrrry nice. I am assuming my salt ppm is around 800 ppm (per the BleachCalc app). I took before and after water samples that I will try to get tested today at the pool store. Not sure if I'll add any more - I can't believe the difference it made - especially with my hair - no more nasty tangles after a swim. I did see the temp drop 2 degrees - it was wild. I have a floating digital thermometer that read 80 all day yesterday - as soon as I put the first batch of salt in, it dropped to 78 before my eyes. Pretty cool science experiment!

[NWMNMom]

We threw in that additional 40# yesterday, so a total of 4 - 40# bags. Yep, we are convinced this is better and probably our limit as you can ever so slightly taste salt but not enough to start stinging open scratches or cuts. Eyes wide open under water with no redness or stinging. Hair nice, yep, the way to go.

[amyinraleigh]

I really would like to try this - is there any reason I should NOT add salt to an Intex inflatable ring pool?:confused:

Thanks!! Amy

[Rangeball]

None that I can think of :)

[amyinraleigh]

sweeeet.....:p

Thanks, Rangeball!

[medvampire]

Thought I would update on my salty experiment.
Pool Chemistry
FC 4
TC 4
CC 0
ALK 120 - 130 (Run fountain again)
pH 7.3
CH 310-320
We haven’t been able to swim in a few days due to storms but finely we was able to paddle in this evening. I still can taste the salt but it does seem less than a few days ago. The water still has that slicker feeling than it first had when I filled the pool. The open eye test passed very well and most important, the ole up the nose with water did not leave me snorting with pain. After crawling out and doing the drip dry thing in the deck the skin and hair felt very soft but I had to go jump in the shower too quick to notice. I have not seen greater rusting of metals but most of my hardware is stainless steel. I have noticed salt deposits on the deck that quickly was off with a hose. All in all I am very happy with the salty pool and I am one step closer to a SWG.
Steve

[goodfellow]

First off, Thanks to all on this site. I haven't posted much, but have been lurking for a while now and have learned a ton and am keeping my pool in perfect shape using BBB.

I have followed this thread and the old one since the beginning and decided to take the plunge last week.
I put in 3 bags and everything feels better in the pool. [27' AG ]

BUT, has anyone experienced a more slippery deck while using salt?
We had a party this past weekend and the little kids kept falling down on the wet deck:(
I'm just trying to determine if it could be the salt or something else that might have been spilled by the kids.

Thanks in advance
John

[gonefishin]

I don't have a deck...but I did notice that the linear is much slicker. Especially where the salt was sitting while getting mixed up.


I'll be interested to hear what the others say as well...


take care,
dan

[Rangeball]

I've had salt in my pool for quite a while now.

I've noticed no difference in the slippery factor in or out of the pool.

[goodfellow]

It is entirely possible it's my imagination.:confused:

[medvampire]

I have a plain pressure treated deck witch I have not sealed or treated yet. I have not noticed it being slick but have noted a white powder on the deck that I am sure is salt. This may be the only problem with a higher salt level I put in the pool.

A quick update.

FC 6.0
TC 6.0
pH 7.4
ALK 120-130
CYA 35-40
CH 300-310
Salt 2100 (from pool store)
Pool feels great with no changes in eye feel and the most important up the nose with water test has not changed. The demand for muratic acid has dropped but that may be due to dropping the ALK. The pool has needed more bleach but we have had some hot sunny days. I guess I am getting use the salt taste because I don’t really taste it any more. The pool is not retaining heat as I first thought in my initial post but has followed the curve I recorded in before salting. Things are still a go for the SWG next spring.
Steve

[circlenranch]

I have been following this thread as of late and decided to give it a go. I like the idea of having soft water in a pool. So I bought four 40# bags of water softener salt and dumped them in. Well I must say that I am amazed at the difference in the water! It is unbelievably soft and makes my hair and skin soft and smooth as well. Everyone who gets in asks what I did to the water because it "feels" so good. Thanks Medvampire for your idea of adding salt to a non SWG pool!! I will never go back to a non-salted pool again!!

[medvampire]

You are welcome but the salt was not my ideal. It has been around the forums for a long time. I followed the advice form the pros here and being some what of a geek:o I keep pretty detailed records of my pool. I am thinking I will get a SWG in the spring of next year and wanted to see if my family could stand salt in a pool. Do keep in mind that you are not softening the water but changing the way water interacts with the tissues of your body. So far I am really enjoying the “salty” pool with very little downsides. :D
Steve

[Phillbo]

Question for you guys. If you're going to add the salt, why not go all the way and get the SWG ? I know there is a cost involved but it should pay for it's self in a few years with chlorine savings..

[KirstenHW]

For me, its one one piece of equipment that could cost me a lot in trouble down the road. Its easy enough for me to go to my mom's every day or 3 and dump in the bleach. If I were going to build my own in IG pool someday, another thing I would NOT do is pour concrete around it. Eventually you're gonna have to dig up those lines and do work. Grass with some nice slate or river rocks around the perimeter is a hell of a lot more forgiving. Less is always more in my opinion . . .

[handy1]

I'm not sure how much salt you need to add to a 30k gallon inground concrete pool. I see lots of posts about adding 4 lbs or so - but in what proportion to the water?

[medvampire]

Handy
I would recommend getting a salt level before you start. You can buy salt test kits from Ben but I just took my water to the pool store and had it tested. After you get the salt level decide where you want the level to be. I wanted 2000 ppm. I needed 200 lbs to get me to around 1700 – 1800 according to bleachcalc. A few days after adding the salt I had the water retested at another pool store and had a 2200ppm witch is no big deal for me.
Quick summary
1. Get salt tested.
2. Use bleachcalk (http://home.earthlink.net/~mwsmith70/data/BleachCalc262.exe) for needed amount of salt.
3. Get the amount of pure salt recommended by bleachcalc (http://home.earthlink.net/~mwsmith70/data/BleachCalc262.exe).
4. Pour salt bag in pool 1 bag at a time checking your tolerance, preference, or calculated goal ppm is reached
5. Enjoy salty pool.:D
6. Get salt tested a few days after pool is salted.
7. Tell us about your experience.
Steve

[matt4x4]

Well, I added 200 lbs of salt to our pool last week while on vaca, I just love it!
The kid had fun playing with the pellets for the afternoon.
Is it just me or does it seem to become a lower maintenance pool once you add salt? From my experience so far, it looks as though the bugs and stuff that sink are not decomposing as quickly, and there is absolutely no sign of dirt in my pool since adding the salt, the water has been sparkling clear, it seems to me I'm adding less chlorine too.....
And it's been hotter that he11 around here too!!!!

[drumr]

I also took the salt plunge a few weeks ago and have to say I like it alot. I added 160 lbs of Morton water softener salt and it definately gives the water a "softer" feel. Maybe I'm more sensitive to the taste of salt, but I can definately taste it, even though the taste is not unpleasant. I have very dry skin and usually run for the lotion as soon as I get out of the pool, but now I have to say I don't have too any more. Maybe next season I will get to add a SWG and put this salt to work, but for now I will just enjoy my salt water pool!!:)